THERE'LL BE ELM TO PAY
Brighton activists occupy tree to save it from felling
Campaigners have occupied a 150-year-old elm tree in Brighton. The tree was scheduled for felling as part of road works in the Seven Dials area.
There have been vigils at the base of the tree since it became known that the council planned to cut it down. But last night, acting on a tip off that the builders were gonna get busy with the chainsaws first thing in the morning, two men scaled the tree and set up a net.
SchNEWS spoke to one of them via the miracle of telephony: “We weren't a moment too soon – at five this morning the contractors built a compound across the whole road and fenced in the tree. Since then we've had literally hundreds of people coming by to support us. We've been informed by the council now that nothing will happen until Monday, but we're going to stay here until the whole thing is sent back for consultation.”
The felling of the tree wasn't mentioned during the lengthy consultation process for the re-modelling of the area, and activists have been quick to point out the irony of this happening under the first Green party-run city council in the country.
The Brighton area is famous for its elms – one of the few places in the country to esacpe the ravages of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s.
If you're based in Brighton – head up to Seven Dials and show yer support (there's rumours of a pro-tree festival on Saturday). If not – then keep up with the action on Twitter @saveourtree.
It's Hove vs Gove as the education secretary aims to concrete over recreation ground in the name of God.
UPDATE: They finally coughed up. After two days of consistent hassling by activists at the Department for Transport earlier last month, during which one person got nicked, the DfT sheepishly released the previously top secret (read: problematic and embarrassing) documents about the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road.
UPDATE: They finally coughed up. After two days of consistent hassling by activists at the Department for Transport earlier last month, during which one person got nicked, the DfT sheepishly released the previously top secret (read: problematic and embarrassing) documents about the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road.
With protestors gearing up for a second round of resistance there could be 'diversions ahead' for the East Sussex County Council and the road backing scum Trinity College in the University of Cambridge.
In solidarity with 235 Sussex University workers whose jobs are threatened with privatisation, protesters from around the country converge on Sussex University's campus (alread site of an ongoing occupation), invade management HQ and make a bonfire out of corporate files.
It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since the US-UK coalition invaded Iraq. 10 years since that fatal day on the 19th of March 2003 when the neoconservative “Crazies in the White House” bought their own propaganda and believed they could reshape the Middle-East with a blitzkrieg military campaign of “Shock and Awe”.
Recent announcement by Environmental Agency grants permits to EDF aiding the production of nuclear energy at Hinkley Point C.
Over 10,000 anti-fascists gathered in Dresden, East Germany on Wednesday (13th) to oppose a neo-Nazi march.
