Housing Struggles World Wide

by Allen Dowd VANCOUVER - Robert Bonner is not impressed that Vancouver is hosting the Winter Olympics and thinks the millions of dollars spent on the event would have better gone on alleviating problems like poverty and homelessness..."Spending C$178 million...for a skating oval isn't really impressive when you're sleeping in a doorway..." read more

Hunger Strike: Yarls Wood Immigration Prison, Bedfordshire

Yarls Wood On Fire during previous resistance in 2007

Since the 5th of February 2010, we the residents at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre are on hunger strike which involves over 84 + women, who are protesting against the period of time spent in detention and the treatment that they receive while being detained.The strike was sparked to protest and demand that the frustration and humiliation of all foreign nationals ends now.

A full statement of demands by the Women can be found here

Calais – Kronstadt Hanger Eviction

Arrested for helping migrants

Brighton No Borders Writes: Since the news of the impending opening of the Kronstadt Hanger, a self-organised resource centre for activists and migrants alike, the police had closely monitored the building and effective mounted a blockade of it since last Friday. On Saturday, people managed to circumvent the 3 police lines blocking access to the front door (they did not force their way in as Besson has claimed). Their numbers were swollen with migrants who were once again shelter-less following the closure after 2 days of the cold weather shelter at the BCMO…full report here A number of Bristol No Borders activists were present.

A statement from Sos Sans Papier can also be found (in french only)here: here.

Bristol Immigration Raid:

The UK Border Agency raided the Glassboat in Welsh Back during a lunch service and closed it off as officers arrested a Jamaican kitchen porter and Peruvian sous chef. Mr Lee, the owner said the Jamaican woman had been working at Glassboat since 2003 and that in 2008 the restaurant wrote to the Home Office to support an application to extend her visa.

He added: “The way they operated was a little shocking and heavy- handed. They didn’t ask to see the documents we had – and the office where I have copies of their documents is 100 yards away. They weren’t interested at all. They were like Stormtroopers as they made their way into the restaurant at the beginning of service at a time we had customers waiting to be seated.The “full” story and the normal racist comments can be found on the This is Bristol website: here

Meanwhile, Alberto Durango, persecuted by his employers and UKBA for his union activism has been sacked (again) by the Lancaster Cleaning Company in London. Background can be found here

Demo last year for AlbertoMore background and details of solidarity demo here.

Cardiff – Anti Mass Deportation Demo

Last Wednesday (3rd Feb) Bristol No Borders joined their Comrades from South Wales in a picket outside the Regional UKBA headquarters in Cardiff to protest against a mass deporrtation to unsafe Nigeria. A full report can be found here.

Dale Farm Travellers

Hanningfield - Wanker

On a lighter Note, Traveller-hating posh-knob-scum-bag Lord Hanningfield is one of four politicians who face prosecution for the parlimenatry expenses scandal. Hanningfield is presently charged with making thousands of pounds worth of false claims for overnight accommodation while allegedly being chauffer-driven home from parliament.

It was he who wanted to tear down Dale Farms’s community centre and Chapel and had been the Queen’s Deputy Lieutenant of the county when in 2004 bailiffs and riot police stormed the Meadowlands caravan park,burning homes and evicting Travellers onto the road in freezing winter weather.

A interesting ariticle by Gratton Puxton about Dale Farm and “Irish” Travellers can be found here. An impending eviction attempt still looms for Dale Farms residents.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: alberto durango, brighton, Bristol, calais, cardiff, Dale Farm, expenses scandal, glassboat, hunger strike, Immigration, lord hanningfield, mass deportations, nigeria, no borders, raid, south wales, travellers, Yarls Wood

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With next year's budget proposals underway we are already seeing the hatchet for slashing budgets that brought about fears of government stand still last year.
 
Philadelphia is faced with a budget deficit of upwards of $100 million for fiscal year 2011. Over the five years that the city has to plan for, it's looking at a $500 to $700 million shortfall. This is a significant chunk of change to add on to the $2.4 billion already cut in the city's five-year plan last round.
 
Balancing the budget this time around will probably rely on municipal service cuts and the city worker's contracts more than new taxes. The failed solution of the new 8% sales tax is part of the issue, yielding lower than expected revenue due to the weak buying power of city residents hurting from the recession.
 
Instead, the Mayor has asked City departments to report what 2.5, 5, and 7.5 percent reductions would mean for their programs and staff. The possibilities of increases in taxes like the business privilege tax remain off the table in order to "protect" the business community, though profits have returned for many of Philadelphia's largest firms (Cigna, Comcast, Sunoco, and UniSys to name a few).
 
