Author: earthfirst

Indian Maoists set fire to a tipper and earthdigger

BHADRACHALAM: Maoists have alleged­ly set ablaze a tip­per and a pro­clain­er (earth­mover) near Aluba­ka in the Bhadracha­lam Agency area of Kam­mam dis­trict on Fri­day night.

BHADRACHALAM: Maoists have alleged­ly set ablaze a tip­per and a pro­clain­er (earth­mover) near Aluba­ka in the Bhadracha­lam Agency area of Kam­mam dis­trict on Fri­day night.

It is said that the Maoists torched the vehi­cles to obstruct the road works tak­en up under the Left Wing Extrem­ism Affect­ed Dis­tricts Devel­op­ment Scheme. The Maoist had warned the con­trac­tor ear­li­er not to take up work on the road that con­nects Bhadracha­lam with Venkat­a­pur and Bhoopala­p­at­nam in Chhat­tis­garh. Accord­ing to sources, around 60 Maoists, 20 of them armed, from the neigh­bour­ing state entered the dis­trict, poured kerosene over the vehi­cles, and set them ablaze. The con­trac­tor suf­fered a loss of Rs 50 lakh.

A case has been reg­is­tered at Venkat­a­pur police sta­tion against those involved in the offence and inves­ti­ga­tion is in progress, Venkat­a­pur cir­cle inspec­tor of police KRK Prasa­da Rao has said.

 

from .… http://signalfire.org/?p=16492

orig­i­nal arti­cle …

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/maoists-set-afire-tipper-earthdigger/212951–60-114.html

 

Anti-Coal Plant Protesters Storm Buildings, Evict Officials, Block Roads in South China

21.12.11

21.12.11

CHINESE pro­test­ers against a coal-pow­ered pow­er sta­tion have blocked a main road and defied riot police.

Reuters reports that the sit­u­a­tion seems to have esca­lat­ed, with res­i­dents smash­ing cars and hurl­ing bricks even though offi­cials sought to calm tem­pers by sus­pend­ing the unpop­u­lar plan.

Angry crowds smashed and over­turned police cars and riot police fired tear­gas in Haimen town in Shan­tou city on Wednes­day, the sec­ond day of the unrest, Hong Kong news­pa­pers report­ed.

Res­i­dents of Haimen, furi­ous with plans to build a coal-fired pow­er plant, took to the streets , sur­round­ing a gov­ern­ment build­ing and block­ing an express­way.

Offi­cials agreed to sus­pend the project this week, but res­i­dents refused to back down, demand­ing the plan be scrapped.

Out­side a large and closed petrol sta­tion near a high­way into Haimen, about 100 men on motor­bikes watched a wall of riot police armed with batons and shields, block­ing the high­way.

“What place in the world builds two pow­er plants with­in one kilo­me­tre?” said one of the Haimen res­i­dents, who was sur­named Cai, as he watched the riot police.

“The fac­to­ries are haz­ardous to our health. Our fish are dying and there are so many peo­ple who’ve got can­cer , ” he added.

“We thought of protest­ing out­side the gov­ern­ment office but we know none of them has lis­tened to us. So we had no choice but to block the high­way. The police beat up so many of the pro­test­ers in the past two days.”

At one point, Haimen res­i­dents screamed and surged for­ward when a riot police­man, wav­ing his baton in the air, charged towards a man on a motor­cy­cle who had been rid­ing towards the police block­ade on the high­way.

State news agency Xin­hua said sev­er­al hun­dred peo­ple had protest­ed on a high­way on Wednes­day. Accord­ing to Hong Kong’s Ming Pao news­pa­per, more than 1,000 res­i­dents gath­ered at a toll gate to con­front hun­dreds of riot police.

Wit­ness­es said police fired four rounds of tear­gas and beat up pro­test­ers, who do not want anoth­er pow­er plant when exist­ing pow­er facil­i­ties there were already pol­lut­ing air and sea­wa­ter and had great­ly reduced their catch at sea, the report added.

At least three pro­test­ers were hit and arrest­ed.

Adds Reuters: “Peo­ple in Chi­na are increas­ing­ly unwill­ing to accept the relent­less speed of urban­i­sa­tion and indus­tri­al­i­sa­tion and the impact on the envi­ron­ment and health.

“Protests are also often held over cor­rup­tion, wages and land seizures, that offi­cials jus­ti­fy in the name of devel­op­ment.

“Res­i­dents of Wukan vil­lage, also in Guang­dong, agreed to end a 10-day stand­off with author­i­ties over a land dis­pute on Wednes­day.”

Video

Sec­ond report here

New Tree Sit in Tasmania

[On Decem­ber 14 2011, the Tas­man­ian for­est defence group] Still Wild Still Threatened…set up a 60m-high tree sit-in at the TN044B log­ging coupe near May­de­na inside the 430,000ha being assessed for reserve sta­tus under the forestry peace deal.

[On Decem­ber 14 2011, the Tas­man­ian for­est defence group] Still Wild Still Threatened…set up a 60m-high tree sit-in at the TN044B log­ging coupe near May­de­na inside the 430,000ha being assessed for reserve sta­tus under the forestry peace deal.

The “Observ­er Tree” will be occu­pied by SWST’s Miran­da Gib­son, who was one of two activists assault­ed by work­ers dur­ing a protest in 2008.

Speak­ing to the media via mobile phone from the plat­form, Ms Gib­son said she would main­tain a blog and a web cam­era to broad­cast to the world.

