Social Centre News / The Rampart & Bowl Court newsletter - 25th June 2008

Bowl Court is still up and running and no news has been received as of yet with regards to bailiffs so come take advantage and get involved while you still can.

=//= Events at Bowl Court and Rampart =//=

## THURSDAY 26TH JUNE

8PM @ Bowl Court
[[ 'the battle of tolmers square' and discussion ]]

We will be screening the 30 minute documentary ‘the battle of tolmers square’ (see below for details) from 8pm onwards and then discussing how to defend spaces in light of the current situation at Bowl Court. How should the media be used within such situations and what is the best way to gain local support? If you would like to come and get involved in the space then this is the prime opportunity. We have already begun a media campaign, with the Victorian Society issuing a press release last week (http://www.victorian-society.org.uk/) and the Hackney Gazette visiting the space for an article in this weeks paper. However, the aim of this meeting is to form a plan of action for what to do next.

“For seventeen years, Tolmers Square in north London was the focus of a conflict involving tenant’s groups, community associations, students, squatters, intellectuals, political parties at both national and local level, and property developers. The dramatic story of that conflict is told by Nick Wates, who describes how Tolmers Square became a national symbol of the fight against property speculation and the need for community involvement in planning.” (taken from http://www.nickwates.co.uk/tolmers.htm)

## FRIDAY 27TH JUNE

6PM @ Bowl Court
[[ radical theory reading group ]]

The reading for the next meeting is Chapter 9 ‘The Masses and the State’ from Wilhelm Reich’s The Mass Psychology of Fascism.

Download here
www.geocities.com/danknowsall78/Reich_-_The_Mass_Psychology_Of_Fascism.pdf

or as an e-book from here
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3524967/Reich_-_Mass_Psychology_of_Fascism_(1946)
_(PDF_ebook) (you will need to first download MS E-Reader if you don’t already have it as well as BitTorrent from the Pirate Bay website).

## SATURDAY 28TH JUNE & 5TH JULY

2PM - 5PM @ rampART
[[ music workshop pilot sessions ]]

This workshop is designed for guitarists in particular, but possibly other instrumentalists also, who already have some working proficiency on their instrument, be they professional, semi-professional or amateur and who feel the need to expand their knowledge of music theory and harmony. We will look at music structures with reference to jazz harmony, which can provide insight into all forms of popular music, visiting the harmonised major scale, chords, ii-iv-i’s, some jazz standards, modes and scales.
Contact: Patmo
email: patmosheeran@hotmail.co.uk
Tel: 02077334121
mob: 07908435684

== And events you might be interested in elsewhere ==

## THURSDAY 26TH JUNE

9am - 7pm @ Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, SW1H 9NH
[[ GIVING VOICE TO THE EARTH Conference ]]

Peace Brigades International invites you to Giving Voice to the Earth The Environment and its Defenders under Threat: deforestation, megaprojects and human rights in Latin America, Africa and Asia

Environmental destruction and human rights abuse are inextricably linked. As we face unprecedented global challenges from climate change and loss of biodiversity, the work of environmental human rights defenders is assuming ever greater importance and urgency.

This conference, organised by Peace Brigades International UK, will explore threats to biodiversity presented by deforestation, pollution and mono-crop cultivation and the risks that environmental human rights
defenders face. We will identify the links between these threats and the violation of human rights, as well as the role played by European and other international economic interests.

Local environmental human rights defenders will present specific cases of environmental destruction and human rights violations, and their impact on indigenous groups. The cases will include:

• Palm oil and logging in Colombia
• Mining in Guatemala
• Transnational extractive industries in Papua.

Members of parliament, Academics and International NGOs working in the fields of human rights and the environment will also contribute to the debate.

