The Peace Pipe

Stop the deportation of Hich

2008-05-25T08:51:00.003+01:00

Although he posts here as rarely as everybody else Hicham Yezza, or Hich to his many friends, is ostensibly one of the contributors to this blog. Unfortunately, he now faces imminent deportation to Algeria.

If you know Hich and/or can help in any way, get int touch with the campaign.

Website: http://freehichamyezza.wordpress.com
Email: staffandstudents@googlemail.com
Phone: 07948590262

The press release does a pretty good job of summing up what's going on...

From a group of Nottingham residents, concerned student and academics at the University of Nottingham.
For immediate use, 24/05/08 SATURDAY

Notts Uni detainee innocent but still facing deportation

Hicham Yezza, a popular, respected and valued former PhD student and current employee of the University of Nottingham faces deportation to Algeria on Sunday 1st June. This follows his unjust arrest under the Terrorism Act 2000 on Wednesday 14th May alongside Rizwaan Sabir and their release without charge six days later.

It has subsequently become clear that these arrests, which the police had claimed related to so-called “radical materials” involved an Al Qaeda manual downloaded by Sabir as part of his research into political Islam and emailed to Yezza for printing because Sabir couldn’t afford to get it printed himself.

There has been a vocal response from lecturers and students. A petition is being circulated, letters have been sent by academics across the world and a demo is being planned for Wednesday. 28th May. This has clearly been deeply embarrassing to a government currently advocating an expansion of anti-terror powers.

On his release Hicham was re-arrested under immigration legislation and, due to confusion over his visa documentation, charged with offences relating to his immigration status. He sought legal advice and representation over these matters whilst in custody. On Friday 23rd May, he was suddenly served with a deportation notice and moved to an immigration detention centre. The deportation is being urgently appealed.

Hicham has been resident in the U.K. for 13 years, during which time he has studied for both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Nottingham. He is an active member of debating societies, a prominent member of an arts and theatre group, and has written for, and edited, Ceasefire, the Nottingham Student Peace Movement magazine for the last five years.

He is well known and popular on campus amongst the university community and has established himself as a voracious reader and an authority on literature and music. An application for British citizenship was underway, and he had been planning to make his yearly trip to Wales for the Hay Festival when he was suddenly arrested.

The authorities are clearly trying to circumvent the criminal justice system and force Hicham out of the country. Normally they would have to wait for criminal proceedings to finish, but here they have managed to convince the prosecution to drop the charges in an attempt to remove him a quick, covert manner. The desire for justice is clearly not the driving force behind this, as Hicham was happy to stand trial and prove his innocence.

Hicham had a large social network and many of his friends are mobilising to prevent his deportation. Matthew Butcher, 20, a student at the University of Nottingham and member of the 2008-9 Students Union Executive, said, “This is an abhorrent abuse of due process, pursued by a government currently seeking to expand anti-terror powers. Following the debacle of the initial ‘terror’ arrests they now want to brush the whole affair under the carpet by deporting Hicham.”

Supporters have been able to talk with Hicham and he said, “The Home Office operates with a Gestapo mentality. They have no respect for human dignity and human life. They treat foreign nationals as disposable goods - the recklessness and the cavalier approach they have belongs to a totalitarian state. I thank everyone for their support - it’s been extremely heartening and humbling. I’m grateful to everyone who has come to my aid and stood with me in solidarity, from students to Members of Parliament. I think this really reflects the spirit of the generous, inclusive Britain we know - and not the faceless, brutal, draconian tactics of the Home Office.”

[ENDS]

It's a crazy, crazy world...

2007-07-24T13:30:00.001+01:00

So.... in the news today... historic elections in Turkey, unprecedented floods in England, mayhem in Iraq, dramatic tensions between the UK and Russia....
Yet, as of 12pm today... the most read AND most emailed "news" article is .... *drum roll*
voila! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6913310.stm
It's a crazy world, I tell ya!!!

Forthcoming events

2007-02-09T21:53:00.000Z

In case this reaches a different audience than the other places these announcements have been posted...

Next weekend is rather a bonanza for peaceniks and progressives in Nottingham! To wit:

KnowledgeLab 4: "an attempt to provide a collective space for anti-capitalist reflection. It is located at the margin of the university, an institution essentially geared towards the production of knowledge as a resource for corporate interest and as justification for particular constellations of power relations.

The Knowledge Lab is hence also an attempt to claim back some of the university's space, resources and know-how from the military-industrial complex and make them available for people concerned about and working against the status quo of unceasing commodification, exploitation, war, and biospherical destruction."

KnowledgeLab is held on Feb 16-18 at the Portland Building, Nottingham University

And of course, that long-term favourite, the NSPM Peace Conference, on Sunday Feb 18 in the Portland Building. Some details here and anyone with a printer and some energy can download a poster here

For a Free Education!

2006-05-08T15:30:00.000+01:00

This is a time of radical change in education. With the introduction of fees and now top-up fees, access to higher education has become stratified, dividing potential students into those who can afford it and those whose financial insecurity excludes them. This is accompanied by a general trend in universities towards a business-oriented model of education, where students are reduced to passive consumers of training for their future roles as battery workers. There is an increasing involvement of private companies in the funding of research, in return for prime opportunities to recruit students. Meanwhile, markets in student services are being opened up so that we can be exploited wherever we go, by food vendors, increased advertising, privatisation of student accommodation, etc. With this approach to education any source of funding is fair game, regardless of the ethical and ecological consequences, hence Nottingham’s acceptance of millions of pounds from British American Tobacco to fund an MBA in corporate social responsibility, sponsorship of research by human rights abusers Rolls-Royce and Shell, and the ubiquity of Coca-Cola vending machines and Nestlé water in the water coolers.