“It’s a dif­fer­ent approach because one of our major con­cerns is that there is a mis­con­cep­tion out there that the for­est has been pro­tect­ed,” Ms Gib­son said. “We want peo­ple to see what is hap­pen­ing in the forests.”

She said she was com­mit­ted to stay­ing on the plat­form until log­ging in 13 coupes inside the area being assessed for pro­tec­tion stopped.

Tech­ni­cal dif­fi­cul­ties pre­vent­ed Ms Gib­son from speak­ing to jour­nal­ists via video-link, but SWST expect the web­cast to be up in the next few days.

Sen­a­tor Bob Brown yes­ter­day used his tax­pay­er-fund­ed char­ter allowance to hire a heli­copter to allow media out­lets to pho­to­graph and film the tree-sit from the air.

He said Pre­mier Lara Gid­dings and Prime Min­is­ter Julia Gillard were dis­hon­our­ing their own agree­ment by allow­ing Forestry Tas­ma­nia to log the coupes.

“Their word is being clear-felled by what I judge is ille­gal log­ging. If this agree­ment has any legal force then this log­ging is ille­gal,” Sen­a­tor Brown said.

“I didn’t write this agree­ment, I didn’t have any­thing to do with it, but the Prime Min­is­ter did and the Pre­mier did. The Prime Min­is­ter wrote to me and said these forests had been placed in infor­mal reserves.”

Forestry Tasmania’s gen­er­al man­ag­er of oper­a­tions Steve White­ly said the coupe was one of 13 being logged inside the assess­ment area that was iden­ti­fied by inde­pen­dent sched­ulers as nec­es­sary for sup­ply con­tracts.

He described the protest as frus­trat­ing and point­less giv­en that forestry oper­a­tions would shut down for about a month from tomor­row.

“Forestry Tas­ma­nia needs to keep oper­at­ing and we need to select some coupes that are suit­able to meet our cus­tomers’ needs and we’re doing that while there’s a ver­i­fi­ca­tion process going on,” Mr White­ly said.

Ms Kerr said that she would not be deterred by the Christ­mas shut­down. “I’ll stay up here and keep an eye on things and be here ready when they get back,” she said.

 

Check out the blog theOb­serverTree to get real time updates and offer sup­port.

Activists protest against Devada power plant in India

13.12.11

13.12.11

The 1,040 MW Hin­du­ja Ther­mal Pow­er Plant com­ing up at Deva­da vil­lage in the coastal dis­trict of Visakha­p­at­nam has run into trou­ble again, with locals and activists stag­ing mass protests against the mega project on grounds of envi­ron­men­tal pol­lu­tion and large-scale dis­place­ment of farm­ers.

A large group of res­i­dents and anti-project activists, sup­port­ed by oppo­si­tion par­ties and envi­ron­men­tal groups, staged a demon­stra­tion near the plant site on Mon­day, demand­ing imme­di­ate halt to the works and effec­tive reha­bil­i­ta­tion pack­age for the dis­placed fam­i­lies. As the protests led to ten­sion in the area, police swung into action and dis­persed the demon­stra­tors.

The coal-based pow­er project, being devel­oped by the Hin­du­ja Group, has run into rough weath­er with local farm­ers, oppo­si­tion groups, ener­gy experts and envi­ron­men­tal activists putting up a stiff resis­tance.

Stop New Nuclear newsletter no 10, 3 December 2011

Dear all,

Dear all,

this is our first newslet­ter since the Stop New Nuclear gath­er­ing in Bris­tol on 5/6 Novem­ber, where we decid­ed on our next major action. We are all excit­ed about our new plan, and with this newslet­ter we send you some infor­ma­tion about the planned action to sur­round Hink­ley Point on 10 March 2011, fol­lowed by a 24 hour block­ade until 11 March 2011. All this to mark one year since the begin­ning of the cat­a­stro­phe of Fukushi­ma, which is far from over.

No more Fukushimas

Fukushi­ma is the biggest indus­tri­al dis­as­ter in his­to­ry, and has brought Japan to its knees. The reac­tors that went into melt­down in March have now melt­ed through the foun­da­tions and 40 years of accu­mu­lat­ed nuclear waste is emit­ting vast amounts of radi­a­tion, con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing the land, sea and air. In des­per­a­tion, the Japan­ese gov­ern­ment is trans­port­ing and burn­ing radioac­tive rub­ble all over Japan and export­ing high­ly con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed food as “aid” to devel­op­ing coun­tries. Men, women and chil­dren are liv­ing in high­ly radioac­tive areas but they are not being evac­u­at­ed as they should be. This intense radi­a­tion expo­sure has very seri­ous health con­se­quences for these peo­ple.

How has Japan end­ed up in this dread­ful sit­u­a­tion? Their gov­ern­ment always said “It can’t hap­pen here.” Sound famil­iar? Pow­er­ful polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic inter­est groups are gag­ging the world’s media on this unfold­ing tragedy. Ordi­nary peo­ple the world over will pay the price.
Since the first civil­ian reac­tor start­ed gen­er­at­ing in 1954, there has been, on aver­age, a major acci­dent every 14–18 years: Wind­scale 1957, Three Mile Island1979, Cher­nobyl 1986, Fukushi­ma 2011.

