Oxford Anti-militarism

24-07-2011 19:21 | 0 comment(s)

Fairford Air Tattoo - Scarring for Life

Gloucestershire's skies were darkened again by the Royal International Fairford Air Tattoo as some of the world's worst climate criminals and human rights abusers compared their best killing machines. This is an event about the glorification of everything that a civilised society should feel repelled about. Despite this, virtually every single newspaper, TV and radio show lavished it with praise. In so doing, they justified the entertainment budgets that the military industrial complex lays on at our expense.

14-04-2011 10:29 | 0 comment(s)

Oxford February/March Bumper Double Roundup

This February and March double roundup of grassroots news in Oxford begins with the anti-cuts movement. Back in February there was a March against the cuts, then in March, Cornmarket turned into the Big Society Hospital. A week later the big TUC march bought London to a standstill, one Oxfordian wrote My march for the alternative about the day. Please do share your experiences of demos at publish your news by the way! Not to be outdone both Swindon and Stroud were also organising against the cuts.

07-02-2011 21:30 | 1 comment(s)

Oxford's January round up

Welcome to the latest round up of grassroots news from Oxford. It's proven to be another busy month for activists and campaigners in Oxford. Local, national, and international attention has focused on our little city somewhere between London and the Midlands.

10-09-2010 22:50 | 17 comment(s)

Resistance to "Factory of Death" continues

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 ]

12-11-2008 18:54 | 8 comment(s)

E.ON withdraws from careers fairs due to persistent protests

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.

05-10-2006 14:23 | 0 comment(s)

B52 disarmers on trial this week

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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29-04-2005 21:25 | 1 comment(s)

RAF Brize Norton Antiwar Demo and Peace Camp

A strange thing happened in the town of Carterton today (23/4/05)– a peace march, believed to be the very first ever protest march through the town.

Carterton is host to RAF Brize Norton - Britains main airbase for waging the war and occupation in Iraq. Most of the British Troops that fly out to Iraq do so from Brize Norton as does much of the supplies. Carterton community is heavily dependent on the base for work and thus heavily affected by British war casualties.

The demo explicitly aimed to interact with the people of Carterton: its message "The war/occupation is illegal and immoral - support the troops bring them home."

report | report+pics | more pics

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10-11-2004 11:09 | 0 comment(s)

Die-in makes a real impact in Cornmarket

Update 10/11/04: On Saturday the attack on Falluja started. Since then there have been protests and actions all over the UK, including vigils in Oxford. Keep an eye on the calendar for more protests or plan your own and tell us

Last Thursday, with the horror of the US build up to the attack on Falluja coming ever closer dead bodies in Cornmarket made a sombre impact. The public were noticeably moved to see a number of bodies, some of whom appeared to have blood on them. They were lying on the street in Cornmarket, the main shopping street in Oxford. All around them were statements chalked on the pavements giving information and explanations. This caused people to stop longer to read what they said. Others took the leaflets or read the posters which had more information.

This was a 'die in' organised by OSAN to remind people of the over 100,000 Iraqi's who have already died since the invasion. With a loud speaker Moslem women and others read out the names of those who have died, their age and how they died. For many of them the cause of death was shrapnel. While I was giving out leaflets I watched the public stopping and with puzzled stares look at the bodies while they listened to the names of the dead Iraqis. It was as if they could not move on and a great sadness seemed to hang over the street. Many people told me they were in support. Of course there were the others who said that it was a waste of time or that we were wrong but the main response was one of real sorrow, feelings of desperation and a need to show we do not agree with what is happening during this very illegal occupation.

report | report + pics | OSAN | NOW | Voices

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09-10-2004 15:02 | 0 comment(s)

Fairford Coach case in Court of Appeal

The Fairford coach case is at the Court of Appeal this week, on the 14 and 15 of October. The coach detainees will be taking the police to court once again over the basic human right to protest and the right not to be detained. The following press release recently appeared on the Fairford Coach Action website.

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16-04-2004 01:17 | 1 comment(s)

Youth March to Aldermaston

On 10th April, 50 young people set out on the 40 mile march to Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment. The march, organised by Youth & Student CND, was to protest against Britain's nuclear weapons.

The first day saw a short rally in Bonn Square, with speakers including Gawain Little (national committee, Y&S CND), the Rev. David Platt (Christian CND) and David and Rene Gill (Oxford CND), who had taken part in the very first march to Aldermaston in 1958.

Despite the overcast sky, spirits were high and we marched along St Aldates and out of Oxford, 15 miles to Wallingford.

The second day's march was from Wallingford to Reading, where we were received by the Reading Quakers. The march from London also arrived in Reading in the evening and we were able to share food and tales of sore feet!

Monday began with a gathering at Broad St, Reading, where around 200 people awaited the London march. By the time the procession left Burghfield, there were around 1000 people marching. The atmosphere was tremendous, with people tired, but proud of the distance they'd marched and eager to make their protest heard.

Well done to everyone who marched - let's make it even better next year!

Reports [1] [2] | Youth Student CND

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