Programme, further information and registration forms can be obtained by email from: coordinator(at)peacebrigades.org.uk
or available at
http://www.peacebrigades.org.uk/263.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=743

Environmental Human rights conference will explore threats to biodiversity and climate change presented by deforestation, pollution and mono-crop cultivation and the risks that environmental human rights
defenders face. We will identify the links between these threats and the violation of human rights, as well as the role played by European and other international economic interests. Places are very limited so
registration is essential and will be done on a first come basis. Email:
coordinator@peacebrigades.org.uk

NB Guatemalan activist Eloyda Mejia, speaking at the conference, is in Britain until 2 July. Eloyda is the legal representative of the Friends of Lake Izabal, an indigenous organisation fighting a Canadian Nickel
mining company (London-listed BHP Billiton also have shares in the mine). If you would like to meet with her at any other time, please contact Louise Winstanley of PBI on 07920 886874.
________________________________________________

## SATURDAY 28TH JUNE

8PM @ Pullens Centre, 184 Crampton St, SE17

Free Film show: FINALLY GOT THE NEWS- Revolutionary black unions in Detroit, 1970s. Followed by discussion and chat. With speaker Brian Ashton, an ex-car industry shop steward.

FINALLY GOT THE NEWS is a ‘forceful, unique documentary that reveals the activities of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers inside and outside theauto factories of Detroit. Through interviews with the
members of the movement, footage shot in the auto plants, and footage of leafleting and picketing actions, the film documents their efforts to build an independent black labor organization that, unlike the UAW, will
respond to worker’s problems, such as the assembly line speed-up and inadequate wages faced by both black and white workers in the industry.

Beginning with a historical montage, from the early days of slavery through the subsequent growth and organization of the working class, FINALLY GOT THE NEWS focuses on the crucial role played by the black
worker in the American economy.
Also explored is the educational ‘tracking’ system for both white and black youth, the role of African American women in the labor force, and relations between white and black workers’.

“A classic! Rather than the lock-stepped, black-bereted, leather-jacketed Panther units of other films, FINALLY shows rather ordinary people becoming very angry with the system. Ideological in the best sense: it is a film about ideas [and] presents a serious strategy for mass working class action… It speaks of a specific time and specific experiences in terms that will remain relevant as long as working people are not able to control their own lives.”—Dan Georgakas, for Cineaste

http://www.frif.com/new2003/fin.html
________________________________________________

## TUESDAY 1ST JULY

7PM @ The Church House, Fletcher St (off Cable St) E1
[[ Feeding Frenzy – a Discussion on Food, Fuel and Finance ]]

Mute Magazine invites you to a discussion

If the government is to be believed, we are undergoing a streak of freakily bad luck. First the credit crunch, then astronomical fuel price hikes and now a global food crisis. Could all these by any chance be connected?

Neoliberal policy makers and money-men clearly don’t think so, since they are advocating more of the same medicine as a cure - further deregulation of food markets, more restructuring of developing countries
sweetened by aid packages, more biotech and, of course, bank bail-outs to sustain the whole debt-addicted economy. In other words, propping up a system that will continue to force famished populations to grow
export-only crops, to be fuel-intensively shipped to the developed world, to stock supermarket shelves at inflated prices for debt-encumbered consumers, while the famished producers pay through the nose for imported food at prices inflated by the flight of investment from mortgages into basic commodities. A vicious circle indeed.

But how can we best feed the world’s swelling population? Is ‘food sovereignty’ a progressive or reactionary demand? Should biotech and industrial farming methods be embraced as a way of feeding a warming
planet? Have we reached ‘Peak Food’? Are biofuels, on balance, helpful or harmful? As food riots break out in Haiti, Cameroon and Bangladesh, and fuel protests by truckers threaten Europe’s supply lines, what are
the political possibilities of this conjunction of crises?

Mute magazine will be hosting an open discussion with contributions from: Gareth Dale (author of recent critiques of ‘green capitalism’ including ‘On the Menu or At the Table: Corporations and Climate Change’), James Heartfield (author of Green Capitalism: Manufacturing Scarcity in the Age of Abundance), Helena Paul (co-director of Econexus, http://www.econexus.info/ and long term campaigner against GM and Agrofuels), Graham Burnett (vegan-punk permaculturist and founder of http://spiralseed.org.uk )

Contact:
josie AT metamute.org

Links:
URL
http://www.metamute.org/en/feeding_frenzy_a_discussion_on_food_fuel_and_finance

Flyer:
PDF
http://www.metamute.org/sites/www.metamute.org/files/mute_food_flyer_02cropweb2.pdf
JPG
http://www.metamute.org/sites/www.metamute.org/files/mute_food_flyer_02cropweba_Page_1.jpg
________________________________________________

