Tag: discussion (Page 2 of 3)
For more than 30 years, I’ve been on the front lines of direct-action environmentalism and anti-capitalism in the UK. I’ve helped shut down offensive companies for the day and been part of successful protest camps to save Britain’s ancient woodlands. But it’s not enough. Climate breakdown continues unabated; the gap between haves and have-nots is growing.
We welcome legendary activist Jan Goodey to the shop to help celebrate the launch of his essential new book All Hands On Deck: Climate Activism and the way ahead, out now from PM Press. A member of Just Stop Oil, and among those imprisoned for his climate actions, Jan is a seasoned and courageous activist. For more than 30 years, he has been on the front lines of direct-action environmentalism and anti-capitalism in the UK. Jan has helped shut down offensive companies and been part of successful protest camps to save Britain’s ancient woodlands. But, as he argues in his new pamphlet, it’s not enough. Climate breakdown continues unabated; the gap between haves and have-nots is growing.
This is a free event, but advance booking here on Eventbrite helps prepare the evening and ensure sufficient #SamosasForSocialChange!
“All Hands on Deck, Climate Activism the Way Ahead” is published by PM Press . It is from Veggies online shop, at Sumac Centre and from Active Distribution.
Since 1968 police targeted a wide range of social justice and human rights campaigns. Rights were violated and lives destroyed. In 2003 these secret political police infiltrated a group of idealistic young environmental activists in Nottingham, forming sexual relationships and spying without warrant on hundreds of innocent civilians.
This scandal, dubbed ‘#Spycops’‘, is now the subject of one of the UK’s longest, deepest, most extensive and expensive ‘public’ inquiries.
We will continue to follow the ‘Undercover Policing Inquiry’ throughout its proceedings, at the Sumac Centre in Nottingham.
Join us daily from 10am
Hearings will take place from Friday 17 October to Thursday 18 December. There will be a break after Thursday 23rd October, returning for the week commencing 3rd November. See full schedule here.
For times of our coverage, check our commentary on Social.coop/(Mastodon). Also Veggies on Bluesky, here and ‘bridged’ here.
Like us you can also follow these platforms:
- Official live stream by the Undercover Policing Inquiry.
- Real time coverage by Tom Fowler and others on #Spycops threads on XTwitter.
- Daily live analysis, in each break, gathered on COPS Campaign YouTube channel, by Tom on Facebook, on (possibly) TikToc, and elsewhere.
- Spycops.Info for the Spycops Info Podcast and updates from the key groups:
- Police Spies Out of Lives (PSOOL)
- The Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS)
- Undercover Research Group and their Spycops Research database.
- Many more links, events and news in the 10th October Spycops.Info Newsletter.
Evidence hearings
In this phase, 26 witnesses are currently due to give oral evidence. The Inquiry will hear evidence from 3 Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) officers deployed during the period between approximately 1993 to 2007 and 2 former SDS managers. The Inquiry will also hear from 21 non-state witnesses who represent groups that were infiltrated and women who were deceived.
The Inquiry will also adduce the written evidence of a further three undercover officers.
During the course of these hearings, the Inquiry will hear evidence on topics related to undercover policing including:
- The conduct of undercover officers, including the deception of women into relationships
- The use of deceased children’s identities by undercover officers
- Decisions related to targeting and deployments into groups, including but not limited to Family Justice Campaigns, including the Stephen Lawrence Campaign
- The training and supervision provided by managers, and the extent to which they were aware of the conduct of the officers.
In claiming that the Home Office put new codes and safeguards in place in 2000 to shift responsibility for the abuses that happened before, are they admitting that they _were_ resposible for the breaches of those ‘standards’ by those that followed, eg Kennedy et al https://t.co/isdzwZVJni
— Veggies 🌱 Vegan Campaign Catering 💙 🌱 (@veggiesnottm) October 13, 2025
See Also. . .
See also DISCLOSURE: Unravelling the Spycops.
Kate Wilson’s memoir is a shocking exposé about the workings of Britain’s secret police. Much of the activity documented by Kate took place at Nottingham’s Sumac Centre. We were delighted that Kate joined us here on Sunday 1st June 2025, to tell her story and launch her book (which is available from Veggies online shop).
The new 3-part ITV documentary series ‘The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed’ premiered on Thursday 6 March at 9pm, with screenings at Sumac Screen Room.
From the moment ‘Lisa’ discovers Mark Kennedy’s passport, the #spycops scandal starts to unravel.
