No platform

It was Spring 2007, and a first year student on the University of Bath politics degree course had invited Nick Griffin, then leader of the British National Party, to speak at the University of Bath. The student who had invited him turned out to be the youth organiser for the BNP.

The student union, and all three campus staff unions (UCU, Unison, and Unite), swung into action to protest against Griffin being allowed to speak at the university. Nova Gresham, the regional official for the UCU South-West Region, came to support us, and we had speeches from her and some anti-racist activists at the joint staff and student meeting. Everyone at the meeting signed a petition asking the university to cancel the event. We were all very clear that allowing racists and fascists to speak (particularly if they speak unopposed) at universities lends an aura of respectability to their ideas, because they are given credence and kudos by the university, and that it is likely to increase incidents of racist violence in areas where fascists and racists hold events.

I still have the T-shirt I was given at the meeting, which has that quote about evil flourishing when good people do nothing on it.

We then went to present the petition to the Vice-Chancellor of the University. We explained our concerns about lending respectability to fascist ideas, and that such events have resulted in an increase in racist incidents. I felt that the VC understood where we were coming from mainly because a Black student looked straight at the VC and said, "I live on campus, so inviting this man onto campus is like inviting him into my living room. Would you invite him into your living room?" The VC replied "No".

Later that day, we met with the University Secretary, and advised him that trade unionists from all over the South West would converge on the university to protest (we had been promised up to six coach-loads). The talk was scheduled to take place during exams, and the University Secretary told us that if they cancelled the event, it would be over concerns around being unable to maintain public order, and the potential disruption to exams, as the University was committed to principles of free speech.

I was on holiday in Poland when I got a text to let me know that the event had indeed been cancelled. We heard that Griffin ended up giving his speech on a street corner somewhere in the city of Bath, and that his audience was outnumbered by the police who were there to prevent any incidents.

Stepping Stones Nigeria update

From Stepping Stones Nigeria:

Dear Stepping Stones Nigeria Supporter,

I just thought that I would take this opportunity to update you with some
of the exciting events of the previous few weeks. As you may know SSN has
been campaigning for the rights of so called child “witches” in Akwa Ibom
State since November 2006. This has been carried out through our Prevent
Abandonment of Children Today (PACT) campaign and has involved organising
two international symposiums, TV and radio adverts and regular visits to
government officials to advocate for the rights of the child. Most
recently SSN organised a child rights rally through the streets of Uyo,
which culminated in the children handing over a petition to the Governor
of the state demanding that he acted to protect the lives of these
innocent children. In addition to this SSN also paid UNICEF a visit in
order to make them aware of this terrible situation and request for their
assistance in the fight against child abandonment due to witchcraft
stigma.

One of the consistent demands that SSN has made is for the Akwa Ibom State
government to enact the Child Rights Act (CRA). Despite the Federal
Republic of Nigeria enacting the CRA at federal level in 2003, Akwa Ibom
was still one of the 22 states still awaiting to enact it. Without the CRA
in place it is very difficult to protect the rights of the children, many
of whom have been tortured in churches, abandoned by their parents, set on
fire, trafficked etc. Indeed through working with our Nigerian partner,
CRARN, we had tried unsuccessfully to prosecute a number of parents and
pastors. Without the legal framework to support us this was a seemingly
impossible task.

Thankfully on 6th September we received the news that the Akwa Ibom State
government has finally enacted the CRA. SSN sees this as a giant stride in
our efforts to protect, save and transform the lives of stigmatised
children in Akwa Ibom State. Whilst we cannot fully attribute the
enactment of this law to the efforts of SSN or CRARN, it is clear that we
have contributed a great deal to bringing about this positive change. As a
small charity, with limited resources, SSN feels very proud at this
accomplishment and now looks forward to working with all stakeholders to
ensure that the CRA is fully implemented and that parents or pastors that
are guilty of violating child rights are held to account. Please do visit
our website - www.steppingstonesnigeria.org/news - for the latest press
coverage of these issues.

