Fracking Awareness North Somerset (F.A.N.S) is a new organisation seeking to mobilize community based resistance against fracking. We aim to build a network of groups all over North Somerset to collectively struggle against the insidious threat posed by fracking to our local communities and landscape.

F.A.N.S. will encompass and offer support for all anti-fracking/environmental groups in North Somerset, providing them with up to date information, encouragement and solidarity in fighting this cause.

Our Facebook page is now up and running and we are currently in the midst of designing our new North Somerset focused leaflets. We are also creating a new website so that we are easily contactable and can provide information and help for other groups around North Somerset.

Once our leaflet and website are finished, we are planning F.A.N.S Fortnight – two weeks of talks, presentations, meetings, workshops and film showings around the towns and villages of North Somerset. F.A.N.S Fortnight aims to educate the residents of these areas on the often complex issue of fracking. We seek to show them how they may be affected by fracking in the coming years, but also that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

So it’s all go from North Somerset! Please feel free to get in touch if you are interested in supporting us or have a new group that would like to join F.A.N.S. We would also very much like to hear from anyone interested in helping out with festivals or ideas for promotion.

Fracking will bring industrial North Sea gas extraction to our very doorsteps. Together, we can stop it.

Public Meeting for Workers’ Memorial Day: The Fight Against Blacklisting

Monday 29 April 2013 @ 7.30pm Tony Benn House, 92 Victoria Street, Redcliffe, Bristol BS1 6AY

Politicians and employers like to portray the blacklisting of trade union members for their health & safety activities as a thing of the past. That does not correspond with the reality of life for those who continue to stick their neck out to protect themselves, their workmates and the public.

The meeting will be introduced by:

Di Parkin is a historian and has published “60 years of struggle”, the history of Betteshanger, a militant Kent pit. She will be speaking about the actions of the Economic League who provided blacklisting information to employers in the 1970s and the impact this had on militants in places such as Cowley car works and the Kent coalfield.

An electrician who has worked in the construction industry for 40 years will talk about his experiences of victimisation and the campaign against blacklisting. He is an active member of Unite, a shop steward on a number of jobs and is the Welsh rep on the Rank and File National committee.

A discussion organised by Bristol & District Hazards Group & Bristol Radical History Group.

After months of planning, Visions for Change 2013 will open its doors to the public at 11am Saturday 27th April. More than just groups with stalls, this year’s event features talks and short films, as well as the opportunity to engage with various groups active in the Bath area, find out what they are doing to make the world a better place and to get involved.

Organised by Bath People’s Assembly, the independent democratic forum that all residents of Bath are welcome to attend the meetings of, the event promises to be an exciting one, with a diverse range of groups and speakers, from environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Green Vision, groups concerned with business and economics such as Avon Co-operative Development Agency, the Bath Oliver and Bath LETS, groups campaigning for peace and an end to poverty such as Bath StopWar Coalition, Bath Amnesty and Bath Oxfam, groups opposing government cuts and the current handling of the economy including Bath Against Cuts, Occupy Bath, 38 Degrees and BARF, and many others, including Bath Foodcycle, New Hope and directors of radical films.

Last year’s event was a huge success – the event was packed out and many groups met each other for the first time and have since worked together more closely. It also inspired a similar event in Norwich, and an organiser from Visions for Change Norwich will be speaking at the Bath event. This year the event will be held on two floors – on the ground floor will be stalls and a café run by South West Food Not Bombs, and in the basement will be talks, short films and a radical photography exhibition.

The event is free and is open to the public between 11am and 3pm,and is in the Friends’ Meeting House, York St., Bath, BA1 1NG. Up to date information can be found on the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/158627290953876/?fref=ts