Events Calendar
Wed 5 November – Cambridge University Careers Fair demo, 2:00 pm, outside University Centre, Mill Lane.
Every Friday - Noise demo at HLS animal labs in Huntingdon, contact Maxine 07906880036 or SHAC for more details.
Also check out recent emails to the can-announce email list.
Indymedia Cambridge meetings are open to all wanting to get involved. View more events, read about our meetings or sign up to our events email list. Other announcement email lists you might subscribe to are the Cambridge Action Network and the No Mill Road Tesco campaign.
E.ON withdraws from careers fairs due to persistent protests
E.ON has withdrawn from University Careers Fairs run by AIESEC following a string of protests around the country. E.ON did not show up at Birmingham today (12th Nov). The protesters object to E.ON wanting to develop new coal fired power stations, such as at Kingsnorth - the target of this summers Climate Camp. However E.ON cannot avoid the protests by avoiding careers fairs - expect more fun during 48 hours of action against E.ON and new coal on the 28/29 November.
Students have visited careers fairs to protest about the presence of parts of the arms and fossil fuel industries. Climate chaos related companies targeted include RBS (the oil and gas bank), BP and Shell. The arms industry representatives include the Army, B.Ae, Qinetiq and Rolls Royce. Careers fairs have been targeted in Aston, Birmingham ( 2 ), Bristol, Cambridge ( 2 | 3 ), Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Imperial College London, Kings College London, Leeds, Liverpool, Loughborough, Manchester ( 2 | 3 ), Nottingham ( 2 | 3 ), Oxford ( 2 ), Sheffield, Southampton, Warwick and York. More reports are available from People and Planet.
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Mill Road Social Centre - the story so far...
Update:The Mill Road Social Centre was evicted the night after Tesco were rejected again.
Most of know what happened since, but let’s start in the beginning. On Tuesday night 20 May 2008, the building that formerly housed Wilco's automotive parts, and that had been standing empty for over a year, was squatted. This is the selfsame building where Tesco plans to open a controversial Express store. More about that later.
The aim of the squat was to turn the building into a much needed social centre, a focal point for the local Romsey (and Cambridge) community. It should be pointed out that the social centre is not connected to the No Mill Road Tesco campaign.
Since it opened, the centre has hosted numerous events, from women's roller derby to tango lessons, graffiti workshops, an art exhibition, open mic nights and acoustic gigs.
Mill Road Social Centre website
SHAC Prepares For National March & Rally
On the 12th July, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) hold national march and rally [Report | Pics] to show the mass opposition to the fraudulent vivisection industry and the vile 'experiments' at Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). SHAC is an international campaign aiming to close HLS, the largest contract testing laboratory in Europe.
The rally in the park included info stalls and food/drink from Veggies before campaigners marched through Peterborough. The demonstration ended in Alconbury, so to meet the animal abusers who kill 500 animals every day of the week to test products such as weed killer, food colourings and drugs.
Details: Webpage for the rally, march and demo - Info and times | Rally in the park - Map and meeting point
Reports from last demo in April: Pictures: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Video: 1 | 2
Newswire: HLS Largest Customers Fined For Overcharging Docters | Call for action at SHAC march x2 | Arson Attacks at HLS Animal Breeder | Video of AR Protesters Illegal Arrest at Arromight Hereford | Callout to any FIT watchers - SHAC rally July 12th | Action Alert: Largest HLS Investor: Part 1 & 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Dispatch from Andy Stepanian (SHAC 7) | HLS Supplier DHL trashed for Active Slaughter | Novartis Global Week of Action Roundup | Time For Action 4 - SHAC Need Your Footage + Trailer | Last Primate Lab in Austria to Close! | Staples lies and beagles die | Message from SHAC: May Raids Anniversary | SHAC May Raids Anniversary | ALF torch Staples trucks | PIA Stop Beagle Flights | Sciencelink animal lab has been abandoned | Novartis HQ painted and smashed (Video) | Previous march (Novartis): SHAC Report | Barriers dismantled
Previous features: Victory for animal rights campaigners | Activist Imprisoned for Shouting | Fisher Scientific Embarrassed Over Links with HLS | SHAC World Day for Lab Animals | Asahi Glass Protesters Harassed by Police | "March Against the Murderers"
Links: SHAC-UK | SHAC-UK Prisoner Support | Veggies | Antispeciesist Action | Animal Rights CopWatch | Indymedia UK SHAC topic page
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Struggle and Repression for Social Centres and Autonomous Spaces
Mill Road, a new squatted social centre in Cambridge, lost against Tescos in court last week but are confident about holding onto the place a while longer yet. They have however been experiencing violent attacks from anonymous cowards. There have been many reports of attacks on autonomous spaces recently. In Greece there have been heavy police repression and fascist arson attacks against autonomous space [more]. In Amsterdam, the Citex squat was attacked and illegally evicted by Police. Just a few days ago in Rome, fascists were caught planting a bomb in the front yard of Loa Acrobax. The tide turned briefly when hundreds of people from Berlin and elsewhere went on the offensive and instigated six days of diverse and often militant action in Berlin. In a city which has one of the harshest anti-squatting policies in Europe people showed they were undaunted and defiant [more].
London has seen the eviction of two squatted social centres recently (1, 2) but last week there was a report of a new space opening in Nunhead. Also in south London, the Spike is raising its profile as a community resource as part of a strategy to hang onto the site. At the heart of London's city fringe expansion, Bowl Court social centre lost a courtroom battle against property giant Hammerson and is now considering next moves [background]. Meanwhile, the long running rampART social centre in East London marked it's 4th anniversary but is considering voluntary closure as it has been suffering from neglect, theft and lack of energy since the owners were granted a possession order way back in January.