“Top-up” fees and the AUT dispute
What is unknown to many students is that “top-up” fees go directly to the universities themselves. They are not a form of indirect taxation, but direct funding to the institutions who lobbied for them, under the auspices of increasing pay for staff. Since then the universities have reneged on this offer, despite the increasing workload and relative pay cuts endured by academic staff. As a result, staff members are understandably aggrieved and want to take action against their exploitation, hence the strikes seen earlier this year. However, many AUT members, whilst wishing to take action against their employers, are not in favour of the tactics of boycotting student assessment, because they damage students rather than the university. Rather than judging the legitimacy of staff claims for better pay and conditions based upon the AUT’s questionable choice of tactics, students would do well to consider the past behaviour of university management, especially considering Nottingham’s scandalous behaviour leading to the University’s greylisting by the AUT in 2004. Then, the University imposed performance-related pay and refused to negotiate with the union. All of this continues whilst Nottingham’s Vice-Chancellor, Sir Colin Campbell, was revealed to have received a 23% pay rise in 2004-5, bringing his salary to a total of £221,000. The parallels with corporate fat cats are hard to avoid. The University’s staff, as well as its students, are being damaged by the business model being ruthlessly imposed, and linking our two campaigns could strengthen them both.

What can you do?
Education could be a chance for students to learn to think critically and to question the inevitability of a career path. With government funding (perhaps diverted from the massive budgets for maintaining the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, subsidising the arms trade, and developing tactical nuclear weapons) this education could be made free, thus avoiding the reliance on big business for extra cash, and ending their stranglehold on our education.
However, appeals to the government or the University are unlikely to be listened to. The lack of progress of campaigns requesting the transfer of the University’s investments to ethically-managed portfolios, and to banish Coca-Cola from campus, have failed to make an impact on University management. Likewise, we are unlikely to be supported by our NUS executive, which has failed to show collective solidarity with student and staff struggles. Indeed, many NUS exec members embody the unthinking careerism that we are struggling to avoid.
It seems that the most effective action will come from us, the students, directly. We need to challenge those who would support corporate involvement in our education, within our departments and at the level of University management. By increasing our fellow students’ awareness about the companies that exploit people and environment, we can build movements against their presence on campus. We could form unions of rent-payers, to ensure that landlords are requesting reasonable amounts, boycott corporate vending machines in favour of home-grown lunches, provide information on the few remaining free spaces in the city. Who knows, we could even occupy the Vice-Chancellor’s office, a library building, or our classrooms, and start providing our own education. The struggle for free education is about to begin…

Resources for further action
Nottingham Student Peace Movement
Corporate Watch
Education Not For Sale

What race does a racist have to be?

2006-04-08T11:22:00.000+01:00

The British National Party is apparently in uproar over the selection of a supposedly 'ethnic' candidate. Leader Nick Griffin would like the party to become more racially inclusive, providing equal opportunities to become a fascist scumbag. (provided you're not too 'ethnic', of course - members are reassured that the candidate in question is 'not a Pakistani Muslim.) Sharif Gawad, a 'totally assimilated Armenian Christian' whose mum is a fan of Omar Sharif, has jumped at the chance to seize such an opportunity. The BNP rank and file, meanwhile, are less than enthusiastic, questioning the point of joining a racist organisation if one then has to be racially tolerant .
I'm stuck deciding which element of the above story is the most mind-boggling.

Anti-Semites are fuckwits

2006-03-03T19:38:00.000Z

[Cross-posted from the Disillusioned kid for your delectation.]

Ilam Halimi was a 23-year old mobile phone salesman who lived in Paris. His apparently normal life was shattered when he was kidnapped by a gang apparently calling themselves "The Barbarians," who held him for 24 days, tortured him before dumping him near a train station in the parisian suburb of Bagneux, leaving him to die. In and of itself this is nasty enough and not to be encouraged. What has given the brutal abduction added potency, however, is the perception that it was motivated by anti-Semitism.

Nicholas Sarkozy told the National Assembly, "The truth is that these crooks acted primarily for sordid and vile motives, to get money, but they were convinced that 'the Jews have money', and if those they kidnapped didn't have money, their family and their community would come up with it. That's called anti-Semitism by amalgam." While not exactly renowned for his contribution to race relations Sarko appears to be on the right lines here, particularly if claims that the woman accused of seducing him for the gang was told to focus her efforts on Jewish men, turn out to be correct.

Encouragingly the whole affair has been greeted by widespread revulsion in France which has been expressed in the time-honoured French fashion of holding a large-scale demonstration. Rather less encouraging is attempts to capitalise on popular concerns on the part of the far-right Mouvement pour la France (MPF) whose leader Philippe de Villiers tried to attend but was greeted by cries of "racist" and had to be removed by what Ha'aretz describes as "guards". Worryingly it also appears that organisers had hoped to invite Jean-Marie Le Pen of the neo-Fascist Front National (FN), only relenting after "sharp opposition" from unnamed lefties.

It might seem strange that a right-wing fucktard like Le Pen who is not averse to dabbling in Judeophobia's murky waters himself and famously dismissed the gas chambers as "a point of detail," should want to have anything to do with a march against anti-Semitism, but if you think about it, it serves his short-term interests. The kidnappers appear to have been immigrants from the suburbs, one suspect even fled to the Ivory Coast. And there have been suggestions that some of them were linked to Muslim and/or Palestinian organisations. These are exactly the group whom the FN have been directing their ire against in recent years, tapping into apparently widespread anti-immigrant sentiment and Islamophobia.

