2 May saw University of St Andrews students take to the streets in protest against the closure of Fife Park, one of the University’s two budget halls. A proposed replacement hall would see prices for accommodation rocket from the present £52 per week to a possible £110–130!
The Lower Rents NOW! campaign, a self-organised and independent student and supporters group, has been organising to stop the closure and organised and mobilised for a march and protest camp.
St Andrews…
One group has been working with the local community to raise awareness about the arms fair and to keep up the pressure on the organisers.
East London Against the Arms Fair (ELAAF) is a group of people who live in London's Docklands area and have protested against the arms fair since it was first held in the area. One of our aims is to inform local people about what is happening on their doorstep and to encourage their support.
Raising AwarenessTo this end we have been…
So far, this winter of discontent has seen some really positive actions in Aberystwyth. On 24 November last year, students from Aberystwyth University “took education into their own hands”, setting up a Free University in the town square. Joining with lecturers and people from schools and the wider community, the Free University action organised by Aber Students Against The Cuts (a Facebook group) opposed spending cuts in education, increases in tuition fees, and the restructuring of higher…
The Scottish Resources Group (SRG), an umbrella company that includes Scottish Coal, has submitted an application for a “mixed use development” across a 230 hectare area which would include leisure and industrial expansion. The aim is to achieve “planning in principle” to make the land a more attractive investment to developers. The Happenden Wood Action Camp (THWAC) thinks the application helps to support opencast, for example the Coal Authority has stated that if the industrial development…
UN World Peace Day was marked in Edinburgh with the rededication of the Peace Pole at the city’s Peace and Justice (P&J) Resource Centre. The P&J Centre was celebrating its 30th birthday and friends gathered for the re-dedication and to enjoy a celebratory lunch. The centre, co-ordinated by Janet Fenton, supports all groups and individuals committed to issues of peace and justice. Later that day one such group, Scotland’s for Peace, launched their Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons…
Despite its other shortcomings, it was good to see that the UK government’s Public Expenditure Review has not allocated funds to the privatised military training college at St Athan. This seems to signal that the gargantuan Public Finance Initiative (PFI) will be reviewed and scaled down. The people of Wales have been misled about this project from the beginning. When it was first announced in January 2007, there were promises of thousands of jobs. In reality, the project was a job reduction…
Fifteen members of the Welsh Youth Forum on Sustainable Development (WYFSD), Gwerin y Coed (the Woodcraft Folk in Wales) and representatives of other youth organisations spent five days in the saddle, cycling from Machynlleth to Cardiff Bay to hand deliver a petition to Jane Davidson, Minister for the Environment, Sustainability and Housing. Delivered at the Welsh Assembly Government building on Wednesday 22 September, the petition called for better cycling provision in Wales.
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On 12 September, 40 climate activists occupied a new site in Happendon Wood, South Lanarkshire, Scotland to set up the Happendon Wood Action Camp (THWAC), to help defend the wood from destruction by Scottish Coal.
The Scottish Resources Group (SRG), which owns Scottish Coal, have applied for planning permission for a mixed-use development on this land (which is in an area of Great Landscape Value) in the Douglas Valley, but they intend to mine the area first.
It is…
On 26 June, members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales (Cymdeithas Y Cymod) held a service of repentance outside the drones centre at Parc Aberporth.
The Reverend Guto Prys ap Gwynfor, president of the Fellowship, led the meeting. He said: “The MoD is spending £899 million on developing the unmanned aircraft through contracts with private companies, including Thales and Qinetiq. The only airspace in Europe where unmanned aircraft are allowed to be tested is in Wales,…
Last issue, we mentioned Tony Fuller’s protest against heavy traffic trundling through his Dorset village (he walked back and forth on the pedestrian crossing). This direct action in Chideock, near Bridport, was itself the victim of direct counter-action, as superglue was applied to the buttons at the crossing, making it impossible to stop the traffic. Fuller: “The battle continues.”
Kew Bridge Eco Village, featured on our front cover a year ago, was sadly evicted at the end of May. Villagers fanned out from the site, some creating an allotment on an empty site in nearby Syon Lane, with the owner’s permission. Ten people set up Hounslow Community Land Project on vacant land owned by Transport for London in Hanworth Road, Hounslow.
After writing 50 protest letters to the council, police and his MP, with no luck, Tony Fuller orchestrated more direct action in early May to stop lorry drivers zooming through his Dorset village. His house has had to be rebuilt twice after being hit by a juggernaut. Mr Fuller repeatedly pressed the button on the pedestrian crossing, and walked across the road and back, with other protesters, causing gridlock.
On 15 March there was a partial victory in the struggle to stop developers building on Titnore Woods in West Sussex, as the council rejected the proposal to build on farmland west of Durrington near Worthing.
For many, the committee’s unanimous decision came as a surprise following their approval of the Tesco application on part of the farmland last year and their approval of all the stages leading up to this point.
On 29 March, however, the council approved a new Core Strategy…
A four-week inquiry into the £12 billion privatised military training establishment due to be based at St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, ended in early February 2010. The case for compulsory purchase of land in the area to enable the defence technical college to go ahead was presented by senior ministry of defence (MoD) figures and Welsh assembly government civil servants. They were backed by representatives of the Metrix consortium of private companies that successfully bid for the…
Early Christmas presents from Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, the Welsh Language Society, greeted Bangor shoppers when campaigners gave away free Boots “Advantage” cards in the town on 14 November. Turning Boots’ slogan on its head, the Welsh Language Society’s alternative loyalty cards read: “There are no points whatsoever for using Welsh.”
Boots was also surprised by new Welsh speaking employees, provided by Cymdeithas, who offered a bilingual service.
Chair of the…