Gutter press followed the Tory party in inciting hatred towards squatters while squatters in Brighton enjoyed somewhat better press coverage relating to the occupation of a church on London Road in Brighton. In an attempt to promote autonomous spaces, a booklet called 'What's this Place' [PDF] has been produced by the UK Social Centres Network which will probably be having it's next gathering at the newly refurbished Kebele in Bristol, 14th Sept. Also being planned for late summer is a follow up to last months international 'interspace' gathering near Berlin which followed the April2008 mobilisations [more].
Websites of mentioned spaces: Bowl Court, rampART, Nunhead Chapel, The Spike, Mill Road,88 London Road, Kebele, Loa Acrobax
Portal sites : Squat.net | UK Social Centres Network website | Autonomous London
"No Tesco's" campaigners march on Mill Road
Several hundred people (estimates range from 250 to 800) marched down Mill Road in Cambridge today to show their opposition to Tesco's plans to open an "Express" store. Many sent reports on the event:
- Photos and short report by Poon
- Photos by manos | beverley | uug | Alan
- Photos and extensive comment on the event by Camera Boy
- Video by Sarah W
According to the campaign over 4000 people have signed a petition, and a remarkable 1100 people sent in written objections to the City Council regarding Tesco's planning applications. A poll in the local Cambridge Evening News suggests 75% of people across the city are opposed to the proposed increase in Tesco's dominant position in Cambridge. The multinational giant already controls 51% of the grocery market here - putting us in the top 10 Tesco-dominated places in the UK. According to a recent Competition Commission report such dominance - surprise, surprise - has a negative impact on the consumer.
Older feature | http://www.nomillroadtesco.org/ | Main campaign post with many useful links | No Chains on Mill Road | Tescopoly
Keep Tesco off Mill Road, Cambridge
Tesco hope to move into Mill Road, Cambridge. The over whelming majority of residents and local traders absolutely do not want this to happen. Already posters are appearing in many of the shops on Mill Road, and campaigners spent Saturday spreading the word and drumming up support for the campaign.
An open organising meeting has been called to start planning a campaign against Tesco. It will be held on Thursday 27th September at 7 pm in Libra Aries bookshop (9 The Broadway, Mill Road). (The bookshop has been graffitied in the run up to the meeting).
http://www.nomillroadtesco.org/ | Main campaign post with many useful links | Tescopoly site
Camp for Climate Action - East Anglia Round up
While the Camp for Climate Action (full Indymedia coverage) was going on next to Heathrow, campaigners have not been slacking in East Anglia. There have been protests at Norwich Airport and Stansted Airport, while it is has been reported that Cambridge Airport is seeing rapid growth in use by executive jets - over 3000 per year. And away from the airports, Friday started with a blockade of the Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk where a group of five people locked on in the entrance of Sizewell nuclear power station and unfurled a banner reading 'nuclear power is not the answer to climate chaos'
Many activists from Cambridge were at the camp, including some supergluing themselves to the Department for Transport, while others found themselves held as terrorists when they clearly weren't or photographed by police while using the toilet.
Britain is GMO free again
On the night of Friday the 6th of July, a group of activists converged on Britain's only GM trial site just outside Cambridge. They scaled the security fences and destroyed the crop of genetically modified potatoes.
This was the only crop of GM potatoes being grown in the UK, after the chemicals giant BASF abandoned plans for a GM potato trial in Yorkshire this year. There have been multiple protests at the Cambridge site [video] and at the Yorkshire site (where organic potatoes were planted [video]).
However BASF have permission lasting until 2011, so this may not be the end of the story ...
Background : GM back on agenda | sabotage promised | detailed talk report | audio interview re victory and protest 1st july
Campaign links : Mutatoes | Hedon Against GM | Cambridge GM Concern
Two Arrested at Cambridge GM potato picnic
7/7/07 Update: The field has been decontaminated!
Sunday July 1st. Fifty anti-GM campaigners take their protest directly to the test site in Girton near Cambridge. One protester is arrested scaling the fence erected to protect the GM potato crop and another is arrested later on for alleged criminal damage (they will be in court on Tuesday morning[ 1 | 2 ]). The crop are GM potatoes developed by BASF, who have already dropped their one other potato trial in the UK [ 1 | 2 ].
Detailed write up - video - Pictures [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] Local media coverage - Criticism of tactics.
Background : GM back on agenda | sabotage promised | detailed talk report | audio interview re victory and protest 1st july
Campaign links : Mutatoes | Hedon Against GM | Cambridge GM Concern
Anti-GM Victory : One down, One to Go!
It seems there are not often victories to celebrate so it's strange when they occur seemingly unnoticed. That's exactly what's happened regarding the news that the chemicals giant, BASF have abandoned plans for a GM potato trial in Yorkshire this year, despite government consent.
Back in April there was an action in Hedon near Hull [1 | 2 ] to demonstrate public opposition to the first GM trials in the UK proposed in three years. Taking action before the trial began, the protesters planted their own organic spuds in what they thought was the field earmarked for the GM variety [1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6]. The aim was to invalidate the experiment before it was even started and while it turned out that they had picked the wrong field they did successful demonstrate that public opposition to GM crops is as strong and militant as ever [audio | video].
The planting of the other trial, located in Cambridge [1 | 2], went ahead despite local opposition and protests but campaigners say that it's not too late to drive home the message that "there is still no future for GM in the UK".
There is a national call out for a 'potato picnic' announced for Sunday 1st July near the site of the Cambridge trial. [flyer | directions]
Background : GM back on agenda | sabotage promised | detailed talk report | audio interview re victory and protest 1st july
Campaign links : Mutatoes | Hedon Against GM | Cambridge GM Concern
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