Stop New Nuclear’s answer to the cri­sis of Fukushi­ma is clear: now new nuclear in Britain and any­where else! There­fore, our action on “Fukushi­ma day” will be to

Surround and blockade Hinkley Point, Somerset

Hink­ley Point is the first of eight pro­posed sites for nuclear new build to go ahead. We stopped them here before in 1987, and we can do it again in 2012. If they fail at Hink­ley, it is unlike­ly the “nuclear renais­sance” will have the momen­tum to con­tin­ue.
On the 10th ‑11th March 2012, one year since the Fukushi­ma nuclear dis­as­ter began, we will return to Hink­ley to form a human chain around the sta­tion to show our deter­mined oppo­si­tion to new nuclear.
In 2010, dozens of us block­ad­ed the gates at Hink­ley. In 2011 hun­dreds of us block­ad­ed the entrance again. In 2012, thou­sands of us will sur­round the pow­er sta­tion to say No to new nuclear! Not here, not any­where!
In Octo­ber 2011, peo­ple pledged to block­ade. This time, pledge to bring 5 friends and tell them to do the same. Thou­sands are need­ed to sur­round the sta­tion!
Pledge to sur­round Hink­ley Point, to bring five friends, or to block­ade Hink­ley Point

Help us mobilise

To ‘Sur­round Hink­ley’ is to demand to have a voice in deci­sions about our ener­gy future. Help to make this a fes­ti­val of cre­ative resis­tance with music, art, the­atre, ban­ners, and what­ev­er takes your fan­cy! To mark the end of the ‘Sur­round’, there will be a gath­er­ing at the main gate of Hink­ley for a ral­ly and music. You may want to return on the coach­es after the action or stay to block­ade the gates for 24 hours. With tents and tubes we will remain at the gates to show our sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of Japan.

The time to act is now! Join your local anti nuclear cam­paign, form affin­i­ty groups. The Stop New Nuclear Alliance can help by giv­ing train­ing in non-vio­lent direct action, con­sen­sus deci­sion- mak­ing, spokes coun­cils and advice on trans­port etc….

In our hun­dreds, in our thou­sands we will come togeth­er to stop nuclear pow­er at Hink­ley Point and dis­man­tle the whole new nuclear agen­da! This is the chance to be part of sme­thing mas­sive. JOIN US!

Please help to spread the mes­sage by either down­load­ing the fli­er, or ask us to send you a pack. We wel­come some dona­tion to cov­er postage, but even if you can’t — we need to get the mes­sage out!

Get in touch with us if you want to organ­ise a minibus or put on a coach.

News from nuclear new build

Hinkley Point

There was some news at the end of Octo­ber that EDF is delay­ing its final invest­ment deci­sion about Hink­ley C (and its oth­er planned new nuclear pow­er sta­tions in the UK: Sizewell, Heysham, etc) until the end of 2012. How­ev­er, EDF still insists that it will sub­mit its appli­ca­tion to the Infra­struc­ture Plan­ning Com­mis­sion soon, and also declared that it wants to start prepar­ing the site for Hink­ley C from spring 2012 on. For us, this means two things:

  • The next year will be cru­cial to push EDF to aban­don its plans for Hink­ley C. We need to step our cam­paign­ing to show EDF that it is not a good idea to invest in Hink­ley C, and that they should invest in renew­able ener­gy instead.
  • EDF still wants to pre­pare the site, which means it wants to destroy the land from spring 2012 on, even though there is not even a final deci­sion whether they will real­ly go ahead with Hink­ley C. This shows that a legal chal­lenge to the pre­lim­i­nary works per­mis­sion is even more impor­tant. Stop Hink­ley is rais­ing funds for a legal chal­lenge to West Som­er­set Coun­cil’s deci­sion to grant EDF per­mis­sion to car­ry out prepara­to­ry work on the site, even though EDF is still far from a per­mis­sion to con­struct the pow­er sta­tion itself (and has­n’t even made a final deci­sion). Stop Hink­ley needs to raise about £15,000 for this legal chal­lenge, to please sup­port Stop Hink­ley. More infor­ma­tion at http://stophinkley.org/LegChallAppeal.htm.

Nev­er­the­less, EDF went ahead with its appli­ca­tion to the Infra­struc­ture Plan­ning Com­mis­sion (IPC). The IPC has accept­ed the appli­ca­tion, and from Fri­day, 2 Decem­ber, there are 28 days for every­one to reg­is­ter that they want to com­ment on the appli­ca­tion. This is only a first reg­is­tra­tion, and does not need to be accom­pa­nied by the detailed objec­tions, but with­out this reg­is­tra­tion, you will not be able to object lat­er.

The Infra­struc­ture Plan­ning Com­mis­sion is also organ­is­ing events local­ly near Hink­ley Point to explain the process, when to reg­is­ter and how to make a rep­re­sen­ta­tion to the IPC. They will be held between 10am – 9pm at the fol­low­ing loca­tions:
- Stogursey — Mon­day 5 Decem­ber, The Vic­to­ry Hall, Tow­er Hill, Stogursey, TA5 1PR
- Can­ning­ton — Thurs­day 8 Decem­ber, Can­ning­ton Vil­lage Hall, 2 Brook Street, Can­ning­ton, TA5 2HP
- Willi­ton — Fri­day 9 Decem­ber, West Som­er­set House, Kil­lick Way, Willi­ton, TA4 4QA
- North Pether­ton — Mon­day 12 Decem­ber, The Wal­nut Tree Hotel, North Pether­ton, TA6 6QA
- Comb­wich — Tues­day 13 Decem­ber, Otter­hamp­ton Vil­lage Hall, River­side, Comb­wich, TA5 2QZ
- Bridg­wa­ter — Wednes­day 14 Decem­ber, Town Hall, High Street, Bridg­wa­ter, TA6 3BL.
More infor­ma­tion on the plan­ning process is avail­able on the web­site of the IPC at http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/projects/south-west/hinkley-point-c-new-nuclear-power-station/.