## THURSDAY 3RD JULY

11AM @ Department for Transport (DfT) 76 Marsham Street, SW1P 4DR
[[ Paper Plane Flash Mob ]]

Tell Ruth Kelly to Stop Airport Expansion:

- Meet 11am, Thursday 3 July, Department for Transport (DfT), 76 Marsham
Street, SW1P 4DR (tube: St James’s Park or Westminster)
- 11.03am: Reveal your ‘Stop Airport Expansion’ t-shirt, if you have one
- 11.05am: launch your ‘Stop Airport Expansion’ paper planes at the DfT

A third runway and increased flights at Heathrow would destroy local communities, cause misery for tens of thousands of local residents, and help make devastating climate change inevitable. Yet Transport Secretary
Ruth Kelly has refused to visit local authorities or meet with local people who will be affected.

Join us on 3 July to find Ruth Kelly and tell her to Stop Airport Expansion!

We’ll be taking the message direct to her doorstep at the Department for Transport. After the mass launch at 11.05am you may also want to take paper planes to Downing Street or Parliament, or anywhere else she may be hiding’!

An A4 paper aeroplane template is available for download at
www.stopairportexpansion.org

Called by the people who brought you the Terminal 5 Flash Mob …

Ruth Kelly
- e-mail: stopairportexpansion[at]gmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.stopairportexpansion.org
________________________________________________

## FRIDAY 4TH JULY

Subsidiarity & The Other Campaign

There is talk in some circles of calling for an Independence mobilisation, starting on 4th July 2008 with a call for as many regular, decentralised food sharing/ independent local governance meetings as possible, political picnics converging outside eg American embassy, local town halls, ASDA, Tescos, BBC and/or other prominent, politically relevant places, basically wherever people and groups think most appropriate. Ideally throughout the country and even spreading the word overseas, inspiring others to do the same : as a means of building a decentralised coalition in context of Civil Liberties election (here in the UK, in Yorkshire) on 10th July, but also because of the urgent need for a joined up, grassroots democratic movement (hence,
Zapatista-inspired ‘Other Campaign’) in response to the US inspired neo-liberal superstate that is the EU.

We are thinking to call this, ’subsidiarity’ which is/was an original EU principle (now forgotten) which said that any decisions that can be taken at the local level, wherever possible should be.

more-info-later
________________________________________________

## SATURDAY 5TH JULY

The London Fete against the G8
for freedom of movement, the freedom to protest and equal rights for all !

http://londonfete.ucrony.net/

On the 5th of July 2008, people all around the world will protest against the G8 summit 2008 in Japan. The G8 is a co-ordination for the interests of Global Capitalism and the wealthy north who benefit from it.

Globalisation has created huge movements of people to the centres of capitalism. However whilst capital - money and commodities - has been granted ever-expanding freedom of movement, the movement of
workers as migrants is subject to increasingly complex and brutal systems of control.

Militarisation of the borders, raids on communities and work places, the expansion of migrant prisons and deportation centers, restrictive visa regimes and the revival of nationalist fears and hate are all being used
to segregate, divide and weaken the working class. Along with building the border regime, governments restricted the possibilities of assembly, protest and any form of dissent wherever possible.

In Britain today, the role of managing and policing this system to benefit the rich is carried out by the UK Border Agency (formerly known as BIA), an executive agency of the Home Office in the United Kingdom.

Lunar House, a massive twenty-storey office block in Croydon, South London is the headquarters of the UK Border Agency. Just over the street there is Electric House, a reporting centre, where hundreds of asylum
seekers visit everyday from miles away to fulfil their reporting obligations’. They are often arrested on the spot, there are holding facilities ( short-term prisons) where asylum seekers are being kept until they get transferred to an immigration removal centre.

London NoBorders is calling for actions against the UK Border Agency. It is time to join forces, for freedom of movement, the freedom to protest and equal rights for all !

13th May ‘a little piece of liberty’ newsletter

> Summary

Diners Club / Activist Networking Social - this Weds 14th, 7pm
Intersquat London pre-meeting - this Thursday 15th, 8pm
Radical Theory Group - Friday 30th 6pm
Dissident Island - this Friday 16th, 9pm
Anarcho-Feminists meeting Sunday 18th
Five Ring Circus Weds 21st
City of Sun Art Exibition, 23rd - 25th
Opposing planning permission for Rampart St
Early notice of ramPARTY, 6th June

>  INTERACTIVE DINERS CLUB

Wed 14th, 7pm, Bowl Court Liberty Zone

We've been threatening for ages to put on a radical assembly, an
opportunity to for activists in London and beyond to speak about
campaigns they are involved
in and learn about other projects taking place.

