Author: pat (Page 1 of 12)

Veggies is Hiring – Join our Co-operative

Veggies Catering Campaign is hiring! 

Picture of Veggies Garden superimposed with text "We are hiring"

We are a workers co-operative, promoting veganism and supporting campaigns for human and animal rights, environmental protection and social justice since 1984. We produce our own ethical burger mix, which we use to sell burgers at events and festivals. We offer private catering, as well as supporting protests and campaigns with food at the front line. We are non-hierarchical and supported by a team of volunteers. 

The role:

  • 8 hours a week 
  • Pay is £10.89 per hour
  • Flexible schedule
  • Based at the Sumac Centre, Forest Fields, Nottingham
  • The main part of the role is admin based – keeping the finance records up to date, putting money in the bank, making purchases of stock and equipment, and any other relevant admin tasks. 
  • The second part of the role is loading the van for events as and when required, and also take a share in driving.

The ideal person:

  • Vegan
  • Interested in environmental, social and animal rights issues
  • Able to use Gmail, Google Sheets and Google Documents effectively. 
  • Some experience of book keeping would be nice but not mandatory as we can train you.
  • Some experience of manual handling
  • There are many opportunities to additionally volunteer at festivals (Glastonbury, Green Gathering, etc), and represent Veggies at protests and rallies. It would be a bonus if the successful applicant had an interest in going to these events. 

To apply:

  • Email at us at info@veggies.org.uk, with ‘Veggies is hiring’ as the subject line. 
  • Tell us how you fit the criteria, and why you want to work for Veggies. 
  • Apply by 24th October

Share this on twitter

https://twitter.com/veggiesnottm/status/1705323011237175709

and Instagram

 

Zapatistas Journey for life

What is the ‘Journey for life’?

On 1st January 2021 Indigenous Mayan Zapatistas published a declaration for life announcing an ‘invasion’ of Europe, a mission of solidarity and rebellion to mark 500 years since colonisation. The objective of this “Journey for Life” is to have meetings, dialogues, exchanges of ideas, and experiences with all who are committed, from different perspectives and fronts, to dismantling capitalism, as well as patriarchy, racism, imperialism, colonialism, and other violent systems that destroy life.

The North and Midlands section of the tour will only be 4 days – 28th to 31st October, so the logistics of the visit has been v.complicated.

Stop Press: We will host a visit of a 7-person delegation at Nottingham’s Sumac Centre on Thursday 28th/Friday 29th. Some of this time may be spent elsewhere (to be confirmed) but we invite all interested groups and individuals to contact us to get involved to make the most of this unique once in a half millennium opportunity! We have space for people from around the region to relay their stories to the Zapatistas, but also to meet and network with each other. There is space to stop over before and/or after if that helps people traveling from outside of Nottingham.

You can read more about the ‘Journey for life’ at: https://viajezapatista.eu/en/

Follow updates about the visit to the ‘WISE’ Islands (Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England) from Zapatista Solidarity Network on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube

There’s also a crowdfunder and an Etsy shop in solidarity with the Zapatista Journey for Life .

More background on the history & struggles of the Zapatista communities may be found at Veggies’ Zapatista Coffee page.

Please also support the fundraiser for the tour of Ireland.

 

Guardian 4 May 2021: zapatistas-set-sail-for-spain-on-mission-of-solidarity-and-rebellion

Guardian 17 Feb 2018: mexico-zapatistas-rebels-24-years-mountain-strongholds

 

Samosas for Social Change? Food Activism and Media Ecologies

By Eva Giraud

on

The title of this blog is a tribute to local Nottingham collective Veggies Catering Campaign, who – along with Brighton’s Anarchist Teapot – are two of the UK’s most well-known ‘campaign caterers’. This post isn’t focused purely on Veggies, though, but a long-standing food-activism campaign that some of their members have been involved in, which draws together some interesting issues about how we conceptualise protest media and what the political significance of these conceptualisations is.

In general I want to highlight three things: The first is the difficulty of engaging in what Pollyanna Ruiz (2014) describes as ‘polyvocal’ protest, or mobilizing behind a range of interrelated issues as opposed to campaigning on a single-issue basis; the second is a body of work that explores how activist media practices can be understood as information ecologies (e.g. Treré 2012). The third, and final, thing I’m going to discuss relates to work by Anna Feigenbaum who (both individually and with Frenzel and McCurdy 2013) expands the definition of media beyond conventional communication platforms, in order to explore how other material entities can express (or sometimes constrain) meaning, from the symbolic use of tents in occupations of public space to the repressive use of tear gas to silence dissent. The work engaged in by these researchers has helped me to think through both the conceptual and tactical significance of issues I’ve looked at in my own work, in relation to food activism.

