Nottingham Celebrates Summer in Style

Nottingham is a vibrant city with inhabitants representing a hugely diverse range of backgrounds. With the onset of summer, many cultural groups take the opportunity and the hope of good weather to celebrate their heritage and enjoy themselves.

Garden party, pride, mela etc.

Celebrating summer, multiculturalism etc. - RWB?

Newswire: Sumac Climate Action Garden Party: The Pictures 2 | Sumac Climate Action Garden Party: The Pictures 1 | Sumac garden Party | Cultures combined

Links: Sumac Centre | Veggies diary | Left Lion | Notts Indymedia Culture topic page

Derbyshire Opencast Mine Squatters: Eviction Imminent

On Friday July 18 UK Coal were granted a possession order for the Squatted farmhouse on the planned Lodge House open cast coal mine site near Smalley in Derbyshire. It is anticipated that an eviction is imminent, particularly as the climbing team used against road protesters has been seen around the site.

On Tuesday June 18, climate campaigners from ‘Leave it in the Ground’ occupied the UK Coal’s Lodge House site in Derbyshire by barricading themselves in a disused farm building and taken to the trees on the site of the open cast mine. Under the cover of darkness activists secured themselves in the Prospect Farm building, on the site which is about to be devastated by huge machines. and claimed squatter’s rights.

Newswire: Pictures from the Bodge House opencast - 13/07/08 | Bodge House - Eviction Alert! | Eviction gets go ahead - Bodge House | Call out for help at Shipley Bodge Site | Ongoing Open Cast Coal Mine Occupation, Derbyshire - update from court | Activists disrupt work at site of opencast coal mine | Leave it in the Ground… in Court and a protest | Shipley Bodge squatted coal site recieves papers

Previous features: Coal On Hold - Derbyshire Coal Mine Site Occupied | Campaigners Trespass on Proposed Coal Mine Site

Links: Leave It In The Ground | Campaign Blog | Derby Earth First | No Opencast! article in Do or Die | UK Coal | Notts Indymedia Ecology topic page

The squatters had previously been in court on June 30, but the registered owner Harworth Mining International Ltd. applied to the court as Harworth Estates (Agricultural Land) and neglected to provide any evidence that they'd actually changed their name.

Derbyshire Opencast Mine Squatters: Day in Court

On Monday June 30, campaigners squatting a house on the proposed site of an opencast coal mine in Shipley, Derbyshire were in court.

Newswire: Leave it in the Ground… in Court and a protest | Shipley Bodge squatted coal site recieves papers

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Links: Leave It In The Ground | Campaign Blog | Earth First UK | Phulbari Resistance, Bangladesh | No Opencast! article in Do or Die | UK Coal | GMC Resources PLC | Notts Indymedia Ecology topic page

BNP Withdraw Festival Licence Application in the Face of Protests

On Tuesday June 10, Amber Valley Borough Council met at the Town Hall, Market Place, Ripley to hear the premises licence application for the BNP's Red, White and Blue Festival, scheduled to take place on land owned by party member and former Tory-councillor Alan Warner at Denby, Derbyshire from the 15th to the 17th August 2008.

Security at the meeting was tight. Protesters gathering outside were greeted by several van loads of Derbyshire's finest, evidence gatherers and a FIT Team. Inside, the police, who had initially raised no objection to the licence, claimed to have received "significant intelligence" which had forced them to reconsider their position. Fearing conflict between the BNP and anti-fascists they wished to see the imposition of new conidtions including the erection of a seven-foot high fence around the site and the installation of temporary security lighting. When invited to sum-up their position the BNP representatives withdrew their application and stormed out of the meeting, insisting they would go ahead without the licence.

Newswire: Red White & Blue festival - Licence Refused | Red White Blue Festival licence refused | Protest Against the BNP: June 10 | Notts Stop the BNP objection to BNP licence application | Object to the BNPs "festival" | Notts Indymedia Anti-Racism Topic Page

Previous features: East Mids Campaigners Up The Anti as BNP Make Electoral Gains | Midlands and Yorkshire organise against the BNP | Broxtowe BNP Councillor Expelled From Party | Anti-fascists successfully blockade BNP meeting venue | BNP wins seat in Broxtowe

Links: Amber Valley Borough Council | Antifa | Stop the Red White and Blue Campaign

Predictably, the BNP were less than enthused by the day's events. John Walker, national treasurer of the BNP, whinged: "We came here with an open mind. As it went on we came to the conclusion that it was becoming a farce because of the hoops we were being asked to jump through by Derbyshire Police. The police have caved in to mob rule. We are going to withdraw this application and this event will go ahead without a licence." Warner's security guard Clarke, even went so far as to accuse the police present at the hearing of being in cahoots with anti-fascists.

