In By A Whisker! - Benefit Gig at the Black Cat Centre, Bath - Friday 20th Nov.

Friday 20th November, doors open at 7.30 - Should be a great night!
Acts -
*Tracy Curtis - protest folk
* Comso - Anarcho folk/one drunk and his guitar
* Robb Johnson and the irregulars - folsky/punky/rock
* Plus more acts tba

The proceeds will be split between Bath Activist Network, Bath Bomb news sheet and Bath CWU. Entry is a suggested donation of £3/4, but free entry with a CWU card and no-one will be turned away for lack of funds.

There will be a cheap/suggested donation bar and cheap food on offer.
The gig is being held at the Black Cat Centre, which can be found at -

Kelso Court
7-10 Kelso court
Upper Bristol Rd
Bath

The Black Cat Centre is a squatted social centre, offering not-for-profit, community space based on mutual aid, not corporate greed.

Other upcoming events include -

*Friday 13th Nov - from 7 - Free film night - we have a decent selection of films, to be decided on the night.

*Saturday the 21st of Nov - Open day including bike repair workshop, gym sessions, recycling/wallet making workshops, guided tours of the building, freeshop, dinner, squatting Q&A sessions, art workshops and more. The evening will be a night of comedy featuring a stand up and the brilliant 'yes men' film.

See y'all there!

Support Bath Posties! - what you can do

On Thursday and Friday of this week, hundreds of thousands of Posties are taking strike action all over the country. Despite demonization from right wing rags like the Daily Mail, the posties are taking the last option left to them. The Royal Mail, and their 'shareholders' (the government) are intent on pushing through a program of job cuts, pay cuts, service cuts and privatization which will send the postal service the same way as the failed railways, energy companies and all other privatized resources, which now cost us more, deliver worse service, and worse working conditions than when they were publicly owned. If the posties lose this strike, it will mean more than just job losses and pay cuts. We will see more, if not all of our post offices closing down, we will receive a less frequent postal service, and with a profit driven company controlling the post, you can bet stamp prices and delivery charges will go through the roof.

So, what can you do to help? Firstly, pop a sign up in your window letting your postie know that you support him or her, secondly, pop down to the picket line. The Bath picket line will be going on for most of the morning and will be at the Manvers street entrance to the depot (between the cop shop and the church - urgh!). BAN are sending a few people down at 7.30, so why not come along and give your support. Experience on the picket lines has taught us that strikers don't want lefty newspapers and leaflets, they want coffee and cake, so that is what BAN will be bringing! Any food, drink or solidarity donations that you could bring down to the picket line would most likely go down well, and show the posties that we are on their side.

With workers going out on strike over pay cuts, privatization and redundancies in many different industries (refinery workers, lecturers, firefighters, posties to council workers and bin ment to name a few), all 3 major parties promising cuts in public services and the BNP promising the banning of our trade unions, it is time to pick sides do we stand united with other workers in a fight for jobs, respect and decent working conditions, or do we let the forces of government, fascism and capitalism steamroller our rights?

Bath Freeshop listening post

As part of the Bath Freeshop, some local activists have been running a 'listening post' asking members of the public 'how does capitalism affect you?'. The following link will show you some of the many responses from the public - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHlbKyIeeng

The Bath Freeshop is a local initiative aimed at promoting the ideas of recycling, sustainability, and a world based on co-operation, not greed. The idea is simple, bring down something that you don't want (or don't) and take away something that you do. The freeshop can be found at the Black Cat Centre (email bathsocialcentre@gmail.com for directions), or opposite Holland & Barrett on Stall street on the second saturday of each month between 12-3.

New social centre in Bath! Come and get involved!

Bath Activist Network are proud to announce the opening of a new, and yet unnamed occupied social centre in the heart of Bath. The building is massive, and in pretty good nick, but we need help before we open the doors, so come and get involved at the beginning of an exiting new social centre with loads of potential. In particular, we need people who are up for coming along and helping get the place ready for opening, and to run activities once the place is open – cleaners, painters, electricians, artists, minor hole in roof menders, artists, musicians, radicals, dreamers, schemers, your mates and assorted malcontents are all welcome! We already have several initiatives in the pipeline, such as a freeshop, infoshop, radical library, salsa, café, workshops, activist self defence sessions, squat games and more – and we are up for anyone with ideas or skills to share to come and contribute to the space. The social centre is being run as a counter-capitalist initiative, run by consensus, and giving a living example of how we can create a world based on solidarity, mutual aid and co-operation, not greed and authority. To get involved in any way, big or small, contact us at bathsocialcentre@gmail.com (we are not freely giving out the address at the moment, so email us for directions) We are slowly gathering the stuff we need to complete the space, but our wish list includes (but is not limited to) – *Chairs *Tables *Sofas *Kitchen stuff *Paint *banners *decorations *Any unwanted stuff for the freeshop *Any books, pamphlets or leaflets for the library This is a really great space, and an exciting opportunity to build something brilliant in Bath, so come down and get involved from the beginning. Cheers Bath Activist Massive x (A)
BAN x e-mail: bathsocialcentre@gmail.com