Movements local to me, such as Food Not Bombs and Nottingham Animal Rights, have regularly used food to draw attention to interconnected issues. There are, for instance, regular ‘free food give-aways’ in Nottingham city centre, where vegan food is cooked and served outside fast food outlets as part of long-standing anti-McDonald’s campaigning. What I want to reflect on in a little more depth is how the role of food can be conceptualised in these contexts, as a tool for polyvocal protest.

Veggies’ own What’s Wrong with McDonald’s? pamphlet is still distributed today as a defiant marker of the anniversary of the McLibel trial, and for the past twenty years has worked in conjunction with the McSpotlight website to articulate the series of problems drawn together by McDonald’s. While the pamphlet succinctly listed a range of issues – including worker’s rights, animal welfare, environmental destruction, littering, exploitative/misleading advertising, and unhealthy food – the website provided an in-depth archive of evidence to flesh out these concerns (see Pickerill 2003), with ‘mirrors’ in other countries to avoid fear of libel. The site also contains PDFs of the pamphlet in multiple languages, to enable people to develop local campaigns of their own.

It more recent times, however, the campaign has faced difficulties in maintaining its polyvocal dimensions. Though McDonald’s was initially a useful emblem for drawing together issues and problems, this had its downsides; while the campaign tried to make clear it wasn’t just McDonald’s that was the problem, but what it stood for, the sight of people flyering outside of the restaurant can lead to assumptions that the restaurant is the main target. This is especially problematic in light of McDonald’s recent emphasis on ‘local’, ‘organic’ produce in its marketing campaigns within the UK, which make it seem like any criticisms have been addressed. Though this has been responded to with a new McGreenwash pamphlet, pamphleteering in a specific site doesn’t always make criticisms of the restaurant resonate with broader criticisms of the agricultural-industrial complex or of the commercialisation of public space. In contrast, though McSpotlight does have the capacity to elaborate on connections between different issues in depth, twenty years after the site’s initial buzz, the website tends to be used as a helpful archive of information for activists rather than a platform to communicate with publics.

Food, however, can be a way of overcoming the limitations of both the pamphlets and web-media. Food sharing, for instance, is useful in de-familiarising commercial rhythms in ways that pamphlets alone might not. Quite often if you’re distributing political pamphlets this just seems part of urban rhythms, something to ignore in the same way that you might ignore commercial flyers. Food give-aways, in contrast, evoke surprise that people are giving something away within a commercial space without trying to sell the product, which often prompts further questions and creates space for dialogue. While I have reflected on these campaigns in the past, in a range of contexts (e.g. Notts Free Food 2010, Giraud 2015), I’ve struggled to articulate exactly what food’s value was in more concrete terms. Yes, different tactics reach different audiences (with specific web-platforms appealing to different sectors of the activist community, whist pamphleteering directly engaged with consumers) and, yes, food distribution was a good way of breaking down barriers and chatting with people, but I felt there was something more to say.

When listening to Feigenbaum’s research at the last SoME seminar, however, I reflected that I was drawing artificial distinctions between food sharing (which I saw as a practice) and pamphlets, websites and social media (which I saw as communication). I also often found myself treating these things separately, and reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of each platform, or how they could work together to compensate for these limitations, rather than taking the more holistic approach that is offered by understanding these practices as being interrelated (as in Treré’s work). If, instead, food is – firstly – understood as media in its own right and, secondly, situated as part of a complex communication ecology, then it becomes possible to grasp its role, and protest potentials, more clearly. In the context of the give-aways, food can be understood as a media which has affordances that emerge through its relationships with the other media involved. To clarify what I mean by this, burgers served in McDonald’s clearly convey different meaning to the burgers cooked outside, which – due to their location, being free and being vegan – communicate oppositional ideas about public space, commercialisation, and animal rights (to give a few examples). The specific resonances the veggie burgers assume, moreover, shift depending on their relation with the other media involved in the campaign, which doesn’t just include the pamphlets that are being distributed but the way the stall is arranged, who is present and what discussions are had.

