Sheffield Analysis Newswire Archive

The inevitable collapse in New Labour support coupled with the recent success of the BNP in the European elections has left New Labour in the cold and clutching at straws. In desperate attempts to win popularity, Labour continues pandering to the BNP and propagating their racist ideology.

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The election of two British National Party MEPs owes as much to new forms of racism in mainstream politics as to alienation from the Labour Party.

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Yesterday the Guardian's web-only, Comment is Free section ran an article by George Monbiot titled For 300 years Britain has outsourced mayhem. Finally it's coming home. This is one of the rare instances of a corporate article that is worth reposting here...

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Cartoon Korea - Filtered to Fit

How much do you know about the increased political tensions on the Korean peninsula? The answer, even for diligent readers of the mainstream press, is likely to be 'not much'. In place of serious, penetrating analysis the public has been sold a cartoon version of events based on a well-worn propaganda template. It is a tale spun by journalists who appear to know little of the real issues and who have internalised the key rules of 'balanced' reporting: do not point the finger of blame at your own government (or its allies), and do not question your government's demonisation of official enemies (learn nothing from the past).

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In a leak that seems designed to gauge public opinion - and that of lawyers and other relevant parties around the world - anonymous officials in the Obama administration have told the New York Times about a proposal, in draft legislation to be submitted to Congress, which, as the Times put it, "would clear the way for detainees facing the death penalty [in Guantánamo] to plead guilty without a full trial."

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The Sparrows' Nest is pleased to announce a talk by Iain McKay, editor of The Anarchist FAQ, related to the new Freedom Press edition of Kropotkin's masterpiece Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. Published in 1902, the book provided detailed evidence of cooperation at the heart of the natural world. Iain is visiting Nottingham to present the background and relevance today of Mutual Aid, to be followed by discussion. Date/Time: Saturday 9th May, 3.00pm

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Financial Newsletter 2009 - The Bigger Picture

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A columnist writing in the Yorkshire Post yesterday had this, somewhat controversial view published on the attack by a policeman on a woman demonstrating against police brutality.

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20 years ago I was on the way to a Roy Harper gig in Leeds totally unaware of what was unfolding in Sheffield.

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In a series of articles following, Andy Worthington, journalist and author of The Guantánamo Files, follows up on a Parliamentary meeting in the House of Commons on Monday, March 30th 2009 - "Britain's Guantánamo? The use of secret evidence and evidence based on torture in the UK courts," chaired by Diane Abbott MP - with four articles examining how and why the British government has turned its back on the principles of open justice, and five statements made by prisoners held on the basis of secret evidence.

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Attached is a recording of a Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign public meeting held on 2nd April 2009 titled "Gaza, Israel and War Crimes", which was addressed by, Dr. Michael Kearney, a specialist in international law.

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Attached are some recordings of some of the sessions from the 4th Oekonux Conference, Free Software and Beyond The World of Peer Production  http://fourth.oekonux-conference.org/ which was organised in in cooperation with the P2P Foundation,  http://p2pfoundation.net/ and which was held in Manchester on 27th to 29th March 2009.

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If Brown’s government minister’s get their own way everyone who uses a social network like Bebo, Facebook, Myspace or Twitter - some 25 million people in the UK - will have their conversations logged and stored on a central government database. The excuse, as usual, is that it’s for our own safety - if we’ve done nothing wrong then we’ve got nothing to fear.

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A new report entitled Database State by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust shows just how far towards fascism the modern UK state is leaning. The so called ‘War on Terror’ has been used to introduce practices and laws that our forebears would have found utterly abhorrent (in fact our ancestors have won hard fought battles throughout history to ensure basic freedoms for all - Magna Carta anyone?). The excuses are always the same “It’s for your protection.” and “The innocent have nothing to fear.”

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Who are these Sheffield people?

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Although there have apparently been discussions where several students have voiced their opinion supporting a ban of army recruiters from University campus, the University of Sheffield Careers Service could not care less. They have circulated an almost provoking email and have once more allowed army recruiters to hold interview sessions with students, which might even take place on campus.

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For most of the past century, Britain's secret state bugged, blacklisted and spied on leftists, trade unionists and peace campaigners, as well as Irish republicans and anyone else regarded as a "subversive" threat to the established order.

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In the late 1990s, while he was a member of the Illinois Senate, Barack Obama was also a member of the Saguaro Seminar -- a brainstorming group organized by Robert Putnam on how to remedy the decline in social capital in the United States. Social capital refers to the collective value of social networks: when people are embedded in networks and can draw upon the norms of cooperation and reciprocity the networks embody there are a variety of measurable benefits both to them and to the community as a whole. These benefits can include more effective government, faster economic growth, improved health, and increased happiness.

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There is a shrinking group of free people, people who believe in a context with everyone’s equal worth. This group still dreams about a society where everyone is included and for this, one is prepared to struggle.

The hours are not enough. Daddy Obama tries every night to give Natasha and Malia some of his time. The hours are not enough. That is just the way it is. Part of the job, the assignment. Much has been promised and every promise has to be kept.

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Addressing a national television audience in his first White House press conference, President Barack Obama, promoting his economic stimulus plan, used unprecedented language to characterize the deepening economic crisis. He described conditions of rapidly rising unemployment, growing demand at food banks, widespread foreclosures, the collapse of consumer spending and the failure of small businesses.
He declared that his administration "inherited the most profound economic emergency since the Great Depression," and warned that the lack of a federal government intervention "could turn a crisis into a catastrophe."

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