Stop Hink­ley will be pre­sent­ing more than 12,000 peti­tions against Hink­ley Point C at Down­ing Street on Tues­day, 6 Decem­ber, at at 1.30pm and at the Depart­ment of Ener­gy and Cli­mate Change in Lon­don on 6th Decem­ber at 2.00 pm. Mem­bers of Stop Hink­ley will be accom­pa­nied by Wells MP Tes­sa Munt and Green Par­ty leader and MP Car­o­line Lucas. The Depart­ment of Ener­gy is at 3 White­hall Place, Lon­don SW1A 2AW. More infor­ma­tion in the Stop Hink­ley press release at http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net/content/stop-hinkley-campaign-presents-petition-government-against-edf%E2%80%99s-nuclear-plans.

Wylfa

Things are also hot­ting up at Wyl­fa, where Hori­zon, a joint ven­ture of Ger­man util­i­ty com­pa­nies RWE and E.on, is plan­ning to build two to three new nuclear reac­tors. Hori­zon con­tin­ue to bul­ly the Jones fam­i­ly of Caerde­gog and have applied for com­pul­so­ry pow­ers to ascer­tain the suit­abil­i­ty of their land for con­struc­tion. Hori­zon Nuclear Pow­er (HNP) recent­ly applied to Ofgem for Sec­tion D of their Elec­tric­i­ty Gen­er­a­tion Licence to be “switched on”. Imme­di­ate­ly upon approval, HNP applied to Ofgem for con­sent to exer­cise their new explorato­ry rights under the Elec­tric­i­ty Act 1989. This would allow a gen­er­a­tion licence hold­er to enter and sur­vey any land to estab­lish whether it would be suit­able for the con­struc­tion of an elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion sta­tion. It would also give them the pow­er to exe­cute their author­i­ty to make com­pul­so­ry land pur­chase. On Thurs­day after­noon 17th Novem­ber, Richard Jones and his fam­i­ly received a let­ter in Eng­lish only from Ofgem inform­ing them of the rights recent­ly grant­ed to HNP to gain access to their land at Caerde­gog. Ofgem have failed in their duty under the Welsh Lan­guage Act to pro­vide the Jones fam­i­ly with the doc­u­ments in their own lan­guage. Fur­ther­more it is con­sid­ered unrea­son­able for any objec­tions to be lodged with­in a time lim­it of five work­ing days espe­cial­ly in view of the legal con­tent of the cor­re­spon­dence (see the offi­cial con­sul­ta­tion at http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Pages/MoreInformation.aspx?file=Consultation%20on%20Horizon%20Application%20for%20Consent%20to%20use%20Exploratory%20Rights.pdf&refer=Licensing/Work).
Hori­zon have con­tin­ued to say that they would only use com­pul­so­ry pow­ers as a last resort yet they exe­cut­ed their new­ly acquired author­i­ty with­in days of it being grant­ed.
On behalf of the fam­i­ly, Richard Jones said: “We as a fam­i­ly will resist Horizon’s bul­ly­ing tac­tics in the attempt­ed destruc­tion of our her­itage, our liveli­hood and our future.”
See the press release of Peo­ple Against Wyl­fa B at http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net/content/nuclear-monster-continues-torment-local-family.

Donate

The new action to sur­round Hink­ley, and the 24 hour block­ade, will need a lot of mon­ey to make them hap­pen. While we don’t start with noth­ing, we are nowhere near what we will need. We are present­ly work­ing on a bud­get, but one thing is clear: Please give gen­er­ous­ly. You can donate online at http://stopnewnuclear.org.uk/donate, or you can send a cheque made payable to Stop New Nuclear to:
Stop New Nuclear
c/o 5 Cale­don­ian Road
Lon­don N1 9DX
Thank you!

Stop New Nuclear newslet­ter

 

Three days of action against Shell

Decem­ber 13, 2011

Pro­test­ers give Shell an ear­ly Christ­mas present

Decem­ber 13, 2011

Pro­test­ers give Shell an ear­ly Christ­mas present

The Shell to Sea cam­paign is still run­ning strong 11 years after the incep­tion of the Cor­rib gas project. Every­day peo­ple are becom­ing aware of the peo­ple’s strug­gle against Shell, but still more are need­ed to come and see for them­selves and save our coun­try from the glob­al cor­po­rate takeover.

On Fri­day 9th of Decem­ber, Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Cam­paign [http://www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org/] con­tin­ued with the locals’ protest slow­ing down Shel­l’s work, spir­its were high and peo­ple were pleased with the action despite the Chief’s legal judge­ment [http://www.indymedia.ie/article/101060] peo­ple still braced the cold con­di­tions to con­tin­ue the protest.

On Sat­ur­day the 10th a Day Of Action com­menced with groups of peo­ple from all over the coun­try com­ing out to sup­port the Shell to Sea cam­paign. Peo­ple from the Occu­py camps [http://www.indymedia.ie/article/100863] in Gal­way, Dublin and Cork came to protest Shel­l’s occu­pa­tion of Erris. Pro­test­ers stood out­side the com­pound at Aghoos for 2 hours pre­vent­ing any work from start­ing. The action was a suc­cess and no Gar­da pres­ence was noticed.

