Oxford Feature Archive

Opposition to the planned public sector spending cuts is growing across Oxfordshire and beyond.

In early September there was a sit-in protest in Lloyds Bank in central Oxford. Protesters pointed out that the banks are being funded by the public at the expense of our frontline services including heath care, social services, and housing.

A week later, Oxford Save Our Services held a public meeting to start mapping the cuts in Oxfordshire and to start building resistance to them. Around 50 people - including service users and public sector workers whose jobs could be under threat - all spoke about the cuts that were being made. These ranged from closing the GAP homeless project, stopping schools & parks projects, closing care centres, turning off speed cameras, and much more.

There was a passionate speech from Stuart (pictured) who had been to the Oxfordshire County Council 'Big Debate' meeting calling for solidarity amongst all those seeking to oppose the cuts.

Resistance to the cuts is in fairly early stages, but rapidly gathering momentum. Events coming up in the near future include:
23 September 7pm: Town Hall Oxford Trades Council open community meeting for all groups and unions against the cuts.
27 September: Oxford Save Our Services planning meeting. Update: Meeting details.
3 October: Demonstration at the Tory party conference. Coaches going from Oxford.
20 October (day of the Comprehensive Spending Review): National day of action against the cuts.

[ Bank sit-in report ] [ Save Our Services meeting: Report | Photos | Audio ]
[ Oxford Save Our Services | Oxford Right to Work | No Shock Doctrine ]

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On Monday several actions took place against the government's nuclear weapons and their plans to develop new ones. The focus was AWE Aldermaston, the military base near Reading where these weapons are developed and maintained.

Activists from Trident Ploughshares had been holding an "Aldermaston Summer Gathering" for several days sharing information and leafletting nearby villages. Co-inciding with this, folks from the Catholic Worker movement were holding a "Faith and Resistance" retreat in Oxford celebrating the 30th anniversary of the first Ploughshares action.

As the day began around twenty TP folks blockaded one of the main gates into the base, including four who "locked-on" with arm tubes. They left without any arrests after successfully blockading for two hours.

Soon afterwards, 3 of the Catholic Workers cut through the perimeter fence and broke into the base, "opening it for disarmament", while others carried out a vigil at the gates of the base. They were arrested, held until evening, charged with criminal damage, and may also face SOCPA charges.

[ Report of TP gathering ] [ Reports of CW gathering: 1 | 2 ] [ Actions: 1 | 2 ]
[ Trident Ploughshares | Catholic Worker | Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp ]
[ Coverage elsewhere: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 ]

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Update (28/08/10): most of the detainees stopped the hunger strike on Tues 10th, but around 15 people are still refusing to take meals from the kitchen.

"Today we raise our voices until liberty is ours. [...] We deserve to be heard and until such time, we fight."

Around 150 migrants held at Campsfield migrant prison near Kidlington are on hunger strike "as a result of the treatment of detainees in detention centres especially for people who have been detained for a long period of time".

"Our lives incidentally have been stalled without any hope of living a life, having a family or any future [...] some of us are tortured and even face death or mental distress [...] We are issued removal directions without given enough time for an appeal. [...] On a regular basis, we are tortured, restrained, strapped like animals and beating to effect removal."

Local campaigners have responded by immediately organising several solidarity demos and calling for people to write to their MPs. At least one detainee perceived as a ringleader has been transferred to another detention centre and placed in solitary detention.

The next demo is Monday 9th August, from 7pm, at Campsfield, Langford Lane, Kidlington. Cyclists will meet at St Giles at 6pm to ride there together. There are also regular buses from Oxford.

[ First detainee statement | Second statement | Reports of loud chanting | Friday demo + other updates ]
[ Campaign to Close Campsfield | Oxford No Borders | Barbed Wire Britain ]
[ Previous Campsfield detainee actions: June 2006 hunger strike | March 2007 riot | August 2007 riot and escape ]

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Oxford Indymedia will be having a public meeting on Thursday 26 August at 7.00pm in the Oxford Action Resource Centre, East Oxford Community Centre, Princes St, OX4 1DD.

