SQUATTERS FOR HIRE – NO CHARGE!

In the week that the press decided Gordon Brown was effectively squatting in Number 10 Downing Street because no-one could decide who was the legal tenant, residents of Mayall Road, Brixton have voted overwhelmingly against the local council and in favour of their friendly neighbourhood squatters. Full story here http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23831441-meet-the-squatters-who-are-popular-with-the-neighbours.do. We have teams of experienced squatters ready to occupy a building in your area. Make your neighbourhood a better place. Email details of empty houses and flats to rampart@mutualaid.org. Meanwhile, back at the planning department…

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<* EVENTS IN OTHER SOCIAL CENTRES *>

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~~ 56a InfoShop ~~

56a Infoshop, 56 Crampton Street, London, SE17 3AE

*Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays 3-7pm (Saturdays, 2-6pm)*

Food Coop and Bike Workshop

////////////////////////////////////////////

** Kew Bridge Eco Village **

24 Kew Bridge Rd, Brentford.  Nearest train: Kew Bridge, nearest tube: Gunnersbury. Tel: 07967864370

Spring is coming and at Kew Bridge Eco Village, we are busy planting the seeds for more villages to grow and flourish in London.

We would love you to come and help us create a vision for another low impact, perma culture community to spring up in the urban jungle.

If you are interested in living within a sustainable urban eco-village, come to Kew Bridge on Tuesdays at 7PM to eat some food and share some ideas.

Also…

Every Sunday at 12 noon

GROW YOUR OWN VILLAGE

Learn the necessary skills to set up an eco village, eg how to spot good sites using the internet and going out walking in groups to find them, building compost toilets, rocket stoves etc. We’ll be posting the info about whats happening each week with updates on each site we find at http://www.growyourownvillage.blogspot.com

The meetings on tuesday are there to follow up these practical workshops.

/////////////////////////////////////////

++ 195 Mare Street ++

195 Mare Street, Hackney, E8 3QE

boardsofhackney@safe-mail.net

MONDAYS, 3pm

DIY welding workshop.

The idea of this workshop will be to give everyone who comes the skills and knowledge necessary to use a spot welder and angle grinder safely. after a few introductory sessions we thought it would be good to start a couple of projects that we can all work on together, and don’t worry if you come after the first few intro sessions; there’ll be time to introduce people to the basics of welding whilst the projects are under way and you can still get in on the fun!

Some ideas so far have been to make furniture, bike trailers and a bike tuning stand. As well as this there is already a wood burning stove under construction. So, if any body has any other ideas, any extra skills or tools that could help out in these projects, or just wants to come to learn and get involved.

TUESDAYS, 2 – 8pm

Do It Yourself Bike Workshop, Bike Repair, Meeting and Cooking Session

WEDNESDAYS, 2 – 8pm

Hacklab – a space for learning about Linux

SATURDAYS and WEDNESDAYS at 1pm. Gardening. Come and help us make our garden grow with all sorts of yummy things.

Plus…

++ THURSDAY, 27th MAY, 7pm ++

Call Out for a Queer Invisible Academy

We invite the queers of all genders and beyond, the dissidents of all sexualities and beyond to start a new project.

Our goal is to understand and share our experiences, to think about and change our everyday relationships and social dynamics, to discuss and learn about queer theory, and past and present forms of queer activism.

Are you tired of the roles which are imposed on you in a heterosexual matrix? Are you sick of the ongoing production of docile bodies by countless institutions? Then get involved in a series of meetings, film screenings, discussions and workshops on varied topics such as male and female homosociality, cross-dressing, and heteronormativity.

Let’s meet to organise this, to challenge hierarchy and normativity in a non-commercial empowering and safe space.

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^^^ Pogo Cafe ^^^

76 Clarence Rd E5 8HB – 020 8533 1214,

http://pogocafe.wordpress.com/

Cafe open Weds – Sunday, 12.30 – 9pm.