On Mon­day 12th a spon­ta­neous action hap­pened at the refin­ery site at Bal­linaboy with 15 pro­test­ers from var­i­ous parts of the coun­try man­ag­ing to stop up to 12 trucks simul­ta­ne­ous­ly for an hour, no arrests were made, the small Gar­da pres­ence were no match for the swift­ness and brav­ery of the pro­test­ers. The only casu­al­ty was a bike unlaw­ful­ly con­fis­cat­ed by the Gar­da.

On Tues­day 13th the reg­u­lar protest took place at the Bal­linaboy com­pound. Around 15 pro­test­ers were met with an equal num­ber of Gar­dai who pre­vent­ed peo­ple walk­ing on the road. The right to peace­ful protest was met with the threat of arrest. Peo­ple still man­aged to stop 7 trucks for 40 min­utes. Strong cold winds and hail, com­bined with the pro­test­ers, stopped Shell doing any work on the Tues­day.

Through the inter­net and Occu­py groups in var­i­ous Irish cities there is an out­let for infor­ma­tion of upcom­ing actions and events. Jan­u­ary 13th is the next Day Of Action; all are wel­come to come and change our nation’s his­to­ry.

Community action: protests move Manchester tram depot plans off green

Residents halt building of Metrolink depot outside their homes on public green in Wythenshawe

Novem­ber 25, 2011

A mass protest halt­ed con­trac­tors who had start­ed to build a 200 metre-long trans­port depot on a pub­lic green.

Residents halt building of Metrolink depot outside their homes on public green in Wythenshawe

Novem­ber 25, 2011

A mass protest halt­ed con­trac­tors who had start­ed to build a 200 metre-long trans­port depot on a pub­lic green.

The com­pound, near Simon­sway in Wythen­shawe, is being built to con­tain mate­ri­als while Trans­port for Greater Man­ches­ter (TfGM) con­struct the Metrolink line to Man­ches­ter Air­port.
It will also con­tain machin­ery, a work­ers can­teen and be flood­lit at night.

But furi­ous res­i­dents refused to allow work­ers to put up the build­ing on Brown­ley Road claim­ing they were not con­sult­ed and do not want it on their doorstep.

And their protest stopped the work, and res­i­dents said they will chain them­selves to trees and fenc­ing if the work­ers return on Mon­day and attempt to con­tin­ue.

Alan Birchenall, 63, said: “The chil­dren use this area all the time – espe­cial­ly after school.

“It’s safe because it’s not near the road. The signs say the Metrolink won’t be fin­ished till 2016 so it could be here for four or five years.

“We saw this fenc­ing going up so we called a res­i­dents meet­ing on Thurs­day night and there was about 200 peo­ple there.

“They were all very angry. There are plen­ty of oth­er sites near­by where they could have this.”

Around 100 pro­test­ers sur­round­ed the builders on Fri­day and blocked their truck until they agreed to leave.

More info and videos

Protesters force a Metrolink re-think over Wythenshawe tram compound

Novem­ber 30, 2011

Alan Birchenall, a mem­ber of the Peel Estate Home Watch scheme who co-ordi­nat­ed the protest, hailed the result as a vic­to­ry for com­mu­ni­ty action.

He said: “It just shows that when you are organ­ised you can change things.

“It’s about peo­ple being proud of their area.”

More

Delight as road protesters win U‑turn over Metrolink track in Droylsden

Decem­ber 13, 2011

Res­i­dents who brought traf­fic to a stand­still with a rush-hour protest are cel­e­brat­ing after plans to intro­duce a raised tram track were scrapped.

In a protest they walked across a pedes­tri­an cross­ing for more than an hour, block­ing the road. They were furi­ous at Metrolink boss­es, accus­ing them of try­ing to force through the plans which they claimed would cause traf­fic chaos and lengthy delays. But the pro­pos­als have now been dropped

More

 

No TAV Resistance in the Susa Valley goes on, Italy

10.12.11

10.12.11

As I wrote a few days ago, the NO TAV move­ment was plan­ning a huge day of mobil­i­sa­tion on Decem­ber 8, for the anniver­sary of what has become known as “The Bat­tle of Venaus” in 2005, where activists man­aged to defeat police and secu­ri­ty forces and take back parts of the val­ley that had been evict­ed and cleared up in the pre­vi­ous days.

How the local author­i­ties per­ceived this call out is clear from their reac­tion: on Decem­ber 7 a tem­po­rary decree was issued, pro­hibit­ing the access and tran­sit of peo­ple and vehi­cles around the fenced areas of the val­ley for the fol­low­ing two days. New check points were estab­lished or rein­forced dur­ing the day. As on pre­vi­ous occa­sions, the only response was to try to com­plete­ly block  protests around the fenced areas by increas­ing mil­i­tary pres­ence local­ly and ban­ning all activ­i­ties in the sur­round­ings.

Sin­is­ter char­ac­ters already known to the NO TAV move­ment were invit­ed to take part in the “order main­te­nance”, such as one of the chief inspec­tors who autho­rised the vio­lent evic­tions in Venaus in 2005, and oth­er inspec­tors and Digos chiefs who organ­ised and man­aged the repres­sion of the protests last sum­mer.

The NO TAV had two main actions planned for the day: a “siege” of the fenced areas of the val­ley on one side, and a huge block of a local motor­way on the oth­er (which went on for more than 14 hours).