We're really keen to involve more people in Oxford Indymedia. If you've got an interest in grassroots camapigning and activism, we would love to see or hear from you. There are many roles within Oxford Indymedia - from writing feature stories to writing computer code; from writing your own news to moderating other people's news; from designing graphics to promoting Oxford Indymedia - everybody has something they can contribute.

Oxford Indymedia is the grassroots alternative to the mainstream media. Unlike most news outlets, we don't have any hidden agendas, corporate sponsors, or owners that we have to appease. Our website (which you're currently looking at) allows you to publish your own stories in your own words and with your own pictures. And we have an events calendar so you can promote your events to get more people involved in grassroots actions in Oxford.

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Both BP and Shell had their flagship recruitment events at the Randolph Hotel hijacked by protesters in the last few weeks. Linking the global issues of climate change and exploitation to local attacks on people and the environment, campaigners from Thames Valley Climate Action took over stages, heckled, asked awkward questions, unplugged display equipment, leafletted and chatted with audiences.

The actions were amongst the first in a new grassroots campaign against the extraction of Tar Sands oil in Alberta, Canada. Shell are massively involved there, whereas BP are still in the process of getting involved; it's hoped that by targetted them early on we might be able to put them off. You can find out more, and hear first-hand stories from touring indigenous activists at the talk on Monday 16th November at Science Oxford, and at the film screening of H2Oil on Sunday 22nd November at Oxford Action Resource Centre.

[ Shell action: 1 | 2 | Video ] [ BP action: 1 | 2 | Video ]
[ Tar Sands background: 1 | 2 | 3 | UK tour | film screening ]
[ Thames Valley Climate Action | Shell To Sea | Hands Off Iraqi Oil ]

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Update: At 4:30 am after 48 hours of protest, the remaining 10 came down from the roof of Didcot Power station and were arrested.

Early on Monday morning, activists entered a NPower coal fired plant in Didcot. A group chained themselves to the coal conveyor, and prevented coal from entering the power station, although a report indicates that those chained to the conveyor were cut loose and arrested. Others erected tents on the roof and have climbed chimneys, and have spent two nights up there.

In associated actions, work was stopped at two open cast mines on Monday. Twenty activists entered the site at Shipley which provides coal to Ratcliffe-on-Soar, and climbed onto vehicles, which they occupies, stopping work on the site for 4.5 hours. Mainshill, site of an ongoing protest camp was blockaded for seven hours. After action to stop night time felling on Monday, another blockade was mounted on Tuesday.

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Students across the country are holding occupations and sit ins in solidarity with Gaza. SOAS shut down a MOD exhibition on their campus whilst students at LSE declared victory after seven days when the university agreed to all of their demands.

They are followed by others at King's College,Essex, Warwick, Sussex , Birmingham and over 80 Oxford University students have occupied the historic Bodleian building to demand that the university releases a statement condemning the attack on Gaza and cancel the lecture series at Balliol College inaugurated by Israeli war criminal Shimon Peres. There are also early reports of occupations at Manchester Met, Newcastle, Leeds, Cambridge [Pics], Bradford, Queen Mary, Sheffield Hallam, Nottingham, Strathclyde and Manchester universities. Update Wed 28th: The occupations have started to bring in results as both Sussex and Bradfod students have declared "victory" [See Sussex and Bradford declarations] On the other hand, the Cambridge University occupation is under threat of eviction [more] Update Sun 1st Feb: Nottingham occupation violently evicted [more | video] Update 11th Feb: Golsmiths University and the University of East Anglia are occupied.

In Yorkshire, students have occupied a building at Leeds University whilst the Bradford AGM voted to give the university the weekend to comply with demands to support the Palestinians, or expect action on Monday. On Tuesday morning, around 80 students occupied the university boardroom. The students say they "are enraged and horrified by the unspeakable atrocities that have been committed by the Israeli military on the people of Palestine, and ... will not tolerate the complicity of ... institutions of education in this violence."