This sort of things isn't without precedent. Recall that during the General Election in the UK the BNP fielded a Jewish candidate. Patricia Richardson who campaigned on an anti-immigration ticket and claimed, "The Jews and the British now share the same enemy — the al-Qaeda terrorists who we know are often hidden in Britain illegally plotting against the West. Both have an interest in the much tougher stand on law and order that we in the BNP are promoting." While the decision caused considerable controversy within the ranks it doesn't appear to have hurt the party terminally (unfortunately).

At the risk of unduly generalising from the specific I wish to suggest that these moves on the part of the French and British branches of the Adolf Hitler fan club serve to illustrate the extent to which anti-Semitism and Islamophobia feed off each other. Over the last few years there have been a series of reports pointing to a rise in one or the other. Recall also that while France is today dealing with concerns about anti-Semitism, only a few months back racism targetted against the immigrant populations - most of them black and Arab - led to rioting accross the country. All too rarely have people drawn the connections.

Clearly the Israel-Palestine conflict plays a part here, but that's an essay in itself (one I may get around to writing someday). While I don't want to get bogged down in the issues surrounding the Israeli occupation here, I will note in passing that accusations of anti-Semitism levelled against anybody with the temerity to criticise Israeli policy has created a situation whereby the Left (such as it is) seems has developed a blindspot around the issue. This is - to put it lightly - unfortunate. Anti-Semitism remains as contemptible, unjustifiable and as dangerous as ever. It is the enemy of the Palestinian solidarity movement and it is the enemy of anybody interested in building a better world.

File Under: Anti-Semitism, France, Islamophobia, Racism

Relief blogging service

2006-03-02T13:40:00.000Z

Bonjour from EloH/Nella, the new member of the Peace Pipe team. How much of a 'relief' i'm going to be remains to be seen, since i don't have much more time than D or DK, but i will try. Since those two have a tendency to quote me on everything from Holocaust denial to the correct preperation of a tofu baby (not connected!) i guess i'd better defer to their judgement on this one.
As with the other PP bloggers, my posts will stem from my opinions rather than some kind of party line - so don't blame the others for anything i say, or vice versa.
Having said that, there will be some effort on my part to be one of the team. If you want to see me being, well, me, then visit me at the world of the Dynamite Lady. Otherwise, just watch this space for my first attempt at a proper post.

your revolution needs you!

2006-01-06T13:40:00.000Z

at the behest of nella i've reposted something i wrote on the naked lunch here, for your delectation and delight. here goes:-

i've been reading quite a bit about the 1968 paris uprising recently (see poster on the left, "free press"), and pondering the total unexpectedness and swiftness of events. workers, students and radicals were suddenly swept up in a massive struggle that seemed to be too big, too fast. whilst there is no doubt that temporary autonomy was a goal worth fighting for, the total revolution of society hoped for was not obtained.

whilst there is no doubt that french society in 68 was very different to modern society, i imagine any revolutionary attempt in the britain of today would would look more like paris 68 than some of the more famous struggles in this vein (e.g. russia 1917), because we live in a technologically advanced european capitalist state. no doubt there'd have to be a general rebellion of workers in order to halt the machinery of the economy, the seizure of media outlets, and immediate steps to defend the revolutionary forces. no doubt all of this has been theorised and pored over and over by the likes of academic marxists (that seems to be all they do), and no doubt one of the biggest obstacles to change would be the "professional revolutionaries" who'd like to lead the movement, but what about us?

here i'm talking about the small handful of people who i know to read this blog and (as far as i'm aware) are fairly unaffiliated individuals. the problems of leaders and parties are well known to us, but in the event of a sudden uprising in our town/country/planet how would we respond? presumably we'd want to be involved in order to help the changes that we wanted to see. we'd probably need to spread the word about our struggles and counter propaganda, take part in the defence of our comrades against the police, and do our bit in installing alternative social and economic systems.

i'm thinking about this on a purely 'what if i got the chance to be part of something like that' sense. what would you do?

Whose Insecurity?

2005-10-31T15:53:00.000Z

The news media seem to be increasingly full of lurid stories about terrorism and crime, and a common reaction is a general feeling of anxiety throughout society. Is this anxiety misplaced or are we really more insecure than ever before? It may really depend on who “we” are.

Since the 7/7 bombs, terror, and the threat of terror, have filled many with dread. This has certainly been fuelled by media speculation, but the facts tell a different story. You are still more likely to be killed by lightning than in a terrorist attack (1). Likewise, whilst muggings and burglaries are a common occurrence in student areas, most crime is committed against the poorest and most vulnerable in society (2). This is an interesting statistic because poverty is a huge factor in determining not just whether an individual will become a victim of crime, but their quality of life, health, and life opportunities. Low wage jobs are becoming more and more precarious, with short-term contracts taking the place of lifetime careers, and a continual push by employers for lower wages and poorer conditions. The working classes suffer from a much more rational insecurity about their day to day existence, than the fear of terrorism.

One group of desperately poor people in the UK are those seeking political asylum. Not only are they reduced to existing on a pittance (destitute asylum seekers are entitled to £38.96 per week in benefits) but they face being deported to countries in which they could be persecuted if their claims are rejected (3, 4). Despite the growing number of refugees in the world, the UK is making it harder for asylum seekers to enter the country, spurred on by tabloid-fuelled hatred of their kind. These are forms of insecurity that are severe and very real, but media and political discourse is rarely concerned with them. Whose insecurity should be dealt with first? Do we really think our laptops getting nicked should be a priority?