This may have come as a surprise to protesters held behind a line of police officers outside the hall. Derbyshire Police utilised Section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 to corral campaigners into a designated protest zone which they later enclosed with fencing. When they left, anti-fascists had their vehicles followed by the police most of the way to the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border, ostensibly to protect them from the BNP.

The Red White and Blue "festival" is an annual event organised by the BNP for members, friends and family. This year, as last year, it is to be held in Denby, Derbyshire on Alan Warner's farm. While last year's event was hugely controversial with locals, it saw little organised opposition. This year, things look very different with Nottinghamshire Stop the BNP, Derbyshire Unite Against Fascism and Antifa already mobilising against the event and Unite Against Fascism nationally considering their response.

It is clear from the BNP's statements that they intend to go ahead with their festival regardless of the licence. This will cause them problems, however, as they will be unable to sell alcohol or play music. Anti-fascists are continuing to build for a protest against the event, focusing particularly on Saturday August 16th when a national mobilisation against the "festival" has been called.

BNP Withdraw Licence Application in the Face of Protest Fears

Nottingham Protests in Support of Detained Resident

The detention and imminent deportation of Amdani Juma, a well-known and widely liked local activist, has generated considerable anger in Nottingham. There have been two well attended demonstrations in the Market Square, one on Saturday 31 May and a second on Monday 2 June. The latter was particularly successful at generating media interest, going out live on Central News.

The anger felt by many at Amdani's detention was only compounded by police intimidation of participants in the first demonstration that they should have sought permission and would be expected to do so for the second. This suggests a worrying ignorance of the law on the part of the Sergeant 2471. He told protesters that Section 11 of the Public Order Act 1986 required that they obtain permission for any assemblies, despite the fact that that section clearly relates only to processions and marches and not to static assemblies. When it came to it, the police presence on Monday evening was minimal, although a Community Protection Officer with a CCTV camera attached to his head was prominently visible.

Urgent Action: Amdani Juma: Questions for Liam Byrne | Amdani Juma: Letter to the airline | Amdani Juma: Petition | Amdani Juma: Letter to Home Office | Online Petition

Newswire: Demo to support Amdani Juma, Nottingham activist, at risk of deportation - Pics | It is OUR square and it is OUR right to protest in it whenever we want | A demonstration in support of Amdani Juma Saturday 31st May @ 12.30

Previous Features: Another Nottingham Activist Detained For Deportation | Refugees In Need Of Community Protection? | Nottingham Asylum-Seekers will be Heard

Links: Friends of Amdani | Nottingham and Notts Refugee Forum | Nottingham Refugee Campaign Group | No Borders Nottingham | Notts Indymedia Migration topic page

Campaigners dubbed both protests major successes. The second attracted a number of high profile supporters including Alan Simpson MP and a (noticeably quieter) Jon Collins. On Saturday there was little conflict with the many passing shoppers. Monday's protest attracted a more varied response with a few hecklers and one "Send him back" banner, although the owner of said article was engaged in an extensive and hopefully fruitful discussion.

This anger was only compounded by threats by the police against organisers of the first demonstration that they should have sought permission and would be expected to do so for the second. This suggests a worrying ignorance of the law on the part of the sergeant 2471. He told organisers that Section 11 of the Public Order Act 1986 required that they obtain permission for any assemblies, despite the fact that that section clearly relates only to processions and marches and not to static assemblies.

Urgent Action: Amdani Juma: Letter to the airline | Amdani Juma: Petition | Amdani Juma: Letter to Home Office | Online Petition

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Previous Feature: Another Nottingham Activist Detained For Deportation

Links: Nottingham and Notts Refugee Forum | Nottingham Refugee Campaign Group | No Borders Nottingham | Notts Indymedia Migration topic page

Another Nottingham Activist Detained For Deportation

Amdani Juma, a Nottingham activist and a survivor from Burundi but whose appeal for Indefinite Leave to Remain was turned down by the Home Office on 5th December, was detained whilst reporting at Loughborough reporting centre on 30th May. He has already been moved to Campsfield Detention Centre in Oxfordshire and his removal set for Wednesday 4th June on Kenya Airways flight KQ101 (Terminal 4, Heathrow). Amdani's case has previously been reported on the Refugee Forum website.