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Across the river, the state of New Jersey is facing a $1.2 billion deficit for the year. It will be the first major test of new republican Governor Chris Christie. 
 
The plan that is suspected to be announced - cuts to state workers, from the state house down to local school districts. Health care costs are one of the main target, and passing health benefit costs back to workers is the solution we will see the NJ state lawmakers propose. The other target, pensions, the Christie will proposing tightening who gets in and who gets benefits.
 
The situation is all too similar to Philadelphia city workers, who have gone since March 09 without a contract.
 
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These local budget issues are not in isolation. With the Obama administration promising a budget freeze until the federal deficit is brought under control we shouldn't expected an already stressed national government to save the day. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said just that when announcing the budget proposal for New York City. “There’s not going to be a Hail Mary pass coming from the federal government,” he told the New York Times. And expecting no pass he may turn to stop funding 500 soup kitchens and food pantries, close 20 fire companies, and a homeless shelter.
 
The economic recession that took hold of the financial markets in September 2008 has rocked budgets of local, federal, and state governments.  With no end in sight, the recovery in stock markets has yet to translate into an increase in jobs. The latest job numbers many feel are contradictory, leaving uncertainty of when we will see businesses create more jobs than shed. 
 
Last week the Dow Jones and world markets went on a roller-coaster ride, with investor confidence shaken by budget troubles for Euro zone governments Spain, Portugal, and Greece.
 
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We are seeing tremors of what could be another downturn. If we are spared this fate, we are surely getting a sense of what "recovery" really looks like - budget tightening by state and local governments through cuts on workers, the decreased ability for federal government to offer relief, and a consolidated market with continued opportunity for large businesses to profit while the rest of us struggle to survive.
 
It is clear that this state of affairs requires an independent social movement to propose new solutions to this crisis. Otherwise, whatever solutions are proposed will force the burden of the crisis onto the backs of poor and working people.
 

This weekend a new space for activists and migrants was opened, occupied and forcibly shut down within 24hours. Here's what happened.

Varias municipalidades en España han optado por esquivar los debates parlamenta-rios sobre la prostitución en sí, incluyendo la venta de sexo en las actividades prohibidas por ordenanzas cívicas sobre el uso del espacio público (la calle). Así el vender sexo parece ser solo una de una serie de comportamientos vistos como perjudiciales a la vida urbana, lo que se llama la convivencia.  Es curioso ver cuales son las ocupaciones que supuestamente afean la ciudad y molestan los demás. Mira las fotos e intenta apostar qué es lo que tienen en común. Look at the pictures and guess what these activities have in common that cause city ordinances to name them as making cities ugly and disturbing peaceful coexistence.

Aquí son las actividades a veces mencionadas como prohibidas, una mezcla de formas de entretenerse y de ganarse la vida:

pedir limosnas

relaciones sexuales en coches

vender cds pirateados

el botellón

los aparcacoches

lavarse en fuentes públicos

dormir en bancos

’ser gorilla’

Los grandes ayuntamientos apoyan la norma contra el sexo callejero y la mendicidad

Ramón Ferrando Valencia, 21 enero 2010, levante-emv.com

Comunitat Valenciana: Los grandes ayuntamientos de la Comunitat Valenciana están detrás de la normativa de la Federación Valenciana de Municipios y Provincias que persigue la prostitución, la mendicidad, la actividad de los gorrillas o cualquier otra que perturbe la tranquilidad de los vecinos. La norma, como ayer adelantó Levante-EMV, es muy restrictiva y prevé sanciones de hasta 3.000 euros por mantener relaciones sexuales en un coche dentro de la ciudad o de 400 euros para las personas que compren música pirateada.

Un portavoz de la Federación Valenciana de Municipios y Provincias (FVMP) explicó que una comisión mixta formada por juristas y los responsables de las policías locales de Valencia, Alicante, Castelló, Elx, Paterna y Vila-real han trabajado durante cuatro meses en la elaboración del documento que prohíbe la mendicidad, la venta callejera sin licencia, la prostitución en la vía pública o la actividad de los gorrillas. La comisión ha celebrado una quincena de reuniones desde el 17 de agosto en las que de manera exhaustiva han dado forma al soporte legislativo que necesitaban los ayuntamientos para luchar contra fenómenos como el botellón o el vandalismo.

El texto, denominado Ordenanza de Protección del Espacio Público, cuenta con una amplio respaldo político. El portavoz de la FVMP recordó que lo aprobó por unanimidad el pleno de la federación y cuenta con apoyos de municipios como “Polinyà del Xúquer de Esquerra Unida, Torrent del Partido Popular o Muro d’Alcoi del Bloc”. Jaume Bronchud, edil de Participación Ciudadana de Mislata, apuntó que “es un documento marco que acogemos con optimismo porque puede contribuir a mejorar la convivencia“. El Ayuntamiento de Torrent ya está trabajando para aplicar las normas.

