old afp blog

Warplane may be built near M6 in Preston

2010-01-18T09:44:00.000-08:00

Published Date:
18 January 2010

A giant £2.5million monument of a plane is set to be built by the side of the M6 in Preston, the Lancashire Evening Post can reveal.

The huge statue – featuring a military aircraft suspended on a plinth – is being lined up as a fitting celebration of Preston's proud aviation industry.

Land close to junction 31a in Fulwood has been earmarked for the iconic statue with landowners at Red Scar approached about possible sites.

The ambitious scheme has already been dubbed Preston's 'Angel of the North' and is being hailed as the most exciting legacy project for the city's Guild in 2012.

Talks are currently underway about the project and is estimated to cost up to £2.5m.

BAE Systems are involved in the talks.

The idea has been roundly welcomed by council chiefs and aviation experts.

Ken Hudson, leader of Preston Council, said the statue could help put Preston on the map like the Angel of the North, an iconic 66ft-tall artwork close to the A1, did for Gateshead.

Coun Hudson said: "It would be something that says, 'This is Preston'.
"If you are coming down the motorway from London or Blackpool and saw that when you got to Red Scar, you would think, 'What a wonderful thing, like the Angel of the North'."

Historian Ron Freethy, who recorded a BBC radio series about aviation in Lancashire, said: "It's about time we had something. Samlesbury and Warton are probably two of the most important sites for aircraft anywhere in the world.

"If you look at the industry now, it's huge. As long as this statue is done right and is prominent enough, it's a brilliant idea."

BAE spokeswoman Alison Ramsay said: "Along with a number of other North West organisations, BAE Systems has been involved in discussions regarding this concept.

"Given our strong association with the North West, this is obviously of interest. However, discussions are at a very early stage and no commitment has been made."

However, Coun John Collins, leader of the Labour group, said: "The concept of a war plane on a huge stick is bad taste.

"I think it is inappropriate, it is a war plane."

Lancashire has been at the forefront of the aerospace industry for around a century, through manufacturers such as BAE and the former Dick, Kerr works on Strand Road, Preston.

The county is estimated to have produced 6,700 aircraft over the last 100 years, including thousands during the First and Second World Wars.

WAR IS NOT GREEN, WAR IS ANTI-GREEN DEMO

2009-11-20T10:34:00.000-08:00

Windy evening of Thursday 19^th Nov 2009

Barton Grange Hotel (Green Awards) Demo

Reporting by Preston Green Anarchist ' Mr. Plot Plotter'

You just couldn’t make it up….Lancashire Green Awards 2009 sponsored by …. BAE Systems!! “Green is good. BAE is green (by association). Therefore BAE is good.” We just couldn’t put up with this straight-faced deception, the spin, the absurdity, so had to make an appearance.

Eight members of the Disobey! network turned up with two large banners, two smaller ones, chemical suits and face masks, flashing warning lights to welcome the hosts and prizewinners to last nights awards. The text of the leaflet handed out is given below, with the Publisher version in the downloads section.

The evening was going very well, until BANG, a car accident right in front of us. The young woman driver had moved to the middle lane thinking the Hotel was on the right, realized it was in fact on the left, and cut back in without looking…Only injuries to the cars, fortunately. Looking forward to the event for weeks, a new outfit, driven for miles, finally arrived, then smash! Our sympathies. Hope she won a good prize to make up for it.. (Funny thing was, we turned up as anarchists for a demo, but ended up policing the traffic around the obstruction for an hour. The white suits and flashing lights came in handy!) The Police made us aware that the accident was not connected the demo.

The Lancashire Evening Post photographer took a picture of us with the giant “War is not green” banner. Given that the L.E.P. organized the Awards, it will be interesting to see if they report the demo (they usually do), or if they choose to not upset the sponsors for next year! Journalistic integrity!! Let’s wait and see!

WAR IS NOT GREEN, WAR IS ANTI-GREEN

POLLUTION: The Militaries of the World are our planet’s biggest polluters

CARBON: The war industry consumes vast amounts of oil

(the U.S. Military for instance consumes as much oil as Spain)

BAE Systems is the world's second-largest ‘defence’ contractor (- it’s the business of making things to kill people, even little baby ones)

They do not even care about people, only profits. The environment has no chance. No green bombs. It’s killing ability that sells.

From Agent Orange to mercury, from perchlorate to depleted uranium, the toxins of war pollute our water, land and air. The environment counts for naught.

