It’s creator, 24-year-old Euan Booth from London, set up the group in order to take non-violent direct action against what he sees as the wrongful categorisation by bookshops of ‘A Journey’ as a memoir.

He told The Independent: “I think Blair’s book should be in the crime section. It is perfectly clear that he broke international law by launching a war of aggression on Iraq. His evidence was lies, which as he defended it at the Hutton enquiry, amounts to perjury.”

“Billions upon billions of pounds stolen from the British taxpayer in my mind amounts to theft, maybe not in a court of law, but hey.”

Numerous photos and stories of the removal of Blair’s book from the autobiography sections of well known book shops have been uploaded to group’s Facebook page.

One group member, Lee Holding, remarked: “Somebody placed [Tony Blair's 'The Journey'] in the autobiography section in WH Smiths. Placed it in the true crime section where it belonged. Couldn’t find a section for ‘war’ criminals. We shall have to wait for George W bush to get his crayons out and write his.”

The creation of the group follows news of the postponement of a launch party for ‘A Journey’ which was due to be held this evening at the Tate Modern in London, amid fears of violent protest from anti-war campaigners.

Earlier this week the former prime minister was the target of egg-throwers at a book signing in Dublin, resulting in the cancellation of a signing at a Waterstone’s book shop in London due to take place earlier today.

Booth’s group makes it clear it would not condone violent protest, seeking only mischievous dissent. It’s caption reads: “Be part of a literary movement…And have a sense of humour”- a combination rarely found, some might argue.

“I don’t condone the violent acts of protest,” Booth says. “But I completely understand the public’s anger. I feel it too, I just decided to lead by example on a funny idea that was knocked around the net. And funny it is – but there is a serious message. Tony Blair is a liar, a cheat and a coward.”

Photo credit: The Facebook group

Article by:

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2010/09/08/tony-blairs-journey-to-the-crime-section/

OLKILUOTO, Finland – The main road leading to Finland’s Olkiluoto Nuclear power plant was blocked off for nearly 10 hours by anti-nuclear demonstrators from all over Europe – including from Russia and Belarus – before police forcefully disbanded them toward Saturday evening, demonstrators said.

The protest also represented a first direct action demonstration for Finnish protesters, who, according to local activists, have never blockaded nuclear plants before. The protest turned out to be one of the more substantive protests of nuclear power in Europe in several months – netting some 30 arrests.

The outcry against the new reliance on nuclear power in Finland – which at the beginning of the decade was considering phasing out nuclear power – blocked the road to Olkiluoto at three points, forcing plant workers to take detours through cross country paths. The visitors’ centre of the plant was also shut down.

Olkiluoto, an island in Western Finland on the Gulf of Bothnia, operates two boiling water type reactors with a third experimental German and French design EPR reactor scheduled to come online in the next few years. The new EPR is slated to cost about €2.5 billion, and its scheduled start up date has been pushed back a number of times.

The blockade was arranged by some 40 NGOs, 27 of them international. “Several hundred activists took part from various countries including Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, France, Belarus, and Russia,” reported the Belepan Belarusian news wire from the scene.

Russian environmentalists support the blockade

Russian environmental groups made a strong showing at the Olkiluoto blockade, including Moscow’s Ecodefence, Murmansk’s Nautre and Youth, St. Petersburg’s Ecoperestroika, and Green World of Sosnovy Bor, near St. Petersburg.

The Finnish television network YLE quoted Andrei Ozharovsky, Russian environmentalist and nuclear physicists as saying, “Nuclear energy poses an international threat. If something happens here, we will feel it in Russia, just like you felt the effects of Chernobyl” he said, adding, “I was very disappointed by the recent decision of (the Finnish) parliament” to abandon it nuclear phase out. “It sets a bad example for other countries,” Ozharovsky said. 

Finnish parliament votes for nuclear against citizen’s wishes

Finnish Parliament’s June 1st decision served as the direct basis for the blockade, when the parliament opened the possibility of beginning the process of securing permission to build two new nuclear reactors and expand the country’s nuclear waste storage sites.

Greenpeace Finland told Belarusian News that the parliament’s decision runs counter to the sentiment of Finland’s population, and smacks of corruption. Greenpeace cited a poll indicating that only 80 percent of Finns are against a new nuclear build out.

Russian activists turned out to help the blockade.

Tatyana Novikova

Dissatisfaction with nuclear power among Finns is understandable as the installations being constructed on Olkiluoto are of an experimental and dangerous nature – namely the EPR experimental reactor and what is currently the only geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel.