Once again, the police react­ed with extra­or­di­nary vio­lence, in par­tic­u­lar around the fenced areas. Dozens of peo­ple were injured, includ­ing a 16 year old young man who was hit in the head by a tear gas cylin­der while he was try­ing to put down a fire caused by the same tear gas car­tridges, and a 50 year old man, also hit in the face, who might loose his sight com­plete­ly. Many oth­ers were injured by rocks and stones thrown by the police;unlike last sumer, this time some RAI3 cam­era­men man­aged to film these events and broad­cast them.

After evict­ing the look­out post (which was suc­cess­ful­ly tak­en back the fol­low­ing day!), police forces entered the build­ing, dam­aged any­thing that was in it, and final­ly con­fis­cat­ed all the remain­ing equip­ment. Dur­ing the day at least 6 peo­ple were giv­en ban­ning orders that pro­hib­it them to vis­it the area for the next 3 years. Some of the “dan­ger­ous” equip­ment found in their vehi­cles includ­ed water­proof jack­ets. The fol­low­ing day, a work­er of a local gar­den­ing co-oper­a­tive was also stopped and searched, and his gar­den­ing tools con­fis­cat­ed while he was on his way to open up a local eco-cen­tre.

As usu­al, the media and the polit­i­cal clowns unit­ed in a joint crit­i­cism of the vio­lent pro­test­ers. Fassi­no, cur­rent May­or of Turin, stat­ed “There were only extrem­ists in the Susa Val­ley “. Oth­er com­ments were made about the neces­si­ty of defend­ing the val­ley from the NO TAV activists!, and about the use­less­ness of these protests in view of the fact that the high speed line project is going to go ahead any­way.

The “left-wing” news­pa­per La Rebub­bli­ca even tried to dimin­ish the grav­i­ty of the inci­dent involv­ing the 16 year old boy, say­ing that he is Dan­ish and was there by chance…he is actu­al­ly Dan­ish but grew up in the Susa Val­ley, but his nation­al­i­ty doesn’t change the fact that he’s in a hos­pi­tal with trau­mat­ic brain injury…

The NO TAV held a press con­fer­ence the day after, and their main points were:

1) The NO TAV move­ment is one and unit­ed. There are no bad nor good pro­test­ers, nor were chil­dren in the demo used as human shields (one of the accu­sa­tions made by some politi­cians). The NO TAV strug­gle belongs to every­one.

2) The pro­test­ers didn’t attack the police forces, but only tried, as they’ve done in the past, to cut down the fences, which in their eyes are ille­gal and ille­git­ti­mate. The police imme­di­ate­ly react­ed with tear gas and water jets.

3) All the injured are among the pro­test­ers; there were no injured among the police forces (as was stat­ed by the media).

4) The look­out post in La Mad­dale­na was sub­ject­ed to dam­age, loot­ing and dev­as­ta­tion per­pe­trat­ed by the police forces. The tools con­fis­cat­ed by the police (e.g. axes) are not weapons, but nec­es­sary tools to cut down wood.

5) The move­ment will go back to the post and clean it up, and will vis­it the fenced area again. The police bru­tal­i­ty and the accu­sa­tions made by politi­cians will not stop the move­ment.

Faith­ful to their words, hun­dreds of NO TAV activist have gone back to the fenced area this morn­ing. They had lunch togeth­er, with hun­dreds of police look­ing at them from the oth­er side of the fences. Then they start­ed walk­ing along the fences and cut­ting them down. The police act­ed imme­di­ate­ly and fired the water jet, but mirac­u­lous­ly mis­aimed, hit­ting instead a group of Digos offi­cers. Well done, for once! Watch the video here:

Thanks to notav.info for the orig­i­nal arti­cles, pics and videos.

Translated by Italy Calling

Relentless Blockading of $hell’s Work

Novem­ber 29, 2011

In Erris, Co. Mayo the Tues­day morn­ing tra­di­tion­al gath­er­ing out­side the $hell refin­ery con­tin­ues despite increas­ing pres­ence of Gar­dai and rain.

Novem­ber 29, 2011

In Erris, Co. Mayo the Tues­day morn­ing tra­di­tion­al gath­er­ing out­side the $hell refin­ery con­tin­ues despite increas­ing pres­ence of Gar­dai and rain.

$hell use the refin­ery as a hold­ing area for mate­ri­als, and it is also set on the haulage route between local quar­ries, the peat depo­si­tion site, and the com­pound at Augh­oose.

This morn­ing local res­i­dents and sup­port­ers from Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp were out in good num­bers, block­ing deliv­er­ies of stone and truck­loads of extract­ed peat through­out the morn­ing and giv­ing the Gar­dai a run for their dirty mon­ey. Regard­less of the odds one per­son rose to the chal­lenge, occu­py­ing a truck from Bar­ret­t’s quar­ry for two hours — all work at the com­pound then came to a halt.

The Gar­dai even­tu­al­ly brought in the ‘trans­porter’ to remove them, dur­ing which they also attempt­ed to pre­vent peo­ple film­ing the arrest.

In the face of the enor­mi­ty of $hel­l’s plans for Erris, the strug­gle con­tin­ues!
If you would like to join us for any amount of time see
www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org / www.shelltosea.com

——

Gardai and IRMS rendered powerless as campaigners blockade Shell’s compound

Decem­ber 2, 2011

Work was com­plete­ly halt­ed at Shell’s com­pound yes­ter­day for over five hours in a great show of resiliance by local cam­paign­ers and their sup­port­ers. For the past two weeks now, Shell have been attempt­ing to remove mass­es of peat from the com­pound in prepa­ra­tion for the tun­nel bor­ing machine which is expect­ed to arrive ear­ly next year. Progress has been con­tin­u­ous­ly dis­rupt­ed as pro­test­ers brave the win­ter weath­er to stop trucks and a deter­mined resis­tance is build­ing momen­tum.