Thinking through food’s role as part of a broader media ecology, of on- and offline communication practices, is a helpful way of reflecting on the different affordances and constraints of the varied platforms being used, and how tinkering with these relationships could alter these affordances to reach new audiences or make communication more effective. Food, in this context, can be seen as a powerful communicative tool, which both expresses critical meaning, and enacts new – if temporary – forms of social relations. Whilst, in themselves, pamphlets, websites, social media, burgers, or verbal discussion might have their limitations, by refusing to isolate these media and understanding them as part of a complex ecology of communicative practices, the value of different tactics for polyvocal protest can become clearer. The theoretical framings of media discussed here, therefore, are not just helpful for conceptualising activist media practices, but for assessing the context-specific value of different media for communicating complex, interrelated, issues to diverse publics.

Bradley Nook Refarm’d

Stop Press

Our first delivery of Refarm’d organic oat milk, produced less than 30 miles away at Bradley Nook Farm, will provisionally be on Thurs 8th Oct or Fri 9th Oct.

We are honored to work with Katja and Jay Wilde’s Bradley Nook Farm in Ashbourne, the UK’s first Refarm’d partner farm.

  • Support local & ethical production

  • Support the transition from livestock to plant based farming

  • Support zero waste, plastic-free returnable glass packaging

  • Support the life-long care of retired cows living at Bradley Nook Farm

You may already be familiar with the story of Jay and Katja’s journey out of animal farming from the documentary 73 Cows.

Jay was born into the family farm with an environmentally minded father who never engaged with intensive farming, artificial fertilizers and herbicides. Troubled by his feelings for the animals he cared for Jay chose to go vegetarian, but carrying on with the farm work was difficult.

Jay’s wife Katja helped with his idea to stop farming and produce renewable energy instead, investing in solar PV to make up in part for the climate damage caused by keeping livestock.

Through Veggies Catering Campaign Jay and Katja became aware of The Vegan Society’s Grow Green campaign aiming to support farmers transitioning from livestock farming to growing vegetables certified by the Vegan-Organic Network.

61 cows from Jay and Katja’s herd were accepted by Hillside Animal Sanctuary in 2017, while Jay and Katja kept 12 cows who, together with their 5 calves, continue to graze their fields, supporting important fauna and flora dependent on their organic manure.

Though Refarm’d, Jay and Katja will soon be producing handmade organic oat milk, producing food that has not caused harm to anybody, making more room for nature and supporting plans to become a sanctuary for the cows that still live with them.

Refarm’d oat drinks for collection from Veggies Catering Campaign via https://en.refarmd.com/bradley-nook-farm

search #milksofhumankindness on twitter

https://lockwoodfilm.com/73-cows

http://www.veggies.org.uk/2017/04/farming-for-a-future/

 

Veggies on Desert Island Vids

Today on Desert Island Vids, Eagle talks to Pat Veggies from the Sumac Centre and Veggies Campaign Catering!

Pat’s Desert Island Vids are:
Song 1 – The Who – Won’t Get Fooled Again

Song 2 – Chumbawamba – Enough Is Enough (Kick It Over)

Song 3 – Seize the Day – I Swear

Bye Bye Bicycology

We are sorry to hear that Bicycology has reached the end of the road.
 
We have enjoyed working with, and been inspired by, this activist cycle project on many occasions.
 
 
Bicycology is/was a UK-based collective that was formed after the 2005 London to Scotland G8 Bike Ride. It was a non-hierarchical non-profit organisation which aims to promote cycling as part of a wider focus on social and environmental sustainability. [wikipedia]
 
In 2016 Indymedia reported that the Bicycology bike tour traveled from London to Lancaster (via Nottingham), before heading to the Climate Action Camp. It visited Nottingham on Saturday 19th August:
 
Bicycology is a collective formed by riders who wanted to build on their shared experience of the 2005 G8 Bike Ride and organise future events of a similar nature. By focusing on cycling we aim to persue our vision of a just and sustainable world through a combination of education, entertainment and creative direct action. The collective was formed during a weekend meeting at the Sumac Centre, here in Nottingham, in November 2005 with 15 original members.
 
 
At the Big Green Gathering in 2017 Bicycology offered the usual selection of information and energy trailer amusements, and a multitude of bike jewellery and Tetra Pak wallets. The wallets and their Tetra Tool Kits are featured on Veggies Tetra Pak Craft Recycling website.
 

 

The Climate Camp connection continued when Bicycology headed up a cycle rally from the site of the 2007 Heathrow Airport camp to the 2008 site at Kingsnorth Power Station. Veggies supported the mission by taking a parallel route to provide vegan catering at each stop. Veggies was an active participant in Climate Camp catering from 2006 to 2009 – as their Action Resources Blog says:

… the United Nations has reported that “livestock is a major threat to environment” all food is vegan, mostly organic and locally sourced to minimise food miles, provided by communal neighbourhood kitchens, many associated with the Social Centres Network.