“We don’t want to be the nuclear industry’s guinea pigs,” was one of the placards held aloft by protestors. 

…Police helped block the road

Before the demonstration, the Finnish organisation Women Against Nuclear Energy” officially informed the police of their intentions to stage a protest at the gates of the nuclear power plant. Finnish police announced though the media that they would not prevent the protest, but would not allow blockades of the road to Olkiluoto.

The road to Olkiluoto closed by protesters.

Tatyana Novikova

The first demonstrators accompanied by a reporter for Bellona Web turned up at the rotary to Olkiluoto at 6 am and were surprise to find that the road to the nuclear power plant was already blocked off by police vehicles. Apparently the police intended to prevent entry onto the territory of the plant, but, in fact, turned out to be the ones initiating the blocked roads.  

Police inadvertently helped shut down the road to the nuclear power plant.

http://www.olkiluotoblockade.info/

Demonstrators nonetheless unfurled their banners across the road to the plant and tried to block off the Turku-Pori highway, which adjoins the road to Olkiluoto. Several times they succeeded in stopping traffic for as long as 15 to 20 minutes, but would then be crowded off the road by police. Three activists who had managed to circumvent the police blockade tied themselves together and laid on the road beyond the T-junction to the plant. They had to be lifted to the road shoulder when a heavy crane was passing. But they took their positions in the road again after it passed and were joined by five more protesters who tied themselves into the human blockade.

Protestors tie themselves together to lay on the road to block it off.

Tatyana Novikova

Activists on both sides of the police cordon managed to hold the road for several hours. One hundred and fifty unfurled more banners, sat in the road, sang songs and had picnics. The détente between police and activists remained in place for several hours. 

…and then applied excessive force

Police separate the protestors who were tied together to make way for a crane.

Tatyana Novikova

At about 4 pm a number of police vans passed the activists who were laying tied together in the road and a helicopter began to circle overhead. Police began separating these activists, lifting them and carrying them to waiting busses. Those sitting in the road were grabbed by backs of their necks and jaws and were painfully manhandled and escorted from where they had been sitting and shoved on the bus.

In the morning, the police were satisfied that that the demonstration was peaceful, Helsingin Sanomat reported. But by afternoon, police told the paper, protesters were blocking main roads and refusing to obey police orders to move.

”Those who refused to withdraw on their own were taken by bus to the Rauma police station,” Chief Inspector Lars Grönroos from the Satakunta Police Department, told Helsingin Sanomat.

The activists were taken to a police precinct in Raumo and fined €60 for disorderly conduct. Altogether, 30 activists were arrested and fined. 

Blockade a success

Near the end of the blockade, one of its Finnish organizers, Tapio Solala of Pori described it to Bellona Web as a success.

Pori, Finland activist Tapio Solala declares the blockade was a success.

Tatyana Novikova

“We fulfilled what we conceived – the main road to the nuclear power plant was blocked for a long time,” he said. “I hope that the success of the blockade will enable a fortification of the anti-nuclear movement in Finland, This is a new form of protest for us and we can use it again.”

Many participants in the protest spoke about how the parliamentary vote meant the beginning of a new nuclear build out. But they added that it will be difficult to find investors for these dubious projects should protests continue.

“In the future we intend to undertake a number of actions to pressure possible investors – letters of protest and boycotts of products and services by companies who buy electricity from the nuclear power plant,” activist Senni Luosujärvi told Bellona Web.  

As successful as boycotts, pressure on investors and blockades of nuclear power plants can be in the west, they have scant chance of working in Russia. Blocking roads in Russia is a jailable offence, and the state, rather than investors, pays for the building of new reactors.

Support Bellona’s work for the environment – Phone +47 23 23 46 00

 E-MAIL: info@bellona.no

Protesters hurled shoes and eggs Saturday as Tony Blair held the first public signing of his memoir amid high security in the Irish capital. Hundreds more people lined up to have their books autographed — evidence that the divisions left by Blair’s decade as British leader have yet to heal.

Blair’s new book, “A Journey,” is a best-seller, but it has angered opponents of his policies, especially the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

About 200 demonstrators chanted that Blair had “blood on his hands” as the former prime minister arrived at a Dublin book store. A shoe, eggs and other projectiles were thrown toward Blair as he emerged from a car, but did not hit him. A flip-flop could be seen lying on the roof of a BMW in Blair’s motorcade.

Security was tight, with book buyers — who appeared to outnumber the protesters by about two to one — told to hand over bags and mobile phones before entering Eason’s book store on O’Connell Street, Dublin’s main shopping thoroughfare.

