Taunton Community Feed disrupted by police

On Thursday 18th December a group of Taunton anti-capitalists gathered in the town centre for a community feed. Soup, curry and biscuits where pre-prepared and at 5pm we headed off to hand out all that we had to the hungry people of Taunton.

The response from the public was incredibly positive. We shared food with over 100 people from all backgrounds and classes. We talked to people and shared our thoughts.

We handed out flyers with our ideas printed on them, excerpt bellow:

Taking care of our diet is just one step we can take towards gaining independence and taking control of our lives. Feeding each other with healthy and cruelty free food makes us feel good both physically and mentally. This provides a good starting point for reclaiming other aspect of our lives as well as helping to build stronger communities with the ability to look after each other.

We aim to counteract capitalism in a non-reactionary way. It is our goal to build communities based on sharing resources, caring for one another and improving the collective lives of all.

Unfortunately, after about an hour and a half of receiving nothing but smiles and gratitude the party was ruined. Two local “community support” officers approached our stall and straight away took an aggressive tone, shouting at us that we did not have a permit to be serving food and that we where breaking health and safety laws because “our table was wobbly”. We put up an argument telling them that a permit was not necessary as we where not selling anything. Tensions rose and we spent half an hour standing our ground. People watched on as the officers tried to move us, threatening to call a “unit” to have our possessions confiscated and that we risked a fine. One member of the public even came to our aid telling them to stop bothering us as we were doing a good thing. In the end we realised that our efforts where frivolous and we packed up.

Despite this, we view our action as a great success. Rest assured we will be back.

Love and Rage

Taunton Anti-Authoritarians
Homepage: http://lasthourssw@mail.com
 Source: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/12/415958.html

SHAC City Shakedown – Feb 27th

SHAC CITY SHAKEDOWN!

WHEN? >> 27th February 09, 12 noon

WHERE? >> Bank of England, London

Nearest tube: Bank. The protest will meet here and proceed to march through the financial districts of London, finishing at the New York Stock Exchange.

WHY? >> We have reached a critical time. HLS’ financials are wobbling dangerously close to the edge and enough persuasion to key financial institutions could be enough to close them. Click here for more information about the financial aspects of the campaign.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN? >> We will be meeting at the Bank of England, central London, on Friday 27th February at 12 noon. From this point we will have a brief speech, before moving off together.

The day will all be about focusing on HLS’ key financial supporters. We will be conducting demonstrations against several targets that are either major shareholders or are listing HLS, enabling them to stay open. The demonstrations will of course be entirely legal, as the entire day as been organised with the help of the police. Once we have finished the demonstrations, we will return in a loop back to the Bank of England where we started. Any further questions, don’t hesistate to contact us on  info@shac.net!

Transport is being arranged from across the country, so if you don’t want to make your own way there, get in touch and we can help you find a minibus or shared car from your area.

Website:  http://www.shac.net/action/demos/city_shakedown/index.html
[more information, downloadable banners, leaflets and posters are available here]

Solidarity For Political Prisoner Sean Kirtley

Full article at http://www,indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2008/sequani

On Saturday 6th September two hundred activists made it to Ledbury, Herefordshire, for the Carnival Against Vivisection in solidarity with political prisoner Sean Kirtley. The day of action was called by various groups in resistance to the imprisoning of peaceful campaigners under SOCPA legislation, and as a stand for the animals suffering inside vivisection laboratories.

Protesters met on the grass verge, where the police held them allowing a maximum of 15 at a time to demonstrate outside Sequani labs. Shortly after campaigners made a spontaneous break for the labs, with police responding by blocking the bridge to push back the crowd, creating minor scuffles. Multiple attempts were also made to access the labs using various pre-planned routes, meeting police each time, some of which had dogs. Protesters then regrouped at the grass verge to march the original route around town.

Carnival Against Vivisection – 6th September in Ledbury

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

 

BE THERE!

Bristol transport info for SHAC march

From Bristol Animal Rights Collective (BARC)

The SHAC national march & rally on Saturday 12th of this month will be an important national demo against Europes biggest testing lab, we may be running transport to this but only if we get enough people wanting to come!

Please get in touch if you are interested…

Boycott Procter & Gamble Stall

For Global P&G Day XII, activists held a stall in town displaying posters of P&G’s procters, the experiments they pay for, and literature regarding the unscientific method of vivisection.