Tragically, Amdani is not the only asylum seeker to have been abducted by the authorities this week. Nottingham and Notts Refugee Forum volunteer Jane Mary Mutets, was detained at Bridewell Police Station on Thursday 29th May. Concerned supporters fear she will also face deportation and expect her to be moved elsewhere by immigration authorities.

Upcoming Event: Demonstration in the Market Square, Monday 2nd June, from 5pm.

Urgent Action: Amdani Juma: Petition | Amdani Juma: Letter to Home Office

Newswire: A demonstration in support of Amdani Juma Saturday 31st May @ 12.30 | Amdani detained, Jane-Mary detained yesterday | Nottingham Celebrates Mayday with Moazzam Begg | Sponsor Amdani Juma, Walking for Leicestershire AIDS Support | Jane Mary Mutetsi and Felicia Sakwe still here! | Jane Mary Mutetsi belongs to Nottingham

Links: Nottingham and Notts Refugee Forum | Nottingham Refugee Campaign Group | No Borders Nottingham | Notts Indymedia Migration topic page

Of mixed Tutsi & Hutu parentage, Amdani was evacuated to Kenya by UN troops during the Rwandan genocide. Returned to Burundi, where he was detained, beaten and placed under surveillance. He fled from Burundi again in Feb. 2003 when friends who were fellow party members were killed by government militia.

Has no family in Burundi. Most close relatives are dead or missing. A sister has refugee status in Holland and two cousins, in UK.

He applied for asylum in UK in March 2003. His asylum claim was refused but he was granted 3 years' Humanitarian Protection' until 1 May 2006. He then applied for Indefinite leave to Remain which was refused after 15 months' delay.

An appeal was made to the Immigration Tribunal under Article 8 of the European Convention which concerns an individual's right to respect for their private life. The Court's negative determination was received on 24/12/07.

Since his arrival in the UK, Amdani has been receiving medical treatment for psychiatric problems which have been diagnosed as Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

During five short years, Amdani has built up an amazing and unique record of service to the community, especially, but not only to refugees and asylum seekers in the City, the region and nationally. His unstinting and tireless work at both the Refugee Forum and the Terence Higgins Trust, as well as his own organisation 'African Institute for Social Development' set up specifically to campaign and provide information for the prevention of HIV / AIDS, has earned the respect and admiration of colleagues, volunteers,as well as refugees from a wide range of ethnic and religious backgrounds, for his dedication, integrity, and unstinting efforts on behalf of the disadvantaged.

This was amply illustrated by the support given to him in his recent appeal when dozens of people wanted to provide positive witness statements and more than fifty accompanied him to the Court.

Amdani has already made a very full contribution to British society and built up a wealth of goodwill and a wide circle of friends. He has much more to offer Britain if he were to be granted Indefinite Leave to Remain. Integration is now a key policy of the Government; Amdani is a great role model of how to do this and has assisted many others to move towards this goal. His combination of knowledge, skills, linguistic and interpersonal, a burning commitment to Equal opportunities and Human Rights and an understanding of the difficulties faced by refugees in striving to rebuild their lives, all make Amdani unique.

If he is deported to Burundi where he fears his life would be in danger, the public and private life that he has built so successfully, would be destroyed and our community would be the poorer.

Newswire: Amdani detained, Jane-Mary detained yesterday | Nottingham Celebrates Mayday with Moazzam Begg | Sponsor Amdani Juma, Walking for Leicestershire AIDS Support | Jane Mary Mutetsi and Felicia Sakwe still here! | Jane Mary Mutetsi belongs to Nottingham

Nottingham Residents Detained

Amdani:

Newswire: Amdani detained, Jane-Mary detained yesterday | Nottingham Celebrates Mayday with Moazzam Begg | Sponsor Amdani Juma, Walking for Leicestershire AIDS Support | New website: Leave it in the Ground | Jane Mary Mutetsi belongs to Nottingham

Links: Leave It In The Ground | Campaign Blog | Earth First UK | Phulbari Resistance, Bangladesh | No Opencast! article in Do or Die | UK Coal | GMC Resources PLC | Notts Indymedia Ecology topic page

After every one had finished socialising at the visitors centre with cups of tea, they headed of through the park to the area of plush green fields and ripped out hedgerows, which is to be the area of the new open cast mine called Lodge house owned by UK Coal as we were followed by an evidence gatherer and a few other police officers who were making notes on how friendly and sociable we were.