Regional features: Cambridge | Nottingham | Sheffield

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E.ON has withdrawn from University Careers Fairs run by AIESEC following a string of protests around the country. E.ON did not show up at Birmingham today (12th Nov). The protesters object to E.ON wanting to develop new coal fired power stations, such as at Kingsnorth - the target of this summers Climate Camp. However E.ON cannot avoid the protests by avoiding careers fairs - expect more fun during 48 hours of action against E.ON and new coal on the 28/29 November.

Students have visited careers fairs to protest about the presence of parts of the arms and fossil fuel industries. Climate chaos related companies targeted include RBS (the oil and gas bank), BP and Shell. The arms industry representatives include the Army, B.Ae, Qinetiq and Rolls Royce. Careers fairs have been targeted in Aston, Birmingham ( 2 ), Bristol, Cambridge ( 2 | 3 ), Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Imperial College London, Kings College London, Leeds, Liverpool, Loughborough, Manchester ( 2 | 3 ), Nottingham ( 2 | 3 ), Oxford ( 2 ), Sheffield, Southampton, Warwick and York. More reports are available from People and Planet.

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Update (20/01/08): The Bonn Square treesit ended after Gabriel came down from the tree. He was in need of food and water after the police and council had cut off all supplies (even arresting those who attempted to get water to him) and had to be given medical attention. The tree was felled and several activists were arrested trying to prevent the felling. Meanwhile the campaign to save other trees in the area from the Westgate expansion continues.

The beginning of 2008 saw more resistance to the ongoing gentrification of Oxford. On the 4th January a sycamore, reportedly 100 years old, was occupied by a sole protester (with plenty of support from below) to prevent it being felled for the 'redevelopment' of Bonn Square. They have since been served with a court summons and could do with support on Monday 14th January from 10am at Oxford County Court.

Meanwhile, the Westgate Partnership have been merrily chainsawing trees to make way for the Westgate expansion (which is technically different from the Bonn Square project, but linked to the West End 'regeneration'). This is despite the fact that a public inquiry is still going on over the demolition of Abbey Place sheltered housing - a clear indication of what the developers think of the legal process.

On Wednesday 9th January there was an impromptu day of action at the back of the Westgate centre where some trees had already been cut down. This protest led to the arrest of Councillor Glass Woodin and also saw one of the London Plane trees being occupied for over 24 hours. The bad weather on the 10th saw off - no pun intended - any more tree carnage.

There was a protest about the Westgate expansion on Saturday 12th January which saw at least 100 people reclaiming Bonn Square.

Meanwhile, Oxford County Council are meeting soon to decide whether to grant Radley Lakes Town Green status. If successful, this would prevent NPower using the lakes as a dumping ground for their waste ash. Save Radley Lakes need supporters on Monday 14th from 1:30pm at County Hall, Castle St.

[ Early reports: 1 | 2 | 3 | Video ]    [ Later actions: 1 (with video) | 2 | 3 ]    [ Bonn Sq: demo | mass action ]    [ starvation policy: 1 | 2 ]    [ Bonn Sq chainsawed: 1 | 2 | photos ]    [ Westgate trees spiked ]

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Around 10:30pm on Saturday, August 4th, a riot broke out in Campsfield House, Oxfordshire, leading to 26 migrants escaping the immigration prison. 15 have since been recaptured, while the rest are still on the run. It followed a yard protest on Tuesday night against the appalling conditions inside the detention centre, which is run by American company GEO, and the discriminatory decisions of Newport immigration court, which is used for bail hearings and appeals involving Campsfield detainees. A hunger strike was started on Wednesday but was put on hold pending a meeting with Home Office representatives on Friday. A further yard protest on Friday night was held as the meeting failed to meet the prisoners' demands. Three solidarity demos were held on Tuesday midday at Campsfield House, Lindholme (Doncaster) and the Communication House (London) [reports: 1 | 2 | 3 ].

Last week, a revolt in a detention centre in Bari, Italy, led to at least 35 migrants escaping. Three weeks ago, 69 Tamil detainees in 5 detention centres, including Campsfield, went on hunger strike against a Home Office decision to deport them back to Sri Lanka [appeal]. Many are still on hunger strike while two Sri Lankan detainees in Harmondswoth, near Heathrow, have been on hunger strike for almost a month (see also Immigration detention: Unworkable).