Direct action stations! - Government green lights Bathampton park and ride!

The Government office of the South west have denied a public enquiry into the concreting of bathampton Meadows, meaning the councils original green (ha ha) light for the project still stands. It also looks like the Rapid transit route ,which ploughs through a nature reserve and dozens of back gardens (aquired by compulsory purchase orders - forcing the garden owners to hand over the land) has got the go ahead. The meadows are home to bats, foxes, badgers, herons and cormorants, not to mention being a beautiful green space right on our doorstep, and not forgetting the fact that concreting over important floodplains has led to tradgedy elsewhere (including the massive floods in Gloustershire a couple of years back). This decision is pretty bad news, but it is what we expected from greedy and corrupt politicians. The battle is not over, but now we are fighting on more familiar territory - direct action and protest. There will hopefully be a public meeting very soon involving BAN and other groups opposed to the plans, so lets start dreaming up some crazy schemes to save the meadows now! As is often the case, appealing to the good side of politicians has failed (largely due to politicians not having a good side), so now it is up to the enraged population of Bath, who put ecology and community before profit to jam a spanner in the works of this stupid and ecocidal scheme once and for all!

Lax security lets BAN meet Cameron!

Last week saw everyones least favourite toff scumbag David Cameron (you know, that bloke who wants to bring back foxhunting, slash public spending, give more of our cash to the bankers, dismantle the NHS, concrete over Bathampton Meadows etc etc) visit Bath for an 'open' meeting. In fact, to get into the meeting, you had to pre-book, provide ID (despite the tories allegedly being against ID) and submit to various security checks and approval from the local tory branch leader. These best laid plans were ruined however, by an anonymous whistle blower who contacted BAN with the time and location of the meeting. This information was then 'accidentally' plastered all over the internet, and before long, both BAN and the Save Bathampton Meadows crew had called protests! With only a day to organise the protests, and with most BANners being in Bristol for the co-mutiny demo, the turnout was pretty decent, involving around 20 assorted malcontents and a large police presence which stuck with, and far outnumbered the BAN contingent. The protest gained support from the general public, but not the lads and ladies queing to get into the meeting, literally all of whom were obviously from a certain class (we'll give you a clue, it wasn't working or middle!). The protest passed peacefully, and as the BAN contingent were about to call it a night, a posh comb-over in a suit (evidently the bloke who put on the event) appeared behind a locked gate and told the cops to make sure that no BANners got inside. The police smugly replied that they had the situation under control, and the BAN activists, who had been preparing to go home smaelt a challenge. As it happened, dodging security was more than easy, and within minutes, and right under the noses of the dozy plod, 2 activists were over the wall and into the 'Cameron compound'. As heckling was about to begin, the BANners were accosted by a posh bloke in a tweed suit, issuing commands in what was either posh apeak that the rest of us aren't privvy to, or gibberish! However, the handcuffs and equiptment on his belt got the message across, and BAN left the building, stopping only to ask the cops who had promised not to let them in for the keys to the gate. Much hilarity followed as the cops got confused about the law, ranted about foie-gras and desperatley tried to concoct a reason to arrest the activists. having set alarm bells rining at Camerons Eton reunion and confounded the local cops (again), the protest faded into the night for a well earned pint!

Co-mutineers rock the boat in Bristol!

The comutiny is now over, but we can look back on a week of well attended protests and workshops over 7 days of anarchic madness in Bristol. High points included a 50 strong 'no-borders' demo and workshop at the Trinity rd police station, from which asylum seekers often get detained while signing in, 60 people taking part in a hactic anarchist games day in the city centre and over 100 making some noise (and lobbing a few paint bombs) in Bristols financial district! The week seemed like a massive success, and the hundreds of people involved over the week seemed to find it an educational and fun event well worth repeating in the future.