In a separate development, whilst carrying out research into the needs of
abandoned children in Oron LGA, our sister NGO – Stepping Stones Nigeria
Child Empowerment Foundation (SSNCEF) – recently uncovered some very
disturbing findings. A shadowy religious group, known as the “peace
sisters”, had been found to have rounded up between 200-300 abandoned
children from the streets on the pretence that they were taking them to
their centre in Aba for “deliverance”. SSN and SSNCEF were already aware
that this group had been arrested in 2007 on suspicion of trafficking of
children and, as soon as we unearthed these findings, we quickly leapt
into action. Letters were sent and numerous calls were made to the federal
government anti-trafficking agency, NAPTIP, government, police and UNICEF
demanding that urgent action should be taken to investigate the “peace
sisters”. After two weeks of high level advocacy, SSN is happy to
announce that on 12th September 2008, 5 members of this group were
arrested and were found to be imprisoning 36 children in their “church”.
SSN and SSNCEF strongly believe that these children were destined to be
trafficked, although where exactly to we do not know. The investigation
into the “peace sisters” activities is still continuing and numerous
children are still unaccounted for. SSN sees this case as a huge success
for the work of SSNCEF and hopes that this will be the first of many
positive interventions carried out by our sister NGO.

SSN now feels that there is a great deal of positive momentum behind our
work and we very much look forward to working with key stakeholders, such
as government, churches and traditional rulers, in the near future to help
develop sustainable strategies to dealing with the child “witch”
phenomenon and ensuring that all children in Akwa Ibom state have access
to their rights. This momentum will undoubtedly continue with the
broadcast of the "Dispatches" documentary that SSN has been working on -
The Witch Children of Nigeria - on 12th November at 9pm on Channel 4.
International supporters may watch the film online at
www.channel4.com/watch_online.

We hope that you share our joy about these positive developments and wish
to thank you for your continuing support for SSN’s work.

With best wishes,

Gary Foxcroft

--
Programme Director

Stepping Stones Nigeria

www.steppingstonesnigeria.org

Protecting, Saving and Transforming the Lives of Vulnerable and
Disadvantaged Children in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Registered UK and Wales charity number 1112476
Company number 05413970

Justice for Bob

I've just been sent information about this campaign to reinstate a lecturer who was sacked for not sacking a subordinate who was in difficulty; instead he argued for a breathing space to help the person turn things around.

More information - please sign the petition.

Justice for Jean

The Justice for Jean campaign has started a new blog, as the inquest is starting on 22nd September.

After more than three years, the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes will finally open on 22nd September 2008. It is expected to last three months.

The inquest will be the first chance the family of Jean Charles will be able to put their questions to the police officers responsible for his death. It will also be the first time we will hear evidence from the fire-arms officers who killed Jean and the civilian witnesses to the killing. The inquest will be taking place at the Oval Cricket Ground in South London and Jean’s mother and brother will be coming over from Brazil for part of it.

IDAHO

Tomorrow I am going to IDAHO:

There are 77 countries in the world today where it is a criminal offence to be gay. These countries punish women, men and children because of their sexuality and in seven countries the punishment is death.

An International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) provides a platform for everyone to make a powerful statement to demand improvements for the quality of life for LGBT people both overseas and here in the UK. The 17th May can be used to raise awareness of homophobic issues that are negatively impacting on people’s lives and to showcase success stories where a positive change has been achieved.

IDAHO, the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia, takes place on May 17th every year. It was on this date, in 1990, that the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from their list of mental disorders.

Stand with Tibet

I just signed an urgent petition calling on the Chinese government to respect human rights in Tibet and engage in meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama. This is really important.

Please sign the petition.

After nearly 50 years of Chinese rule, the Tibetans are sending out a global cry for change. But violence is spreading across Tibet and neighbouring regions, and the Chinese regime is right now considering a choice between increasing brutality or dialogue, that could determine the future of Tibet and China.

We can affect this historic choice. China does care about its international reputation. Its economy is totally dependent on "Made in China" exports that we all buy, and it is keen to make the Olympics in Beijing this summer a celebration of a new China that is a respected world power.

President Hu needs to hear that 'Brand China' and the Olympics can succeed only if he makes the right choice. But it will take an avalanche of global people power to get his attention. Click below to join me and sign a petition to President Hu calling for restraint in Tibet and dialogue with the Dalai Lama -- and tell absolutely everyone you can right away. The petition is organized by Avaaz, and they are urgently aiming to reach 1 million signatures to deliver directly to Chinese officials:

Please sign the petition.

Thank you so much for your help!

Save Fawza Falih

HALT EXECUTION OF SAUDI WOMAN FOR "WITCHCRAFT" Petition

We are citizens of many countries appealing to you on behalf of Fawza Falih Muhammad Ali who has been sentenced to death by beheading for the alleged crimes of “witchcraft, recourse to jinn, and slaughter” of animals. The conviction of Fawza Falih for “witchcraft” is a travesty of justice.