The measures that have been implemented in order to deal with the “headline story” insecurities are manifold. A whole swathe of new anti-terror laws are being debated and look set to be implemented, and the police are being given a license to shoot-to-kill. In attempts to tackle (or at least appear to be tackling) crime, the government has introduced Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs), and councils and property owners increasingly rely on CCTV. These measures appear designed to reduce the insecurity of the “average law-abiding person”, but who is that person? Not those belonging to Afro-Caribbean, Arabic or Asian ethnicities, who are being disproportionately targeted by police anti-terror laws (and by laws in general). Not youths, mental health service users or prostitutes, who are under the threat of criminalisation for breaking ASBOs. Not those whose homes and streets are not under the watchful eyes of CCTV, where crime is displaced (5). Not political protestors, against whom anti-terror laws, ASBOs, and anti-harassment laws are being used. These measures allow those whose concerns are considered important to evade their fears, whilst their insecurities are displaced onto the less privileged in society.

Ultimately this is bound to fail, as insecurity in one segment of society will sooner or later increase the insecurity of others. The insecuritiy of Muslims who feel that their people are under attack fuels the insecurity of those who suspect them of being terrorists. The insecurity of those desperate for money feed the insecurity of those who fear theft. Whilst those with power and a voice in society can call for draconian measures against those who don’t have such power, they still have to lock their doors at night, glance anxiously around on the tube, and keep their wallets out of sight. Terror and crime are desperate attempts by those who have little power to make an impact on the world. To reduce the chance of these things happening, we have to empower everyone in society to take back control of their lives. That means that everyone gets a say in how their life is run, how political decisions are made, and how resources are allocated. To know that you genuinely do have the same opportunities and status as your neighbours is to eradicate insecurity about your privilege or resentment of your neighbour’s. Creating a society in which direct democracy is implemented means that no one’s voice should go unheard, and everyone has the confidence to take back control of their lives.

For most students, insecurity is a fleeting and temporary problem – until the poorest and most vulnerable are made secure we shouldn’t see ourselves as the priority. Perhaps our deepest insecurity is that we know we don’t really have a right to the privileges we have, and that the dispossessed are at the door.

1) Lifetime mortality rates : Lightning = 1:56,000, Terrorist-related activity = 1:88,000 (National Safety Council, US, 2002).

2) “The type of area in which people live can affect their likelihood of being a victim of violent crime. In general, those households located in council estates and low-income areas were the most likely to have been victims of violent crimes - around twice the rate of those living in affluent suburban and rural areas.” (Proportion of adult victims of violent crime: by household characteristics, 1999: Social Trends 32, Office for National Statistics).

In the US (2004)
• Persons in households with an annual income under $7,500 were robbed at a significantly higher rate than persons in households earning more.
• Persons in households with an annual income of less than $7,500 have higher rates of assault than persons in households with higher income levels.
• Households with an annual income below $7,500 were burglarized at rates higher than those of households with larger incomes.
• Households earning below $7,500 and above $75,000 experience motor vehicle theft at similar rates.
(US Bureau of Justice statistics).

3) Asylum seekers cannot claim mainstream welfare benefits. If destitute, they can apply to the National Asylum Support Service (NASS), the Government department responsible for destitute asylum applicants, for basic food and shelter. A single adult is eligible for £38.96 a week, equivalent to 70% of basic income support.
(Refugee Council).

4) 90% refugees rejected on initial claim, with many having to go through the appeals process to have their claim successfully recognised.
(Arun Kundnani, Asylum figures - behind the headlines, 8 March 2003).

5) "The justification for CCTV is seductive, but the evidence is not convincing. In a report to the Scottish Office on the impact of CCTV, Jason Ditton, Director of the Scottish Centre for Criminology, argued that the claims of crime reduction are little more than fantasy. "All (evaluations and statistics) we have seen so far are wholly unreliable", The British Journal of Criminology described the statistics as "....post hoc shoestring efforts by the untrained and self interested practitioner...
Many CCTV system operators routinely exercise their prejudices to discriminate against race, age, class or sexual preference."
(Privacy International).

the truth about british foreign policy

2005-10-19T12:50:00.000+01:00

yesterday nspm had the pleasure of hosting mark curtis, the radical historian and author, for a talk on 'government propaganda and the reality of uk foreign policy'. in an attempt to repeat the success of last year's talk by milan rai we had booked a high profile speaker for the start of term, to raise our profile and attract support. it certainly seemed to have worked judging by the size and diversity of the audience. i estimate about 100 people had gathered to hear mark speak, wit plenty of new faces amongst the stalwart activists. i've seen mark speak before at the esf, and from reading his books and articles had a good idea of what to expect. it was good to find that mark was softly-spoken and seemed to be a genuinely nice guy in person, as well as in his writings.

mark's talk seemed to be largely drawn from the material that he's worked on over the course of his last few books (unpeople, web of deceit), condensed into half an hour. starting with recent foreign office strategy (e.g. delivering security in a changing world) and the imperial ambitions of the "ministry of offence", mark then recounted the history of british foreign policy from the 50s onwards. after admonishing blair's support of bloodshed and torture by the russians in chechnya, colombian paramilitaries and the idf in palestine, he gave the figure (his own estimate) of britain's complicity in the deaths of 10m people since the 50s. mark talked about british suppression of the mau mau in kenya, concentration camps in malaya, support for indonesian slaughter of communists, support for iraqi bombing of the kurds, military advice to the americans in vietnam, support for idi amin, and british obstacles to intervention in rwanda. british foreign policy, he said, was driven by 2 major goals: maintenance of its "great power" status, and economic control.

the most interesting part of the talk for me, as it's something he doesn't go into in much detail in his books, was the final part where mark sketched out his ideas of what we should do. change would have to come from outside the existing system which perpetuates these vile atrocities with only cosmetic changes over the years. mark saw a glimmer of hope in the global justice system emerging and gaining victories over companies privatising water from bolivia to south africa. self-education is particularly important, he said, to defend ourselves against the ocean of propaganda. mark saw the democratisation of society as the most important goal in acheiving our aims, with the removal of hierarchical decision-making and the remodelling of our political lives on the principle of participatory democracy.