So how can we have BAE Systems sponsoring the Lancashire Green Awards?? SPIN. BAE spin men have been rubbing their blood-stained hands in glee. “Green is good. BAE is green. Therefore BAE is good.” No pictures of burning babies. “Smiley-faced youth receives Award from nice Mr. BAE.” We are not deceived. We are disgusted.

The arms trade is a deadly, corrupt business. It supports conflict and human rights abusing regimes whilst squandering valuable resources. It does this with the full support of governments around the world. The arms trade underpins the whole corrupt capitalist system which is destroying the planet - for temporary dollars.

We have a 'civilization' which has factory after factory making things to kill people, and we have a political system which not only accepts but condones the use of violence and mass-murder as a means to solve problems, secure natural resources and trade. Meanwhile, we consume the Planet to death.

We increase our chances of solving our problems by a better understanding of reality. Removing spin and the causes of spin is a good start.

Say NO to BAE deception. Say YES to a real green understanding.

May the green way prevail! And well done to all non-military Award winners!!

http://www.studywarnomore.org.uk/ http://disobey-afp.blogspot.com/

http://www.caat.org.uk/ http://www.myspace.com/prestonanarchists

White Poppy Wreath Laid at Cenotaph in Preston

2009-11-15T03:34:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday 11th November, a group of anarchists and socialists came together for a 2 minute silence to remember the innocence people and soldiers that have been killed, maimed, families torn apart in conflicts happening around the world.

A wreath of white poppies and single poppies were laid at the cenotaph, poems were also read, one from Danny Martins poem Lessons from website poems by Soldiers.

The White Poppy symbolises the belief that there are better ways to resolve conflicts than killing strangers. Our work, primarily educational, draws attention to many of our social values and habits which make continuing violence a likely outcome.

From economic reliance on arms sales (Britain is the world's second largest arms exporter) to maintaining manifestly useless nuclear weapons Britain contributes significantly to international instability. The outcome of the recent military adventures highlights their ineffectiveness in today's complex world.

Now 90 years after the end of the ‘war to end all wars’ we still have a long way to go to put an end to a social institution, which in the last decade alone killed over 10 million children. (taken from www.whitepoppy.org.uk/)

ON THE ROOTS OF WAR

Colin Ward, anarchist

Its funny that in the popular imagination anarchists were associated with bombs and bomb throwing and so on. But if you totalled up the whole history of political assassinations, you would find that the amount done was about .000 per cent. The anarchists' reply of course is that it's the governments who wield the bombs which people have actually got to worry about. And nowhere more then in the post-war period has this been more evidenced:

that it's governments which possess nuclear weapons, it's governments which possess war planes and so on. There is a very strong intellectual argument for the anarchists' case that all wars are wars of government against people.

UCLAN executives have blood on their hands who else...?

2009-10-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

Should UCLan, an institution that is meant to generate knowledge for the public good, invest in or conduct research for the arms trade; whose business profits from legalised murder?

Other collaborators, the staff? the students? Do these people have blood on their hands?

Should our university be linked to a company being investigated for corruption?

2009-09-30T18:26:00.000-07:00

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is expected to announce on Thursday whether it wishes to prosecute BAE Systems over alleged bribery.

The case refers to allegations that the UK defence giant paid out millions of pounds in order to win contracts from a number of countries.

BAE has always strenuously denied any suggestion of wrongdoing.

A separate investigation into BAE by the SFO was dropped in 2007 after it said national security was at risk.

In that case the SFO ended its investigation into a giant 1980s arms deal BAE secured from Saudi Arabia.

BAE BABY- BURNING SYSTEMS OUT OF EDUCATION !

UCLAN has tens of thousands of pounds invested in BAE Systems.

UCLAN is heavily involved in research projects for BAE and other arms companies.

What about Lancashire green awards?

The attack industry and war is the largest destroyer of the environment; how many miles per gallon does a tank do? or when a bomb is dropped from a plane and hits the ground how much damage does this do? and lets not forgot the human damage of people being killed and maimed by the weapons this industry creates.

If you have any further queries or enquiries please contact our Lancashire Green Awards 2009 team direct: denise.mulhearn@jpress.co.uk or emma.turner@jpress.co.uk
Sponsorship Opportunities: If you are interested in sponsoring one of our awards categories please contact our Lancashire Green Awards 2009 team direct on 01772 554547.

