The Prole Star

The right wing thinktank Policy Exchange that David Cameron refered to as "his favourite thinktank", also labelled the “neo-conservative attack dog” has released a baseless smear attacking the climate change activists known as Extinction Rebellion without any solid evidence. Unlike XR who are completely transparent about where their funding is coming from, the thinktank refuses to reveal its donors arguing that it is respecting its donors "right to privacy". However the reality is that unknown donors can have influence on the news narrative... One of policy exchange reports was recently on the front page of The Daily Mail. 

According to The Guardian, American donors are giving money to US fundraising bodies that pass the donations to Policy Exchange, the Adam Smith Institute, The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), and the Legatum Institute in Britain. "A Guardian analysis has established that $5.6m (£4.3m) has been donated to these US entities since 2008." We have contacted...

Three anti-fracking protesters have been found in contempt of court at Manchester High Court today for breaching the terms of a wide-ranging anti-protest injunction. They could of faced up to 2 years in prison, although the judge has said he will not be giving the protesters a custodial sentence.

Quadrilla had brought the case to court after a protest where three environmental protesters, Chris Wilson, Lee Walsh and Katrina Lawrie blocked the entrance to their Preston New Road fracking site near Blackpool locking their arms inside tubes. This is the first case of its kind in the UK, Robert Lizar solicitors issued a press release stating “as far as we are aware this is the first time a company has attempted to bring preceding against protesters for allegedly breaching a ‘persons unknown’ injunction.”  

Quadrilla had claimed that the protesters had breached the injunction which prohibited disrupting the company’s operations and today the judge agreed. Early this year in a similar case at t...

Twelve protesters demonstrated outside the Conservative Party building in Pickering this week, chaining themselves to the railings and wearing sashes reading “Ban Fracking #WeSaidNo”.

The group of women, who all live in Ryedale, then carried out a pop-up protest outside Pickering’s Barclays Bank, who are financing the fracking operation at KM8 through their subsidiary, Third Energy. The action was designed to draw attention to those in positions of power who are forcing fracking on the local community.

A spokesperson for the protesters said: 
“The Suffragettes had to battle for the most basic rights. We are determined to fight with the same dogged determination for our right to clean water and air. We will continue until our government listens to our voices. Every time we complain of poor practice or planning breaches we are told that fracking is safe, and we have gold standard regulation. This is simply not what we are witnessing.”

Barclays owned a 97% stake in Third Energy when the...

Many local authorities have granted exploration rights to the fracking cartel Ineos, who are exploring new sites across the UK.

South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, including parts of Sherwood Forest, have been earmarked as a priority for potential fracking sites. This will cover a staggering 500 square mile area across the three counties. 

Seismic surveys are underway already in these areas. If these surveys are carried out in your community, you are in danger of living next door to a fracking well.

A Seismic survey allows fracking companies to compile data, secure investment and obtain fracking licenses which allow them to explore for shale gas. We have a few sites in the UK at the exploration stage.

Many landowners last year in Lancashire objected to the seismic surveys - the response from Aurora Energy in collusion with the government via Angela Leeson was a high court injunction to gain access to the land if the landowners refused it. In other words, if the governme...

Far from being a safe pair of hands for the constituency, it seems that Tory Copeland candidate Trudy Harrison is not even capable of running herself adequately.

The much-vaunted accomplishments of Ms Harrison in the region include the ''successful' Wellbank Project, a housing/commercial development in part of the Lake District National Park - on the doorstep, in fact of Ms H's Bootle home..

'Successful' however. would appear to be slightly overstated.

The project, launched in 2013, was lauded as great news for the region, winning praise in a number of online pieces including 'Why Bootle's building on this national park' by Inside Housing in June last year.

"Two investors were interested - David Nuttall and Mark Frost, directors of Barden Energy, among other things - and as FNS have so far invested £700,000 in the Wellbank project. Ms Harrison now dedicates her time to project-managing Bootle 2020 through her own company, Trudy Harrison Limited."

