Helen Savage responds to government support for fracking from the West Sussex village of Balcombe, scene of anti-fracking protests in summer 2013.
Drilling equipment leaving the Balcombe site in 2013. Photo: David Burr
A fortnight ago, the business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, formally announced the lifting of the moratorium on fracking in England. He described opponents of fracking as Luddites and later suggested that the shale gas industry should canvass for support door-to-door, like politicians at election time.
The oil site at Balcombe has been largely mothballed since Cuadrilla drilled an exploration well nine years ago. Since then, villagers have established the solar company, RePower Balcombe. A bid to test the Balcombe well was refused by West Sussex County Council last year. A decision on an appeal is awaited.
LA CONVOCATORIA EN EL PERFIL DE WIKILEAKS EN TWITTER LLAMA A UNIRSE A MILES DE PERSONAS EN EL PALACIO DE WESTMINSTER. ACTIVISTAS POR LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS CONVOCARON A REALIZAR ESTE SÁBADO LA PRIMERA CADENA HUMANA EN EL REINO UNIDO ALREDEDOR DEL PARLAMENTO CON EL FIN DE EXIGIR LA LIBERTAD DEL FUNDADOR DE WIKILEAKS, JULIAN ASSANGE. […]
The attack was reportedly carried out with a US-supplied HIMARS systems
At least five people were killed when Ukrainian shelling hit a bus in Russia’s newly incorporated Kherson Region early on Friday, local health authorities have said.
“Unfortunately, as a result of the shelling, five people were killed and five were injured,” Kherson Region’s health department announced on Telegram.
The injured passengers, who suffered shrapnel wounds, have been hospitalized, with their condition described as moderate, it added.
The Ukrainian shelling of the Daryevsky Bridge over the Ingulets River took place at around 7am local time, with a missile hitting a bus carrying local residents to work, according to Kherson Region’s administration.
A source in the emergency services told RIA-Novosti that a US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launch system had been used in the attack, with four missiles fired at the bridge.
The first sparks of the revolution started in Saghez of Kurdistan, the home town of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa Amini was a 22-year-old Kurdish girl who was beaten to death by the police for “improper Hijab.” Mahsa was better lnown as Zhina among friends and family. In the Kurdish language, Zhina means life. The Islamic Republic of Iran snuffed out her life and countless others as sacrifices to the altars of Patriarchy, Religion, Racism, & Capitalism.
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The original sparks of revolt started by the chants “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi,” “Woman, Life, Freedom” are now a evolution spreading to all 31 provinces and hundreds of cities. Even the ideological strongholds of the regime, Qom and Mashhad, are revolting. For the first time, the police are the direct target of people’s ire. The Police have been driven back, beaten, and killed. Police cars flipped, burned, and destroyed. Police stations taken over and set aflame. People are no longer scared of them.
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The revolution is bearing fruits. Oshnavieh is the first city liberated and in full control of people on September 24th. We are but one step away from overthrowing the death cult that is Islamic Republic of Iran. It has yet to be seen if we would take that final step. But, the people of Iran have already proven that they shouldn’t be underestimated.
To commemorate 10 years since the criminalisation of squatting in residential buildings and the ongoing collapse of the UK’s economy under the Tories, George F spitefully presents housing opportunities and alternatives for those who would wish to take them.
What is it? What more poignant image could there be of what has become the Untied Krimdom than a derelict English language teaching academy, optimistically named “The Business School”, boarded up for 8 years with the lurid pink graffiti written in it’s windows sneering: HOMELESSNESS IS COOL, WIPE YER BUM WITH THE NEWS.
Once a place for education, aspiration, finance, opportunity, now a husk of value that only exists on paper.
And the owners? None other than the Corporation of the City of London themselves.
IT’S A FUCKING LAND BANK.
Taking inspiration from – and certainly not lazily bastardizing or ‘ripping off’ – Vice shill Joel Golby’s insouciant regular column London rental opportunity of the week, we here attempt to recklessly wobble rather than reinforce the status quo via the media.
Also I went to school with the fucker and I am deeply embittered that he is a ‘more successful writer than me’, as my old English teacher Mr Murgatroyd gleefully pointed out to me via email.
Well, fuck you Trevor, rather than simply laughing hysterically in the ever-yawning abyss at the utter calamity of neoliberal landlordism and the nightmare of apocalyptic ecological collapse, I would like to suggest fuck paying rent – go on, squat the fucker. It’ll be funny.
The three-story building has stunning views of the City, a kitchenette, single toilet, and perhaps six or seven rooms of varying size. Before the boards went up, the windows provided bright and spacious light, and opened on to the ever teeming streets of Shoreditch.
IT’S ALSO AN EVER-SWIRLING PORTAL TO HELL.
The Business School was previously squatted back in 2014 – pre-Brexit, pre-Trump, pre-Boris and pre-COVID. There was still time, a future, the world was a bit on fire but hey, we were sure COP21 in Paris in 2015 would sort that all out … I mean, it’s the end of the world, right? How little we knew of what was to come.
The occupants were IPO’d after only 6 weeks and evicted at 3am by a duo of seriously dodgy ‘bailiffs’.
DIARRHACTIVUS
There was a slight plumbing issue, also known as Diarrhactivus – a festering Shit Daemon of the ninth level of Nurgle Hell.
This lesser beast of putrescence and rotten flatulence was accidentally released by the lawyers of the City of London during one of their annual team-building child sacrifice rituals, and has been trapped at this junction to prevent him from drowning East London in toxic slurry.
You can smell Him in the drains, rancid chicken fat and durian shampoo, that soapy, gagging stench of babywipes and used tampons doused in greasy shit.
The fatbergs are His babies, slid into the sewer system to try to escape his bondage, but heartlessly caught and aborted, torn to pieces and flushed out to sea by the heartless sanitation teams.
Diarrhactivus weeps for them, His tears like milk-vomit. As 60% of the world’s population doesn’t have access to a flushing toilet, you can consider this a fantastic opportunity to become “one of the great unwashed”, and worship in honour of Him.
Surely, they wouldn’t have just left it like that? Surely they didn’t just seal off the entire building, entombing this festering shit-fountain and simply ignoring it for 8 years? Luckily, there’s a toilet in the nearby Boxpark, if you can crack the code, or you can take your chances and make offerings to Diarrhactivus.
Long running abolitionist radio show and podcast Kite Line speaks with Swift Justice about the state-wide Alabama prison strike.
This past week, we spoke to Swift Justice, who is an incarcerated organizer in Alabama.
Thousands of Alabama prisoners began a strike last week to protest poor prison conditions across the state, where prisons are overcrowded, understaffed and notoriously dangerous.
Today, Swift Justice speaks about the recent retaliation the strikers have faced.
He updates us on the strike’s progress, some of the unprecedented challenges they are facing, and how he is inspired by the people who pushed the idea forward.
Our friend Nagihan Akarsel, Jineolojî Academy member and Jineolojî Journal Editorial Board member was martyred as a result of an armed attack in Sulaymaniyah at 9.30 this morning.
With anger and rage, we condemn this assassination, which is one of the recent political murders carried out by fascist and hegemonic powers against all women in resistance around the world.
The Free 