these ideas were obviously a little too radical for some, including a guy who walked out at the start of questions, waiting til the last minute before shouting "10m iraqis voted last week mate", and a terribly posh sounding persistent questioner who wasn't too sure that the "uneducated masses" were going to do a better job than whatever benign patriarchal dictator he seemed to be imagining. many were enthusiastic though, drawing parallels between mark's vision of society and anarchist thought. it was good to see challenged many of the dangerous myths prevalent in mainstream thought, and to hear discussed media propaganda, the tyranny of centralised power and global movements resisting the takeover of people's lives. mark was optimistic, suggesting that in the many talks he had been giving to people of all backgrounds across the country, he was seeing an increasingly dissatisfied populace ready to wrest power from the hands of politicians. i certainly felt that many people in that room felt that way, and together we can act to make those changes.

arms dealers not welcome

2005-10-19T10:48:00.000+01:00

the university of nottingham holds an annual careers fair in the student's union building, hosted by old friends (!) of the peace movement, aiesec. this is usually packed full of some of the worst corporate criminals the world of business has to offer, all getting their pick of graduate talent. to see this year's selection go here. of particular interest to us were bae systems, rolls-royce and caterpillar, all arms dealing companies. we decided we couldn't let them on campus without organising a robust response to their unwanted presence, and various student societies and networks including nspm, people & planet, amnesty, and the environment & social justice umbrella group got together to protest.

bags stacked with leaflets and carrying stickers to attach to the careers fair posters, some of us met early in the morning to get going. attaching stickers reading "resist the corporate invasion of your university" and giving a meeting time and place to all of the aiesec material was a good move, and we also put up plenty of anti-caterpillar posters. the porter was looking nervous, telling us not to stick anything on any walls, and asking whether we were the people he was meant to look out for! it was a good opportunity for a certain "luther blissett" to sign up for the fair and enquire about the military and engineering options on offer. "bae & shell, they're really good!" i was told. hmmmm... by the time i'd tracked back to meet co-conspirators a shifty looking guy from security had come over and was hassling m about our posters. he took one off her, and asked both of us for our student id. i said i didn't have it but he took hers and wrote down her details. we were both too surprised to protest even though he blatantly shouldn't have been allowed to do it. those in favour of id cards take note. i went off to photocopy a few more flyers before the meet-up at 12.

by the time i got back quite a crowd had already developed. t was being interviewed by university radio about why we were protesting and a couple of friends from nottinghamshire indymedia were there to film and photograph the event. their report can be found here. l from the student union gave a briefing about what we could probably get away with and blagged us all flyering passes for the two days. the security guy so keen to be confrontational earlier, jumped in to say that we weren't allowed to do anything that could be seen as intimidating, whatever that meant, but suddenly got a bit shy when the cameras were pointed his way, ducking behind people. nothing to fear if you've got nothing to hide eh?

so in we went in small clusters finding where our poor defenceless intimidated arms dealers were lurking. cat and rolls-royce were in the same room so a few of us took over the entrance to leaflet whilst those with the decency to suit up for the occasion took their places slap bang in front of the stalls. rolls-royce are a particularly interesting target in nottingham because they put a lot of funding into the engineering department, the university has shares in them, and there's a factory just down the road in derby making components for trident nuclear submarines (see trident ploughshares' site for details of a blockade of the factory next weekend). student responses were mixed, as you'd expect. few were openly hostile although many looked at us like we were lunatics and i remember one group of girls standing around in front of me talking about how sad it was that we didn't have anything better to do. i don't know - fighting for global justice has its rewards! on the other hand there were positive experiences too. many students were shocked as they didn't know the full stories behind some of the companies, and one woman stayed around to chat to us about how glad she was that there were so many people out to protest against the companies.

one particularly useful tactic was to take over the space around the companies' stalls in order to chat to people about the companies' before the smooth pr exercise could begin. to do this in a purely informative and non-confrontational way seemed very effective in giving people something to think about. it also pissed off the reps quite a lot. the reactions of non-targeted companies were interesting. one guy wearing a deutsche bank badge wandered over to me and said, quite earnestly, "i really respect what you guys are doing". i don't know whether he was being sarcastic or just naive. people were also coming over and acting suspiciously matey before asking "so when's it all going to kick off then?". i think they were expecting the black bloc to walk in and trash the place. slimy security man asked me "how long are you going on for?" as if there should be an allotted time as well as place for protest. "As long as it takes".

overall i think the numbers of protestors and the access we got to the recruiting space of the companies meant that our actions were as successful as they could have been. hopefully the companies will be discouraged from attending future events although i think the more likely scenario is that they will demand much stricter security. thanks to the media coverage (nottinghamshire indymedia are also making a film about the fair, containing interviews with protestors including yours truly, and the organisers) i hope that students at other universities will take note - that we can overcome repressive restrictions, like those imposed on the george fox 6, and throw spanners in the works of the well-oiled corporate machines.

george fox 6

2005-10-06T13:47:00.000+01:00

a group of 6 students from the university of lancaster have been sentenced to conditional discharge for 2 years and costs of 3oo pounds each, for "momentarily disrupting a conference". they were not found guilty of "harrassment, alarm or distress" or "intimidating behaviour". the george fox 6's actions involved interrupting a meeting on venture capitalism at the university, in protest against the commercialisation of research, and the presence of highly unethical companies including bae systems and shell.