Links: Campaign to Close Campsfield | No Borders UK

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"They left the land to rot, covered in trash and needles. They hope the buildings will fall down, so they can justify flogging to the highest bidder [...] Reading Borough Council call it development, regeneration. We call it gentrification, exclusion."

In Reading, a group of local activists and residents have reclaimed a plot of land left empty by the local council, transforming it into an attractive community garden. After months of hard work, they went public with banners and door-to-door flyering, advertising the opening day and encouraging the neighbours to see the garden as common land for all to enjoy. The councils response? Injunctions and threats of eviction. Undeterred, the group pushed ahead with the opening day, which was a great success.

A few legal hearings later, the council have their eviction orders, and are expected to try and evict the garden and adjacent squatted building on Wednesday 20th June. Help is needed to resist the eviction - meet 9:30am at the garden.

Meanwhile, in Oxford, locals have turned an area of derelict garages into a similar community space - in this case, with the permission and help of the local council (undoubtably because access issues make the site unsuitable for developers).

They held their official opening on Saturday 16th, also a varied and wonderful community event. In a sickening counterpart to events in Reading, council bureaucrats and the local Blairite MP used the project as cover to prop up their own crumbling reputations, to the discomfort of many of those present.

[ Reading: eviction callout | eviction hearing | detailed report | injunction hearing + demo | opening day report + pics | opening announcement | local mainstream coverage ]
[ Oxford: opening day pics | opening announcement ]

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Early in the morning of 14 March, an Algerian detainee held in Campsfield immigration prison in Oxfordshire forcefully resisted an attempted 'removal' by the immigration authorities. Fellow detainees then tried to intervene in solidarity and a riot soon spread in the detention centre, with facilities smashed and set on fire. 2 detainees and 7 staff were taken into hospital, all suffering smoke inhalation [see reports and updates]. In addition to emergency services, Tornado units (riot squads) from the Prison Service were deployed to deal with the 'disturbances'. According to a written ministerial statement by Immigration minister Liam Byrne, 60 of the detainees at Campsfield House have been transferred to other parts of the Home Office detention estate, but other detainees have remained at the centre, which holds up to 200 detainees and was operating at near full capacity at the time of the riot.

Links: Campaign to Close Campsfield | National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns | UK NoBorders groups

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Update (15/02/07): Tree felling and preparation work has started, and sporadic actions are taking places to try to block this work. More help is needed.

Update (06/02/07): The eviction took place on Tuesday 6th February. Bailiffs wearing balaclavas smashed their way in through a set of downstairs windows early in the morning, but it still took them several hours to clear the house after one of the squatters locked on. "We may have lost round one but we will re-group and consider our next course of action. We are not finished yet[...]" - quote attributed to one of the squatters by the Oxford Mail.

URGENT CALL to defend the occupation of Sandles, Thrupp Lake.

On Wednesday 24th January, energy company RWE Npower was granted an order to evict this lakeside property with immediate effect. Meanwhile, at the property extremely robust defences are being built with a view to delaying the destruction of this area of outstanding natural beauty. This is an URGENT CALL for people to join them in resisting the coming eviction. Please phone the site mobile 07772 055 384 straight away.

Npower, who run the notoriously polluting Didcot Power Station, want to fill the lakes with toxic fly ash, a by-product of coal-burning.

A massive campaign by local people has been ignored by both company and the authorities. Oxfordshire County Council has so far facilitated npower's dumping. The habitat is home to many protected species, including water voles and rare orchids. There have been reported sightings of otters. Further expertise is requested to gather further evidence of the ecology of the lakes. Boats are also very welcome at the site.

Links: Eviction expected | Videos: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] | Photos | Court Report | Occupation and background | Older Report | Campaign Website | Map

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On Saturday 25th November a host of anti-consumerist actions went off across Oxford shopping centre. The day started with an info-stall, big-brand-bowling and anti-capitalist christmas carols. A congregation of shop-worshippers did the rounds, while another group left subverted till receipts in interesting locations.

