Oxford Newswire Archive

Saturday next stop the nazis Read more >>

BBC strike - Monday 23rd May in protest at politically motivated job cuts.

Mass picket outside Radio Oxford, Banbury Road at 1pm.
Read more >>

Benefit gig this this sunday at the Cellar 8 - 12.30
Bands: Jambo (funk ++ ) los Zopilotes (Cuban Dance Attack)
DJ: Dan Ofer
3 pounds - cakesale - profits go to a tibetan hospital in
Dharamsala Read more >>

The is an initiative to encourage people to walk more... Read more >>

Anti-G8 Meetings are now to be held on a regular basis at the Oxford Action Resource Centre. Read more >>

We have a dozen working computer monitors lying around which we're going to have to scrap if we can't get rid of them. Read more >>

EDO Solidarity protest at office of injunction lawyer. Read more >>

The Green Party are hosting INDIRA JAISING, Senior Advocate at the Indian Supreme Court, on Saturday May 21st. Read more >>

The Home Office have now ratcheted up the ante by re-introducing slavery through the form of 'voluntary service for people who have failed the Asylum System and needing subsistence and accommodation' with the assistance of the National YMCA Organisation.

Liverpool YMCA is going to be the first voluntary sector agency to collude with the Home Office in the immigration slavery scheme introduced by section 10 of the 2004 legislation.

While Liverpool is parading on its City Of Culture, 2008 Status (more like Culture of Capital, Here & Now), it would be worthwhile stating historical fact - Liverpool was home to the Slave Trade - and now in 2005, Liverpool could and may well become home to the New City Of Slavery.

The YMCA and the Home Office have called for a 'Closed Door' Meeting to be held at Liverpool City Councils Millenium House on Tuesday 24 May 2005 from 12:40 - 14:40hrs.

The aim of this meeting from what I can gather, is to 'embrace community dialogue' - through restricting the meeting to just a few (highly-paid & self-anointed) NGOs (whose own sources of revenue are probably paid for by the Home Office...)

The question is, can real community dialogue be achieved like this?

The meeting was posted on the SmartGroups Liverpool asylum seeker and refugee support group:

 http://www.smartgroups.com/message/viewdiscussion.cfm?gid=1256290&messageid=2609

----Section 4 Support - 'Voluntary Service'

>> There is a consultation meeting with the YMCA and
>> the Home Office about this on 24th May - 12.40 - 2.40
>> at Millenium House in Liverpool.

As you can see this is the only outside knowledge of this meeting.

I contacted the Liverpool YMCA today which people believe to be the site of the Pilot Scheme, and the Office Administrator has denied any knowledge of the meeting, but said that, "if it's not Liverpool then it might be Chester which will do it."

If the meeting is being held within Council premises, can Trade Unionists based within Millenium House please make and take action with regards to this?

UNISON, and other Unions the call-out for you is here.

Individuals with a conscience, please make your views heard on this subject.

The following links are related to this meeting:

YMCA slave labour scheme

Section 4 Support - 'Voluntary Service'

There is a consultation meeting with the YMCA and the Home Office
about this on 24th May - 12.40 - 2.40 at Millenium House in Liverpool.

 http://www.smartgroups.com/message/readmessage.cfm?gid=1256290&messageid=2602

IND has announced that YMCA England will be running a pilot exercise for Section 10 of the Asylum & Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc) Act in Liverpool.

Word document:

 http://www.asylumpolicy.info/mayiapnews.doc

YMCA England Statement following meeting with Church Action on Poverty, Boaz Trust and Churches Commission on Racial Justice

Word document:

 http://www.asylumpolicy.info/ymcastatement.doc

It is important that no-one allows this 'Pilot' to get off the ground.

While the YMCA may or could agree to the scheme, it can only be made unworkable if YMCA Staff take a stand on this issue - strike action, refuse on moral grounds, refuse on Health & Safety issues (will the refugees be given proper H&S training?)

Or perhaps I could 'release' the person out, if I saw a refugee doing what I called anything like 'labour'?

Or maybe, the homeless people within the YMCAs will start "getting refugees to do their 'dirty-work'", or cause deep divisions within already dis-enfranchised communities?

If this doesn't happen here, it could happen near YOU.

Maybe meet up at The Egg, Tuesday 24/05, 11:30am?

Anyone into it?

Banners, drums, trumpets, anything to make a party & noise.

Can the 'Outside Media' meaning The Echo/BBC do something on it? Read more >>

Update on the NPT Review Conference in New York this month. Read more >>

Public Meeting - 19th May 7.30pm - Oxford Town Hall

Speaker: GILBERT ACHCAR - Lebanese socialist and anti-war campaigner
"The Middle East and the Project for a New American Century" Read more >>

Anti Nuclear Action - Sarah Lasenby from Oxford has helped occupy the nuclear free state of Drake’s Island in Plymouth Sound Read more >>

The 31st annual Levellers' Day took place in Burford on Saturday 14 May. There was a good turnout of people of all ages, coming from as far afield as Leicester and Cheltenham, and the weather was, for once, almost perfect, considering that most years we either bake or drown..
The theme this year was ‘The Media as a Political Weapon’, and we had excellent speeches from people such as Greg Philo of the Glasgow Media Group, Anna Wagstaff of the Oxford NUJ and Judith Brown from Arab Media Watch.
The afternoon’s entertainment was astonishingly varied, including Geoff Berner and his friends from Canada, Attila the Stockbroker with both poems and songs, and many more (see www.levellers.org.uk). Delicious Indian vegetarian food was available all day.
We Indy types managed to get in a 2-minute plug for Oxford Indymedia, immediately after Anna Wagstaff’s speech, but there was no other mention of Indymedia and, as far as I could gather, just a nod in the direction of alternative media sources on the part of Greg Philo. This was disappointing for us as we consider that Indymedia, though still fairly small and immature, has great potential on several counts: by providing self-publishing facilities for all, it can in principle greatly extend the range of news available to people, so bypassing many of the problems associated with the corporate media. It can also have an empowering effect on those contributors who have hitherto felt themselves to be ‘voiceless’, and thereby reinforce democracy (etc., etc!!).

Read more >>

A posh fundraiser for the mobilisation against the G8 summit.
Saturday June 4th, 12-9 pm
Cambridge (in the Green Area, Strawberry Fair)

Dancing, Music, Info-shop, Speakers, Frivolity
Bring masks, ball-gowns, jackets, costumes, friends Read more >>

Churches Together in Cumnor and Oxford exploring spirituality as taught by the Anglican, the Reformed, and the Orthodox traditions. Read more >>

The Nakba Day Demonstration in support of a free Palestine, and an end to Israeli occupation is being held in London on 21st May, starting at 1pm at Embankment. A coach will be going from Oxford leaving the Taylor Institute St Giles at 10.30am Read more >>

Leaders of the powerful G8 countries ran wild in Oxford today, shaking hands, waving and dancing to samba rhythms. Read more >>

You left your little music book in my bike basket on Cornmarket St on Saturday around 1pm. Read more >>

Peace could be restored or it could escalate further. Latest news from here. Read more >>

Protest of over 200 people, 12.30, 10 Downing Street, Sunday 15th May, over the UK government's lack of action to stop the genocide of 400,000 in Darfur. Read more >>