Well it's already happening and you are hereby invited to the 2nd
Interactive Diners Club!

This is a social and networking event for activists that takes the
form of a go-round where everybody present gets to introduce
themselves and the campaigns or projects they are involved in.
Everyone then tucks into food and everyone gets to chat, plot and
conspire.

The idea is to inspire and re-energise each other, form new links,
strengthen old alliances, share skills and resources, raise awareness
and get people involved. Those who experienced the original pre CJA
Interactive Diners Club in the early nineties, the RTS meetings or the
late 90's London Underground meetings etc. will know what kind of
thing to expect.

It takes place on WED 14TH MAY, 7pm at the new squatted social centre
in Shoreditch. The address is 6 Bowl Court, off Plough Yard which is
next to the Drunken Monkey at the junction of Great Eastern Street and
Shoreditch High Street. Nearest tubes are Old Street and Liverpool
Street.

Please bring (vegan) food to share along with leaflets, flyers,
posters etc for upcoming events.

It is hoped that these assemblies will happen every month at different
autonomous spaces around London. Please network this widely to make it
happen.

> Anti-Olympics Film Screening

@Bowl Court, Norton Folgate Liberty Squat   
Wednesday May 21, 2008 @ 8:00 pm

Film Showing “Five Ring Circus” (http://www.thefiveringcircus.com)
A film on the campaigns against the 2010 Olympics in Canada with
someone from the film for Q&A/discussion.

> Pre InterSpace meet up

Following on from the last international squat and autonomous spaces
meeting in Dijon, France last November, comes the second meeting: this
time on the outskirts of Berlin, 24th - 26th May 2008

Some of the rampART collective will be attending the. If you would
like to contribute something but cannot go, we are having a
pre-meeting to discuss this at 6 Bowl Court, on Thursday 15th at 8pm.

> Radical Theory Reading Group

Friday May 30th at Bowl Court, 6pm

The readings for the next meeting are both by RD Laing: Ch 1 of The
Divided Self ('The Existential-Phenomenological Foundations for a
Science of Persons') and Ch 1 of The Politics of Experience and the
Bird of Paradise ('Persons and Experience').

Downloads here:
http://www.box.net/shared/static/rpoq8yn0gk.pdf
http://www.box.net/shared/static/y4abqs6kow.pdf

> DiSSiDENT iSL@ND

Broadcasting from Bowl Court, this weeks show features an interview
with someone from Keep it in the Ground talking about actions against
a new coal mine being planned in Derby, as well as someone from the
Lakenheath Action Group talking about 'Three strikes and you're out'
which is part of a larger campaign for the withdrawal of US bombs from
Britain. We'll have an activist from the Industrial Workers of the
World (IWW) in to talk to us about getting organised at work, upcoming
events and campaigns, and the relevance of trade unions in today's
society. And, we have DJ Slippahz on the decks with some dubstep later
too....so it promises to be a wicked show.

Tune in on Friday from 9pm on www.dissidentisland.org

Or, if you miss it, you can download the show from our
site….available from Saturday.

> City of the Sun, art exhibition 23rd, 24th, 25th

@Bowl Court
With London as the theme, the works depict some of the many possible
ways to live this city from different points of view that usually are
not represented by the mainstream. "Many of us came here not long ago
from other countries. What are we looking for? What sort of dreams are
we trying to make real? Why have we left our ''cities of sun'' behind?
As foreigners we usually keep strong links with our countries of
origin. As a consequence we look at London without forgetting what is
happening simultaneously in other parts of the world and with a
special attention for what is different from what we were used to,
back home. Is the urban space meeting the needs of its inhabitants?
Our artworks are our way to deal with the many dysfunctional elements
of this city and with the extreme sense of alienation that we often
experience in the disorientating geography of London."