the george fox 6 supporter's group website has all the details of the case, and includes copies of their statement, indicating their intention to appeal, to ensure that the right to protest is not eroded. speculation was rife during the run-up to the trial that lancaster was attempting to set a new trend of criminalising activities that ran against the business interests of the university. certainly, if the allegations of this letter from the research students' representative to the vice-chancellor are true, then the university has played a very underhand role in proceedings.

those interested in finding out about defending the right to protest against new laws and new uses of laws might be interested in attending the freedom to protest conference in a few weeks time.

critical massive

2005-10-03T14:59:00.000+01:00

it was good to see a record (in my limited experience) turnout for nottingham's critical mass on friday. an army of colourful, flag-bearing, slogan-brandishing road-reclaimers assembled near the texaco garage from 5 onwards, and by 5:45 there were over 40 of us (the notts indymedia report claimed 60 or so, which i think is a slight exaggeration, but not on a stop the war level). numbers were boosted by the visit from the makers of still we ride, a film about new york's critical mass and the unwanted police attention it receives. the film was screened at the broadway on wednesday and its filmers generously stuck around to swell the numbers at our own more humble affair. i was also buoyed from having read about budapest's colossal critical mass that took place earlier in the week, attracting over 30,000 cyclists!!!

would you trust this officer?

after much milling about, bantering, and obstruction of pavements we set off up derby road in the direction of canning circus. there was definitely a carnival feel and we emphasised the celebration aspects of the event. tash was ready and waiting at the top of the hill and then seemed to teleport himself around various locations after that taking the fine photos that i've used in this report. down to maid marian way where we toured a few roundabouts and received audible support for cycling (see top pic). some taxi and 4x4 drivers seemed less enthusiastic but their aggressive revving was drowned out in the cheers, bell-ringing and horns. round the ring road to the broadmarsh then we turned up into the lace market to release some of the angry motorists who were threatening to mow people at the back down.

in case you're wondering that's an asda jacket detourned to read 'asbo'

unfortunately, after coming off the main roads we got a little lost in the narrow lanes of the lace market and ended up coming down hockley. a guy had parked his car in the cycle lane at the bottom of the hill and attracted sarky comments. unfortunately he lost it and aggressively remonstrated with the entire mass, later grabbing the camera woman and shoving her against the wall. it took a big group of us trying to defuse the situation to make the guy give up and the incident ended with the rather embarassing situation of having to grass the guy up to a passing posse of neighbourhood wardens. whilst the majority waited across a side street a police car pulled up, lights flashing. we were asked to get out the road and then they headed off again. critical mass obviously isn't considered such a threat by nottingham police as it is by their new yorker counterparts...

in a change from previous critical masses we ended up by heading down mansfield road to the sumac centre. as we came down the hill past the forest rec, we picked up some zealous supporters in the form of a group of local kids in hoodies and masks. evidently seeing the revolutionary potential they lay down on pedestrian crossings and were quite disappointed to find out that we were just finishing up as they ran home to get their bikes. hopefully they'll remember to join us at the start of next month's. found myself using the stock activist phrase "we should have had flyers" rather a lot ;)

it was fun, it was (mostly) friendly, and who knows, it may even have made one or two motorists rethink their mode of transport. see you next month!

the people vs. the arms fair

2005-09-19T13:31:00.000+01:00

on wednesday last week i had the opportunity to make my feelings known about the arms trade to delegates to europe's largest arms fair. DSEi (or 'dicey') takes place at the excel centre in london's docklands every other year, and has been an obvious target for those who campaign against war and torture. campaign against the arms trade and disarm dsei facilitated a week of actions against the arms fair which were conspicuously left out of the corporate press, who seemed content to merely question whether 'banned' weapons were being sold, and skirted round the central issue of the legitimacy of the arms trade. it seemed to me to be in particularly bad taste that a fair selling bombs and guns should be taking place in east london, an area massively bombed during the second world war, and subject to the terrors of gun crime in the present, especially as the fair would represent a potential terrorist target that would be policed at the taxpayer's cost.

wednesday was 'no rules' day for the protestors, in which anyone using any tactics was invited to make their protest. the day saw people locked onto concrete weights blocking roads, people climbing onto the roofs of trains, a critical mass further disrupting traffic, and lorries full of bricks mysteriously being left on main roads. these were met with some fairly thuggish policing, including an incident i personally witnessed where a man was told he was going to be arrested for obstruction of the highway even though he was on the pavement. when the policeman in question was made aware of this he promptly forced the guy into the road before proceeding. for full details of the protests see the uk indymedia site, and for my personal account go here. disillusioned kid was at the street party the weekend before dsei, and his account is here.

the comedian and activist mark thomas somehow managed to get into the fair posing as a buyer, and got dealers to reveal all kinds of juicy details about the 'under the table' items on offer. apparently some companies were offering cluster bombs too. some suited activists managed to get into the dorchester hotel during the dsei dinner on the thursday night. so much for the 4m pound policing operation then... it was an interesting experience being able to come face to face with the buyers and sellers of arms. due to the massive disruption of rail and road links to the centre delegates were often forced to walk to entrances past large crowds of protestors. the sight of delegates coming home on the docklands light railway, arms loaded down with goody bags from such dealers of death as raytheon, picturing the latest weapons technology was bizarre indeed, and a rare opportunity to confront those whose participation maintains the industry. it was also an opportunity to remind yourself about the realities of our society - whilst hideously rich arms dealers glided through heavily policed gates in their mercedes, a few hundred yards away poor londoners looked on without such optimism. whilst the government sent in 4000 police to protect the parasites, the protesters were being criminalised.

don't doubt that we'll be back in 2007!

There's A Blogging Going On...