Plus…

^^^ Every second Tuesday ^^^

Practical Squatting Night, 7-8pm

Plus…

^^^Monday, 17th May, 7pm^^^

Stop Deportation Night

Films, food and discussion.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

||| System Xchange Social Centre |||

An old courthouse on Sheen Lane in Richmond has been squatted for use as a Social Centre! The centre is there to promote support in the community. They will be running workshops and

food etc. All they need is your input to create this wonderful space… so come down and give a hand and a boost to this much needed project space.

Address: The Old Court House, 27 Sheen Lane, Mortlake, SW14 8HY

Nearest Public Transport: Mortlake (overground), Richmond (underground)

Postcode: SW14 8HY

Time: All Day Every Day

Price: Donations always Welcome

Phone: 07776356252

Email: systemxchange@gmail.com

Web: http://systemxchange.webs.com

||| Tuesday & Thursday, 7-11pm |||

Cinema / food night

=====================

<* EVENTS ELSEWHERE *>

=====================

/// BILLY BRAGG AND MICK GORDON ///

Wednesday, 12th May, 1pm

Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, King’s Cross, London N1 9DX, Tel: 020 7837 4473

Billy Bragg reflects on English identity, a subject explored in Mick Gordon’s new play ‘Pressure Drop’, in which Billy stars. Followed by questions book signing. Limited seating.

=================================================

/// ‘OFFSIDE’, WITH COMEDY FROM SHAPPI KHORSANDI ///

Wednesday, 12th May, 6pm

Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London W1D 3NE

Jafar Panahi – the well known Iranian film maker – was arrested on March 1 and is still being held without any charges. He has twice been offered bail, but has refused in solidarity with all those incarcerated for their participation in the mass demonstrations against the regime that have shaken Iran since June 2009.

The Hands off the People of Iran showing of the director’s most popular film in the West – ‘Offside’ – is an important opportunity to raise the profile of Panahi and step up the pressure on the regime in Tehran. We believe that international solidarity of this sort – not the threat of military strikes or sanctions – is the way to deliver effective aid to the struggle of ordinary people in Iran for freedom and social change.

This event is co-sponsored by the Labour Representation Committee.

Click here http://hopoi.org/?p=1195 for more information on the campaign and to buy your tickets.

All profits will be donated to the charity Workers Fund Iran, which works to “reduce and relieve poverty amongst Iranian workers (both employed and unemployed) who are victims both of the economic policies of the Iranian regime and sanctions” (www.workersfund.org).

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/// IS THE INTERNET SAFE FOR FREE SPEECH? ///

Wednesday, 12th May, 6.30pm

Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA

Please join Index on Censorship, Google, Facebook and Privacy International for a debate on the internet and free speech at the Free Word Centre on 12 May at 6:30pm. With …

Richard Allan, Director of Policy EU, Facebook

Anthony House, European Policy and Communications Manager, Google

Gus Hosein, Policy Director, Privacy International

Chaired by Jo Glanville, Editor, Index on Censorship

New technology has revolutionised freedom of expression, but it’s also transformed the business of censorship. Governments can monitor and control information as never before, while filtering and punitive action is becoming the norm – whether in the name of child protection or intellectual property. So what will it take to make the internet safe for free speech?

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/// TATTOO CIRCUS – DIY PRISONER BENEFIT ///

Friday, 14th May – Sunday 16th May. 12noon – 9pm: performances, 9-12pm

Venue TBA. Phone 07404-981-936 from 13th May

Tattoo Circus is a creative DIY prisoner support benefit, where ALL proceeds go to people incarcerated in the prison industry and/or in need of financial support with legal cases. The first Tattoo Circus manifested in Rome in 2007 and since then has rocked Barcelona, Torino, CadizZurich and Thessalonica. With more to come this spring/summer. A fun safe/clean body modification event where NOBODY makes money and there is no competitive, commercial elitism. Plus amazing, dark, dazzling cabaret and suspension piercing performances, art gallery, mini cinema, vegan cafe and more! FULL LINE UP CAN BE FOUND AT http://www.tattoocircuslondon.com.