As evening fell Breach of the Peace samba band reclaimed Cornmarket to the cry of 'stop shopping, start living', merging beautifully with a local Faslane 365 anti-nuke group who were out and about doing a series of die-ins. Finally a 'merry band of Oxford pixies' reported having cheekily relabelled goods in several chainstores.

Meanwhile many other events took place across the UK.

[ reports: Samba and die-in | Shop worshippers | Relabellers ]
[ related: BoP samba | Faslane 365 | UK feature | radical carols ]

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Update (11/10/06): The trial resulted in a hung jury, with the jurors unable to agree on a verdict after over 12 hours of deliberation!

The trial of two Oxford peace activists who attempted to disarm B52 bombers on their way to Iraq is taking place all this week. Toby Olditch and Phil Pritchard went into Fairford airbase just two days before the planes were used, hoping to disable the bombers and thus save civilian lives in Iraq and inspire others to action.

They were arrested before reaching the planes but have gone on to fight a high-profile legal battle, using their case to challenge the legality of the war and raise awareness. The upshot of this has been that various courts, up to and including the House of Lords, spinelessly (but predictably) refusing to allow arguments about the legality of the war. The legal argument for the trial now focuses on Phil and Toby's reasonable belief that they were acting to prevent war crimes.

Support at court is very welcome during the trial, either to come inside or with banners etc outside; Bristol Crown Court is on Small Street, off Corn Street, in Bristol town centre. Check the trial blog for the latest updates.

Margaret Jones and Paul Milling's trial for a similiar action resulted in a hung jury recently and they are awaiting a re-trial.

Meanwhile a Peace Picnic takes place this Saturday 7th October at RAF Croughton, a local US/UK spybase.

B52two trial blog | B52two homepage | trial report | press release

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Internationally, police officers who mutilate or kill people on duty usually get off scot-free, often without the cases even making the news. The Swiss internet site PigBrother.info exposes such cases and the police weapons involved. Though often labelled "less lethal" and portrayed as "harmless", many have proved to be fatal; others have been banned for use in war by e.g. the Geneva Convention yet still frequently used by policeforces worldwide.

In a multimedia live show, Soulless and Anger (the makers of PigBrother.info) present typical cases including weapons, injuries and favourite police excuses from the UK, Ireland, Italy, France, Germany, USA and Switzerland. The show takes place on 9th October, 8pm at East Oxford Community Centre.

Despite the heavy going topic and its technical aspects, the show is presented in an easy to understand and concise way, and Soulless & Anger also focus on the funnier aspects of several Police Operations making the Officers involved look only too human. They demonstrate how persistent work in this area can make a difference, forcing the police and the official media to at least sometimes act more by the book or even abolish some weapons or tactics.

PigBrother.info

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Oxford activists Hamish Campbell and Richard Hering from Undercurrents have kick-started a radical TV station called OfflineTV. It uses the revolutionary new peer-to-peer open source project Democracy Player.

OfflineTV is innovative because it brings together a number of tried and tested technologies (P2P, RSS, broadband) to make a really user-friendly internet TV interface. It has the capacity to scale from hundreds to thousands and hundreds of thousands viewers in full-screen quality. The other crucial thing is the content: the best of politically radical underground video on direct action, social justice, and the environment. This version is now beta-testing.

Two channels are already up and running :

OfflineTV – a quality-controlled screening of the best of what’s out there in radical cyberspace.

News from the Balkans - the first regional network of what will hopefully be many similar networks around the world. NfB gives a radical voice to this region which is so mis-reported by the corporate media. This project is being launched out of the video workshops in the EYFA Art and Activism caravan, but we hope to create a permanent network of radical film makers posting regular reports.

To watch these channels, download Democracy Player

Then search for Undercurrents inside Democracy Player and subscribe to each channel.