BBC: Pleas for condemned Saudi 'witch'

The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read.

This is like some medieval notion of justice, not what you would expect to be happening in the 21st century. I mean, I know Saudi Arabia is basically a medieval state, but I didn't even know they had the death penalty for witchcraft until I saw this. Please sign the petition. I am glad to see that people from lots of different faiths have signed the petition.

Save Sayed Kambakhsh

Sentenced to death for reading about women's rights

A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country's rulers. This is Afghanistan – not in Taliban times but six years after "liberation" and under the democratic rule of the West's ally Hamid Karzai.

The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.

That is terrible. We need to support Sayed Kambaksh - it is unthinkable that he should be executed merely for reading something. Please sign the Independent petition for his release.

help stop id cards

This seems like a good way to let people know about what a bad idea ID cards are. I've had a poster in the window for ages that says "ID card free zone" but I think a lot of people are still mystified as to why this is an issue. It's very simple - the ID data would be stored on a central database. After the recent fiasco, do we really trust the government to keep all our data in one place, making it easier to hack into, and easier for our identities to be stolen by fraudsters?

Labour's plans to introduce ID cards would be both a massive intrusion into our civil liberties and also a hugely wasteful way of spending government funds.

The pressure from campaigners against ID cards is starting to tell. Labour has already put back by two years its plans to introduce mandatory ID cards for UK citizens.

You can help build up even more pressure by using this simple flyer: just print off a few copies and deliver them through the letterboxes of your neighbours.

It's a single-sided A4 black and white leaflet - so should be easy to print on any printer.

This really simple step will only take a few minutes of your time, but would help spread our message further and get more people signed up to our campaign against ID cards.

It would be great to hear back from everyone taking part in this action - just email ecampaignteam@libdems.org.uk with the number you delivered and the postcode.

If you don't want to use the Lib Dems' leaflet, the No2ID campaign also has a selection of campaign resources.

the final push

The government has retreated again over ID cards: the information was leaked today that they have put back by two years the plans for mandatory ID cards for UK citizens. This latest twist in the sorry saga of ID cards just shows what an ill-conceived idea they are.

It is, in my opinion, wrong that I should have to carry a card to identify myself in the country where I live. However, philosophical objections aside, the scheme is going to be extremely expensive, and will undoubtedly fail to fulfill its stated aim of protecting us from terrorists (as the problem with terrorists is that they have access to bombs and guns, not that they don't carry ID). Add to that the fact that they are incapable of safeguarding the data they already hold about us (the lost child benefit data being a case in point), and the system will increase the possibility of identity fraud, as criminals will be more easily able to steal someone's identity - they only have to hack into one central database instead of several.

I note that the government's proposed incremental roll-out of the cards targets the vulnerable and marginalised (such as refugees) first - this looks suspiciously to me like some sort of "divide and conquer" strategy. First they came for the refugees, and I did nothing, because I was not a refugee... You know the rest.

The campaigning pressure is paying off - but we need to do more to turn delay into cancellation.

There are two simple things you can do today to help win this battle:

1. Sign the LibDems' petition or sign up for No2ID.

2. Write to one of these newspapers expressing your opposition to I.D. cards:

Guardian: letters@guardian.co.uk
Telegraph: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
Your own local newspaper

Remember to include your postal address (for verification), the title, date and URL of the article you are referring to, and a daytime contact telephone number.

Letters pages are one of the best-read sections of newspapers, so this is a very powerful way of publicising your views. The letters can be brief: simply pointing out, for example, the huge costs of ID cards, the poor record of keeping within budget on previous IT projects, and what a terrible record the government has on safeguarding personal data (the recent CD disaster, for example).

"witch children" petition

In response to the recent Observer article on the plight of the children
that Stepping Stones work with in Nigeria a petition has been set up to pressure the
Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, to act to stop the gross
violations of child rights that are taking place due to the belief in
child "witches". As many of you will know, countless children are being
abandoned, tortured and killed in this region due to this traditional
harmful belief. We need to act as quickly as possible if we are protect
more children from harm and challenge this deeply held belief.

I would be grateful if you could sign it and circulate this request to your
contacts. Once there are as many signatories as possible Stepping Stones will then
personally present the petition to the Governor. This is just the first
step in what is going to be a long, concerted effort by Stepping Stones
Nigeria and their partner NGO - the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network
- to put an end to this needless suffering. They will also be looking to
significantly expand the scope of their Prevent Abandonment of Children
Today (PACT) campaign in 2008.