As per usual, many shoppers were shocked to see that products they had even bought that very day had been tested on animals, such as IAMS, which caused hundreds of previously healthy animals to suffer from; kidney failure, obesity, malnutrition, liver damage, severe allergic reactions, stomach inflammation, diarrhoea, skin disorders, lesions and other painful conditions.

Members of the public throughout the day signed petitions with others taking more informaiton on the subject. To find out more online about P&G and the alternatives click here.

Hyperbaric goats get new home

From: http://www.sarconline.co.uk

“We are delighted to announce that not only have SARC put a stop to cruel navy diving experiments using live goats, but our campaign has also resulted in the rehoming of the 31 goats remaining at the site.

The goats new home is now at Buttercups sanctuary“

See more for pictures.

Novartis National March & Rally

400 campaigners from across the UK gathered at Horsham Park for a National march and demo at Novartis UK HQ, where experiments on primates, guinea-pigs and other animals are tortured for profit. Novartis is also one of HLS’s largest customers, most notorious for the Xenotransplantation scandal back in 2000. The research was conducted by a biotechnology company, Imutran Ltd, which was a subsidiary of the multinational drug firm Novartis Pharma AG, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge. The experiments took place at the controversial Huntingdon Life Sciences laboratories. See: http://www.shac.net/HLS/exposed/xeno.html and http://www.xenodiaries.org/summary.htm for more information.

It was a day to demonstrate our anger, our sorrow and our determination to one of the main customers of HLS, to the people of Horsham and to the world. There were many information stalls from national campaigns and groups, and Veggies were there to fuel our anger and determination with lots of vegan food!

The march around Horsham began and no one in Horsham town centre was left unaware of our presence of why we where there! Which was to inform them about the primate research going on in their town, right on their door step!

There was overwhelming support from the local people of Horsham and many leaflets were given out during the march, in fact as the march weaved its way through the town several local residents joined the march up to Novartis and pledged their support! The noise and the visual presence was awesome, with banners as far as the eye could see, trailing all the way back through the town. Many locals were surprised to hear that primate research happened in their town, a fact that Novartis have tried to hide. In fact, Novartis tried to get the march stopped in the High Court!

Near the end of the demo, we then had a minutes silence for the animals inside Novartis and HLS, as this protest was for them. We then marched back to Horsham Park where we gathered before finishing.

This protest was amazing, for those who came, thank you on behalf of every one of the 70,000 animals waiting to die inside HLS. To the many locals of Horsham for their support and promises of helping campaign against Novartis in Horsham, were regular protests take place. This is the start of new stage against our fight against Novartis and HLS, with many campaigners vowing to re-double their efforts to close these hell holes down. It was a very inspiring day!

Videos:

• Lia’s speech outside Novartis - Young activists first speech
• Shaming top supplier Staples - Autonomous Bloc / Antispeciesist Action

More videos of the day to come…

Click here for more pictures and the full report.

Video: Shaming top supplier Staples

Spindles Farm court order suspended

After five horse slaughter traders were charged with animal cruelty over the discovery of scores of neglected horses, ponies and donkeys on a Buckinghamshire farm, the judge originally ordered for the animals to be sent back to Spindle Farm ten days ago.

Today the judge ordered a “stay” meaning the animals will remain in the care of the RSPCA pending a high court appeal against Judge Kainth’s original decision. The judgement was made as a packed public gallery stood to applaud Judge Kainth’s decision. The RSPCA had planned a high court appeal in a bid to overturn Judge Kainth’s decision.

This came after over 15,000 people signed a petition requesting that all animals be left in the care of the welfare agencies until the trial of the Gray family dealing with 12 counts of animal cruelty has taken place.

 

Two days of horse slaughter flyering

In memory of I Predict A Riot, who was “destroyed” after a severed tendon at Taunton Racetrack, activists were out again to expose Stillmans and the dark secrets of the horse slaughter trade based in Taunton.

Around 800 leaflets were destributed in the town centre, during Thursday and Saturday afternoons, with people becoming more sympathetic and often shocked at the suffering of horses destined for Stillmans abattoir.

With mainstream newspapers such as The Daily Mail continuing to expose the horse slaughter trade in the United Kingdom, individuals are beginning to recognize that the cruelty is far from localised to Taunton, where horses are transported to their death, but starts from across the South and throughout Britain. 

Only two years after legislation passed in the United States banning the slaughter of horses for meat, and with public outrage continuing to increase, the hope of replicating laws in the UK are looking ever more possible.