This Saturday a number of groups in Cardiff and south Wales are hosting an event to mark World Homeless Day.
It’s an event to raise awareness and to get people involved in taking further action together with people who are homeless.
Daytime – 3pm to around 6pm - info-stalls, music, free food, art, kids activities, speakers, free-shop and workshops; including destitution, squatting and skipping.
Evening – 7pm to 11pm – live music and a DJ, bar
Benefit gig at the Red and Black Umbrella for No Borders Morocco.
Saturday 4th October
7pm to late
Drink tolerated, drunkenness not
£5 donation welcomed for the struggle on the border.
Circus-skills afternoons, now including pole-dancing and general fitness are going to move to Sundays from this weekend. At the same time, 2pm – 5pm.
This will replace the bike workshop which is looking for a new weekly time slot and more people to help run it.
No Borders meetings are no longer at the Red and Black and are currently moving across Cardiff.
Thanks to everyone who has helped and continues to help make our regular events successful. You can now see all our current events on our calendar.
Come to our benefit gig to help us make it happen…
Rash Decision also contacted but yet to confirm.
All money raised to go towards fixing the (at least) 3 year-old hole in the roof…!
(The roof is above the lived-in part of the Red and Black Umbrella building, but money has always been tied together.)
7pm Doors
Drinks tolerated, Drunkeness not.
Dated 30th August 2014
An effigy of US president Barack Obama was burnt in Bute Park on Saturday 30th August. The action was organised by a group calling itself ‘Cardiff Anarchists, Travellers, Squatters and Homeless Individuals Together’ (…what others might instead call the Cardiff Squatters Network) and was attended by around 40 local young people.
This symbolic action came just days before the real Obama was due to attend an official dinner at Cardiff Castle.
The effigy was first put on trial by activists in fancy dress. The prosecution accused Obama of a list of war crimes, citing children killed by drone strikes in Afghanistan and other countries. A man with devil horns acted as the president’s defence lawyer and attempted to convince the court that the accused was just a “lovable rogue”.
“Boys will be boys, and presidents will be presidents. What’s a little bit of cheeky genocide between friends?” he said. “Who here hasn’t committed a war crime?”
A guilty verdict was returned by the raucous audience, and the judge broke her gavel trying to call the court to order. The effigy was sentenced to death by electrocution, and a colander was placed on its head.
However, the crowd had other ideas and quickly set fire to the dummy. As the flames engulfed it
a police officer arrived and people quickly dispersed.
“We didn’t plan to burn the president, but the play took on a life of its own,” said Anon Davies, one of the activists. “The crowd were really engaged, there was a real sense of unity. They were all laughing along and just started shouting “burn him!” Next thing you knew, half of them had their lighters out.”
Less than a week later the real Barack Obama joined other world leaders at Celtic Manor resort in Newport for an international NATO conference. Local activists argue that NATO fights
aggressive wars to maintain western control over oil and other natural resources. They argue that the UK spends billions of pounds on NATO annually and this would be better spent on public services.
Obama is currently facing opposition at home over his controversial signing of the unpopular NDAA Act. This law allows the president to deploy troops on US soil, and to assassinate any American without trial. There is now a cross-party action in the US Senate, to impeach him for High Treason.
“It’s been horrible to see Cardiff under lockdown like this,” said Ceri Williams, who was in the audience in the park. “There have been police with assault rifles in the city centre, and army helicopters flying overhead. The play was fun. It just made the rest of it look completely ridiculous, to be honest.”
For more information please contact Sarah Smith:
sarahsmith9011@outlook.com
Ska is on order at the Red and Black tonight.
We bring to you some amazing talent in the form of:
Thee Infidels – German Skacore
Public Order Act – One of Bristol’s best
Raz Chaoten – An act on a mission
Doors 7pm
Pay what you can! – This is a not-for-profit gig.
Drink tolerated, drunkenness not.
Come skank your socks off!
We’re happy to announce the return of two great RBU workshops:
The free bike workshop (formerly Black Spokes) and the Circus skill-share are back!
We’re hoping to make these both regular events again but it depends if there is enough interest to make it happen, so please turn up to support these events if you can!
You can find more information on our events on the website’s Calendar and Events Calendar (which is hopefully also going to include regular events at some point!)
The Red and Black Umbrella welcomes the return of the Welsh Language evenings, every 2nd and 4th Tuesday from 7pm.
All levels of Welsh welcome, and with a chance to learn for newcomers!
7pm - Meet for a chat / 8pm - Welsh lesson
Hope to see you tonight or in the future 
Wela i chi! Cariad a cynddaredd! x
“We are currently occupying the Sixth Form College Building on Newport Road, and transforming it into a space for the community to use. We have been working towards an open day to show people the work we have done and explain what we are about.
We are doing all this on a tiny budget and learning as we are going. Our lives aren’t perfect and our project might not be perfect but we’re building together, putting aside our differences, like we hope everyone can, and creating something beautiful, unique and community based.
We have already cleaned up the building and the surrounding area, risking our own safety in the process to pick up used syringes, which have been around this building since long before we arrived, and disposing of them properly. To continue making this a safe space for the community, we are twice daily checking for and disposing properly of any more that we find.
As far as we know this building has been empty for two years, a situation all too common in Cardiff, when the population of people homeless is growing.
There are plans to build 40 flats here, which would be a massive unneeded disruption in this part of our community. We have already collected over 100 signatures from people living in the local area, in less than two days, opposing these plans and supporting our projects and vision with a passion.
We are planning to continue to keep the land next to us as a community car park, benefitting people in an area which has seen commuters parking outside people’s houses. Parking problems will get worse if the out-of-character development goes ahead. We are staying to stop this happening.
We have been careful to keep noise to a minimum, due to elderly neighbours in our community, and we believe a building site will be a stressful environment for all, but particularly the elderly and those attempting to learn in the nearby school.
One of our projects is to use the space to help to restart Cardiff People’s University; providing a range of unaccredited, but good quality, courses “by people, for people” and all free of charge.
The majority of us in this building have been through the housing list and realised how little help there is and how stressful it can be. We aim to offer unbiased and wide-ranging advice, information and support for, without judgement, or patronising, anyone in a similar position. This will include courses run by ourselves and information on where anyone struggling financially, or who finds themselves homeless, can get the best help, e.g food, clothes, shelter. We will also have a ‘free-shop’ of donated goods, open for anyone, where everything will be free.
We invite everyone who is positive minded and open-hearted to help us or take advantage of the advice we are offering and the projects we are aiming to make happen.
Everyone needs a little bit of help, even us, and we are extremely grateful to our local neighbours, many of whom have already been kind enough to donate us goods, furniture, gardening equipment and flowers, which we are in the process of planting for a community garden.”
From
The Squat 50 Collective
contact: squat50[@]riseup[.]net / 07405 788 793
For more info on squatting in Cardiff see: http://cardiff.squat.net
The Red and Black is hosting a meeting of No Borders South Wales, come along to find out more about migrant and asylum seeker solidarity from a group active for nearly 10 years.
Monday 4th August 7pm
For more info see: http://noborderswales.wordpress.com