The petition can be found at:
Care2 petition for the children who are targets of the Nigerian witch-hunt

in small things forgotten

The Portable Antiquities Scheme is a voluntary scheme to record archaeological objects found by members of the public in England and Wales. Every year many thousands of objects are discovered, many of these by metal-detector users, but also by people whilst out walking, gardening or going about their daily work. Such discoveries offer an important source for understanding our past.

Save the Portable Antiquities Scheme

At a meeting of the Portable Antiquities Scheme's Advisory Group the Chief Executive of the Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) announced that funding for next year would be frozen at the 2007 level, even though at the press conference for the Annual Report he and the Minister announced that the funding for current levels of activity would be preserved.

The PAS as an organisation of 50 staff needs £1.49 million to keep going at the same level of activity in 2008 and freezing the PAS budget will mean losing 5 posts out of 50.

The MLA also wants to review PAS's funding for 2009-11 and integrate them into the programme called Renaissance in the Regions which it is funding 42 hub museums. If that happens the work of the Finds Liaison Officers will be diluted and the national side of PAS will be weakened. This will result in 9 separate PAS groups, all with their own priorities.

The DCMS (Department of Culture, Media and Sport) should reassign the PAS from MLA to the British Museum that is fully committed to the long term work of PAS.

At a time where Heritage and recognition of the public interest in our shared heritage, to act in such a manner is contrary to the principal of providing support to the public and providing a secure and sustainable future for the PAS.

What this means in layperson's terms is that what is currently a unified service to receive small archaeological finds from the public will be split up and have its funding cut. I suspect also that this is yet another instance of heritage and the arts being squeezed to pay for the Olympics. Grr.

A Finds Liaison Officer is the one who actually is the point of contact for the Portable Antiquities Scheme in each local authority.

This is not just about the current funding issue (frozen for this next year at present) meaning 5 lost jobs, but about the ultimate safekeeping of the PAS as it is. What the MLA propose to do is effectively break the PAS up and move all the Finds Liaison Officers out to Renaissance Hub Museums. This will mean the demise of the PAS in all but name. This potential move will bring differing standards that will result in losing the scheme's cohesion; also the fact that many FLOs would just leave and get a different job. Then factor in that the end-users of the scheme will now be forced to have to travel to record their finds, because Dorset and Somerset for example don't have a Hub Museum.


Sign the petition to show your support for the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

Benazir Bhutto

I was deeply saddened to learn that Benazir Bhutto has been murdered. I have always admired her for standing up for democracy and people's rights, for being a woman not afraid to speak her mind in a patriarchal culture, and for trying to limit the power of feudal landlords. She was the first woman prime minister of Pakistan. I also thought it was brave of her to return to Pakistan for the current election campaign.

Please sign a petition to demand an investigation into who was responsible for Benazir Bhutto's death, and stop violence in Pakistan. I don't know how much good it will do, but it's a gesture of solidarity with Benazir Bhutto, at least. Of course one should not have to sign a petition to ensure someone's killers are brought to justice, and it is to be hoped that President Musharraf's government will be carrying out an investigation anyway.

surreal

In a move worthy of a Jeunet & di Caro film, a cultural "guerrilla" group has restored the clock of the Panthéon in Paris. They are called UnterGunther.

For a year from September 2005, under the nose of the Panthéon's unsuspecting security officials, a group of intrepid "illegal restorers" set up a secret workshop and lounge in a cavity under the building's famous dome. Under the supervision of group member Jean-Baptiste Viot, a professional clockmaker, they pieced apart and repaired the antique clock that had been left to rust in the building since the 1960s. Only when their clandestine revamp of the elaborate timepiece had been completed did they reveal themselves.

That is awesome - not only did they sneak into the building under the noses of the curators, but they restored the clock and built themselves a small living room, which is rather chic. They were recently cleared by the Paris Court of Justice of breaking any laws.

» More photos at greg.org (he compares it to an Umberto Eco novel)
» Interview with Lazar Kunstmann, a member of UnterGunther

ban incandescent bulbs

The Irish have just banned incandescent lightbulbs, and the ban will come into effect by 2009.

In this country, they have introduced a voluntary scheme to come into effect by 2011, which is pathetic and will have no effect, as a number of major retailers have no intention of complying.

