Toban Black

Since the G20 Summit in Toronto, activists here in London, Ontario (Canada) have organized a series of protests against the Summit policing regime. Below I’ll offer some photos, video links, and written background about our protests.  First, here are some points about other campaigning and organizing here in London (Ont.) -

Local activists released a statement about Summit policing and detention conditions in Toronto, and the local climate justice group that I’m part of has sent out a connected statement about oil and civil liberties.  Through those statements we have pointed out links between London and the Toronto Summit, and we have shown how the G20 police regime is bound up with much wider neoliberalism, fossil fuel systems, and other large-scale problems.

More than anything, activists here have been demanding civil liberties that were attacked at the Summit.

Civil liberties petition signatures have been collected, and a flyer about civil liberties has been distributed here.  We have brought copies with us as we have used a projector to display video footage of G20 police brutality on walls for crowds at public events. Here is a post about the first of those projection protests, at a Canada Day fireworks show.

[Read more →]

A statement written for Climate Justice London, Ontario -

Members of our group took to the streets around the G20 Summit in Toronto with concerns about climate change, the Alberta tar sands, assaults on native sovereignty, and other environmental injustices. The Summit police in Toronto threatened, searched, arrested, and detained Climate Justice London activists, while other local climate justice activists stayed away from Toronto to avoid the G20 police regime. Our dissent was not permitted at the Summit. In fact, anyone who was outdoors in downtown Toronto was a potential target for the snatch squads, the riot cops, the mounted horse brigades, and thousands of other police at the Summit.  Our allies and our friends were pulled into this ‘security’ sweep, and all of us are left wondering which of the local police officers we encounter have brought their G20 summit training and hostility back to our cities.

Because we condemn this trampling of civil liberties, and because we always will call for democracy and social justice, members of our group have taken on leading roles in preparing a statement about police conduct and detention conditions at the G20 summit in Toronto.  People for Peace (London) activists helped to develop that London-specific version of the original statement from Toronto.  We hope that more Londoners will sign on to communicate their support.

Threats to our civil liberties will make it even more difficult to continue campaigning against environmental injustices — in a non-violent manner, without destructive sabotage tactics.

[Read more →]

Here in London, Ontario a few of us have produced a local version of a statement from Toronto which was, above all, about G20 police conduct and detention conditions in Toronto during the recent Summit of ‘world leaders’  there.  The local statement was prepared by Climate Justice London and People for Peace London.  And the following pre-amble (which I’m just re-posting verbatim) explains how this statement is connected with the original one from Toronto -

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

[The preamble]

Local activists have prepared this London, Ontario version of the Toronto statement about police tactics at the G20 Summit there. We believe it is important for Londoners to present a unified voice to demand the civil liberties that were attacked in Toronto.

We invite signatures from anyone living, campaigning, or working in London, Ontario, or elsewhere in the nearby region.

Our statement is an abbreviated version of the original Toronto call – with added points about links between London activists, London police, and the Toronto summit. (These added points are in paragraph three, and demands 6 and 7, at the end of the statement.) The original Toronto statement basically offers a more detailed summary of events in Toronto in late June.

We also have made one addition to the text from the Toronto call. In the following sentence, we have changed the words “harassment by police” to “harassment and sexual violence from police” -
“The reports of those released from detention reveal a pervasive pattern of sexual, gender, trans, homophobic and racist harassment and sexual violence from police.”

If you want to SIGN ON to the London, Ontario statement, PLEASE WRITE TO theLondoncall@gmail.com and include your name and affiliation (as you would want it in the final version), and the category you prefer to be placed in (trade unionists, activists, arrested and detained, legal workers, teachers, cultural workers, students, etc). We ask you to sign on as soon as possible. We will be collecting signatures from individuals, and from groups and organizations.

[Read more →]

I was one of the co-writers behind this action report -
“London, Ontario actions against Fossil Fools”

Most of the photos are from me. (The ones that I posted are here and here)

There were a various actions against the tar sands that day. People out in London, England even joined the action.  Here in Canada, RBC (the Royal Bank of Canada) was the main Fossil Fool target. That bank is the leading financier behind the tar sands.

Compared with other local campaigning against RBC tar sands financing here, there was a lot more tension at the protest at the first RBC bank building we went to on the Fossil Fools day of action. Just leafletting inside an RBC building has been enough to get us into a confrontation (of sorts) with police though. Security staff and police officers always are at hand to defend corporations like RBC by preventing people from voicing concerns on company property.