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/// EPIC SHORT FILMS: GEORGIAN FILM NIGHT ///

Friday, 14th May, 6.30pm

Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3GA

Five short films, made by professional and citizen journalists, tell intimate and personal stories about daily life, dreams and conflict in Georgia.  The films are produced by Eyewitness Studios, part of a new media initiative Go Group Media, set up by Margharita Akhvlediani who aims to get real life stories into Georgian TV programming that is otherwise unrepresentative, swamped by propaganda and imported viewing.

Margharita Akhvlediani will lead a Q & A session after the films.

For the second part of the evening Tabuni, a London based ensemble singing Georgian folk songs and chants, lead by Tamta Turmanidze, will perform a short programme of songs, accompanied by wine and kachapuri (traditional Georgian cheese bread).

Entrance is FREE though there will be a charge for wine and kachapuri.

Please visit http://epicshortfilms.wordpress.com/ for more information and bookings!

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/// PARLIAMENT SQUARE GUERILLA GARDENING ///

Saturday, 15th May, 12 noon

Democracy Village, Parliament Square, Westminster

If you were not already aware, the Democracy Village was established on May 1st demanding on behalf of the majority of people that the war in Afghanistan is ended and the troops are brought home with immediate effect. The Democracy Village calls all like-minded concerned citizens to come and join us. (see http://democracyvillage.blogspot.com for more details)

This coming saturday we are very happy to invite you to a Guerilla Gardening event to brighten up Parliament Square – which is in desperate need of colourful flora.

Starting at 12pm try and make sure you bring plants, flowers and picnic food. From 4pm there will be live music, an open mic, and a discussion forum.

We welcome you to join us at the village and campaign on any issue you care about.

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/// PARTY AT THE PUMPS 2 … THIS TIME IT’S SHELL! ///

Saturday, 15th May, 1pm

Meet at Oxford Circus

Bring: a zone 1-2 tube pass, noisemakers, your friends & family and your dancing shoes

» Oxford Circus meeting point map – http://tinyurl.com/OCnw-SVmap

» Facebook event – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112331352138187

Shutting down a petrol station for 5 hours on a sunny Saturday afternoon was so much fun we’re going to do it again. Shell’s Hell – in the tar sands and beyond – is next in the firing line.

Party 1 had Samba, twin sound systems, a live Ceilidh band, face-painting, free cakes and 200 people. Party 2 will be bigger and better, with activists joining us from Brighton, Oxford and beyond. See here for a movie of Party at the Pumps Part 1:

» video, 5:14 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An6-tdxd12M

And for all you cyclists out there, there will be a special Critical Mass ride making its way to the party.

• What: Party at the Pumps Critical Mass

• When: Saturday, 15th May

• Meet: 1PM at Marble Arch (under the arch)

» Marble Arch meeting point map – http://tinyurl.com/MA-SVmap

Get ready for sunshine, music, and dancing on the forecourt!

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/// CLIMATE EMERGENCY OVERNIGHT VIGIL ///

Saturday, 15th May, 11pm

Old Palace Yard, Westminster, London

Candlelit Procession down Whitehall – assemble 11.00 pm outside St Martin’s in the Fields, Trafalgar Square.

Post election event to remind the new government that dealing with the climate crisis needs to be their top priority.

Light a candle for scientific realism and rationality against the dark, populist, tide of sceptic lies and ignorance.

Join others in a visible demonstration of conviction that we face a climate emergency, and determination to challenge the government in the future if it does not respond appropriately.

11.00 pm Assemble outside St Martin’s in the Fields, Trafalgar Square. Service inside the church from 11.00 pm organised by Christian Ecology Link. Contact ruthj[at]phonecoop.coop, 07970 907784,

12.00 midnight  Candlelit Procession for the Climate down Whitehall.

