Newswires: Heathrow, Gatwick | WOMBLES - News, Information for anarchist direct action

The Situation in Greece

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:24:00 +0000

This is best viewed at http://www.lasthours.org.uk/blogs/the-situation-in-greece/ and will be updated from there. Tensions rise once again in the streets of Greece’s major cities. Radicals and Anarchists join workers from around the country in voicing dissent. Airports, hospitals and other public services have shut down for the day as the Greek Government attempt to impose harsh new austerity measures.

Protest at Harmondsworth, Sat 13 March

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:00:27 +0000

Saturday 13th March at Harmondsworth Demonstrate outside Harmondsworth immigration prison, Heathrow 12 noon – 1pm Detainee Solidarity London is calling for a demo this Saturday at Harmondsworth in solidarity with the 55 detainees on hunger strike since last week. At any one time, over 2500 people are in immigration detention in the UK. Some have been detained [...]

Shannon Watch Vigil

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:55:19 +0000

Seven Years of Occupation and Suffering in Iraq ... Seven Years of Daily War Support at Shannon Airport. Voice your Protest at the Shannon Vigil on March 14th, 2 - 3pm (gathering just before airport entrance/security checkpoint)

Demo at WH Tours, Saturday 27th March

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:25:25 +0000

STOP DANGEROUS DRIVERS! NO MORE WH DEPORTATION TOURS! Public demo at WH Tours offices, Kelvin Way, Crawley Saturday, 27th March 2010 Meet 11am at Crawley train station. Bring banners and instruments. WH Tours is a coach company based in Crawley, near Gatwick airport. Part of the company's business is leisure: coach excursions, sightseeing tours and so on. Another part, however, is much more sinister: the company provides coaches for transporting detained migrants facing deportation from immigration prisons to airports to be deported on commercial or specially charted flights. read more

Airlines Will Cancel Flights to Avoid Risk of Fines for Delays

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:29:45 +0000

Didn’t think air travel in the U.S. could suck any more than it already does? Behold… Via: MSNBC: Passengers may soon be seeing more cancellations on airport departure boards. Several airlines, including Fort Worth-based American and Houston-based Continental, say they will cancel flights rather than risk paying stiff penalties for delaying passengers on the runway. Continental’s CEO told investors Tuesday [...]

International Women's Day Peace Camp at Shannon

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:36:17 +0000

End Irelands complicity in the oppression of Afghan Women The Women’s Peace camp Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th of March, at Shannon airport, as part of the International Women’s Day celebrations, was certainly worth while. Women and some men came from afar.

Solidarity demo with Harmondsworth hunger strikers

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:43:44 +0000

Saturday 13th March 2010 midday - 1pm Demonstrate outside Harmondsworth immigration prison, Heathrow Detainee Solidarity London is calling for a demo this Saturday at Harmondsworth in solidarity with the 55 detainees on hunger strike since Tuesday 2nd March. read more

Grow Heathrow ready for take off

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:39:01 +0000

Beginning our new project on the first day in March was always going to be tricky, but even Spring was on side. For Transition Heathrow's latest project we've gone back to the land, turning a neglected scrap in the heart of the third runway into a thriving market garden for the community. After the successful site take on the Monday, in which about 20 people secured our new site, we spent an intense week in the sun clearing and cleaning up the mess left behind by previous tenants. The amount of rubbish was monumental, but by the weekend we felt ready to open the gates and welcomed in the community. The support we've had from the local community, and particularly from those on whose doorsteps we've set up, has been staggering. We posted a wish list of stuff we needed and by the weekend had mostly fulfilled it. From food parcels to blankets, we've been supremely well looked after by our new neighbours. Over the weekend an incredible mix of people came together and spent two days in the glorious sunshine restoring the greenhouses to their former glory. It's hard to describe just how positive the atmosphere was, especially when people were primarily clearing rubbish. We had kids painting tyres to grow potatoes in; mass raking to clear up the broken glass and bender building to establish a beautiful shelter for our front gate. By the end of the weekend we were all exhausted, but exhilarated, by the amount we'd managed to achieve in such a short space of time. This project is definitely a good antidote for anyone feeling overwhelmed post-Copenhagen, or depressed after reading 1,000 comments on the Guardian dissing climate science. Making a tangible difference in a community that has been blighted for so many years by the overhanging threat of airport expansion is wonderfully empowering, and there's plenty for people to do to get their hands dirty. As a good friend of ours said about the project, "people should stop talking about the resistance, and come here and live it instead." For more information email info@transitionheathrow.com or if you want to come and join us for a day's work call the site phone on 07890751568.

Manchester Airport to be as big as Heathrow

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:10:20 +0000

Campaigners against expansion at Manchester Airport have been digging around in the Committee on Climate Change's aviation report, and discovered that the airport's expansion plans would make it as big as Heathrow by 2050. Unsurprisingly people near the airport - including those at Hasty Lane who risk losing their homes to make way for a freight depot - are not best pleased. A Liberal Democrat councillor, who's been campaigning against expansion, told the Manchester Evening News that "Nobody I’ve spoken to was aware of the extent to which Manchester Airport hopes to expand, indeed those I’ve told are both shocked and stunned by the news." The airport recently drew up a carbon reduction strategy, including magic lightbulbs in the toilets and all sorts of eco-gubbins. It omitted the emissions from planes, making it as useful as a chocolate teapot. It still received a Carbon Trust Standard award... which just shows up the Carbon Trust as arch-greenwashers. Residents are fighting back though: recently they twinned with Sipson to show solidarity between blighted communities. Rumours abound about their latest plans... we'll bring you updates as we receive them.

60 Years of Drug Trafficking at the Venice Municipal Airport

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:04:53 +0000

Via: Mad Cow Productions: An investigation into suspicious circumstances surrounding the sale of the former Huffman Aviation has unearthed an explosive secret at the heart of an otherwise unremarkable aviation facility. Almost since its inception, the specter of heroin trafficking has hung over the airfield which would later become the Venice Municipal Airport. During World War II, [...]

Low-paid porters at Gatwick stay solid

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:50:18 +0000

By Mick Duncan About 70 porters at the second biggest airport in the UK staged a solid two-day strike over Christmas. Action is now on hold while uncertainty rains over who will be holding the contract beyond the next few weeks. The workers currently work for a the facilities giant Interserve. Interserve’s last posted profits were £88 [...]

WCA engages with Grimshaw workers

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:56:50 +0000

Grimshaw Architects is the prestigious architecture firm who brought you Waterloo’s Eurostar Terminal and the Eden Project. However, Grimshaw also has a long history with BAA and is now designing the Third Runway at Heathrow. Grimshaw also has other BAA contracts on the go, which are rapidly undermining the company’s green credentials. So now that the [...]