You can send a letter (via the Greenpeace website) to the Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs asking for a proper ban.

climate change petition

From Avaaz.org:

24 hours to go, and crisis at the Bali climate talks. In the last day alone, over 150,000 of us have surged to the global rescue -- calling on the world not to give in to wrecking tactics by the governments of the US, Canada and Japan. We're putting a full-page ad in the Jakarta Post?s summit edition where all the negotiators will see it, warning them to avert Titanic-like disaster -- and we're coming together with other NGOs to deliver millions of signatures for climate action to governments.

If the world can muster well over 200,000 crisis signatures in the last 24 hours for our actions tomorrow, we can show negotiators how urgently we care about setting a course for decisive climate action.

Last week, things in Bali looked good: near-consensus on a delicate framework of 2020 targets for rich countries, in return for which China and the developing world would do their part over time. IPCC scientists have said such targets are needed to prevent catastrophe. But Japan, the US and Canada are banding together to wreck the deal. The rest of the world is starting to waver, so we must do all we can - please sign the petition.

interpreters betrayed

I am absolutely disgusted by the betrayal of the Iraqi interpreters and other people who worked for the British in Iraq.

Safa, 28, one of the rejected interpreters who worked for the British for more than two years, received a letter from the Locally Employed Staff Assistance Office in Basra which said: “We have considered your case very carefully but we are sorry to inform you that, because your service with the British Forces was terminated for absence, you do not meet the minimum employment criteria for this scheme.”

Safa told The Times that he had never resigned but had been forced to stop working after receiving two bullets and a written death threat at his house in Basra in April. Married with one child, he said that he was advised by an army liaison officer and intelligence officials to stay at home until he felt safe.

A few months later the interpreter contacted the military to see if he could return only to be told that he was not needed but would be called if an opening arose.

Talk about faceless bureaucracy. Not to mention perfidious Albion, high-handed colonialism, and outrageous betrayal of good faith.

The government needs to help these people, and fast.

Lynne Featherstone MP has posted an entry on her blog today about how you
can help keep up the pressure on the government on this issue.

plastic shamans

Fresh controversy has broken out over the issue of plastic shamans and other new-age wannabes ripping off Indigenous American rituals. Jason Pitzl-Waters comments:

While I think that modern Pagans and polytheists should strive towards solidarity (when feasible) with those who practice pre-Christian faiths and rituals, our support should never be confused with the notion that we have a "right" to "borrow" (and take out of cultural context) their spiritual practices for our own benefit. Empathy for the Indian struggle does not confer the right to appropriate Native traditions and practices. Praying like an Indian doesn't help the Indian preserve their culture and integrity, it only serves our vanity and dilutes authentic practice.

There's an excellent article about Responsible Eclecticism and Cultural Appropriation which outlines the difference - basically if you take someone else's ritual and plonk it down in your spiritual context with no thought about what you are doing, that is cultural appropriation. If in addition to that, the group you have borrowed from is in danger of having its culture and land-rights stomped all over by mainstream culture, and you do nothing to help them in their struggle, that is the pits. And most of the plastic shamans have done nothing to assist in the indigenous struggle for self-determination, they've just ripped off their rituals and made a great deal of money out of them.

If on the other hand you look for parallels within your own tradition, and adapt the borrowing to your own context (an example being centering prayer, which is an adaptation of meditation) that is responsible eclecticism.

Persecution of witches

I have just read and signed the petition: "Stop the Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill 2007"

The above 2007 Bill and 1957 Act undermines, denies and violates S.A. Constitutional Rights to religious freedom, expression, equality, liberty, dignity and security of a religious minority in South Africa.

Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. They are trying to reach 6,000 signatures.

Why is this important? Because people have been murdered and maimed on suspicion of being witches, and giving a legal basis to the persecution of witches will make the problem of attacks on innocent people even worse. And it will also adversely affect Wiccans and Pagans in South Africa.

Justice is done

I am extremely glad to hear that the evil Westboro Baptist Church, who spew hate at funerals of both gay people and soldiers killed in Iraq (claiming that God is punishing America for its "tolerance" of gays - not that it is entirely tolerant towards us) have been fined $10,900,000 for their actions at the funeral of Matthew Snyder, a soldier who was killed in Iraq. As they have been behaving like this for over a decade, it is a shame that it has taken their appearance at soldiers' funerals for something to be done about it. Fortunately the good people of Angel Action have been there from the start, shielding the mourners from the hate-mongers.

If the mere mention of the evil of Westboro has left a bad taste in your mouth, then I recommend a visit to the SoulForce website, which is all about LGBT and straight people of faith working together to end prejudice and discrimination against LGBT people.

Romaine Patterson, founder of Angel Action