Posts Tagged ‘DIT Collective’

Upcoming events

Wednesday, November 16th, 2016

There are a bunch of upcoming events that anarchists and other radicals around Norfolk may be interested in attending. Here are some of the ones that have caught our eye…

November

  • Movement for Justice workshop @ UEA. MfJ are the group that have been organising noise demos at Yarl’s Wood detention centre. They are at the UEA to provide insight into the work they do. Weds 16th.
  • Frack Off presentation about Sibelco sand mine at King’s Lynn, who have been providing sand to Caudrilla for their wells. Friends Meeting House, Upper Goat Lane, Norwich. Weds 16th.
  • Three Acres and a Cow is a play about the radical history of land rights in the UK. @ Central Baptist Church, Duke St, Norwich. Sat 19th.
  • Rojava Revolution film night by compañerxs in Cambridge. We’ll be heading down there so send us an email if you’d like a lift. Sun 27th.

December

  • Public meeting of new anti-fracking group in Norwich, to continue discussion of what effective anti-fracking action could look like in Norfolk, particularly with regards to the Sibelco site mentioned previously. Marzano, The Forum, Norwich. 7pm on Thurs 1st.
  • Breckland Compassionate Living Fair at the Guildhall in Thetford. Lots of vegan and animal friendly things.
  • Being in the World, which will be our last screening of the year. It is about the philosophy of Heidegger and how it can be seen in the every day world. Space Studio, Swan Lane, Norwich. Sun 4th.

East Anglian Anti-Fascist Network

Thursday, October 27th, 2016

DIT Collective is proud to be participating in the newly formed EA-AFN. This is a network of individuals, groups, and organisations working to broaden communication about anti-fascism across the region. While Norfolk isn’t a hotbed of activity as some other parts of the region are, there is nonetheless an undercurrent that we must remain vigilant about.

If you have any questions or concerns relating to fascist, neo-nazi, traditionalist, or other far right activity and feel comfortable talking to us about it then please send us an email or message us on FB. All information will be treated with sensitivity and security.

eaafn

Latest update on the Feed the Revolution campaign

Wednesday, September 21st, 2016

Good news received a couple of days ago.

Dear friends and supporters,

the Feed The Revolution campaign ended three months ago and you’re probably wondering how the project is going. So, here is the short version: It is going well!

And now for the long version: The work in Tirbespiyê is continuing. In May the municipality gave us an area south of the city for the fertilizer facility. The area had been designated as a waste dump by the Syrian regime before the revolution, and there was already a fence, a high three-sided concrete wall and a half-finished maintenance building there.

When the campaign ended in mid-June it was well short of our ambitious goal of 200 000 USD. We knew that we would not be able to do the project without further help because we needed workers and building machines to get the facility ready. We therefore talked with the municipality again, and with the ministry of social affairs of Cizîre canton, who were aware of the great importance of this project and quickly agreed to take over a large part of the construction of the site.

Construction then stalled again, because of the war: the needed machines were all at the frontlines in Minbic and Şedade. In August the construction finally began with Zagros company, a local enterprise contracted by the municipality. Since then work has been advancing fast and well.
So far the well has been dug, the outer wall has been repaired, the huge mount of gravel and earth in the middle of the place has been dug away, the whole ground has been leveled – the area for the primary mounds with a slope of 3% – and been covered with a gravel layer in preparation for the asphalt. The house has been completed, but still needs plastering, painting and water and electricity connection, which is happening this week, after Cejna Qurbanî, the Muslim sacrifice festival. It has three rooms: One changing room with showers, one common room and an office including an archive.
Secondly there are three machines needed for the facility: A shredder to cut the  straw, a large grinder to mix the biological waste and grind up larger pieces, and a a drum sieve for the final process, to separate the ready fertilizer from parts that still need more composting.

We first wanted to build a high-end grinder that would last a long time and not be affected by rust or damaged by solid pieces in the waste. For that we needed chrome, the required quantity of which we couldn’t get in Rojava. So we tried to import it from Iraqi Kurdistan, but that didn’t work out because of the embargo. Finally we decided on building the machine a little differently with locally available steel, and on an optimized pre-sorting process to prevent stones or other unwanted objects from entering the grinder.

Thirdly a mixed Kurdish and Arab education team of five people is ready to give lessons on the process and the importance of waste separation in the communes and schools of Tirbespiyê, and 3 000 explanatory brochures in both Kurmancî and Arabic have been printed so far. The education will not start until the facility is ready, so the people can start the waste separation right away and there will be a place for the waste to go to. Also we have been collecting empty petrol barrels and sent them to a workshop in Qamişlo where they are being remodelled to be used as waste bins.

Here is a link to some pictures of the Tirbespiyê facility taken last week:

https://rojava.network/?page_id=20&lang=kmr

***

During the two months of near-stagnation during the summer we have been looking everywhere for a solution to the ever more urgent need for fertilizer. In Til Temir, a town in the west of Cizîre canton, we found a huge industrial cow farm that had been out of service since the region was invaded by Cebhet en-Nusra (Jabhat en-Nusra/JN) four years ago.

Around the site there were several huge reservoirs holding thousands of tons of cow droppings accumulated over the years. Even better, the farm also held   several hangars full to the brim with straw. With so much readily available high-quality raw material we decided to start right away with a second facility in Til Temir. We managed to find an old grain storage just 3 km away from the cow farm with three empty hangars and a large asphalted area in front of them and got permission from the agriculture committee to use it for the project. As the local municipality didn’t have any vehicles available we rented two trucks and a wheel loader from a local entrepreneur at a very low price and started bringing the cow droppings and straw to the new place.

