The Edinburgh Agrofuel Action group are planning a protest for April Biofools Day on the 15th April from 12 midday-2pm. It will be at a BP petrol station (as BP are high investors in biofuels). It will be creative and fun, attracting media attention as well as engaging with the public about the issues.

On March 27, the U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia reaffirmed the frame-up conviction of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther Party spokesman and world-renowned radical journalist who has been locked up on Pennsylvania’s death row for more than a quarter century. After previously rejecting Mumia’s request to present evidence of his innocence, as well as a host of issues showing that he was railroaded by a racist court, the Court turned down Mumia’s request for a new trial. It upheld the 2001 ruling by a federal district judge that ordered a new hearing on the sentence, but limited the “choice” to the living hell of life imprisonment without parole … or execution. Mumia is innocent. He was declared guilty and sentenced to die because of his revolutionary politics and because for years he had been a thorn in the side of the racist rulers of the misnamed “city of brotherly love.” Around the world, millions have come out in defense of Jamal. This latest ruling, like all those that preceded it, shows that the exploited and oppressed must have no faith in the racist injustice system. We call on the workers movement to mobilize its power to free Mumia now!

Climate Camp − Open invite to a UK-wide decision making meeting − Glasgow 5th and 6th April

UNITY’s 2008 Conference - Saturday 12th April Unity - the union of asylum seekers in Scotland

The internet-spawned campaign against the Church of Scientology organised by many Anonymouses came to Glasgow this Saturday afternoon.

"Pressure group Farmers for Action (FFA) has called for a 24-hour food strike from midnight August 22." The National Farmers Union has said "ooh no, don't like that much".

You might not have noticed, but soon businesses will be having their water supplied by a commercial entity. This article, gushing with praise for the commoditisation of our essential natural resource, contains a few telling quotes: * "state monopoly over water supply will at last be broken next week" * "UK's most radical private sector competition" * "The 130 staff who transferred to the new company a year ago already have some 10% of pay linked to performance" * "it is about getting them to think in a different way" How long before the domestic water supply is moved over to this?

It's quite dry and contains no analysis but this Cryptome copy of a US Dept of Justice anti-monopoly filing is potentially interesting for a couple of reasons. It is against the takeover of news agency Reuters by business information provider Thomson. The objection is the monopoly it creates on the provision of market "fundamentals" data, the stuff used to produce the graphs of stock results and economic trends. Those in turn are used to produce the analyses of all the economic things that your bank uses to decide what to do with your money. Now this takeover was announced nearly 3 years ago leading me to speculate: is it because the US realises, given the current sub-prime market "crisis" that this is the kind of information that they don't want people to control. Or is the objection because they don't want a UK-Canadian company controlling that knowledge, given the damage it can do to the fragile US economy. Just wondering.