“We were in the campaigns area of the Green Futures Field, sharing a space with Veggies (the Nottingham based vegan catering campaign), an art exhibition and Rubbish DJ’s (turntables and amps mounted in a rubbish cart). The art exhibition and DJ setup were in the marquee which was closed up at night. Each morning we opened it up and laid out our Bicycology stall at the front. We had taken a load of old tyres and chains for making belts and bracelets – people could either make their own or buy them ready made from us with all the money going to 56a Infoshop in London.”
 

 

Whilst Bicycology on the streets may be just a happy recollection, hopefully their online resources will continue to inspire; their guide to building the Bicycology Energy Trailer, is a great resource for any Critical Mass Bike Ride or action camp , as seen alongside Veggies Catering at Peace News Summer Camp:

 
Image result for bicycology site:veggies.org.uk
 
And finally their “All About Food” Guide:
 
Front of Bicycology Food Guide
 
Back of Bicycology Food Guide

Comment on this story on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Veggiescatering/posts/1685850651453053

 

 

VegFestUK Awards

Veggies are always chuffed to be nominated for awards by VegfestUK.

Having won the Best Vegan Caterer award many times, here & elsewhere, we now happy to step back and congratulate another excellent vegan caterer, Mex It Up, on taking the limelight.

Of all the 300+ groups now mapped on our Directory of Vegan Caterers, Mex It Up are right up there at the top of the list for campaigning vegan caterers ‘For The Animals’. We are happy to work alongside them at many events, including Nottingham Green Festival and Sneinton Vegan Market.

Well done Mex It Up and all the other Vegan caterers feeding the hungry without exploiting animals.

All the nominations for Best Vegan Caterer:

Happy Maki
Damage Limitation
Pomodoro E Basilico
Mex It Up
Greek Vegan Deli
Lazy Boy Kitchen
Brownins Food
Rupert’s Street
Shambhu’s – Vegan Caterers
Veggies Catering Campaign

Find them all linked from our Facebook post.

Find 300+ other great vegan caterers on our Directory of Vegan Caterers

See also Veggies Awards Gallery

Lush Launch for Glasto Vegan 2017

Lush UK (Nottingham)  invited us to do vegan campaign outreach with them as an opportunity to launch our Veggies Catering Campaign Food for a Future plans for #GlastoVegan. However Glastonbury preparations and other factors mean that this will now happen after our return!
 
food for a future

Lush are enthusiastic about Vegan Free Food Giveaway activities both in-store & on the streets, together with vegan information & recipes etc right alongside the till. Proceeds from #CharityPot sales & will go to support our campaigns, as they have done every since our Lush Plan for Glastonbury in 2010.

We have Nakd goodies to revisit the amazing 40 cake /1600 sample cake giveaway from Bristol Vegfest, in addition to sampling of Veggies burgers, pre-glasto, to test preferences between regular (aka ‘classic’) and new ethically improved Event Burgers (40%hemp 60%veggies mixes).

If you would like to support our campaign team please contact us.

If you miss us in Nottingham, find at Veggies at Glastonbury Festival and follow Food for a Future on Facebook.

We are interested in forming stronger links with the Vegan Society and a  new Campaigners Network that they are launching. It would be a dedicated sub-group – a focused group of vegan outreach campaigners, perhaps modeled on Food For a Future &/or Leicester Vegan Campaigns. This could achieve better organised link-ups with people like Lush, Sneinton Vegan Market, School Visits etc, than Veggies is able to do alongside the 70 events that Veggies already attempts to do.

Please contact us if you are interested in helping with Vegan Outreach activities in & around Nottingham.

Farming for a Future

Farmer Jay herd at Hillside BBC


News in 2017 that the Vegan Society is working with Bradley Nook Farm in Derbyshire to transition from beef to vegan organics was the icing on the (vegan) cake of all our years of campaigning. It shows the great value of networking both within the vegan movement and with movements beyond in the wider world. 

Veggies met up with farmer Jay when catering at Northern Green Gatherings at his inherited family farm. The farm near Ashbourne, Derbyshire is also one of a number of locations used on rotation for Earth First! Gatherings. As vegan campaign caterers Veggies has catered for EF! since the very first gathering in 1991, helping in a small way to maintain a vegan ethos in the grass roots eco-action movement.