The Til Temir facility needs only a small budget as the place was almost ready to be used. The only further construction we did there was the digging of two wells. As opposed to the more mechanized Tirbespiyê facility the work will mostly be manual, apart from the three mentioned machines that are also being built for Til Temir.

If you want to see pictures of the work in Til Temir, follow this link:

https://rojava.network/?page_id=23&lang=kmr

So right now we are working on two facilities, one in Tirbespiyê and one in Til Temir. The money will be enough to get both facilities going until the project becomes self-financing. So far all of the money has been designated, except for 8 000 USD that we keep as an emergency fund in case of further obstacles (machine breakdown etc.). If everything goes to plan though we will use it to buy a skid loader for the Til Temir facility.

Once both facilities are producing fertilizer we will establish a fund for the financial surplus extra to what is needed to keep the facilities running, which will pay for upgrading and repairing the existing equipment as well as establishing further composting facilities all over Cizîre canton.

On behalf of the fertilizer project team and the Cizîre economic committee I want to thank you again for your trust and your support without which this project would not have been possible. We will keep you updated on the progress over the next months. If you have any questions or remarks, please contact us at info@rojava.network, subject: Feed The Revolution.

All the best from Rojava,

Îsmaêl Hêvî
Project coordinator
Cizîre canton economic committee

Mike Huskisson at Norwich Anarchist Bookfair 2016

Monday, September 5th, 2016

We recorded the talk given by Mike Huskisson at this year’s Norwich Anarchist Bookfair and have uploaded it for you. Whether you were there and want to re-listen, weren’t there and would like to check out what happened, or would like to use it for samples/reference/fun, the recording below is yours to do with as you please. A slightly edited version will be appearing soon on Which Side Podcast as part of their lectures series.

Mike talks about hunt sabotage and his experiences with undercover work. This is followed by crowd discussion involving Mike about various animal liberation topics.

Our original version can be found here.

Thanks to Mike for his permission to put this up online. For more on his current activities check out the Animal Cruelty Investigation Group.  Thanks also to the Bookfair organisers for letting us make this recording.

Veganism: A Different Approach – I. Capitalism Is Not The Answer

Saturday, August 27th, 2016

For the past few months we have been working on putting together a publication that is aimed at the Norwich and Norfolk vegan scene, one that would introduce what seems to be an important but missing discourse from the community.


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The Angry Brigade: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Britain’s First Urban Guerrilla Group

Wednesday, July 27th, 2016

Our August screening will be of the fun 70s BBC documentary about The Angry Brigade, who were the most fun gun-toting and bomb-wielding anarchist crew walking London’s streets during the late 60s and early 70s.

Please check out the Facebook event here.

This will be at yet another new venue: Space Studios. It is located on Swan Street, in Norwich, and the entrance is basically a gate between two shops. Because the venue is on a third floor it’s not friendly for people with difficulties climbing stairs this time around but if you are such a person and want to come along to the screenings then please let us know and we’ll try to make other arrangements for the future.

There’s no entrance fee and, as per usual, there will be space and time after the documentary itself to discuss the topics and issues that the film brings up.

See you there, compañerxs.

A Thank You and an Invite

Wednesday, June 8th, 2016

Thank you to all that came and participated in our Zapatista documentary screening. It was small but hopefully everyone involved felt they gained something from the night. It seems likely we’ll do another screening in early July so keep your eyes open for more details regarding that. Furthermore, it’s likely this will not be the last time we look at the Zapatistas.

In other news, our next discussion group is during the evening of 23rd June, in Norwich, where a text regarding hunt sabotage and animal liberation written by one of the group will be looked at. There is no expertise or experience required to participate: getting together, socialising, and getting to know one another is as valuable as any political debate.

If you’d like to come along please email us or send us a message to our Facebook page.

Zapatistas: Chronicle of a Rebellion / Zapatista Solidarity Group – Essex

Sunday, May 15th, 2016

We are well chuffed to announce our first attempt to screen a documentary focused on topics of interest to radicals. This one is called “Zapatistas: Chronicle of a Rebellion”, produced by the Mexican media outlets La Jornada and Canal Seis de Julio, and provides a linear timeline of the Zapatistas from their insurrection in 1994 until the date of production in 2007.

The Facebook event can be seen here.

It will be upstairs at The Owl Sanctuary on 2nd June, 7pm. The film contains some scenes of graphic violence.

Depending on how this works out, we hope there will be more and on a monthly basis, with an aim of building a community that is regularly engaged in conversation and action toward total liberation. There are so many more possibilities in this world that the society we live in cannot be how we end.

Let’s Get Radical – May 2016

Sunday, May 8th, 2016

The next reading and discussion group is to be held on the evening of Thursday 26th May, during which we will get together in a public space to discuss the article “We Are All Very Anxious” by the Institute for Precarious Studies. If you are interested in attending, please contact us by email for further details.

Norwich CamWatch Project

Sunday, March 20th, 2016

We would like to present the Norwich CamWatch Project, an initiative to map out the multitude of public-facing CCTV cameras around the city.

Norwich CamWatch Project

Directly inspired by both the Olympia Counter-Surveillance Network and the decade-old Norwich Police/Norwich City Council CCTV Cameras map, Norwich CamWatch Project aims to be a collaboratively created resource for anyone wanting information about the outdoor security cameras in Norwich.

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