Showing posts with label intimidation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intimidation. Show all posts

Friday 23 September 2016

Solidarity Is Our Winning Weapon.

       Landlords who keep shitty property and threaten tenants with eviction if the complain about the state of the place they rent, should not be tolerated. However it is difficult to stand alone against a bullying landlord, but with solidarity, it is a different matter, we can make a difference if we stands together. It is encouraging to see a community come together to protect a threatened family. 
Neighbours form human chain to prevent bailiffs evicting mum-of-five
        This is the moment kindhearted neighbours formed a human chain around a mum's house - to stop her being kicked out in a 'revenge eviction'. Nimo Abdullahi, 39, was told she and her family would be thrown out of their home of 12 years after she complained to her landlord about damp. But in a bid to protect the mum-of-five from a 'revenge eviction', residents and campaigners turned out to stop it happening. Around 30 people stood side by side, arms linked, to build a wall of bodies in front of the privately-rented property in Easton, Bristol.
      All morning, more neighbours joined the blockade - with a newlywed couple living opposite the family cutting up their wedding cake to keep the protesters sustained. When bailiffs turned up at 11am on Tuesday, they weren't able to get inside. Nimo said she was threatened with evictions numerous times - whenever she complained - but this time, the landlord actually went through with it.
       She said: "It has a big problem with damp. This is bad for us, because my children have asthma and it is not a good place. "Until recently, the carpets everywhere were very old and dirty and we would ask the landlord to improve things, but he was difficult. "Many times I asked him, and a lot of times he would threaten us. "He would say that we were going to be evicted, and once he came round with his wife and she said that if we didn't move out they would call the police to get us out.
       "But this is our home." Nimo who is being helped by Acorn, a local grass roots movement which fights for renters' rights, said she was stunned by the support from her neighbours. The mum, whose three sons and two daughters go to the local school, said: "I was shocked. I went out and came running back in because I was so stunned. "I've had great support from Acorn and now to see my neighbours outside supporting me is amazing."
        Jenny Ross came out to protest the treatment of the Abdullahi family, who have lived in the property since they moved to England from Holland. She said: "We don't want people in our community treated like this. It's a revenge eviction and people deserve decent rented accommodations. "This landlord, and all landlords, need to know there are people in this community who won't ignore it. "We live in this street and it's a close community. It's amazing how many people have turned out."
Read the full article HERE:
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
 
 



  

Sunday 23 January 2011

BIG BROTHER, IS HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE!!!

   
       A very interesting article from that great activists news website Schnews. Like the article says, we should not be surprised at what the establishment will do to crush dissent. It will incriminate, vilify, intimidate, discourage and place under constant surveillance all those who dare to raise their voices in disagreement with the establishment's grand plans. Though we should not be surprised it is good to see it all coming out for general public viewing, perhaps giving others a better view of what lies lurking beneath that ever so thin shiny veneer of respectability worn by our political masters.
     Power and wealth is in the grasp of the elite parasites and they will do what ever they deem necessary to make sure it stays there. The last thing they want is for the people who actually create all that wealth, the working class, to share it out fairly among all those in society. They have a complex apparatus all set up to ensure that the wealth and power is kept in the hands of the pampered parasite class of millionaire thugs.

        
 GOVERNMENT AGENCY CAUGHT INFILTRATING ACTIVIST MEDIA OUTLET




         “No - stuff that - SHUT the place: Let’s not all stand around like lemmings - lets shut the place!Bring ladders and wire cutters. If there are enough of us we can shut it!” - a pretty average comment on Indymedia you might think - if a little gung-ho. In fact it was posted there by the police - and SchNEWS has the proof.
         For the benefit of anyone who’s been hiding in a hole wearing a tinfoil hat for the last fortnight (i.e most of our readership), it turns out that the U.K direct action/anarchist/environmental movement was infiltrated for number of years by undercover police. At least four cops have already been outed and its safe to assume there may be more. But while the mainstream media has focussed on the sleazy antics and dodgy love lives of these professional liars, SchNEWS can reveal that police attempts to disrupt our movement goes much further than a few unshaven plants in grubby t-shirts, and includes attacks on activist media and communications. For years now, police have been using activist website Indymedia in attempts to sow mistrust, demoralise movements and to incite violence and illegality.
IP FREELY
          Police postings came to light following an internal investigation on persistent disinformation being published to Indymedia UK. Technically Indymedia is supposed to safeguard it’s posters by not logging IP addresses. In actual fact there are IP filters. Although IP addresses are only stored temporarily, those of persistent abusers are kept in order to prevent the site from being overwhelmed. Moderators of Indymedia UK identified the Gateway-303 server as being the source of numerous such posts. A filter was set up to capture the behaviour of the individual(s) who were hiding behind the server.
          One IP address so identified was 62.25.109.196 , which correlates with the server gateway303.energis.gsi.gov.uk. There are similar servers, gateway-301 & gateway-302 with IP addresses 62.25.109.194 and 62.25.109.195 respectively. Other servers identified are gateway-101, gateway-202, gateway-201, etc
         GSI stands for Government Secure Intranet. It is a network established by the UK Government to allow secure transfer of files across its computers. The Police National Network is separate from it, but can connect to it. Currently GSI is operated by Energis, a UK based internet company now owned by Cable & Wireless.
       It is clear from the consistency of the usage of gateway-303 server that the IPs are probably assigned to particular premises or else specific units within the UK Government. One of the purposes of the GSI network is to provide a secure proxy network behind which users can maintain their anonymity. Hence the lack of solid information as to exactly who is behind the postings. However, SchNEWS is gonna take a stab in the dark (if only) as to who they are; in fact some actually signed NETCU. Of course it could be the old double bluff, but given the level of intelligence behind some of the postings even this level of sophistication seems unlikely.