A local cam­paign­er yes­ter­day wait­ed patient­ly out­side the main gate of Shell’s com­pound in his car and request­ed to see some­one in charge. For weeks now he has been try­ing to lodge com­plaints about pub­lic safe­ty and traf­fic issues gen­er­at­ed from the Augh­oose com­pound. His con­cerns have been to date ignored. Hav­ing con­tact­ed the Shell offices in Bel­mul­let and the refin­ery he was fur­ther direct­ed by staff to go and try lodge his com­plaints at the com­pound in Augh­oose where fol­low­ing a long wait his request remained unan­swered. Once again the seri­ous con­cerns of local peo­ple were ignored.

In the mean­time, pro­test­ers arrived to slow work down and were met with six gar­da vehi­cles and a dozen or more Gar­dai along with just as many IRMS secu­ri­ty. A trac­tor was pre­vent­ed from enter­ing the com­pound with equip­ment despite gar­dai push­ing and shov­ing pro­test­ers around the road. Once the cam­paign­ers asked the Gar­dai to full­fil their duty and arrest them for block­ing Shell vehi­cles the Gar­dai stepped back. It is obvi­ous that the state’s police force here in Mayo pre­fer to employ vio­lence against pro­test­ers where pos­si­ble. Civ­il dis­obe­di­ence in num­bers made them think again.

For the fol­low­ing 4 hours the gates remained shut, a long line of trucks and trac­tors turned off their engines and work ground to a halt as cam­paign­ers con­tin­ued to peace­ful­ly demon­strate. One local per­son was assault­ed by IRMS and after many requests the Gar­dai even­tu­al­ly took his com­plaint. No arrests were made in a high­ly spir­it­ed day. An Gar­da Siochana, who are sup­pos­ed­ly the guardians of the peace, can bla­tant­ly be seen to be guardians of cor­po­ra­tions and cor­rup­tion up here in Erris.

The strug­gle con­tin­ues. Be part of the resis­tance. All are wel­come to stay at our win­ter camp or come join us dur­ing our day of sol­i­dar­i­ty on Sat­ur­day, 10th of Decem­ber.

Indigenous Elders & Supporters Occupy ALEC Member Salt River Project Headquarters

2.12.11

Indige­nous Dine’ (Nava­jo) and O’odham elders and sup­port­ers are tak­ing direct action by occu­py­ing Salt Riv­er Project (SRP) head­quar­ters today at 10am. This action is occur­ring while the Amer­i­can Leg­isla­tive Exchange Coun­cil (ALEC) holds their “States & Nation Pol­i­cy Sum­mit” in Scotts­dale, AZ. SRP is on ALEC’s cor­po­rate board.

2.12.11

Indige­nous Dine’ (Nava­jo) and O’odham elders and sup­port­ers are tak­ing direct action by occu­py­ing Salt Riv­er Project (SRP) head­quar­ters today at 10am. This action is occur­ring while the Amer­i­can Leg­isla­tive Exchange Coun­cil (ALEC) holds their “States & Nation Pol­i­cy Sum­mit” in Scotts­dale, AZ. SRP is on ALEC’s cor­po­rate board.

Louise Benal­ly, a res­i­dent of Black Mesa impact­ed by SRP’s oper­a­tions, is deliv­er­ing a let­ter to SRP that out­lines crit­i­cal con­cerns of her com­mu­ni­ty. She expressed that “My com­mu­ni­ty is heav­i­ly impact­ed by Salt Riv­er Project’s coal and water extrac­tion activ­i­ties. SRP has exten­sive ties to Peabody Energy’s mas­sive min­ing oper­a­tions and the Nava­jo Gen­er­at­ing Sta­tion which they co-own. Coal min­ing has destroyed thou­sands of arche­o­log­i­cal sites and our only water source has been seri­ous­ly com­pro­mised. Their oper­a­tions are caus­ing wide­spread res­pi­ra­to­ry prob­lems, lung dis­eases, and oth­er health impacts on humans, the envi­ron­ment, and all liv­ing things.”

“…We demand that SRP & Peabody mean­ing­ful­ly involve the indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties they are impact­ing, and that they con­vert to non-fos­sil fuel based ener­gy sources and address the health impacts on our com­mu­ni­ties.”

“…ALEC, act­ing in the cor­po­rate inter­ests of SRP & Peabody Ener­gy, con­tin­ues poli­cies & oper­a­tions that are not only dev­as­tat­ing whole com­mu­ni­ties and ecosys­tems, but great­ly de-sta­bi­liz­ing our planet’s cli­mate for the prof­it of a few, the so-called 1%.” stat­ed Benal­ly.

Ofe­lia Rivas, an elder and activist of the O’odham, Indige­nous Peo­ples on the bor­der of Ari­zona and Mex­i­co, states “As indige­nous peo­ple we under­stand that the bal­ance of the land is actu­al­ly the bal­ance of our peo­ple and any dis­tur­bance of that is very dev­as­tat­ing not only to our spir­i­tu­al health but our over­all phys­i­cal health, as well as all liv­ing things. As indige­nous peo­ple we are not sep­a­rat­ed from our envi­ron­ment. We’re deeply con­nect­ed to every­thing in the uni­verse: the land, the moun­tains, water, air, and all plant and ani­mal life.”