There were scuffles between police and demonstrators when some tried to force their way through the security cordon. Two protesters were arrested and bundled into the back of a security van. Several demonstrators, including one wheelchair user, laid themselves in the van’s path, and riot police were brought in to remove them.

Blair spent about two hours in the store before emerging to more shouts, boos and hurled eggs. He was quickly driven away, as a police helicopter circled overhead.

“Blair took the world to war in Iraq and Afghanistan on the basis of lies,” said protester Donal MacFhearraigh. He said Blair should be indicted as a war criminal.

Another protester, 24-year-old Kate O’Sullivan, said she was bundled away by security guards after approaching Blair in the store and trying to perform a citizen’s arrest.

Confrontation erupted again once Blair had left, as police stopped demonstrators from entering the book store.

Many of the demonstrators then marched to the police station where the two who were arrested were being held to continue their protest there.

Full article from AP

Review of American Subversive by David Goodwillie (Scribner, 309 pages, 2010).

David Goodwillie’s American Subversive is a study in trust—earning it and detecting it. One of the main characters is skilled at identifying who among her friends and colleagues is trustworthy. The other main character is an amateur who fails miserably at gauging who among his supposed inner circle can be trusted.

The book is about an early 30-something New Yorker who manages a celebrity and media blog. The website aims to be clever and irreverent but is utterly irrelevant in its contributions to making the world a better place. The blogger, Aidan, goes to nightly parties in Manhattan, reporting what he finds and learns the next morning on his blog. He lives an insignificant life. There is no redeeming value in his day-to-day existence. The relationship with his equally hollow girlfriend is crumbling.

One day, he receives an email from someone with the address EmpiresFall@gmail.com . The email contains a photo of a woman in her mid-20s, Paige Roderick, who was allegedly involved in the bombing of a building on Madison Avenue in Manhattan a few months earlier. The photo and the words below it, “This is Paige Roderick. She’s the one responsible,” captivate Aidan, sending him on a quest to find this mysterious woman.

Goodwillie writes from the point of view of both Aidan and Paige, alternating between the two from one chapter to the next. In one of the early chapters told by Paige, we learn about her evolution as an activist. She goes from working in the world of liberal do-gooder organizations to getting involved in direct action to expose the wrongdoing of corporations and other powerful interests. The direct action advances from targeting a paper mill in West Virginia to bombing a private equity firm’s office in Manhattan.

We learn early on about Paige’s sorrow over her brother, a U.S. soldier recently killed in the American wars against Afghanistan or Iraq. Paige was very close to her brother, and his death apparently triggers Paige’s decision to become less passive. She decides that the best way to fight the system is to throw a monkey wrench into the operations of the military-industrial-energy complex.

On the surface, Aidan doesn’t possess any strongly held moral or ethical beliefs about the world around him. So it’s somewhat surprising when he decides not to post a story on his blog, called Roorback, about the alleged bomber of the Madison Avenue building. Is the decision to protect Paige related to a visceral attraction to the woman in the photo or an innate sympathy for the as-yet-unknown political motivation of the bombers? Breaking the story about Paige Roderick and her involvement in the bombing would have made Aidan a star in New York’s blogging and journalism community. But instead he keeps Paige’s name out of his blog and opts to conduct his own investigation into the whereabouts of the alleged bomber.

American Subversive is full of clichés about the so-called radical left: labeling them “terrorists” and describing the work of sixties activists as “what we did before we grew up.” But these clichés only appear in the chapters written from Aidan’s point of view. He’s writing about political activism as someone who’s never thought outside the proverbial box—until the photo of Paige Roderick arrives in his email box.

On his journey to find Paige, Aidan puts his trust in people he thinks are his friends. In the end, though, Aidan learns the hard way that he no longer has any real friends in his old stamping grounds of New York celebrity gossip.

I was wary when I picked up American Subversive, worrying it would be another caricature of Americans who decide to engage in direct action against the powers that be. To his credit, Goodwillie takes a less conventional route.

And, in the end, Goodwillie, perhaps subversively, demonstrates in the book that direct action can have a positive impact on society, although the participants often pay a steep price. However, the participants in this particular story ultimately discover there are opportunities for reinventing themselves and continuing to fight the good fight.

Practically speaking, American Subversive is a lesson in how due diligence—such as closely monitoring potential police infiltration and keeping an eye out for erratic behavior and signs of betrayal among colleagues—is the key to survival in the world of underground political activism.

Source….