Should our University by connected to the corrupt weapon dealer BAE Systems?

2009-09-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

BAE, war monger is investing £1m with partner in crime UCLan.

2009-07-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

27/07/2009
The arms company BAE Systems is investing £1 million into energy efficiency research projects with the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).

The money will be invested into research and development projects that are designed to reduce costs and carbon emissions in the arms manfacturing industry. [maybe the fighterjets, tanks and large transport planes should stop flying; their carbon emissions must be huge! Shut down arms factories that would cut carbon emissions!]

Such projects will initially focus on the development of intelligent energy management systems for use initially on BAE Systems arms factories across the UK. There is potential for the systems to be rolled out for wider use in the attack industry and on military bases.

Malcolm McVicar, vice-chancellor at UCLan said, "this is a fantastic project and we are grateful to BAE Systems for investing this essential funding." [as we don't care that your primary profit (BAE's), comes from building & selling weapons used throughout the world against civilians, familes...]

McVicar hopes the initiative will lead to a revolution in energy and sustainable development and becomes a demonstration project of progressive science and applied practice.

Nigel Whitehead, group managing director of programmes and support at BAE Systems, said, "working with UCLan is also an opportunity for us to demonstrate our support for research activity in the Northwest, where we employ around 15,000 people."
He added that working in partnership with universities is essential in addressing future skills gaps and ensuring the UK remains a world leader in engineering and technology. [ research done on the cheap; stealing students into the bloody arms trade.We are also glad UClan continues to have no ethics and will continue to support us researching more weapons in the future]

The partnership will see UCLan establish a Centre for Energy and Power Management within its Centre for Sustainable Development in Preston, Lancashire.
http://www.englandsnorthwest.com/invest/news/archive/10448-bae-investing-1m-in-partnership-with-uclan.html

Disobey action at UCLAN today

2009-04-02T06:22:00.000-07:00

Disobey at UCLAN staged an action as part of the continuing campaign calling for the university to adopt an ethical policy, along the lines of the cooperative bank.

A cutting of the ribbon by Suzanne McKilmany at the front of the Foster building, presented a statue to commemorate UCLANS' continuing relationship to the arms company BAE Systems

A protester broke through the security to custard pie Mc Kilmany. To the applause of the students who were watching the performance.

Below is the leaflet Disobey was handing to people on the day.

BAE BABY- BURNING SYSTEMS OUT OF EDUCATION !

UCLAN has tens of thousands of pounds invested in BAE Systems.

UCLAN is heavily involved in research projects for BAE and other arms companies.

BAE Systems makes things to kill people - not for defence purposes or for jobs, but for profits for shareholders. BAE Systems’ advanced, expensive weapons are affordable only by the rich - to kill the poor, and the children of the poor, all from a safe distance. The casualties of conflict are now overwhelmingly civilian, increasing from around 50% of war-related deaths in the first half of the twentieth century to 90% by the mid-1990s.

The arms trade is a deadly, corrupt business. It supports conflict and human rights abusing regimes while squandering valuable resources. It does this with the full support of governments around the world. The arms trade underpins the whole corrupt capitalist system which is destroying the planet - for temporary dollars.

We have a 'civilization' which has factory after factory making things to kill people, and we have an 'education' system which not only accepts but condones the use of violence and mass-murder as a means to solve problems.

...In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners. Albert Camus

We call for:

Disinvestment from all companies involved in the arms trade.

An Ethical Policy which covers not only the arms tradebut also human rights, environmental issues, concerns regarding genetic modification, animal welfare and testing on animals.

http://www.studywarnomore.org.uk/ http://disobey-afp.blogspot.com/

http://www.caat.org.uk/ http://www.myspace.com/prestonanarchists

Open letter to Vice Chancellor

2009-04-01T16:51:00.000-07:00

Open letter to Dr. Malcolm McVicar, Vice Chancellor of UCLan, from ‘Disobey’

27/02/09

Dear Dr. McVicar,

Our investigations into UCLan’s dealings with BAE Systems lead us to a most startling discovery: UCLan has no Ethical Policy (!) Given that the University does actually run courses encouraging ‘corporate social responsibility’, we believe UCLan should practice what it preaches and formulate and put into practice a good and principled Ethical Policy.