UK coal had erected new fences within the boundaries of the fields declaring the 122 hector site of destruction waiting to happen and activists out for the day just walked through the gap that will eventually have huge earth moving vehicles and plant machinery tearing up the fields. There was no attempt by the police to stop us or asking us not to go in, it was already decided we were going to trespass, and there was no way they could keep us out anyway.

After a short breach of the boundary we came across a farm, complete with tree house, dog kennel with its bedding still inside and the odd toy in the garden that looked as if it had been abandoned in a hurry from some pending disaster. We gathered in the garden of the farm to hear a local person explain what was happening in the area. We heard how UK Coal owns the land and that the locals in the surrounding villages of Smalley, Mapperly and West Hallem had been fighting against the company for the last 5 years against the plan to turn the area into an open cast site. Despite it being against planning regulations the secretary of state gave the plan the go ahead in 2007. The fields we had just walked across is going to have its soil stripped in July and August of this year and the field to the south of the farm is going to be stripped this July, so it was a last look to see it in its natural state, even though UK Coal are taking the unusual step of returning the site back to green fields, not that the grass grows well or the hedgerows are replanted and the fields lack the natural diversity of species.

More alarming is that this is not just unique to Derbyshire; open casting or strip mining as it is sometimes known is on the agenda of the government and a change in policy 2 years ago forced by power stations and coal companies through lobbying has forced it as a legitimate way for them to make money, despite the fact it is seriously damaging to the climate and the UK is not going to be able to cut its agreed emissions by burning coal and that the Lodge House site is going to have 1 million tonnes of carbon removed which means when it is burnt that’s 3,666,666 tones of carbon dioxide.

There was also a bit of brief history of open cast mining in Derbyshire and the resistance to it in 1997 at the Tibshelf site Nr Alfreton and how 250 activists from Earth First! NUJ and Miners Support Group had bussed there way to the site and caused an estimated £375,000 to £4 million of damage with vehicles needing to be repaired on site as they were incapacitated!

We all moved off back into the fields with the fence an ominous marker in the distance to the size and scale of what is to be lost and sat down to enjoy some food. Veggies had gone mobile and supplied us with vegan pasties and their famous cake, so we sat in the long grass, drank some excellent Elderflower Champaign that was being passed around while the police hid at the farm without refreshment keeping an eye on our activity and social refinement. A kite flew over head and the children played football with the adults, all the usual accompaniments for a picnic.

We headed off through the south field and saw a bungalow with its windows and doors sheeted up in steel, another victim of the site I thought. Both properties are the place most people dream of owning with the scenic views.

After a stroll on this bottom field we headed on to Bell Lane which divides the Lodge House site and headed into Smalley with another tea stop at the local Village Hall and an opportunity to use the toilets and more of Veggies cake and pasties. Some local people were there waiting for us and the group broke out into a meeting, in which we assessed the situation over open cast mining in the UK and what we could do about it. The energy and enthusiasm of which was enormous and in a very short time action plans had been drawn up. Smaller meetings in regions ensued so they could organise into affinity groups. People had travelled from Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Lancaster, Norwich, Crew, Sheffield and Derby as well as other areas that I probably missed and showed how much concern there was over the matter of open cast mining.

After a quick tidy up in the hall some set of back the way we came for the long journey home while others decided to take a slightly longer route over the fields of the site, just to keep the trespass going. We went into the main entrance of the site still unopposed by the police after a slight navigational error this all changed.

The local farmer had objected about us to our yellow jacketed escorts and we were being told we had to go back or face being arrested and after checking the map, or not being allowed to go to the few steps more to the nearest footpath we went back the way we came to join the footpath at the back of the farm, again to be blocked by the police, one of which had led the farmer around the back and out of sight. One of the group decided to go and have a word with the farmer and next thing we were being shouted to come this way; the chat with the farmer was obviously a success and we headed for the footpath with a happy farmer and some of his family waving us on like we were champions. This however made us question what the police had said to the farmer?

Campaigners Trespass on Proposed Coal Mine Site

Newswire: Leave it in the Ground’s Picnic in the Park trespass report | Trespassers oppose coal mine plan | Leave it in the Ground! - 26th May open-cast coal mass trespass and picnic | New website: Leave it in the Ground

Anger Over "Terror Arrests" at Nottingham University