12.30 – 5.00 am Overnight Vigil at Old Palace Yard, outside Parliament. ‘Art and Empowerment’ events through the night – bring lanterns, your music, your art. Artists, workshop leaders and others wishing to contribute to this event contact hoggett1[at]hotmail.com.

5.00 am ‘Zero Carbon’ Dawn

6.00 am Climate ‘Vigil-istas’ communal Breakfast.

Events through the night every hour on the hour.

Bring candles, lanterns, artistic creations, music, peformances etc… To book a space in the schedule contact info@campaigncc.org

Join us right outside the home of government if you can… if not, can you organise an overnight vigil in your locality, say outside the surgery of the newly elected MP, or wherever you feel most appropriate?

Put this date in your diary – updates and more details to come – check back here or at http://www.campaigncc.org/overnightvigil for more information

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/// MUMIA ABU-JAMAL DEMONSTRATION ///

Wednesday, 18th May, 3-7pm

American Embassy, Grosvenor Square

Mumia Abu-Jamal is still  on Death Row (after nearly 30 years)and is in danger of execution. His death sentence was reinstated on January 18th 2010 and he is in imminent danger of execution.

There is a demonstration outside the American Embassy, Grosvenor Square on Wednesday 18th May  from 3-7pm calling for the  immediate release of this innocent, courageous African- American journalist and activist. Please forward to others and let’s make this campaign big and important enough so  that  it can’t be ignored. Mumia Abu-Jamal is innocent! Free him now!

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/// SHUT DOWN THE G4S CHAMBERS ///

Friday, 21st May, midnight

Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London

The integrated spectacle which incorporates the concentrated spectacle of fascism and the diffuse spectacle of liberalism is well exemplified by Group 4 Securicor. G4S, one of the biggest multinationals play a major part in the integrated spectacle – securing focal points of the Capitalist machine across the planet – from diamond mines in Africa to airports in Iraq and Afghanistan and Detention Centres (Concentration Camps) in England. The death of Eliud Nguli Nyenze on 15th April 2010 at G4SA run Oakington Concentration Camp shows that the genocide that the British government presides over does not guarantee that the gas chambers of liberal capitalism are permanently off-shore – we already live in a state without borders because as human beings we are all and already capital.

And so we must manifest our humanity in opposition to capital as labour in opposition to reactionary forms of organisation such as nation and ethnicity (from so-called Communists taking part in national and regional bourgeois elections in England and across Britain to those Communists who advocate Pakhtunva in the NWFP of Pakistan or those that posit Huzarava in response to the ethnic cleansing of the Taliban of Hazara people in Afghanistan) which slip back to bygone ages of the Prophets or of Divinity. The Age of the Proletariat is ushered in by those Workers on hunger strike over the world who are not calling on any other power but that of their own humanity – from Maryam Mehdi in Algeria on hunger strike against dismissal from Britsh Gas, Tekel workers in Turkey, Jim Wyse against Green Isle in Ireland – whose co-worker John Retco also on hunger strike threatened with deportation to Phillipines – refugees at Yarls Wood and Heathrow concentration camps – and now refugees at Oakington.

Politics is a part of psychic war as it manifests in the dimensions of thought, sight and sound – as opposed to taste, smell and touch of physical war. G4S straddle this divide and show us that it is not nation states but Capitalist multinational corporations that run the spectacle. G4S have recently won a “British Safety Council International Award” in relation to Oakington Immigration centre. The company will be presented with the award on Friday 21 May during a black tie banquet at the Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London.

We urge workers to disrupt this spectacle.

We will be there to help destroy it.

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/// LONDON PROFEMINIST MENS’ GROUP MEETING ///

Friday, 21st May, 2pm

Contact us for location details londonprofeministmensgroup at gmail.com

We’re a group of men meeting in London every 2 weeks. The aims of our meetings are:

* – to support each other in our personal struggles as men, including our efforts to rid ourselves of sexist behaviour

* – to discuss issues around gender politics generally

* – to plan what kind of action we can take as pro-feminists

If you have any comments or questions or if you are interested in attending one of our fortnightly meetings, please send us an email: londonprofeministmensgroup at gmail dot com.