Climate campaigners superglued themselves to a cark park gate during a demonstration on Monday. How are they released?

It is the latest tactic used by direct action activists to make sure they stick in the public consciousness – but you definitely should not try it at home.

Climate campaigners in Edinburgh are the latest to superglue themselves to premises in order to make a point – a technique designed to cause maximum disruption to police.

A Scotland Yard spokesman says its officers use a “fluid de-bonding agent” to detach them, but declined to specify exactly which one for operational reasons.

Dr Mark Elliott, senior lecturer in organic chemistry at Cardiff University, says warm, soapy water or the compound acetone are most likely to be used – but warns there are many risks to this rather extreme form of making one’s point.

“Superglue is a very strong glue and will bond most surfaces more or less instantly and permanently,” he says. “Anyone who has inadvertently stuck their fingers together with superglue will know how difficult and painful it can be to separate then, and the fingertips are relatively tough. It is even more painful when other, softer, areas of skin become bonded.”

According to Dr Elliot, the general advice is to use warm, water, then to apply gentle pressure – for example by inserting a spatula. “This will inevitably take time and be rather painful,” he warns.

Alternatively, acetone, normally found in nail-varnish remover, can make it easier to remove the glue – but “‘easier’ is very much a relative term”.

For its part, Scotland Yard says that officers will explain what is going on to protesters as they apply their liquid. The demonstrator will be offered safety goggles and an ambulance crew will always be on hand, it adds.

Forcibly attaching oneself to a structure is a technique that goes back to the Suffragettes, who chained themselves to the railings outside 10 Downing Street and a statue inside the Houses of Parliament – and the tactic has been imitated by militant activists ever since.

But while chains may be more cumbersome to deal with, many protesters – including the seven from Climate Camp who glued themselves to a car park gate at Royal Bank of Scotland’s industrial estate at the Gyle Shopping Centre on Edinburgh’s outskirts on Monday – have realised a tube of Bostik is easier to carry and conceal.

Superglue was used by campaigners against a new Tesco development in Bristol in March, as well as by another climate group who stuck themselves to a statue in the lobby of the House of Commons in April 2009, supporters of the Vestas wind turbine plant outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change in August 2009 and pro-Palestinian activists at the BBC’s Cardiff offices in December 2008.

One such incident which gained significant publicity came when Dan Glass of anti-aviation organisation Plane Stupid glued his hand to the sleeve of then-prime minister Gordon Brown at a reception in Downing Street in July 2008.

Mr Glass, who had been at No 10 to receive an award from Mr Brown, says direct action groups provide training in how to carry out such stunts safely and advises any would-be activists to take advice first.

But he says that the symbolism of glueing oneself to a building – or, indeed, a politician – is a very powerful one.

“Civil disobedience is a tool that I wouldn’t use whimsically,” he insists. ” But it’s a very effective technique for sticking to the issue.

“I was saying to Gordon Brown: you can run away from climate change but you can’t run away from my arm.”

Mr Glass certainly attracted much attention for his stunt. For his part, however, Mr Brown was able to evade his attentions by taking off his jacket.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11062193

We’ve arrived at the site of current deepwater oil drilling in the Arctic. The Esperanza is currently anchored about 2km from the oil rig in the Davis Straits between Canada and Greenland – also known as iceberg alley. We’re here to tell them to end deepwater drilling. And we need you to do the same.

It’s a UK company that has come to one of the most remote and harsh environments on the planet in pursuit of the last drops of oil. Cairn Energy is currently drilling two wells off the west coast of Greenland and has plans for two more wells in the area before the end of the summer. Companies like Cairn and BP are desperate to pursue the last oil on Earth, even if that means risking our environment and climate in the process.

The Arctic is a barometer of the health of the planet. It’s home to some of the world’s most distinctive mammals like polar bears, walruses, caribou, narwhals and beluga whales. It supports millions of migratory and resident birds. The Arctic also plays a major role in the regulation of the global climate by acting like a giant reflective shield limiting the amount of sun and heat absorbed by the Earth.

Drilling in the Arctic is too risky and a spill in the region would be catastrophic. Cairn is employing small ships to drag icebergs out the way of their rigs, but that only works for small icebergs. When they get big, they’ve got to move the rigs – fast.

Deepwater drilling in the Arctic is a disaster waiting to happen. Canadian regulators say that drilling a ‘relief well’ in the Arctic would take at least three years to complete, leaving the oil to gush out until the job is done.

In the next hour we’re going to send an inflatable boat with a few of the crew to go and talk to the rig manager about the devastating consequences if a spill occurred in the Arctic.

