FryingPanFire

London’s Metropolitan Police has called for large businesses and the public to report suspicious anarchist activities immediately. A weekly communiqué (see below) issued by the City of Westminster’s Counter Terrorist Focus Desk said:
“Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy. Any information [...]

Adam Curtis is a documentary filmmaker and academic who is best known for his use of videomontage to relay sociopolitical analyses of the modern age. His films include The Century of the Self and The Power of Nightmares. His latest project is a three-part BBC internet series called All Watched Over by Machines of Loving [...]

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was detained on 03 April 2011 by the authorities at Beijing Capital Airport preparing to board a scheduled flight to Hong Kong. He has yet to be charged and the state has not yet confirmed his whereabouts.
A major survey show of his work has opened at London’s Lisson Gallery joining his [...]

On 20 April 2011, a tribute event was held in London in memory of director, actor and filmmaker Juliano Mer Khamis. Juliano was assassinated on 4 April 2011 in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, where he established the Freedom Theatre in 2006. The son of a Arna Mer, a Jewish woman, and Saliba Khamis, [...]

A spot of ‘reporting’ for the visionon.tv boys at the netroots conference yesterday.
Here we’re speaking with Donnacha Delong, an NUJ activist.
Although the premise for netroots was admirable [how to get from clicktivism to activism], I didn’t find the sessions or the crowd representative or challenging. There was an overwhelming acceptance of existing power structures [...]

Short clip of journalist, activist and blogger Jody McIntyre being dragged by the Forward Intelligence Team from his wheelchair to the no-man’s land between two police lines at Westminster Abbey, 09 December 2010.
Here, a FIT officer tells him he’s not arrested, that he’s “going to get hurt”.
I regret not staying with him. My phone rang [...]

On 10 November 2010, over 50,000 students and lecturers from across the United Kingdom marched in London against the coalition government’s plans to increase university fees.
The march eventually reached Millbank Tower – once the Labour party’s headquarters – now home to the Conservative party.
Some people managed to get to the roof. One person had [...]

The argument that mob censorship is what stopped Tony Blair from going ahead with his London book signing and subsequent private shindig at Tate Modern holds no water. A much larger mob of millions in 2003 marched against the invasion of Iraq in 800 cities around the world. But in those days Blair ran Britain. [...]

Metropolitan Police Sergeant Delroy Smellie was cleared of assaulting protestor Nicola Fisher at the memorial to Ian Tomlinson’s killing at last year’s G20 Demonstrations. District Judge Daphne Wickham ruled he acted lawfully despite video evidence posted on the internet showing Smellie thrashing a woman half his size with the back of his hand [...]

Am adding this here as a place of pride. Like many other polenta-eating hacks, I watched Sir Trevor McDonald lick David Cameron’s face for an hour interview David Cameron on ITV1.
Seems I’ve narked a few true blues by suggesting that Tories at CCHQ were melting at having to shake hands with a black man. I’m [...]