It was through the involvement of long term Veggies member Cathy in another Vegan Society project (hospital catering) that the opportunity​ came about to mention in conversation the potential to veganise Jay’s farm. The rest is, as they say, history, and hopefully a turning point in the transition of many more livestock farms to the compassionate and efficient farming of Food for a Future.

Hosting camps & gatherings can provide a useful income stream for vegan landowners. We will actively encourage the gatherings at which we cater to consider holding events at Bradley Nook Farm. As participants in the Northern Green Gathering (NGG) held there each August, we will urge the organisers to encourage other caterers at the event to honour the compassionate stance of the farm by highlighting vegan options. We know this to be a popular position to take as Nottingham Green Festival has declared a fully vegan ethos from 2017.

Meanwhile Jay has already discussed plans for his new ventures with Derbyshire Dales District Council.

He said: “We’ve got a huge range of brick buildings on the farm which are unused. We’re hoping to turn those into a vegan restaurant, a vegan teaching kitchen and accommodation for people who would like to come and help on the vegetable growing. A vegan holidays sort of thing.” (Derby Telegraph)

STOP PRESS – July 2020Bradley Nook Sanctuary  – the UK’s first Refarm’d partner farm, for local ethical production of organic oat milk.

Since 1984 Veggies Catering Campaign has saved hundreds of cows by simply selling, with vegan attitude, possibly half a million Veggies Burgers. All those lives were unknown to us, but the path has led to 73 individual living, breathing lives that you can now meet at Hillside Animal Rescue:

 

Farmer Jays Cows at Hillside The cows are now being cared for by Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norfolk which is fundraising for their keep

Please sponsor Hillside to help the cows – please click here or telephone the Hillside Cow Rescue Helpline on 01603 736200 (9am to 10pm).Please Help the Cows

or by bank transfer donation to…
The Co-operative Bank
Account No: 69668302
Sort Code: 08-92-99

 
Or by post to Hillside Animal Sanctuary
Hill Top Farm, Hall Lane, Frettenham, Norwich, NR12 7LT

Vegetarian Farmer Jay article in Vegan Trade Journal
Read the full story in the Vegan Trade Journalfree download here
 

Visit freefromharm.org to read the inspiring stories of other former meat & dairy farmers that became vegan activists.

The story of Farmer Jay is also featured in / at / on:
 

 

BBC News 13 June 2017

A vegetarian farmer has given his herd of cows to an animal sanctuary to protect them from the slaughterhouse.

Jay Wilde, 59, who farms in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, sent [73] cattle to a Norfolk rescue centre as he could no longer bear to send them to be killed.

Mr Wilde, a vegetarian for 25 years, grew up herding cows and took over the family farm when his father died.

“Cows have good memories and a range of emotions. They form relationships. I’ve even seen them cry,” he said.

“It was very difficult to do your best to look after them and then send them to the slaughterhouse for what must be a terrifying death.”

The Hillside Animal Sanctuary near Frettenham said 30 of the cows are pregnant and all the animals “would live out their lives essentially as pets”.

Founder, Wendy Valentine, said Mr Wilde is not the first farmer to have donated his herd.

She recalls a couple who “could not bear to continue dairy farming and kept their cows as pets with the help of the sanctuary”.

Mr Wilde, who switched from dairy farming to organic beef production on the death of his father in 2011, said he always wanted to give up animal production because he “couldn’t believe it was right to eat them”.

He believes dairy farming is particularly hard because calves and cows would often become distressed on separation.

“I’m relieved to have made the decision to no longer farm animals, something which I always found quite upsetting,” he said.

His brother-in-law told him he was “absolutely insane” to give away cattle which could fetch up to £40,000 at market.

He said “a lack of imagination” had previously stopped him switching to arable farming.

Mr Wilde will now be running a vegan organic market farm supplying garden produce without using animal products or fertilisers.

 


Farmer Jay Independent
 
 
A herd of cows from the East Midlands will be mooing a sigh of relief thanks the kindness of their owner, vegetarian farmer Jay Wilde who has sent them to live out their days in an animal sanctuary.

 Leaving their old cattle sheds at Bradley Nook Farm in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, the 59 cows were rehomed in Norfolk at the Hillside Animal Sanctuary on Monday.

A vegetarian for a total of 25 years, Mr Wilde told The Times that he found it “very difficult to do your best to look after them and then send them to the slaughterhouse for what must be a terrifying death.”

“I’m relieved to have made the decision to no longer farm animals, something which I always found quite upsetting,” Mr Wilde said.

“Cows have good memories and a range of emotions. They form relationships. I’ve even seen them cry.” 