Now a long time Nottingham resident and social activist, Alan Lodge, ‘Tash’ comes from a free festival and traveller background. Living in old buses, trucks and caravans, he drove around the country on ‘the circuit’ with his family and friends.
Since the late 1970’s he has been photographing events and the people around him, with One Eye on the Road and always another on the response of the police.
Join us at Sumac Centre on the early evening of Saturday 7th June for a display of Tash’s photos, and a discussion with Tash about free festivals and wider issues of Policing and Protest.
This will no doubt include his activism in Nottingham from Critical Mass to Heckler & Koch, from Nottm Indymedia to the Green Festival.
There will be snacks from Veggies and a social at Sumac’s Forest Fields Social Club bar afterwards.
40 years ago, Molesworth peace camp, part of a campaign organised from Nottingham Rainbow Centre, was evicted by thousands of police and army, in one of the most expensive evictions in British history. Many of those evicted formed a ‘Peace Convoy’.
On 1st June 1985 Tash documented the prearranged police ambush of the Peace Convoy, travelling though Wiltshire for the annual Fee Festival at Stonehenge. This has been been dubbed the Battle of the Beanfield.
Five Leaves Bookshop will also be holding an illustrated talk with Alan Lodge Tash at 4.45 on Sunday 1st June.
Whilst the Sumac Centre event will travel with Tash from the 1970’s to today, the Five Leaves event focuses his lens on the 40th Anniviversary of the Battle of the Beanfield.
🧵
Stonehenge ‘85.
Battle of the Bean Field.
A year after crushing the miners, Thatcher turned her eye to the burgeoning counter-culture, mobilising 1300 police officers in an attempt to halt the counter-cultures most significant annual event- the Stonehenge Free festival. pic.twitter.com/mXNX9wMZGY
— Seth Dresden Wheeler (@sethnotes) June 21, 2023
A short history of the People’s Free Festival – from Windsor to the Beanfield
with stills photography by Alan Lodge ‘Tash’.
We are proud to announce that we are hosting first Total Liberation Gathering on 11th-13th July at the Sumac Centre in Nottingham.
The event is coordinated by autonomousanimal.org . Please check out the Linktree to get involved, or contact them. Also follow details from the Total Liberation Collective on Instagram.
The aim is for animal liberationists to connect with other struggles and strengthen solidarity between movements. We want to encourage collaboration, sharing resources and creativity.
This will be an opportunity for us to reimagine how the world could be. We will embody anti-hierarchy, active participation and collective care.
Our shared vision is to be as inclusive as possible, with anti racism, anti ableism and anti-speciesism at the heart of the project.
The catering will be provided by Veggies Catering Campaign, the UK’s longest established 100% vegan campaign caterers.
Some words from the Total Liberation Collective:
“✊🏿 We really want to create a space of collective responsibility and community care.
✊🏾 The upkeep and running of the space will be anti-hierarchal and anyone who wants to contribute will be able to.
✊🏽If you want to run a workshop, or can offer to take up any responsibilities at the gathering (washing up, welfare support, general maintenance of the space, providing reading materials) please message us and we’ll send you a form to fill out.
✊🏼 We’re going to have a wide variety of workshops so if in doubt, put it down and we’ll contact you separately.”
Liberation is, as liberation does.
From https://autonomousanimal.org/our-story/:
Starting something new gave us the freedom to find new ways of relating to the issues close to us.
We are all autonomous animals, this work begins with how we treat the humans that we organise with.
We choose to grow collective power through togetherness and world – making; envisioning a better future for all beings.
Please print, display and share the poster &/or tlc-fliers to promote the event.
Contribute to the fundraiser
Get your hands on these cute stickers by donating to the Crowdfunding page.
(See also Total Liberation Gathering listing on Veggies Calendar)
The long running Undercover Policing Inquiry (#Spycops) has restarted with opening statements on Monday 14th October. This ‘tranche’ will cover the animal rights (AR) movement in 1980’s.
Opening statements at https://www.youtube.com/live/7QZ3LXAki5g?feature=shared&t=1524, reveal exposure of outrageous activities by spycops.
Veggies Catering Campaign had a central role in coordinating 300 autonomous local AR groups in the 1980’s & 1990’s. This work supported the Animal Rights Coalition and Coordinating Animal Welfare. Our Animal Contacts Directory networked over 7000 animal rights & welfare, human rights & environmental contacts. Our Animal Rights Calendar also fulfilled a central role in supporting campaigns.