Just a few months later, however, said compa...

The coming years could see fracking spread across the UK, with Sherwood Forest among the potential sites earmarked by chemical giants Ineos, who are exploring countrywide for new areas to blight.

Ineos are registered in Hampshire, but have their headquarters in tax-friendly Switzerland. They are partnered with the US energy company Consul energy, and are the fourth biggest chemical company worldwide.

Ineos have exploration licenses for many sites in England including Runcorn and Hull. In Scotland they have 51% majority stakeholdings for exploration licenses in Grangemouth and The Forth of Firth, covering a staggering 127 square mile radius.

The government has made no attempt to inform communities that they could be targets for fracking. Similarly the mainstream media seemed not to notice the huge anti-fracking protest which took place in Manchester in November - the largest ever staged in Britain. So here it is again.

The founder of Ineos, British millionaire Jim Radcliffe, has offered c...

Greetings Comrades. Would you be interested in contributing to The Prole Star?

The mainstream media is not fit for purpose - now more than ever it is vital to support independent media projects like ours. 

We believe that The Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn has not had a fair hearing. This is because the mainstream media is controlled by a very small number of rich individuals - and their vested interests are plain to see.

We intend to challenge this bias as an independent media outlet, shared through social media, appealing to the masses with sport and entertainment, but having a political agenda to offer our readers a point of view which is in their interests, and not in the interests of corporate power.

In the long term we plan to form a cooperative company, owned and democratically run by its members. All our members and contributors can ask to be added to our Bio Page. 

We are looking for people to help in a range of roles, from writing and promoting to recr...

Just over a month ago “The Prole Star” was little more than an idea between two people. Today it has a website, a Twitter and Facebook page and most importantly, a small team of writers. Our short term goal is to build up our Social Media platform and create a large following to share our articles. This will allow our writers to share their work to a much larger audience than they would get from blogging or writing Facebook statuses alone.

Our long term goal is to form a non profit making media cooperative with a membership that anyone can join. Every member will have a say in how "The Prole Star" is run, in keeping with our democratic traditions.  Even our name is the result of a collective decision. We intend to create a media organization, which in contrast to the current situation, will be inclusive to working class people.

Never forget what history has shown can come from a grass roots level. We are looking for people just like you. Complaining about the status quo, but ta...

KEEPING IT IN THE GROUND MOBILISER TOUR

OCTOBER 10 @ 7:00 PM - OCTOBER 20 @ 9:00 PM

| Free (donations welcome)

With commercial-scale fracking sites such as Preston New Road in Lancashire potentially becoming operational soon, Reclaim the Power is teaming up with local campaigners across the country to discuss what strategies and tactics could be most effective to oppose these destructive industries.

We are organising a mobilisation tour with local groups across the UK to discuss:

– the latest plans from the fracking and coal industries to extract fossil fuels in the UK
– what is direct action, and how can it be a powerful tactic to help communities achieve change
– what we can learn from previous direct action campaigns against environmentally destructive campaign
– what might direct action against the fossil fuel industry look like here in the UK
– how we can coordinate our actions to stop these industries in their tracks

Tour dates:
Monday 10 October: Leeds
Victoria Hotel @ 7pm
Addres...

Mainstream newspaper sales are on the decline. Newspapers are losing as many as half a million readers on average every year. Instead, we are starting to see the rise of online independent media outlets, shared through social media. Here’s part of the thinking behind ’The Prole Star’.

We constantly see people writing impressive statuses on Facebook, on a range of subjects. Some people get a popular following. But as individuals there is a limit to how far this can go. And in a way it seems that, by just writing on Facebook alone, these talents are wasted. So if you’re going to write on Facebook for free anyway, why not volunteer to write for an independent media outlet to get your name out there and gain recognition for your writing? Surely voices are stronger when combined with that of like-minded people?

One observation made is that articles on blogs seem to get shared across Facebook a lot more than individual statuses. And this outlet has the potential to build up a mass following -...