News
Protest to take on tip-stealers Harrods: Jan 7th
January 3rd: Union activists and supporters of restaurant staff at Knightbridge department store Harrods will be demanding that its grasping owners show some respect by giving 100% of tips back to chefs, waiters and porters, rather than stealing away up to three quarters for Qatari royals.
Guatemala: Q’anjob’al community win their fight against hated hydro-dam project
January 1st: After eight years of struggle, communities in Huehuetenango, Guatemala are celebrating a decision by Spanish company Ecoener-Hidralia to start shutting down its Hidro Santa-Cruz damming operations on the Q’am B’alam river near Santa Cruz Barillas.
From Wigan to NYC: Prison solidarity at year’s end
December 26th: New Year’s Eve is pushed as a time of year to go out and let your hair down, usually by going to some horribly overpriced, overcrowded club and drinking in an effort to forget the last 12 months.
Editor of Turkish anarchist paper jailed for “terror propaganda”
December 24th: The editor of Meydan Gazette in Istanbul was jailed for a year and three months on December 22nd for “propagandising the methods of a terror organisation” in a free-speech case which dragged on for nearly a year.
John Dines joins list of confirmed police spies
December 20th: After months of putting a survivor of police human rights abuses through the legal wringer at taxpayers’ expense, the Met police have failed to stop the Pitchford Inquiry on undercover policing from confirming that John Dines, now a police training officer in Australia, did in fact operate for them as an undercover police officer under the alias of
Mexico: 50 anarchist groups “at war” with State and capital
December 20th: This translated article by investigative magazine Contralinea, originally submitted to US anarchist site It’s Going Down, looks at the rise of insurrectionist anarchism in Mexico over the last few years. All footnotes by the translator.
Argentina: Police brutalise protests against river-poisoning Veladero mine
December 19th: Police in San Juan, Argentina brutally evicted environmental campaigners who had been blockading the access road to Barrick Gold’s poisonous Veladero mine complex over the weekend, detaining 36 people.
Notes from the US
December 18th: Louis Further’s regular roundup column with analysis and news from North America that you might have missed.
Warwick occupation students win!
December 16th: Warwick students have ended their two-week occupation of the Slate conference centre declaring a partial win, as university bosses caved in on demands ranging from ending legal threats against students to improving lecturers’ work rights.
Anti-Fascist Network: National Action ban isn’t a positive development
December 14th: Following Monday’s government ban on National Action, the neo-Nazi former youth wing of the BNP, anti-fascists are warning that the measure won’t make a dent in the rise of far-right activity — but opens the door to similar measures against all political dissent.
