Getting Ready for Day of Mass Action

This is a series of daily video reports from the Climate Camp 2008 in Kingsnorth, Kent, UK

The Climate Camp 2008 at Kingsnorth has chosen that site, because there are plans to build a new coal powered generating station there and given that coal is a big emitter of CO-2 into the atmosphere, then this make sense to make it the focus of a climate action campagin.

The camp is ongoing; click here to access daily video reports from the camp.

It should be noted that the well known climate scientist James Hansen has come out strongly against any further coal plants and thinks there should be a complete halt to them, given that his and other scientists' recent research, including recent observations from the Arctic, show that the climate is turning out to be far more sensitive to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change is happening much much quicker than anticipated.

Indeed, the level of the annual summer melt in the Arctic in 2007 was so great that projections for an (summer) ice free Arctic have been brought forward from around the year 2080 to anytime within the next few years. This should be an urgent wake up call to everyone.

Violence from the police has been reported. Dunk, an Indymedia.ie contributor, says: "police handling was very over the top: witnessed headbutts from cops, shields and batons to heads and one poor bloke getting full side baton blow to knee, didn't see him after, rumours were that his knee cap had been seriously injured".

Related Links: Climate Camp | Chart of Arctic Sea Ice Melt & Case for Sustainable Emergency | US Scientist calls for Prosecution of Energy Company CEOs for Global Warming Disinformation | Camp Feauture on IMC-UK: Climate Camp Ready For Action | Climate Camp TV | Climate Camp Radio live streams everyday

The Offending Artwork

Jim Keys, a member of the Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign (FEIC), was arrested on Friday after their monthly peace vigil outside Raytheon’s Derry software facility. His crime? He touched up a three year old spray drawing of The Black Shamrock on the public pavement outside Raytheon! The charge? Criminal Damage?

Related Links: Raytheon stories on indy

The software used to run the Indymedia website has now been upgraded with the latest release (Oscailt 3.2) which now allows users to post stories and comments with multiple embedded videos and audios.

Previously you could only have embedded one video per story or comment. The embedded video was also recently upgraded a few months back to allow for embedded Politube.org video which are preferrable to YouTube videos because of licensing and the fact that they support independent media outlets and activists and are a non profit organisation.

When corruption is uncovered in functional jurisdictions a long established and well tested series of events come into play. Police investigate and if sufficient evidence is collected suspects are brought before the courts to account for themselves. If found guilty, they are given appropriate punishment. In dysfunctional jurisdictions such procedures are often ignored in the interests of protecting the powerful.

Related Links: http://www.publicinquiry.eu

I'm a poet and I know it

The new book of poems, Time Gentlemen Please, by Galway poet Kevin Higgins, which was published this March, is causing consternation and disagreement on the Left.

Some in Galway Alliance Against War are not at all happy about Higgins’s satire on their protest against the Salthill Airshow.

The Galway Branch of the Socialist Workers Party have, as has already been covered on Indymedia, taken issue with another Higgins poem, ‘Firewood’. The poem takes issue with their stance on Darfur.

"The least controversial definition of poetry is ‘writing that doesn’t go all the way to the right-hand side of the page’ — which, given the parlous state of the rainforests, demands a greater justification for publishing it" - From Red Banner