2005-09-01T20:37:00.000+01:00

Today is September 1, Uzbekistan's independence day. It is being marked in the blogosphere by an assortment of bloggers writing about the situation in the country and possible responses (primarily a cotton embargo). I've already said my bit over on my main blog as has Dan. There's a fairly comprehensive list of participating blogs here. Take the time to read some or all of them. I guarantee you'll learn something. If you're inspired to action as well, all the better.

Blog 4 Uzbekistan

2005-08-09T23:32:00.000+01:00

The pledge:

"I will blog about the situation in Uzbekistan, supporting call for sanctions on Uzbek cotton on September 1st but only if 20 other people will too."

[snip]

The idea behind this campaign is to use September Ist, Uzbekistan's independence day, to promote awareness of the situation there and of the call for sanctions.

If 20 or more bloggers were to do this, we could begin to make a difference. I hope you'll feel able to do this small thing...

Find out more here and express your support here.

vertical nightmares

2005-07-18T19:31:00.000+01:00

just been reading an article that will be of interest to those who attended the esf in london last year. written by emma dowling who was (reluctantly) part of the organising process it details some of the shameful tactics indulged in by the 'vertical' camp (swp, gla, unions) in order to control the organisation of the event, and ignore the demands of the 'horizontals'.

this is the kind of thing that makes me question whether any broad left coalition will ever be able to work, given the huge divides between the authoritarian and libertarian camps. it had been suggested at meetings of the lenton anarchist forum that we attempt to engage in dialogue with socialists, and hold some kind of conference where we could organise around issues that we held mutual positions on. however, i've always been suspicious of the tactics and party-sheep arrangement of hierarchical socialist groups, and this article reinforced these suspicions. of course, it could work out very differently on a local level, but it's certainly something to be cautious about.

a nottingham social forum has previously been attempted, without much success. its demise came about, in my opinion, due to the lack of clarity about the purpose of the forum. this was partly due to a divergence of approaches (wannabe maoist guerillas sitting down with trade justice campaigners and academic liberational pedagogists was never going to be conducive to agreement) and partly due to the fact that we were stuck with two different (and irreconcilable) structures: world social forum ("big bang" type event) and sheffield social forum (ongoing community talking space).

another world is possible, but perhaps ultimately we all want one that's slightly different...

Making the G8 History

2005-07-18T11:09:00.000+01:00

Various NSPMniks made their way up to Scotland to express their opposition to the G8 summit being held there. Unfortunately none of them have the time or inclination to write any of it up here, but should you be interested me and Dan have both written stuff on our respective blogs:

Dan:
love and rage i
love and rage ii - a tale of 2 shutdowns
love and rage iii - just below the horizon(e)
love and rage iv - winding down?
Photos
Disillusioned kid:
Make the G8 History, Part 1
Make the G8 History, Part Deux
Make the G8 History, Part Third
Make the G8 History, Part IV
Make Bad Stuff History
Make Photography History
Also worth checking out:
G8 Legal Support Statement
Indymedia UK Coverage
Red pepper Blog
SchNEWS Rundown

vote for peace, not just anti-war

2005-04-18T16:25:00.000+01:00

with the media whirling into a pre-election frenzy, and the rest of the populace stolidly resisting as far as i can tell, various anti-war peeps have been compiling lists and strategies about how best to punish MPs and parties for the iraq atrocity. perhaps most intelligent of the articles i've seen is milan rai's extensive piece for uk watch. rai's conclusion, it seems, is to strategically vote in line with the media perception of an anti-war vote. that is to vote lib-dem if you have to, even tho rai admits their anti-war credentials are not very real. rai is in favour of supporting anti-war labour mps on the basis that if labour do get back in, it's best that this small element remains in parliament. not voting is a mistake, rai argues, because the specifically anti-war message will be indistinguishable from a whole host of other complaints and protests against the government, electoral system, and ruling party.

whilst i do have reservations about playing the corporate media's game, i think mil is right to treat voting as a strategy and not getting on the "if you don't vote labour the tories will get in" bandwagon, favoured by such radicals ;) as robin cook and perennial blair-apologist polly toynbee. to make a specifically anti-war message this seems to be the best way to do it. however, along with most of the population, the iraq war is not the only issue of pertinence during the election campaign. whilst those of us who feel very strongly about the destruction that has been wreaked by the blair government we also feel very strongly about other social and envirnomental issues. i think it would be wrong to vote for, for example, a politician who voted against the war but has a very poor record in defending asylum seekers, demanding environmental sustainability, protesting draconian anti-terror laws, etc. voting to punish the government for iraq is tempting, but it must not obscure all the other objectives we have for building a peaceful society.

ultimately, electoral politics is a red herring in the business of getting peace on the agenda, as rai demonstrates through his admirable actions and campaigning with justice not vengeance. the political system is a corrupting force and although we can hope to curb its worst excesses the future will be shaped from outside rather than inside the walls of parliament. let's vote tactically on the broad issue of peace, in all spheres of international, domestic, and local politics, get it out of our systems, then get back to the work that really matters: making peace a reality without the middle men.

update (19/04/05)
george monbiot has written a similar piece in today's guardian, urging the electorate (or the very small minority of it that reads the guardian) to protest vote. monbiot comes to similar conclusions as rai about ignoring scaremongering about "letting the tories in" etc, but suggests voting lib dem only as a very last resort, for some of the same reasons i would discourage it, i.e. the lib dems' decidedly dodgy stance on the war, their support for pfi, their distinctly capitalist policies. like rai i'm sure that monbiot would agree that real politics in this country will have to be determined away from the ballot box through the work of activists and campaigners. just one catty note though: i saw monbiot speak at the esf in london at the end of last year, and in a surprising take for someone so apparently 'bookish', he urged campaigners for world development to take direct action to acheive their aims. whilst mil rai is frequently to be found spending time at her majesty's pleasure for his repeated anti-military activity, we're yet to see monbiot locked on to the entrance of the department for international development... ;)

On The Poverty of Student Life

2005-04-01T17:16:00.000+01:00

And I thought student politics in this country was complicated...