The herd, worth £40,000 at market, will avoid the abattoir to join the sanctuary’s 300 cattle and 2,000 horses, donkeys and ponies. Mr Wilde has kept ten as “pets.”

The founder of the sanctuary, Wendy Valentine, said Mr Wilde’s cattle could now enjoy their full 25-year lifespans rather than reaching the slaughter age of two to three years. 

The sanctuary was started in 1995 to draw attention to the effects of factory farming and needs to raise a minimum of £5m per year to continue to care for the animals. 

The donation was organised by the Vegan Society and Mr Wilde now plans to farm organic vegetables free of animal products and fertilisers to sell in the flourishing vegan market. 

Tom Kuehnel, the Vegan Society’s campaign officer, told The Independent: “Jay is a real pioneer, which we hope will inspire other farmers to move towards more compassionate and sustainable farming methods that don’t involve animals.”

… full story …

Vegan for a Peaceful World

“Whilst there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields” – Tolstoy

Vegan for a Peaceful World

Veganism is a lifestyle promoting peaceful living because it is interconnected with so many important ethical issues. These span animal rights, human rights and environmentalism. In the words of a wonderful farmed animal sanctuary: ‘If we could lead happy and healthy lives without harming others, then why wouldn’t we?

Concern for Animals

More than 70 billion farmed animals are reared annually worldwide. More than 6 million animals are killed for food every hour, in ways that would horrify any compassionate person. Other animals are sentient beings like us, with their own needs, desires and interests. We now know that like us, they can experience a wide range of sensations and emotions such as happiness, pain, pleasure, fear, hunger, sadness, boredom, frustration or contentment. They are aware of the world and what happens to them matters to them. Their lives have intrinsic value – they are not inferior beings nor just here as resources or tools for human use.

Vegetarians and vegans will save anywhere from 100 – 400 animal lives each year.

Concern for People

“The fact is that there is enough food in the world for everyone. But tragically, much of the world’s food and land resources are tied up in producing beef and other livestock – food for the well off – while millions of children and adults suffer from
malnutrition and starvation”.  (Dr W Bello, Director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy)

We are currently growing enough food to feed 10 billion people but worldwide more than 40% of grain is fed to livestock. 82% of starving children live in countries where food is fed to animals, and the animals are eaten by western countries. On a  plant-based diet no one has to go hungry.

Concern For The Planet

Each day, a person who eats a vegan diet saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 sq ft of forested land and 20 lbs CO2 equivalent. To produce one pound of animal protein vs. one pound of soy protein, it takes about 12 times as much land, 13 times as much fossil fuel and 15 times as much water.

For more info on all of these issues see: vegansociety.com / viva.org.uk / vegankit.com

vegan for a peaceful world flier

PDF of Flier: Vegan for a Peaceful World

PDF of Vegan for a Peaceful World Flier

 


 

From our archives:

February 15, 2003, anti-war protests – Wikipedia

On February 15, 2003, there was a coordinated day of protests across the world in which ….. Demonstration[edit]. The British Stop the War Coalition (StWC) claimed the protest in London was the largest political demonstration in the city’s history.

Nottingham Info : Elsewhere : Nowhere

www.iraqbodycount.org www.iraqbodycount.org
www.iraqbodycount.org

We’ve been civil; It’s time to get disobedient!

See See http://uk.indymedia.org for independent info on actions in the uk.


  • Join protests and direct actions to stop war.
  • The conflict in Iraq has been presented in the media as a purely human catastrophe. Other animals have been largely ignored. There is no reason to remain silent in the face of the interlinked abuses of all animals – including humans. Until we get rid of cruelty – all cruelty – we will never end animal abuse. We need to stop being abusers, full stop – not just pick and choose our victims. If the world was vegan and we still waged wars we would not have won our cause. The risk we run is that our circle of cruelty rather than compassion will continue to spread and destroy the world that all creatures inhabit.
  • Disclaimer: Please don’t do anything to stop the indiscriminate killing of men, women, children and animals unless it is specifically authorised by unanimous agreement of the international community.

No War For Oil

Action Against the Oil Trade

  • Farming animals for food wastes a lot of energy. Animals are food and energy factories in reverse – most of the nutritional and energy value of what they eat is used by their bodily functions. It takes about 10kg of prime vegetable protein to produce 1kg of meat protein. Oil-based fertilisers are needed to produce crops fed to intensively reared animals. By burning fossel fuel for unnecessary industrialisation world-wide, the human race is causing a change in climate which, if unchecked, will make life on this planet unsustainable.
  • To get a picture of the scale of the oil trade in Nottingham, you should visit the Colwick Oil Depot photo /map here.