Friday 6pm -12 opening, drinks and djs
Sat 1pm - 12 with live music from 6pm
Sun 1pm - 12 sound performance and video

> Other News

> Early notice of ramPARTY

6th June - @ Rampart Street
ramPARTY for the 4TH anniversary of the creation of the rampART social
centre - films, cabaret, performances, poetry, bands. Possibly a
benefit to start a seed fund for new social centers or a social center
fighting fund.

(Planning meeting 2 pm Fri 16th in rampart street.)

Which reminds me. In the last newsletter we mentioned plans to compile
a book about the four years of the rampART as a way of recording our
history and experiences. If you have something you would like to
contribute; a Rampart related story to tell, photographs, old flyers,
advice, how-to-guides, etc. then email us. Photos and video would be
great as we can produce some kind of a presentation for the 4th
anniversary.

> Planning rampARTS demise

Developers have put in an application for change of use and
redevelopment of 15-17 Rampart Street, the warehouse that has been
home to the rampART social centre for the last four year. Objections
must be submitted by 28th May (although this deadline is unlawfully
short as the notices only went up on the 8th). Please email us if
you'd like to write an objection. More details next week on or
indymedia.

> Welcome to the Liberty Zone

Speaking of objectionable developments, the campaign against the
construction of 645,000 square feet of skyscraper offices, 310 flats
and a hotel behind Bowl Court has stepped up a notch with residents
declaring an ancient right to self-determination!

Maps in the City of London Guildhall Library show the neighbourhood
has the status of a distinct district with liberty and independence
from central planning law in the capital. Although this was meant to
have been rescinded, documents have been discovered that apparently
question whether the little piece of liberty might still stand.

Madness singer Suggs is to release an album called The Liberty of
Norton Folgate (http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=111508026&blogID=393664545
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXFJVsjpfg8) and we’re tempted to
consider appropriating the term to name our still nameless social
centre.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Folgate

> Phone and Net at Bowl Court

Finally, as mentioned last week, we've been working on providing phone
and internet at the new place without the need to install a fixed line
and contract. That's now done.... it's good to talk   

The geeks among you can call 30130392@voipfone.co.uk for free via SIP
using a softphone like X-lite on your computer or a hardware IP phone.

Normal humans can simply phone 05601 034560
(calls charged at 5p/min daytime, 2p/min evening and ~1p/min weekends from BT)

Rampart newsletter 7 May 2008

Hiya,

Not much this week at the Rampart(s), but we’re very active and there’s plenty going on and coming up that we thought you’d like to know about this stuff.

We had to close our fixed line broadband connection for the Rampart a while back in case we were evicted and it needed a cancellation period. That period has ended and now we are without internet. Rather than be without internet (heavens, no!) our resident techy has researched some solutions which we thought would be good to share with you:

_ Documentation for providing internet access and an incoming and outgoing phone line in a squat or other non-permanent space, where a fixed contract services might not be practical or possible _

The full most up to date version with links is available at https://en.wiki.aktivix.org/SquatTelecoms

===

Also members of Rampart will be attending the Interspace meeting at the end of May in Germany which you might be interested in. If you would like to contribute something towards the meeting but cannot go, we are having an Interspace pre-meeting at our Shoreditch space, 6 Bowl Court, on Thursday 15th at 8pm.

_ Interspace: International meeting for squats and autonomous spaces _

Kesselberg, Berlin 24th - 26th May 2008

Following on from the last international squat and autonomous spaces meeting in Dijon, France last November, comes the second meeting: this time on the outskirts of Berlin.

We see this as a meeting not just to exchange tactics and ideas, or to reflect on the April action days (and plan new ones?) but to share in our new projects, fights and victories: to redraw the battle lines. To achieve durable exchange and solidarity on an international level.

The time

The meeting will last three days: from Saturday May 24th till Monday 26th. We invite everybody to arrive on Friday during the day or in the evening.

For those who can stay a bit longer, the Berlin free spaces action days are taking place from the 30th May to the 2nd June (wba.blogsport.de).

Agenda

We of course have some ideas and have included the suggestions already made in Dijon, but the agenda is open and in the end determined by the people who come. If you have ideas, wishes or if you want to do a workshop, send us an email to intersquatberlin@riseup.net

Proposed topics so far:

* How do we deal with repression?
* What new strategies are there to create and invent squats and autonomous spaces?
* How does paying rent or buying houses influence the reality of autonomous spaces?
* What are free spaces and why are they important?
* How do autonomous spaces generate, maintain and involve themselves in broader social struggles?