==========================

/// DISSIDENT ISLAND RADIO ///

Friday, 21st May, 9pm

Whitechapel & pumpin’ out of your stereo!

Let’s be honest here. We islanders rarely know what the heck is gonna be on the show until it actually airs. This is because we are committed to getting the absolute latest word on the street. (That and because we are a little bit disorganised sometimes.) But we can guarantee the show is gonna kick ass. Cos it always does. So check back here at IMC London for more on what will feature, or go to http://www.dissidentisland.org to find out what’s happening on the show…or you can forget all that jazz and just tune in at 9pm, every first and third Friday, by clicking the player on the front page of IMC London (top right corner) or the player on the dissident island homepage…or just click here for a direct link to the stream (remember it starts after 9).

===========================

/// THE RED AND BLACK CLUB ///

Friday, 21st May, 9pm

London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate Street, E1 1ES

Every third Friday of the month Dissident Island Radio will be broadcasting live as

the Whitechapel Anarchist Group host a traditional east end knees up in the London

Action Resource Centre (formerly an anarchist school) to bring together the many

strands of our hydra headed movement in the spirit of the old Jubilee Club.

THIS IS NOT A MEETING! This is a social event, once a month, for anarchists,

libertarians and radicals to socialise, meet, drink, plot and conspire in a relaxed

atmosphere and good humour. All money raised will go into the upkeep of Larc – a

permanent resource for our movement.

Although this event is called by two groups we do so in the manner that this monthly

event becomes a platform for us all, leaving all the sectarian bullshit at the door

and coming together from across the big smoke on a regular basis in a social

environment. We encourage you to spread these details around all your networks, make

a special space in your diary and hopefully this can become “our” night.

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/// D*I :: HAPPY B-DAY IMC :: INDYMEDIA TURNS 10! ///

Saturday, 22nd May, 4pm

call 07929 469 640 or 07771 895 427 on the day

Much has happened since the gas clouds in Seattle cleared, but we’re still up and running. Our mission brief is clear as ever, and it includes having a grand party to celebrate 10 years of reporting resistance!

Workshops, films and other social pleasantries will be starting at 4pm. There may be food, but we count on you to bring lots of birthday cakes for us!

Celebrating with us we have an amazing line-up from 8pm:

Headjam

Anarchistwood

Beast of No Nation

Radio Revolucion

and more…

From 11pm assorted DJ’s will keep the party going until you get tired and limp home on aching feet.

You better have a good excuse if you don’t show up!

==============================

/// SURVEILLANCE AND THE CITY ///

Film screenings and roundtable discussion.

May/June 2010

Presented by: The Raphael Samuel History Centre Urban Studies group

Venue for the film screenings: Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square, Birkbeck, University of London, London WC1H 0PD

Venue for the roundtable discussion on 7th June: Room B03, 43 Gordon Square, Birkbeck, University of London, London WC1H 0PD

Since Foucault’s notion of the panopticon as a machine of power there has been a metastasising of the technologies of surveillance throughout the fabric of post-industrial urban society. Cinema is the ideal art form through which to explore the ideas of surveillance and the city. The three films in this season, The Conversation (Coppola 1974), Red Road (Arnold 2006) and Cache (Hidden) (Haneke 2005) develop complex visual and narrative engagements with the interactions between the city and surveillance and cinemas implicit and explicit collusion with the machinery of power.

All welcome to join us for screenings and discussions chaired by Dr Amber Jacobs (Department of Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck, University of London)

Monday 10th May: Screening 1: The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola 1974)

Monday 17th May: Screening 2: Red Road (Andrea Arnold 2006)

Monday 24th May: Screening 3: Hidden (Cache) (Michael Haneke 2005)

Monday 7th June: Roundtable discussion on the 3 screenings.

The screenings and the discussion will begin at 6.00pm. The events are free – all welcome.  First come, first admitted.

–