It appears that UCLan has only a Sustainable Development Procurement Policy. Explicit guidance regarding investments is absent, meaning that, for instance, whilst purchase of ‘illegally’-cut timber is forbidden, investing in a company involved in such operations is not. Further, no procedures are in place to prevent such a company funding research projects at our University.

We seek, via this letter, to urge your fine self and all concerned students and other workers at UCLan to seek to put in place an Ethical Policy which covers not only environmental matters, but also concerns regarding genetic modification, animal welfare and testing on animals, human rights, and dealings with the arms trade. Many of the best /most progressive Universities around the world now have such a wide-ranging Ethical Policy – UCLan should be with them. Adoption of such a Policy would be one more step towards a decent and sustainable future.

This letter arrives as a consequence of our journey from Israeli State Terrorism via BAE to our demonstration on the UCLan rooftop on CAAT’s Day of Action. We would see a principled UCLan Ethical Policy as a memorial to the four hundred (++) children murdered in January this year by the Israeli State in Gaza.

Thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Kropotkin

PeterK@greenanarchist.co.uk

on behalf of
Disobey Anarchist Collective
http://disobey-afp.blogspot.com/

UCLAN refuse to speak to Disobey

2009-03-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

In the latest pluto (20 March 2009) In a open letter to the Vice Chancellor Dr McVicar Disobey has asked why doesnt UCLAN have a ethical policy? The letter is published in full in Pluto and available to read online at Pluto website. The response we got was "that the university has chosen not to speak to this particular organisation".

http://www.pluto-online.com/2009/03/04/three-arrested-after-rooftop-protest/

What is uclans ethical policy? do they have one?

2009-02-17T04:37:00.000-08:00

Are you concerned about environment impact, climate change, about arms companies, abuse of human rights, illegal wars, animal testing...is our universities? if so why does our universities continue to support companies that have records of corruption, negative environmental impacts, weapons manufacturers.

Write or phone UCLAN and ask: Does uclan have an ethical or corporate social responsibility policy? if not why not? if so where can it be found?

You can phone or write to:

University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 2HE,
Tel+44(0)1772 201 201

Or you can find out more using a freedom of information request to research UCLANs relationships with companies and other business.

Who knows what UCLAN maybe involved in, companies that do animal testing or companies that exploit people, or destroy the environment. You can use a Freedom of Information request to find out which companies are sponsoring your university. Just email the address below with your request:

Email AMBostock@uclan.ac.uk, see the UCLAN website

Disobey! Roof top protest CAAT Day of Action

2009-02-11T13:52:00.000-08:00

Published Date: 11 February 2009
By David Coates [modified article]
Three people have been arrested following a rooftop protest against Lancashire [offense ] firm BAE Systems at Preston's University.
Three protestors carrying a megaphone took to the roof of the Foster Building on the University of Central Lancashire's campus, close to the busy Adelphi roundabout in the city centre, at just after noon on Wednesday.

A further two people were distributing leaflets to students on the ground.

They were from Disobey group and Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

A UCLan spokesman said he believed they were protesting against research carried out by the university on behalf of BAE.

The leaflet also stated UCLan had money invested in the company through shares via a third-party fund manager.

Police arrived at the Foster building shortly after 1pm to remove the protestors from the roof.

Three people were arrested,not charged and released, at a guess Uclan didn't want the public spotlight knowing its business.
[more to follow...]

At BAE Systems

2009-02-03T08:21:00.000-08:00

last night a group of us were outside Warton BAE, reading out the names of many of the children and young people killed in Gaza.
We turned up with flowers, candles, photos of the victims of BAE and its murdering for profit partners.

This industry needs to be closed down, stop the killing!

Naming The Dead of Gaza at BAE Warton

2009-01-22T11:01:00.000-08:00

On Monday 2nd February 5-6pm, we will be outside BAE Systems Warton to read out the names of the dead, which 1/3 of the 1300 deaths have been children. The deaths have been innocent people executed at will with chemical weapons and sniper fire. Gaza is a kill pit, a open air prison the people in Gaza had no where to run.

BAE Systems Profits from Death!

BAE Systems makes the head up displays for the F16 jets, which Israel has the largest number outside the US and uses these jets to drop bombs on to Gaza.

We will be there on Monday 02/02/09 [5-6pm] to remember the people who have been killed or injured, families destroyed in the recent massacres in Palestine. Join us. We will have candles and flowers to lay.

No Justice ---- No Peace!

more information at caat