That said, I still don’t appreciate conflicts (or potential conflicts) with police and security staff. That sort of excitement doesn’t work for me, and I’m generally not hostile towards police officers and security workers.  There are a lot of problems police/security systems — given how they are bound up with a much wider status quo — but I don’t find targetting police and security workers to be a productive way of confronting those problems.  We’ve got to find ways to change and replace the mainstream systems that employ those people. If there are no dirty banks (for instance), then the police and security forces can’t defend them.

Last week, Nick Griffin — the head of the racist and fascist ‘British National’ Party — was given some air time on BBC’s “Question Period.” There were protests, and a lot of controversy.
Here is some selected coverage and commentary -

“Lenin” on the Lenin’s Tomb blog -
“Springboard for Griffin”

An article on the BBC web site -
“BNP support in poll sparks anger”
(Anti-BNP bias actually isn’t a problem that anyone should complain about.)

Brian Wheeler on the BBC web site -
“What did voters make of Griffin?”
(I’m not exactly recommending that article. I’m just pointing it out because I think it captures how the BBC airtime has tended to feed into the BNP.)

[Read more →]

—

In this post, I’ll be sharing photos, videos, and a write-up about Switch Off Hazelwood anti-coal campaign rallies and interventions in Australia, earlier in September. I also will be offering a little commentary.

(This post isn’t about breaking news. But I happen to think that we should remember and continue to talk about previous actions — well after a couple of weeks have passed.)

—

“COMMUNITY DECOMMISSION ORDER”

(Like the other images in this post, that photo is from the “hazelwood2009″ pages on Flickr — where you can see a lot of other photos.)

—

A campaign video -
“Switch off Hazelwood - Coal Fired Power Station Action”

That video is an introduction to the overall campaign — in relation to a wider movement against fossil fuel consumption (which activists are just beginning to bring together — in Australia, and elsewhere). The video calls for proactive activist responses to mounting global warming threats — above all.

[Read more →]

Overviews

A Camp for Climate Action press release -
“Climate Activists Hit Big Business and Banks”

A BBC article -
“Climate activists stage protests”

—

Bike swoop photos
- Set one
- Set two

—

Day 2: The European Climate Exchange

A Camp for Climate Action video and press release -
“Everyone’s a loser at the Climate Casino!”

[Read more →]

One Britain –

Fighting the Terrorists

Together

—

(By Pedro Figueiredo)

Their trash.

Your duty.

If it looks strange,
report it.

You’ve got nothing to hide.
You’ve got nothing to fear.

—

(By “Teacher Dude“)

There is no such thing as community.
Fear your neighbours.
Respect your boss.
Love the State.

Don’t rely on others.
If you suspect it, report it.

WAR IS PEACE.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

[Read more →]

In London, England

—

The text on that sign is a generic message over there in the UK.
(The “SSP Air” text is unique though, of course — since the surveillance extends well beyond that airport.)

During a recent visit to the UK, I was surprised by the overt messages about CCTV cameras (which often are mentioned on signs, and over radio systems). Over here in Southern Ontario, the cameras aren’t highlighted so openly; so there also aren’t as many messages about why such government surveillance supposedly is justified.

Of course, over-inflated rhetoric about terrorist threats is pervasive throughout the pro-surveillance messages in the UK. (For instance, when I was in a museum in London, at least one radio announcement suggested that I should look for abandoned baby strollers; presumably I was supposed to be worried about a bomb that might have been left in one of those strollers — which, I assume, is why I was told to inform the guards if and when I saw one of those strollers. Otherwise, why were strollers mentioned over the radio broadcasting system?)

(I basically visited London and Cardiff when I was in the UK. Since those are capital cities, I’m sure that they’re somewhat unique. Yet, the UK also seems to be a cohesive bubble — so I expect that surveillance systems are consistent across the British isles.)

—

On a bus in London, England

[Read more →]

George Monbiot (in this article) -
“Eco-terrorism is a charge repeatedly levelled against the environment movement, mostly by fossil fuel lobbyists. But, as far as I can discover, there has not been a single recorded instance of a planned attempt to harm people in the cause of environmental protection in the United Kingdom over the past 30 years or more.”

—

Here are a few blog posts about police crackdowns -

“Sparki” on the It’s Getting Hot In Here blog -
“To be an Eco-Terrorist Now, You Just Gotta Flap your Jaw” (in May)

Benno Hansen on his EcoWar blog -
“Authorities vs Environmentalism” (in April)

Robert Mackey in the New York Times -
“British Police Arrest Protesters Before Protest” (in April)

Michael A. Weber on the PlanetSave blog -
“Activists Detained For Taking Ash Spill Photographs” (December, 2008)

[Read more →]