INDY-SCRIBABLE
           Indymedia is a key tool in activist organisation and communication. Given the overtly political nature of the site and the types of news stories published it is hardly a surprise that it attracts weirdos with strange axes to grind. Its open publishing format has left it wide open to trolling, spam and, of course, state / police abuse. This abuse has mostly taken the form of posting comments under a variety of pseudonyms.
           These postings have targeted individual activists, put out information about activists that is not in the public domain, attacked campaigns, and urged the disruption of peaceful protests. Many comment on (then) ongoing court cases. Some are just personal abuse directed at well-known activists, while others contain information only known to the police. Two postings - made on 21st Jan and 9th Jun 2010 - provide personal details, including mobile numbers, of potential targets for the animal rights movement, one a fur-shop in Leeds, the other the owner of an animal circus. What the motivations were for posting these details can only be surmised. But off the record we reckon it’s blatant attempt at entrapment.
       As part of the activist scene, SchNEWS isn’t quite as shocked as elements of the mainstream media have been about the cops’ sleazy abuse of personal friendships to disrupt the organisation of alternative social movements. It’s long been the case that to be an activist you’ve got to get used the idea of surveillance (both covert and overt), violence from the state and the deliberate silencing of voices. The antics of Kennedy, Watson, Jacobs and Boyling are just part of a tactical bag of tricks including kettling, the use of F.I.T teams and spotter cards, anti-stalking injunctions, spreading rumours in the mainstream press and a constant stream of new laws criminalising dissent (See SchNEWS 1-754). To that list we can now add infiltration of the core platform for anti-authoritarian radical media activism in the UK.
        From a brief analysis of the activities of the undercovers it seems that their mission was as much to disrupt as much as it was to gather information. Attacks on our movements by disruption are a handy weapon in the state’s arsenal with no need for actual evidence or convictions.


 
PLAINLY INCITE
        The targets of the fake Indymedia postings span the activist spectrum, from anti-fascists to anti-militarists, but have been most concerned with environmental campaigns and, in particular the Animal Rights movement. On April 27th, 2010, a comment appeared on the Indymedia UK newswire entitled Don’t use SPEAK as a model. The comment, on an article entitled New animal lab at Leicester; New nationwide campaign to start urged readers to respond to the campaign by “Model[ling] the campaign on a successful AR campaign such as Hillgrove cats or Darnley Oaks etc” (sic). Those familiar with those campaigns will be aware that they campaigns are alleged to have included violent actions against individuals. Other postings referenced a what appears to be an entirely fictitious new AR campaign in Leicester – Stop Leicester Animal Cruelty. SLAC (ha bloody ha)
          It should be remembered corporations seeking injunctions under the Protection from Harassment Act (link) have relied heavily on comments made on Indymedia as evidence. This act has been used against campaigns such as Smash EDO to criminalise all forms of dissent targeting specific companies, even entirely peaceful and completely legal protest.
          As a whole the comments build a bewildering picture of a campaign of disparagement, incitement and support, together with wry asides and outright attempts at demoralisation. A few really stand out as obvious incitement to illegality while some are so bizarre that we can’t work out if they are part of a sinister master plan to bring down the whole activist scene - or just the ramblings of bored coppers with faces full of doughnuts and nothing better to do.
         More on this HERE.


Saturday 1 May 2010

POLICE SPYING.


Press Release from Scotland Against Criminalising Communities
10.30am Friday 30 April 2010

         Civil liberties group Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC) is calling on Scotland's SNP Government to take urgent action to stop police using  "stop and question" powers at Scotland's ports and airports as opportunities to try to recruit informers to spy on our Muslim community.
          The move follows allegations that a Muslim man, Asif Ahmed, was recently asked to to work for Special Branch to spy on the Muslim community after being stopped and questioned at Edinburgh airport under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Asif Ahmed will be speaking at a press conference being hosted in London this morning by the human rights group Cageprisoners. The press conference is being held at the Frontline Club (2nd Floor, 13 Norfolk Place, Paddington, London W2 1QJ) at 10.30am  
          Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allows police to stop and question travellers at ports and airport "for the purpose of determining whether they are a person who is or has been concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism." Failure to answer questions is a criminal offence. Police do not need to have any grounds for suspicion before questioning someone under Schedule 7.  
          It is completely unacceptable for police to exploit people who find themselves in this frightening and vulnerable situation by trying to recruit them as informers. It is particularly despicable that they targeted Asif Ahmed in his way. He and his wife recently endured the trauma of a racist attack while travelling by train from Nottingham. 
         Schedule 7 is a draconian piece of legislation that denies travellers - including British citizens - the limited right of silence that they enjoy in all other circumstances. SACC has long campaigned for its repeal. In the meantime, we urge police to refrain from abusing these powers to pressure people into spying for them. 
         Terrorism legislation is the responsibility of the Westminster Government but policing in Scotland is controlled by the Scottish Government.  The Scottish Government must insist that police stop using Schedule 7 as a recruitment tool. 
          In June 2008 the Scottish Government announced that it was to provide Scotland’s police forces with an additional £3.8 million to combat terrorism.  Some of this money was spent on policing airports and ports. It is unacceptable that funding provided by the SNP is being used to intimidate and antagonise our Muslim community. 
          Schedule 7 questioning has been a frequent source of friction between police and Scotland's ethnic minorities. In October 2008 the Scottish Afghan Society held a well supported demonstration outside Strathclyde Police HQ demanding an end to harassment at Glasgow airport. 
           Police attempts to recruit ordinary people as spies don't just target the Muslim community. Underhand tactics by Scottish police made headlines last year when environment campaigner Matlda Gifford taped police trying to recruit her.  

More information:   Richard Haley contact@saccnet.org.uk  07936432519

ann arky's home.