And of course there will be need to speak about the April Action Days, to evaluate the actions and the networking process and to possibly further develop the infrastructure created in Dijon.

The place

The meeting is taking place at Kesselberg, an autonomous/project space in the countryside just outside Berlin. There is space at Kesselberg for about 100 people to sleep (but please bring tents if you have one), as well as several rooms for plenaries and workshops. The place is surrounded by woods and there is a lot of space for taking breaks or meeting outside if the weather is good.

Leave your dogs at home if possible. If you do bring them please keep them close to you at any time, as there are wild animals in the woods surrounding Kesselberg and already a bunch of dogs living there.

The site is also chemical free. The people at Kesselberg have said they can provide soap, but if you bring your own, make sure it is completely chemical free.

How to get there from Berlin:

Public transport: The nearest train station is Erkner. Just take the S3 train, direction Erkner. This is a local Berlin train line and tickets cost about 3 euros.

From Erkner station we can either pick you up if you let us know when you’re arriving, or you can take the bus. The bus is Line 428, direction Ziegenhals, until the stop ‘Neu Zittau, Kesselberg’. The entrance to the Kesselberg land is next to the bus stop. Alternatively, it takes about 20 mins to cycle there from Erkner.

With a car: Kesselberg is about 7km south of Erkner, between Neu Zittau and Wernsdorf. Driving from the Berliner Ring, either take the Erkner exit via Neu Zittau, or the exit Niederlehme via Wernsdorf , direction New Zittau. For a map see www.kesselberg.info/weg.html

There is limited parking space at Kesselberg, so it would be helpful to let us know if you are coming by car or wanting to park a live-in vehicle on site for the duration of the meeting.

So that we can prepare enough space, organise enough food etc., we need to get an idea of how many people to expect, so please let us know you are coming. Likewise if you need a place to stay in Berlin just before or after the meeting, please email us at: intersquatberlin@riseup.net

Keep an eye on the blog for up to date info: http://interspace.blogsport.de/ See you in May!

===

_ Book of the (not even gone yet) Rampart _

We thought we’d start to compile a pamphlet, or book, on the history of the Rampart Social centre, as a way of recording our history and experiences for other people to benefit from. If you have something you would like to contribute; a Rampart related story to tell, photographs, old flyers, advice, how-to-guides, etc. then email us at rampart@mutualaid.org

There is more to come obviously as the Rampart Social centre is still around and very much active! It just makes sense to start to get the material in whilst there is a space to centre it around.

== (( EVENTS )) ==

^^ Bike Film Night ^^
7th of May @ The New Shoreditch Social Centre

We serve Tea and Cake, show Belleville Rendez-Vous (a great French animation movie featuring the Tour de France) and some others.

Address: Bowl Court / Plough Yard Squat, Shoreditch, London
Time: 8:00
Price: Donations

More details here :
http://londonbikegroup.wordpress.com

===

^^ Food Not Bombs Whitechapel ^^
Saturday 10th of May

Meet at Rampart (17 Rampart St, E1) at 11AM for cooking
Food will be served from 2:30/3PM (until the pot is empty) at Altab Ali Park if it is a sunny day, or in front of the Whitechapel Library on 321 Whitechapel Road if it is a rainy day.

http://www.londonfnb.org/whitechapel/home.html
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/398367.html

===

^^ No Borders meeting ^^
Tuesday 13th May 7pm-9pm at 6 Bowl Court, Shoreditch.
Come along to hear latest news and to get involved.

===

^^ Interactive Diners Club - a dinner party for environmental campaigners and activists ^^

More of a friendly grassroots network meeting than a diners club but still..
Will be on Sunday 18th May, see next newsletter for details. If you want to help out drop us an email.

===

^^ Radical Theory Reading Group ^^
Friday May 30th at Bowl Court

The readings for the next meeting are both by RD Laing: Ch 1 of The Divided Self (’The Existential-Phenomenological Foundations for a Science of Persons’) and Ch 1 of The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise (’Persons and Experience’). Downloads here:
http://www.box.net/shared/static/rpoq8yn0gk.pdf
http://www.box.net/shared/static/y4abqs6kow.pdf

We are meeting on Friday May 30th at TwoPointTwo, Bowl Court, off Plough Lane (junction of Shoreditch High Street and Great Eastern Street, next to the Drunken Monkey). Meeting starts at 6pm.

