Dear Big Issue Vendors, Readers, Writers and Friends Thanks very much for putting together the Big Issue every week. I love the magazine and in particular the news information and updates about campaigns, especially grassroots groups. I like the diversity of issues tackled and the urge to improve the world. The Big Issue has been such a great reliable supportive voice before and during the G8 protests last year when many other media outlets seemed to focus more on scaring the local population. I like the Big issue’s editorial focus on community issues and the Vox pops. I also appreciate the interviews with homeless Big Issue vendors from all over Scotland and also the ethical classified.

The Muirhouse/Salvesen community council had its inaugural meeting on Monday, 3rd of April in the Muirhouse Millenium Centre. The interim positions were filled: Betty Stevenson will act as chair, Brian Eddington as the secretary and Roy Douglas is the treasurer for the time being. The final appointment of the office bearers will take place at the AGM of the community council. The constitution was approved, and financial arrangements such as banking, insurance and council grants were organised. Councillor Lesley Hinds and representatives of the Council, such as the Elections Officer and the Community Council Liaison Officer, were also present to guide through the initial process of setting the group up.

North Edinburgh now has four community councils, Muirhouse/Salvesen, West Pilton/West Granton, Royston Wardieburn and Drylaw/Telford. Drylaw/Telford community council has been active for 25 years since it has been founded in 1981, and according to secretary Dave Pickering its biggest and most successful campaign has been the recent Open Spaces consultation, which gave the community the opportunity to decide on possible housing developments, retention and upgrade of green spaces. The first community councils were established in Edinburgh in 1980 at Longstone and Merchiston. Now there are 39 out of 44 possible community councils in the city and over 400 community council representatives.

The Activist Training Programme is running a critical reading group for community members who want to engage with local issues and the connections to wider social causes. Previous texts and discussions included Anti-social behavior, housing, Hurricane Katrina, the power of multinational corporations, the World Social Forum, consumerism, participatory democracy and social movements in Venezuela, sustainable way of living, the impact of the class system, the role of property investment and redevelopment in areas like the Waterfront and a comic on John Ruskin’s ideas on wealth and happiness,. The first session of the critical reading group took place on 25th August 2005.

So just today I finally managed to compile a feature for Indymedia Scotland and Indymedia UK about the police attack in Mexico, Oaxaca, which was said to have killed 11 people on Wednesday. The mainstream media here in Britain hasn’t reported one bit of it, as usual. Compiling the feature today took about 4 hours, but without translating anything, just reading across several websites, emails and texts and trying to compress the most important facts. Yesterday it also took some hours to find all the original texts, about further 2-3 hours. At the moment I actually don’t really have the time any more to do this as frequently as some years ago, but I still would want to spend more time on it, as it is something quite meaningfull.