La Federación Valencia de Municipios y Provincias ha trabajado a fondo el texto para que no fracase como otras iniciativas. Elena Bastidas, presidenta de la federación de municipios valencianos y alcaldesa de Alzira, señaló: “Lo hemos hecho con la máxima rigurosidad. Han participado intendentes de las policías municipales y especialistas del ámbito jurídico. Es una norma muy completa que intenta dar respuesta a algunas de las cuestiones que nos planteaban. Ha sido auspiciada por todos los partidos y enriquecida desde el punto de vista técnico. Tiene un plus de garantía que posiblemente otras normas no tienen”.

La federación de municipios ha analizado normativas similares puestas en marcha con éxito en Barcelona, Lleida, Granada o Sevilla. Además, ha estudiado iniciativas como las del Ayuntamiento de Castelló contra las conductas incívicas, las de Alicante contra el botellón y los aparcacoches o las de Burriana que fija sanciones de hasta 3.000.

Elena Bastidas añadió que han previsto una gran cantidad de multas porque es “una normativa ambiciosa. No nos hemos limitado a los gorrillas o al botellón. Hemos abordado otros fenómenos que se han agravado con la crisis como la prostitución callejera. Tratamos de proporcionar normas específicas como la prohibición de lavarse en fuentes públicas o dormir en un banco“.

"Detention results from political decisions that represent a "hardening attitude towards irregular migrants and asylum seekers" (*PACE)

End the Detention of Foreign Nationals Now!

“His life will be in serious danger if he is deported back to Burundi due to the ethnic clashes and the serious institutional homophobia”. The human rights activists are appealing to the United Nations and the European Parliament to save this young man's life.

No Borders are a group who help desperate migrants and have rented a space in Calais that was being used to provide homeless migrants with a warm dry space to stay, food, drink, basic medical supplies, clothing and bedding etc. The French Police and UK Border / Immigration Police have smashed their way into the building via the windows and arrested almost everybody and continue to chase migrants through Calais. The migrants are fleeing political persecution, torture, rape, political imprisonment, starvation etc.

No Borders are a group who help desperate migrants and have rented a space in Calais that was being used to provide homeless migrants with a warm dry space to stay, food, drink, basic medical supplies, clothing and bedding etc. The French Police and UK Border / Immigration Police have smashed their way into the building via the windows and arrested almost everybody and continue to chase migrants through Calais. The migrants are fleeing political persecution, torture, rape, political imprisonment, starvation etc.

Police force entry and arrest all those who were inside, who all had papers. Illegal eviction of space.

Police force entry and arrest all those who were inside, who all had papers. Illegal eviction of space.

On Sunday afternoon french police has raided the new NoBorders space in Calais ( called the Kronstadt Hangar), all activists inside were brought to police stations.

- Announcing - Sierra Club – Buena Vista GroupUpcoming Events For February 2010 f  e Join us onSaturday, February 6th, 10:00 a.m.Camino Real Restaurant3500...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contacts Danny Santana-Hernández southcentralfarmers.com (http://southcentralfarmers.com/)

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Justices to hear appeal on Roundup Ready alfalfa seed (http://www.truthabouttrade.org/news/latest-news/15509-justices-to-hear-appeal-on-roundup-ready-alfalfa-seed) 0 Comments and 0 Reactions (http://www.truthabouttrade.org/news/latest-news/15509-justices-to-hear-appeal-on-roundup-ready-alfalfa-seed#disqus_thread) Billings Gazette January 26, 2010...

Food crisis threatens millions 2010-01-29 09:05 Print this article (javascript:window.print()) Dakar - Millions in Niger and across West Africa face food shortages after erratic rains...

Order in court (well another court) Systemxchange Social Centre 1st March 2010 @ Wandsworth.

Non-Commercial House is evicted again! The new venue of the film night is 195 Mare Street, Hackney. This Sunday we will screen the last three episodes of Angels in America at 4 PM. Angels in America (2003, 176 min): Playwright Tony Kushner adapts eir political epic about the AIDS crisis during the mid-eighties, around a group of [...]

A few days ago we posted an article regarding the rapid rise and growth of some of Russia's very own Neo-Nazi paramilitary groups. These groups have been responsible for hundreds of racially motivated attacks against immigrants and refugees, plus many more murders. They typically record these attacks/murders so that they can eventually be shown to brainwash and control young recruits.