== (( EVENTS ELSEWHERE )) ==

This Thursday at Crossroads Womens centre, Kentish Town, time TBC
Details not available at this time, check indymedia on the day.

^^ MAPUCHE WOMAN MOIRA MILLAN TOURS EUROPE IN FIGHT AGAINST DAMS AND CORPORATE PROJECTS IN PATAGONIA ^^

As part of the constant looting currently occurring in Patagonia (a region in southern Argentina and Chile), more and more companies are getting ready to viciously extract the region’s raw materials. From Argentina’s oil wells to mining operations taking place all along the Andes, aluminium smelters and even a nuclear waste deposit make a devastating panorama.

The system’s insatiable appetite for energy is also making Patagonian rivers a tempting feast for dam building companies. The hunger for electricity has led to the rise of over 20 dam projects alongside Chile and Argentina which are currently menacing farmers and indigenous people. Among them are the Mapuche, who will see rivers and their ecosystems devastated, as well as their lands flooded. They, along with other indigenous communities and farmers, will be forced to leave their homes in the name of “symbols of progress and development”.

Moira Millan is a Mapuche woman who lives in Corcovado, Patagonia, in Argentina. In 1999, she, along with her family and the help from other communities, formed the Mapuche community, Pillan Mahuiza on 150 hectares of land which had been abandoned by the police. This land, previously and still belonging to her ancestors, became the starting point of the reconstruction of a culture and a cosmogony that respects every aspect of nature and the living forces within it. Far from thinking of themselves as land owners, the Mapuche believe they themselves are ‘owned’ by the land, and on this basis, they have been building a new alternative to the capitalist system and its depredation.

But things have not been easy for Pillan Mahuiza whose members have been threatened with eviction and even had death threats from the police and the government. Surrounded by powerful neighbours known as the new terratenientes (large-scale landholders), such as George Soros, Benetton, Perez Companc, Jeremy Irons, Ted Turner, as well as multinational corporations currently extracting natural resources. Pillan Mahuiza is a small but powerful point of light, autonomy and independence ‘amidst some of the most prominent members of the global corporate machine currently occupying their land and extracting its resources.

The difficult reality faced by the Mapuche only makes Pillan Mahuiza stronger. Alongside other Mapuche communities from both sides of the Andes, they are creating a network of resistance and autonomy, based on the fundamental recognition that we must re-think how we live if life on our planet is to be sustained.

Flooding the alternative

The small village of Corcovado and its inhabitants, including Pillan Mahuiza, are currently under threat due to a project which plans on building anything from one to a whole set of six dams in Río Corovado and Río Hielo. The project will be financed mainly by the Spanish group Santander (who own Abbey National in UK) providing electricity to mine companies that have been exploring the region for years and oil wells which, being almost empty, are demanding more energy. These companies include, among others, the Canadian Barrick Gold and Brazil’s Petrobras..

Representing her community and the autonomous group Patagonia sin represas (Patagonia without dams), Moira Millan is touring Europe to create new and necessary links with autonomous groups that are trying to build a new way of living, which values include a sustainable approach and a respect to the enviromment. Paradoxically, this approach has a thousand-year-old history, during which the Mapuche have tirelessly resisted colonist invasions and the greed that accompanies them.

Moira Millan will be presenting a video following by a discussion at Crossroads Womens Centre

Video on youtube at http://youtube.com/watch?v=r-FAP5T5F2E

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^^ Public meeting with delegation of Colombian social movements ^^

Monday, May 12th, 7pm at Amnesty International UK’s Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard

Public meeting with delegation of Colombian social movements. Representatives of the Women’s Popular Organisation, the National Indigenous Peoples’ Organisation, “African Footprints” (African Descendent Organisation), and the Movement of Christians for Peace with Justice and Dignity. 7pm, Amnesty International UK’s Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard (near Old Street or Moorgate tube stations).

(( STILL ON ))

STREET BLITZ - London
1 – 15 May 2008
2 weeks of creative urban modification

http://www.streetblitz.org/