Calling all Veggies Volunteers
If you have been involved with Veggies at at time since 1984, (and who hasn't?), your help is needed. We have only just started building this archive, which will grow into a historic diary of the frontline struggle for social change in the UK. Please send your recollections of past events, or reports of ongoing activities that you might clip from emails or other websites. Email us at info@veggies.org.uk; or write to Veggies at the Rainbow Centre, 245 Gladstone Street, Nottingham, NG7 6HX. Photos would be particularly welcomed, which we will scan onto the site, and immediately return. If anyone has a digital camera, why not become our 'staff photographer' at any of the forthcoming events shown on the diary.
- Nottinghamshire Green Network’s annual event to share information and skills took place in the pleasant and accessible setting of Nottingham’s Voluntary Action Centre. Nearly 60 people participated during the course of the day. At the “bazaar” in the foyer a wide range of environmental information was brought in and picked up.
Workshop sessions helped people improve their knowledge and skills on a range of issues, from using the media and the Internet to running productive meetings.
Veggies provided refreshments and a range of snacks, which greatly assisted networking between workshops and over lunchtime! Feedback was extremely positive - participants obviously felt they’d benefitted from the day.
Many thanks to those who came, and to all who helped set up and run the event - including the National Lottery Charities Board, which funded it. Next year’s will be event bigger and better!
[ Report from the Notts Green Network web site. ] July 17th : EF! Big Day Out Targets Tarmac
- As part of an ongoing campaign against Tarmac, Earth First! held a national Action on the 17th July 1999 to try and occupy and shutdown a Tarmac Quarry in the peak district.
We were housed on Friday night in a squat in the centre of Sheffield, where people ate, drank and discussed the plan for the following day. It was decided that this action was to be a peaceful shutdown and that we were not going with the intention of destroying the quarry and that we would get up at four in the morning with the intention of getting to the quarry at Stoney Middleton before 6 when the workers arrive. The location of the quarry was at this point still secret. However, as people were to rise at 4 we decided to have an early night and went to sleep.
Then the problems began. We were quickly woken up by the police arriving to try and investigate the squat and the people still arriving outside. They tried to prevent people from entering the squat and in the struggle, put through one of the ground floor windows. This put pay to the idea of us all being able to sleep that night and some people needed to stay awake to keep an eye on the police's movements. People rose at four and were served breakfast, while a drivers meeting happened, where drivers were briefed as to were we were going, and given briefing sheets for all in their vans. People tatted down and everyone was ready to leave by 5.
We all left the squat on mass and climbed into our vans. As we were all leaving a queue of police vans pulled us over to conduct a " routine vehicle check". Which delayed most of the vans for about an hour. A few pigs then stuck their snouts through a window of the squat and claimed to be able to smell drugs. Which was their excuse to bust the squat and search all left inside.
Once the vehicles had got away they split up and headed for the target. As they approached the target the was another police roadblock, who stated that a section 60 was in force in the area and they had the power to stop and search all vehicles and people they believed were to be involved in violent disorder or criminal damage activities.
After the search which took about an hour, some vans drove down the road only to be stopped and searched by another roadblock 100 yards down the road. Some of the vans were even searched three times, twice by the same group of police officers.
Despite this, a small group of protesters managed to get on site were they were quickly headed off by police, who stopped all work in the neighbouring two quarries, incase people were in there. Two people were arrested after the search, one for a tiny blim, she didn't even know she had on her and another for possession of an offencive weapon, the baseball bat in the sports kit, that was part of the entertainment for the day.
Due to the over whelming police presence, there were over 40 vans in the area, people retired to the back up meeting point. From there some groups went off and occupied the Tarmac work site at Manchester Airport, and only left after management guarantees that all workers would be paid in full for the day, whilst others went home and a few went to meet some Tarmac Workers, who had come along for the action.
The Workers are on strike and are picketing against Tarmac, for sacking their safety officer after he tried to improve the condition at on of the sites where over 300 men have 3 loos between them. Tarmac have the worst Health and Safety Record of any construction company in the country, with 54 convictions last year for breaches of regulations. They also killed 13 of their workers last year.
The day however was a success as Tarmac closed down most of their sites throughout the country, and we were only trying to close down one. We successfully managed to close another site. Links were made with the workers and local residents of Stoney Middleton, have since stated their support for what we tried to do. The campaign will continue.
July 18th : Wattlington GM Crop-Stomping protest
- "Of the 500 protesters attending the rally, virtually all
those present, (were) clad in white biohazard suits and wearing face masks (a
necessary precaution against pollen and the sprays that had been used on the field), all walking across the field to the sound of Pink Floyd. Standing on
the sound stage it was an amazing sight to watch."
: Read the report from the Stop the Crop National Rally.
A more detailed report, and more pictures can be found on this external site from Oxy-Gene September 18th : Reclaim The Street returns to Nottingham
- This was Nottingham's third attempt at an RTS, the previous two being held aloft as the quintessential example of what an out of London RTS should be - well except for the 60 arrests last year. Once again market Square was the meeting point - by around one there was a crowd of a round 250. Read a humorous first-person report - written from a mainly party-goer perspective.
November 30th : Seattle comes to Halifax
- Rainbow Centre volunteers join sixteen people arrested in Halifax, Yorkshire, during a protest at a Nestle factory, against the WTO conference in Seattle. To show support and solidarity check here.
Friday December 31st : Veggies Millenium Tour
- On New Year's Eve, Veggies attended the Millenium Vegetarian Pledge event, organised by the Young Indian Vegetarians, in Hyde Park. We were honoured to receive the Mahaveer Award - "Presented to Veggies of Nottingham. For their commitment to the cause of Vegetarianism and Animal Welfare". Full report on the Vegetarian Pledge here
After the Pledge event, we went on to support vigils outside Glaxo Laboratory, near Stevenage and overnight at Huntingdon Life Sciences in Cambridgeshire. The following report is taken from the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty web site.
"New Year's Eve demo outside HRC.
The demo at Huntingdon Life Sciences on New Year's Eve went really well. There were easily 100 people there all in all and loads of cops. The mood was positive and angry but controlled. HLS had very few security guards. Instead they had riot police inside the premises who stepped up their presence just before midnight. Veggies provided food and there were no arrests during the night. A fair number of people stayed until the morning to greet the workers and two people were arrested, one for Section 5 (later dropped to Breach of Peace and released very soon) and the other for suspicion of criminal damage. Allegedly some wiring was cut on the fence and an activist walking nearby was arrested despite total lack of evidence. There were also reports that several HLS employees got some smashing surprises during the night. "
1999
May 28th - 30th : Animal Rights Gathering
June 12th : The Big Green Do 99