Mclibel screening & campaign reunion
In 1984, Tom and Clare, Veggies founders, presented the manager of a local McDonalds with a huge veggieburger. It represented an ethical alternative to the products of death and destruction sold there. Following active distribution of the leaflet that became the subject of the McLibel Trial, McDonalds threatened legal action against Veggies. (nb ‘1954’ in this document should say ‘1984’) in 1987. Therefore Nottingham McLibel Support Campaign, made up of Veggies volunteers, actively supported the McLibel Campaign from the start of the epic 15-year legal battle by Helen Steel and Dave Morris. The case involved a libel trial, an appeal, a European court ruling and a change in UK law.
A McLibel reunion will be held at 2pm on Saturday 19th October at Nottingham’s Sumac Centre as part of #Veggies40Years Anniversary Celebrations.
We are delighted to welcome co-defendant Dave Morris to join us to discuss extracts of the the McLibel Documentary, produced by Franny Armstrong of Spanner Films. We are particularly grateful for Dave to find the time to join us as two days later he will be giving evidence to the Spycops inquiry about the infiltration of the London Greenpeace Group and the McLibel Campaign. Follow live coverage of the inquiry by Tom Fowler.
This, and the following film, bookmark Veggies 40 years history as Vegan Campaign Caterers.
Since 1984 dozens of Veggies Volunteers have supported hundreds of campaigns at thousands of events for peace, human rights, animal rights, veganism, environmental and social justice. We now find that many of these groups are amongst the estimated 1000 groups directly spied upon by a state-sponsored secret undercover political policing.
The Spies Who Ruined Our Lives.
This 2024 documentary will see its exclusive Nottingham premier, following the McLibel screening on Saturday 19th October.
The film gives, in their own words, the story of the fightback for justice by those affected by the #Spycops scandal. It is being screened at the Sumac Centre, where much of the story unfolded and where the exposure of embedded spycop Mark Stone/Kennedy lead directly to the wide public condemnation of the role of these secret police, as detailed in the 2024 BBC Podcast ‘Undercover: The Spycops‘.
A Q&A with those involved in the film & the wider issues, will follow the film.
“The Spies Who Ruined Our Lives” is a not-for-profit feature length documentary film, produced, directed and edited by Justyn Jones and Madoc Roberts with Jason Kirkpatrick as associate producer . It has been made to raise awareness and give a comprehensive and historical perspective of the Spycops scandal.
Watch the trailer and join us on Saturday 19th October to view the full documentary, followed by Q&As.
If you are unable to join us for this screening, look our for a possible future screening at Mammoth, Nottingham’s Climate Action Cinema. Contact us for details.
A full weekend of activities to celebrate Veggies 40th Anniversary!
Fri 18th Oct: Veggies Crew Reunion
Sat 19th Oct:
2pm . Highlights from the #McLibel
3pm . Nottingham premier of The Spies who Ruined our Lives
6pm: People’s Kitchen Dinner
7pm: Celebration gig with Cheap Dirty Horse 🐴 and Muddy Summers and the Dirty Field whores. For gig tickets book here. Only £12, including 6pm meal (+ fixr fee).
Sun 20th Oct: Acoustic Garden Party (free).
Click through for full 40th Anniversary Festival Weekend details
We are excited to bring this touring event series, Common Ground, to the Sumac Centre.
– Veggies brunch
– Greenham Pop-up exhibits and memory sharing
– Drop-in craft activities.
From 2pm we will have time to host some talks.
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“From our end, we can give a talk about Greenham and possibly introduce the book ‘Out of the Darkness’ which is a collection of the testimonies we’ve collected through the project.”
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“It would be amazing if anyone from Nottingham CND would be up for giving a talk on the work that you do, or if anyone wants to give a talk about a specific topic that would also be very welcome. It would be great to have talks which mix looking backwards at the history of peace movements as well as looking at where we are now.”
I imagine the Sumac would have a really engaged community for this event and would be a great place to collect testimonies from people who went to the Peace Camp!
We’d also love to invite activists and campaign groups that are still working on the issues that Greenham Women explored, so really glad to hear about your connections with CND and we’d love to be put in touch with anyone else you think might like to contribute!
See more at greenham-women-everywhere from https://scarylittlegirls.co.uk
A group of Spanish activists are walking for 30 days to the COP26 climate summit which will be held in Glasgow in November 2021.
Local climate activists will join the group along their route. GWe are delighted to meet and host the delegation in Nottingham overnight on Monday 11th / Tuesday 12th October.
Please join us in sharing a meal and sharing their news.
provisional event reservation