Lazy Blogging

2005-03-31T12:28:00.000+01:00

From the excellent Informed Comment by Juan Cole, Professor of History at the University of Michigan:

Malnutrition amongst children has soared in Iraq under the Americans.

The number of Iraqis detained by the Americans has doubled since October.

Isn't "democracy" wonderful?

where are we going?

2005-03-21T15:24:00.000Z

it has been a criminally long time since i bothered to post anything on these pages, but saturday's march (19th march international day of action against the occupation of iraq) has given me cause for reflection on the anti-war movement.

initially, i'll admit, i wasn't going to go. having generally very low enthusiasm for yet another demonstration called by the stop the war coalition, yet wanting to contribute in some way to an international protest against the occupation of iraq, i decided to try to work up some enthusiasm for something different, something we could do here in nottingham. the traditional leftists were all already booked on the stop the war coaches, the students were generally apathetic, and the anarchists were too busy having their bikes impounded by the pigs. it didn't look like it was going to happen this time, but i think it's something worth considering as an alternative next time there's an occasion of similar merit. this fact, combined with the simple but empassioned message given by haifa zangana at the iraq occupation focus meeting at the university on monday, compelled me to do something, anything. i dutifully bought my ticket.

the demo, was of course, the usual affair, with better weather than usual which made it more bearable. the only point of deviation from tradition was the loop around the front of the us embassy, the barriers of which were covered with daffodils - a poignant symbol of lives lost. the faces were familiar, the slogans were familiar, i didn't even bother listening to check whether the speeches were familiar. it was great to be able to think about the international solidarity going on, but i couldn't help but think that i could be showing mine in a slightly more meaningful way.

my major problem with this form of protest is that, like global capitalism itself, it alienates and makes meaningless the act of resistance. by packaging the protest into mass-produced slogans, within a tidy time frame, mass marketed by paper sellers, the act of resistance becomes someone elses. this is certainly the feeling i get from many who have become disenchanted by stop the war's demonstrations - they don't feel a part of it enough to want to do it. people would rather do something they can organise themselves and that they really feel. the hierarchy of speaker and audience that seems to be an integral part to every stop the war event just doesn't appeal to us all. we want to be able to find our own voices, amongst our peers.

what's the way forward? i would suggest trying to build smaller, local events to involve more people from within our communities. i would take demo as a positive example of a regular, local event that, despite initial misgivings amongst many of us for its rather apolitical stance, has matured into an organic space for the introduction of students to political ideas. i just hope it doesn't submit to pressures to commercialise, and pressure is maintained for a radical political approach. within nspm i would suggest that we need to reach out to more of our members for input, and make more of an effort to attract them into the fold. next year we'll be left with very few of our existing planning group, and we'll need enthusiastic, creative people to get involved. i doubt they'll be persuaded by the prospect of large impersonal demos in london. it will be the actions that we take here in nottingham that will affect whether people get involved or not.

i think the most important thing to remember is that peace is a positive and, dare i say it, a fun thing. as long as the inspiring and creative aspects are present, alongside the serious political critique, large numbers of people will participate in our quest for a world free from the scourge of war.

Where Next?

2005-02-25T20:12:00.000Z

Juan Cole is a professor of history at the University of Michigan, specialising in the Middle East. He also maintains a blog, which is a must read for anybody wanting to understand what's going on in Iraq. Today he has an ominous post, which does not bode well for the people of Iraq:

Well, now that Fallujah is liberated (i.e. wrecked and empty), residents of Ramadi are now beginning to flee in fear that they might get equally liberated. It is not clear how much liberation Iraqi cities (or ex-cities) can stand.

We still don't know how many people were killed during the assault on Fallujah, but reports for the Guardian, Channel 4 News and Socialist Worker suggest that it is likely to be high. Whatever the truth, I wouldn't want to be living in Ramadi right now.

Good News and Other Stuff

2005-02-09T13:44:00.000Z

Yesterday's Grauniad reported:

Young people are regaining an interest in politics, because of the controversy aroused by Iraq, global terrorism, crime and natural disasters which hurt the developing world, a survey by the Electoral Commission, published today, says.

The commission found that today's 16-to 20-year-olds appeared to be much more interested in politics that their recent predecessors. Eighty per cent said they felt strongly about political controversies that affected their daily lives and 73% discussed such matters with their friends and family.

Presumably then Nottingham Student Peace Movement and our comrades at other institutions can expect a succesful period of recruitment over the coming years. Which'll be nice.

It's not all good news though. While "ten per cent was actively engaged in political activity, 5% had joined a political party in their teens: twice the rate of the age group immediately above them." Because that's what we need. More party hacks!

The report notes that the survey "does not provide an explanation, only clues to why political interest may have grown." This allows the Michael White to speculate that the Indian Ocean Tsunami was a factor. This seems strange. Recall that the tsunami was barely six weeks ago, is it really plausible then that it was a major cause? I think not, leading me to conclude that the Iraq War is the decisive factor. This should hardly be a surprise to anyone who remembers the amazing protests against the war in schools up and down the country.

It's coming to something though when school kids are more radical than students...

Buff Hoon

2005-02-08T13:18:00.000Z

Friend and fellow Nottingham Uni based activist-type Dave Wills has a funky photo blog which I've just stumbled across. I draw your attention in particular to this gem from last November:

More on the Minister for War's visit to the uni here.