Prevent water wars

  • Not satisfied with overconsumption of the world’s oil supplies, the affluent west exports its wasteful practices to hungry countries. Factory farming systems are being promoted in hot, dry areas, competing with people for limited water supplies. 200 – 250 gallons of water are required to produce a pound of rice, but between 2,500 to 6,000 gallons are used to produce a pound of meat. Future conflicts are predicted for control of water supplies, whilst inappropriate mega-dam projects benefit western construction companies, whilst displacing local peoples.

Info from Movement for Compassionate Living – see www.MCLveganway.org.uk


Food Not Bombs

Rice For Peace Food Not Bombs Help Blair get the message: “Send rice to the people of Iraq; do not attack them”.

Send contributions of rice to Tony Blair, 10 Downing St, London SW1A 1AA.

Tell Blair & Bush that their terrorism will only make more enemies.<clear=”left”><clear=”right”

 

Why ‘Food Not Bombs’
 


Anti-War Action supported by Veggies & Sumac Centre

On 15th February 2013, Veggies Crew rose to the challenge of feeding 1000 of those travelling to London from Nottingham. Food was co-ordinated for 20 (out of 24) coaches departing from 4 different locations, including 3 from Hyson Green / Forest Fields, which left from the Sumac Centre.

This was probably our biggest ant-war catering operation since the heady days of the 1980’s when we catered on Nottingham CND’s TRAIN to London. During that same period, we also catered in 6 inches of February snow at Molesworth and at the ‘Reclaim Chilwell’ direct action (events which were co-ordinated out of offices at the Rainbow Centre, the former home of Veggies).

Demo report from Squall website (and much other stop the war news)..


Nottm 8th March - by Tash

An amazing feat of indy photo journalism has been put together by Nottingham based photogapher, Tash. To check out his galleries and slide shows from London, Feb 15th and Nottingham, March 8th [click here].


Saturday 8th March : Despite the wet & windy weather Veggies turn out as Nottingham Marches Against War in probably the biggest protest seen in Nottingham since the days of the Miners Strike.

Read the report from Nottingham Evening Post website

Saturday 15th March : Chetwynd Barracks

Chetwynd Barracks, at Chilwell, near Nottingham, is the national mobilisation centre for the TA & reservists. It is where they are being trained, equipped and receiving medical treatment and innoculations prior to being sent to the Gulf.

It has been the focus of several local actions, including the regional/national action on the 15th March at the Toton Main Gate, Swiney Way, Toton, (with catering by Veggies)

This multimap view includes a photo of the base and a route planner, centred on the Toton Gate. You can zoom out to see more of the surrounding roads. There is another main gate on Chetwynd Road on the Chilwell side of the base.

For future reference: Chetwynd buses: 33/33a/c run from Victoria Centre, via Angel Row & thru Beeston Station, which is adjacent to Beeston Square; 5b from Broadmarsh, via Friar Lane off Market Square, thru to Chilwell Depot Corner. Both services run roughly on the hour & every half hour during the day including saturday.

 

Saturday 22nd March : Foil The Base

Peaceful, Creative Direct Action Against Menwith Hill, the largest US spybase in the world; operating as US sovereign terrortory (sic) and playing a crucial role in the war on Iraq and a key element in the expansion of the ‘Star Wars’ project.

Indirect Report received by email:

Monsters picture by Chris Croome “I met some of the Nottingham contingent to Menwith Hill after I got back from London, and heard of a good turn out numbering more than 1000. There was some fence damage and digging under. Police response was fairly hands-off but there was still 6 arrests, according to those present, including one from Nottingham.” (nb after staying over in Manchester, he arrived back the next day).

For more info see www.now-peace.org.uk and Yorkshire CND . Photo of the base and a route planner.


Friday 4 July 2003 : The Gatecrasher’s Ball at Menwith Hill

INDEPENDENCE FROM AMERICA DAYFrom report from Yorkshire CND

About 400 people came from all over the country – north, south, east and west to the Gatecrasher’s Ball at the American base at Menwith Hill calling for Independence FROM America. It was a very good day. The weather was kind – blue skies and sunshine. People rose to the occasion and came dressed in wonderful costumes including beautiful, imaginative ball gowns and masks (some men included!) and top hats and tails.

There was a wonderful line up of artists – musicians and poets which was hosted by Mark Thomas who also spoke in his unique way – a combination of humour and political satire. Food was provided by Veggies.