We need you to contact Cairn Energy as well and tell CEO Bill Gammell to stop drilling in the Arctic.

You can follow my updates from the ship at http://www.gobeyondoil.org/ and I’ll let you know how the visit goes.

Hope to speak to you then!

Lisa
Onboard the Esperanza

Stop deepwater drilling in the Arctic

Our Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza, is in the Arctic confronting the oil industry’s reckless pursuit of the last drops of oil.

Cairn Energy, a UK company, is risking the fragile Arctic wilderness – and our climate – by drilling in the sea off Greenland. Watch this video to find out more:

Stop deepwater drilling for oil in the Arctic from Greenpeace UK on Vimeo.

Ruth Sherlock in Beirut

guardian.co.uk,

Friday 6 August 2010 19.20 BST

Photo: Women activists gather to pray at a shrine for the Virgin Mary as they prepare to set sail for Gaza. Credit: AFP

A ship bearing aid for Gaza is preparing to leave Tripoli in Lebanon this weekend in the latest attempt to defy the Israeli blockade – with only women on board.

The Saint Mariam, or Virgin Mary, has a multi-faith international passenger list, including the Lebanese singer May Hariri and a group of nuns from the US. “They are nuns, doctors, lawyers, journalists, Christians and Muslims,” said Mona, one of the participants who, along with the other women, has adopted the ship’s name, Mariam.

The Mariam and its sister ship, Naji Alali, had hoped to set off several weeks ago but faced several delays after Israel launched a diplomatic mission to pressure Lebanon to stop the mission.

The co-ordinator of the voyage, Samar al-Haj, told the Guardian this week the Lebanese government had given permission for the boats to leave for Cyprus, the first leg of the journey, this weekend.

Israel says it is concerned a flotilla from Lebanon, with whom it has ongoing hostility, will smuggle weapons to Gaza. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, has warned that Israel reserves the right to use “necessary measures” in line with international law to stop the ship.

But al-Haj says the mission is purely humanitarian. “Our goal is to arrive in Gaza,” she said. “It is the responsibility of the government to deal with the politics. We are not political.”

She said that once news of the flotilla was out organisers were inundated with requests to join the voyage, with more than 400 from the US alone. At least 10 Americans will be on board.

The boat has been stocked with medical instruments and medicines to take to the Palestinians.

In preparation for the voyage the participants gathered at a hotel in Beirut to discuss their plans. The logistics are many: minimal grooming, strict food rationing, and limited water supply.

“There will be no showers, no skirts and no makeup,” al-Haj told the group.

The participants are aware of the dangers, having followed the fate of another flotilla carrying aid for Gaza that was attacked by Israel in May.

Israeli forces landed on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish vessel, killing nine activists on board. Al-Haj reminded the women to be prepared for a confrontation.

“Have blood tests in case we come under attack from Israel and you need a blood transfusion,” she said. She added that organisers were going out of their way not to provoke Israel.

“We will not even bring cooking knives,” she said.

Serena Shim, who is heavily pregnant, decided to join the voyage because of her belief that the blockade is unjust. “These people need aid,” she said.

Asked how they would react to an Israeli military assault, one activist, Tania al Kayyalisaid: “We are not planning to fight or attack – but we will not leave the St Mariam.”

Source…

Previous post on Lebanese aid flotilla

 

Aid ships to Gaza

 

Keep Space for Peace!

Saturday 2nd October 2010 12.00 – 3.00pm

In a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council Wednesday, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev called on Lebanon’s government “to demonstrate responsibility” and prevent the two ships from leaving: “such action will prevent any possible escalation.”

About the ships:

Junia/Mariam docked last month

The Julia and Junia are expected to sail from the Lebanese port of Tripoli on either Friday or Saturday.
 Funds  were raised for this latest aid flotilla by Yasser Kashlak, a Palestinian businessman who heads the “Movement for a Free Palestine.” Kashlak’s organization, along with Lebanese NGO “Reporters Without Borders”, who took out newspaper advertisements to raise money for the flotilla.

The Julia is expected to be the ship commissioned by Jews for Justice for Palestine, this statement was issued by them recently:

A Jewish Boat to Gaza

We are launching this campaign:

ADDENDUM

Boat principles of operation

The Junia’s passengers, as originally announced, were to all be women, and would be carrying medicine and children’s food. The Junia’s organizing committee was led by Sama al-Hajj, the wife of the former head of Lebanese General Security.

Israeli military fired shots at and boarded a previous Lebanese ship  attacking those onboard in 2009.