Sheffield Newswire Archive

Wicked problems, like climate, energy, or economy - cannot be solved by normal science. A new synthesis interview with Thomas Homer-Dixon. Webcast by Jerome Ravetz, Valerie Brown on Post-Normal science & community. Plus Eben Moglen on dream of total free speech - now causing a revolution near you.

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Overt surveillance measures are being used to intimidate activists organising against the Sheffield Libdem conference.

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The report that eight members of the UK’s Special Air Service (SAS) were briefly detained in Benghazi provides confirmation that the US and its European allies are stepping up their efforts to establish firm links with elements of the opposition to the regime of President Muammar Gaddafi and secure control of Libya’s oil resources.

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Unlike the non-violent protest movements in Egypt and Tunisia, the armed insurgency in Eastern Libya is directly supported by foreign powers with a view to justifying a "humanitarian intervention".

A military intervention is now contemplated by US NATO forces under a "humanitarian mandate". US and NATO military advisers and special forces are already on the ground.

The operation was planned to coincide with the protest movement in neighbouring Arab countries. Public opinion was led to believe that the protest movement had spread spontaneously from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya.

The real objective of "Operation Libya" is not to establish democracy but to take possession of Libya's oil reserves, destabilize the National Oil Corporation (NOC) and eventually privatize the country's oil industry, namely transfer the control and ownership of Libya's oil wealth into foreign hands.

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Sheffield's Portland Works is threatened with closure and conversion into flats. Here's how you can help!

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In our new press release "Are we the next to be labelled 'A Barrier to Enterprise' "(PR 101) links the publication of our latest Briefing Note "Energy Policy and the proposed National Planning Policy Framework" (E2) to what the Prime Minister said in Cardiff yesterday to conclude that the outcome predicted in "Energy Policy and the proposed National Planning Policy Framework" that rules governing the approval of opencast mines predicted in E2 is now even more likely.

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Richard Stallman spoke in Sheffield on 5th March 2011 on Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks.

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The EDL turnout at Rochdale today was rubbish. When are they going to leave us alone?

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Imperialism and NATO – seriously concerned about the revolutionary wave unleashed in the Arab world, which produces a large portion of the oil sustaining the consumer economies of the rich, developed countries – could not miss the opportunity to take advantage of Libya's internal conflict to promote a military intervention. The statements formulated by the United States government from early on were clearly in this vein.

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The 2nd of March 2011, marked the 20th anniversary of the 1991 Gulf War on Iraq....

"Hill & Knowlton, then the world's largest public relations firm, masterminded the Kuwaiti campaign to sell the 1991 Gulf War to the American public. By the time their lies were exposed TV newscasters were waxing ecstatic over the rockets' red glare, computerized 'smart-bombs' bursting in air, and 250,000 people were dead."

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On 4th March 2011, the day that Sheffield Council was meeting to formally set it's budget, trade unionists held a rally outside the Town Hall to oppose the proposed job losses and cuts in services.

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They came, they camped, they conquered (well, almost). During a soul-searching Dorset retreat, Climate Camp have decided to suspend tent-centred activism - citing the “radically different political landscape” of 2011. Having been through Drax, Kingsnorth, Heathrow, RBS, Copenhagen and one helluva lot of hummus, the group are now turning their attention to coordination with the wider anti-cuts and anti-austerity movement.

Updated after the jump

On the Newswire: Statement | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010

In SchNEWS: 736 | 696 | 689 | 642 | 641 | 600 | 558

Links: www.climatecamp.org.uk/2011-statement

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Alleged WikiLeaks source Pfc. Bradley Manning, who has been in US custody since last May, after he reportedly told a former hacker that he had passed thousands of classified US military documents and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, had 22 new charges filed against him on Tuesday by the US Army, including a capital offense — “aiding the enemy” — for which the government has said it will not seek the death penalty, although, as Wired explained, “under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the presiding judge ultimately decides what charges to refer to court-martial and whether to impose the death penalty.”

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Historian Howard Zinn (1922-2010), would be remembered above all for his humanity and warmth, were it not for the crystal clarity of his insight. In 'A Power That Governments Can’t Suppress,' he wrote:

‘There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people's thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible.’ (Zinn, A Power That Governments Can’t Suppress, City Lights, 2007, p.267)

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The US and NATO bases in Italy are preparing for military action against Libya. Britain, France and the United States have dispatched hundreds of military advisors to Libya to set up military bases in the country's oil-rich east. British and US special forces entered Libyan port cities of Benghazi and Toburk on February 23 and 24.

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The near-collapse of the financial system; droughts in the Amazon, floods in Pakistan; a new government in the UK; a violent programme of unprecedented cuts; food prices rising and real incomes eroding; revolutions across the Middle East… This is all very different from 2005 when the Camp for Climate Action first met to spark radical action on the greatest threat to humanity, climate change.

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Robert Stevens spoke at a public meeting in Sheffield on 23rd February about the persecution of WikiLeaks,  http://wikileaks.ch/ and in defense of Julian Assange.

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More free tunes from Sheffield's anarcho-bass netlabel...

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The Roots Research Centre and Equanomics UK are assisting author Stephen Armstrong in research for a book with a modern day take on the Orwell book about poverty in the UK 'The Road to Wigan Pier' and he would really like to make contact with people in Manchester, Bradford, Sheffield, Liverpool and Wigan.

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News of unstable oil, climate, banking and regimes begs the question: are we ready, personally, for difficult times? Dr. Jeremy Leggett, oil geologist, former Greenpeace campaigner, solar entrepreneur on world energy. Analysis of EU dependency on Libyan oil, connections to arms trade. Then historian and psychotherapist Dr. Carolyn Baker on new book "Navigating the Coming Chaos: A Handbook for Inner Transition."

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