Veggies Catering Campaign gives regular support for peaceful, creative direct action against Menwith Hill, nr Harrogate, the largest US spybase in the world; which played a crucial role in the war on Iraq. After the ‘Foil the Base’ event in March, ‘Independence from America’ on July 4th and ‘Don’t Take the Peace Out of Space’ in October, we look forward to travelling to the beautiful Yorkshire Moors again in 2004.
To join us, contact Veggies at the Sumac Centre.

Grass Roots Anti-War Gathering

A national weekend gathering is to be hosted by the Sumac Centre in March 2004, with Justice Not Vengeance and ARROW (Active Resistance to the Roots of War), for activists to discuss, debate, and share skills, experiences and ideas.

Samosa for Social Change

 

Through this new and simple initiative, Veggies Catering Campaign raises regular funding for local campaigns for global justice, including donations to Nottingham Friends of the Iraqi People.
For more info on these and other events see our diary at www.veggies.org/diary.htm


Other local links in the War Machine

RAF Cottesmore is a key component of Joint Force Harrier, and is currently home to three squadrons of Harrier GR7 aircraft. A significant element of the Harrier force is now in the Gulf.

For more information see www.raf-cott.demon.co.uk and Reclaim the Bases

RAF Cottesmore is less than 40 miles from Nottingham, in nearby Rutland.
For those interested in visiting here is a map and aerial photo of the village and base.


Make Tea Not War

For more info on these and other events see our diary at www.veggies.org.uk/diary.htm
Nottingham Stop The War Coalition

Many more anti war links at www.guardian.co.uk antiwar subsection

3218 peace groups in 162 countries linked from www.notwar.net


War Kills Animals Too

  • Animals are the forgotten victims of war. They are never reported or even mentioned in the casualty figures, despite the fact that the numbers killed must far outweigh the human dead. War is not only an assault on people, it is an assault on the whole of nature, on the fragile ecosystems that all living beings require for their survival.
  • Moreover, even before wars are fought, animals are the victims of weapons’ research. In places like the top-secret Ministry of Defence laboratory in Wiltshire, Porton Down, animals are routinely used in experiments to develop more lethal and efficient weapons of mass destruction.
  • And in the event of a US-led attack on Iraq the US army plans to ride chickens into battle in cages atop Humvees, used as early warning gas detectors – but the plan has been put on hold after 41 of the 43 chickens deployed to the Gulf died within a week of arrival. Still, headed into the fray will be some of the 1,400 dogs who work in the US military – carrying out tasks ranging from mine detection to the rescue and recovery of dead and wounded personnel.
  • The U.S. army unveils its most unlikely mine detector – the Atlantic Bottle-Nosed Dolphin. At the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, secured by U.S and British forces after days of fighting, soldiers made preparations for the arrival of a team of specially trained dolphins, to help divers ensure the coastline is free of danger, before humanitarian aid shipments can dock. U.S. Navy Captain Mike Tillotson told reporters that three or four dolphins would work from Umm Qasr, using their natural sonar abilities to seek out mines or other explosive devices which Iraqi forces may have planted on the seabed … (Reuters) – More on this topic.
  • Animal victims of war are invisible. Our culture conspires to make them so. Animals understand none of it, play no part in any of it, but when they are crushed and mutilated – wilfully or otherwise – there are those who dare tell us to remain silent.
  • We say: dare to speak out for the helpless animal victims and do so loudly and with confidence. Let those who have made an argument for this war, who have helped engineer it, see what war means for species other than our own.

More Comment from Animal AidSee also info on ‘Animals in War’ Memorial at http://www.indielondon.co.uk


CarToon by Andy Singer

Bio-fuel

Although not a permanant solution for our fuel needs, bio-diesel is a much more sustainable system that can decrease reliance on fossil fuels. Veggies & Sumac Centre are founder members of Nottingham’s bio-diesel purchasing collective.

Even the most optimistic commentator forecasts that oil supplies will be exhausted within 60 years. Some say, with a growth of 2% per annum, as soon as 40. So what are our children to use for transport? How is the so-called “sustainable society” to be achieved?

Biodiesel is a sustainable transport fuel made from organic oils and fats, to be used alongside a policy of reduced vehicle usage. Because plants absorb carbon dioxide whilst growing, CO2 emissions are also substantially reduced.

Lets work towards a carbon neutral economy – send for our leaflet or see www.veggies.org.uk/biodies.htm

 



“Non-Violence begins on your dinner plate” – Veggies

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