And calling all video activists: if you’ve got a funky report about anything anywhere, post it to the Scratch Channel

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Over 120 people detained at Campsfield removal centre near Oxford have gone on hunger strike in protest at their indefinite detention (without trial) and the conditions they face.

"...Most of us have been here for a long while now. There are people who have been detained for up to two years and down to three months. We are cramped in here like animals. We are treated like animals and moved around different detention centres like animals. The immigration service have taken husbands from their families and taken people who ran away from persecution in their various countries, and dumped everyone in here."
-letter from hunger strikers

The latest unrest follows the desperate actions of a Somalian man who went onto the roof and threatened to kill himself, and the takeover of Campsfield by GEO (the company formally known as Wackenhut) who are eager to cut costs at the expense of detainee and staff conditions. However, the detainees have made it clear this is not a specific protest against the new management but against detention in general.

On Thursday night a candlelit vigil by supporters encountered an enthusiastic and noisy response from detainees, and a group of inmates carried out a yard occupation until 5am Friday morning. Meanwhile GEO have been bribing detainees with vouchers to try and break the strike.

More support demos will take place soon. For further details contact: 01865 558145 (Bill MacKeith), 07791 744260 (Robert Robinson), or 01865 726804/07968 292499 (Teresa Hayter and Bob Hughes), Meanwhile a national day of action has been called for 22nd June.

Related: latest letter from detainees | update | call for vigil | original report | national day of action
Links: Close Campsfield campaign | Background on Wackenhut/Group 4/GEO

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Update (31/05/06): The eviction took place today. A large number of cops and bailiffs swamped the site at around 6am. They later brought a crane in to move boats back into the water, and started work on a fence along the waterfront. Some people managed to hold things up by climbing on rooftops, or getting in the way of the craning of the boats, and at least 2 people were arrested. [ photos ]

Update (15/05/06): A small group of bailiffs came and photographed the perimeter of the site around lunchtime today.

Boaters occupying Castle Mill boatyard in Jericho are facing an eviction sometime in the next three weeks, with a first visit from the bailiffs expected this Monday (15th May).

The yard, an indispensable facility for Oxford's narrowboat community, has been occupied since July last year to block British Waterways' attempt to sell the site on to property developers. The emphasis has been on keeping the site going as a working boatyard, and 8 boats have now been craned onto the yard for essential repairs and maintainence, something that no other yard in the area can do.

Despite boaters raising huge public support, defeating the original plan by Bellway Homes to build housing on the site, getting the city council to pass a motion of support and pointing out British Waterways' obligation in law to provide vital services for Oxford's residential boaters, the eviction and development plans are still ploughing on with a mindless momentum of their own, probably fuelled by Oxford's high property prices.

If you would be able to help out in the event of an eviction, join the phone tree by texting your number to the site mobile (07788 915545), emailing boatyardeviction@yahoo.co.uk or ringing the site office (01865 559481). Or get down to the boatyard in person!

[ latest report | Campaign Website | Other ways to help ]
[ old reports: Bellway plan defeated | Boatyard occupied ]

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On the 13th, 14th, 15th of February 2006 a court case against two Swiss police officers took place in Nyon, Switzerland. Michael Deiss and Claude Poget were charged with causing bodily harm through negligence. They were in court after nearly killing climbers Martin Shaw and Gesine Wenzel during the protests against the G8 in Evian. On Friday 17 February the verdict of this private prosecution came through with an acquittal of the two policemen [Read verdict press release by Martin and Gesine]. Following this verdict, the activists announced that they will appeal against this whitewash of police violence.

In June 2003, an affinity group blockaded the Aubonne Bridge with a climbing action in order to stop a G8 delegation from reaching the summit in Evian. The police cut the climbing rope. As a result both activists were seriously injured, specially Martin Shaw who spent one month in hospital and sustained irreversible injuries. See video and a Photo strory of the event.

Other recent newswire reports: Report of day 3 of the trial | Statement by the Aubonne Support Group on the court proceedings | Activists walk out of court after verdict | Activists appeal against whitewash of police violence.

More information: Aubonne Bridge Campaign | IMC-UK Evian G8 page | PigBrother Live Show

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