“…The pro­posed loop 202 free­way exten­sion that threat­ens South Moun­tain and the con­tin­u­ing con­struc­tion of the US and Mex­i­co bor­der and it’s mil­i­ta­riza­tion. Trade poli­cies such as NAFTA and CANAMEX alter our way of life and threat­ens our Him’dag. We will no longer accept the vio­lence the state attempts to enforce on us along their bor­der. Espe­cial­ly the aggres­sive leg­is­la­tion of ALEC. We demand you rec­og­nize the dec­la­ra­tion of uni­ver­sal indige­nous rights as well as the rights of our moth­er earth. Enough is enough, it ends now!”

The mas­sive canals con­struct­ed before colo­nial inva­sion of O’odham lands are now being uti­lized by Salt Riv­er Project. O’odham cul­ture is deeply root­ed through­out this area, which is as far north as the Phoenix Val­ley, as far west as the coast of Mex­i­co in what is now Rocky Point, east as the San Pedro riv­er and as far south as Her­mosil­lo and the Sier­ra Madres Moun­tains.

Ray Aguilar stat­ed that “the air con­di­tion­ing and pow­er we enjoy and water we drink comes at the suf­fer­ing caused by SRP and Peabody’s exploita­tion of the land and peo­ple. When will we real­ize that our priv­i­leges our based on this? We must take fur­ther action. I just spent one week doing direct, on-land sup­port with Black Mesa res­i­dents assist­ing with basic essen­tial human needs.  That’s why I’m here today. This crit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion would not exist if not for these greedy cor­po­ra­tions.”

Peabody Ener­gy, also an ALEC mem­ber, is the world’s largest pri­vate-sec­tor coal com­pa­ny. With 2010 sales of 246 mil­lion tons and near­ly $7 bil­lion in rev­enues, Peabody cre­ates 10 per­cent of U.S. pow­er and 2 per­cent of world­wide elec­tric­i­ty.

Since 1974 more than 14,000 Dine’ fam­i­lies have been forcibly removed from their ances­tral home­lands due in large part due to U.S.-backed trib­al coun­cils and cola min­ing.

Pho­tos, videos and what hap­pened next at http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/

———

ALEC Back­ground, call-out etc

The convergence to expose and shut down the American Legislative
Exchange Council's policy meeting has begun in Scottsdale, AZ. ALEC's
tentacles reach into almost every one of the environmental and social
justice struggles we work on. Exposing ALEC is difficult because of the
massive amount of information we have about them and the broad range of
issues they effect. As wikileaks has been the platform for a vast amount
of information bringing light to corruption, Alecexposed.org is a treasure trove information exposing
ALEC.  I'm looking for help posting to independent media websites and
blogs about the ALEC protest in AZ, and links to ALECs regional impacts.
We need a few people around the country posting to both english and
spanish language indymedia sites.


There are press releases in english and spanish and a call to action
(including information about the action to "Occupy the Phones")  see
attachment and azresistsalec.wordpress.com




websites:
azresistsalec.wordpress.com - for
general information about the convergence to shut down alec
Shutdownalec.org - We are posting media (foto/video) directly by tagging
flickr photos and video with the hashtags: #occupyALEC, #shutdownALEC
and/or #ALECexposed



The AZ Resists media team is posting video on youtube.com
<http://youtube.com> on channel: shutdownalec. Crowd sourced video on
shutdownalec.org



Please pass on this email to anyone you think might be interested in
supporting!



In Solidarity



AZ Resists ALEC Media Team
azresistsmedia@gmail.com 
530-598-1670 <tel:530-598-1670>







SHUT DOWN THE AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL



This document includes informations about:



-OCCUPY THE PHONES ! IMMEDIATE CALL TO ACTION



-Call for National Solidarity



-Suggested Actions to help expose ALEC!



1. Call the WESTIN KIERLAND RESORT & SPA.



2. Tell them you do not approve of their decision to host the American
Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC’s) States and Policy summit.



3. Be friendly, don't take your anger out on the hotel workers who are
not responsible, but make sure your message gets across.



4. Hang up, and call again.



Use these numbers to occupy their lines!



general contact: 480.624.1000 <tel:480.624.1000>



resort reservations: 480.624.1202 <tel:480.624.1202>, 800.354.5892
<tel:800.354.5892>



dining reservations: 480.624.1202 <tel:480.624.1202>



spa reservations: 480.624.1202 <tel:480.624.1202>



tee time reservations: 480.624.1202 <tel:480.624.1202>



resort activities: 480.624.1268 <tel:480.624.1268>



media contact: 480.624.1315 <tel:480.624.1315>



special events: 480.624.1332 <tel:480.624.1332>



meetings and events: 480.624.1220 <tel:480.624.1220>



Background info:



The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa is built to host conventions. Tucked
away in Scottsdale, and less than one mile from Scottsdale Executive
Airport, well-funded organizations can meet in a comfortable, secretive
environment without setting foot outside the luxurious hotel grounds.
This is where ALEC has chosen to bring together legislators and
corporations to draft model legislation that exempts corporations from
environmental and labor laws, pushes for Three Strikes and mandatory
minimum sentencing, and targets, criminalizes and incarcerates
communities of color, among other profit-driven laws (more info:
alecexposed.org.



Call the Westin Kierland today to shame them for their part in allowing
the sale of local and national legislation to the highest bidder.



More info: azresistsalec.wordpress.com
.



Be the media! www.shutdownalec.org



Here are a few suggestions for actions, share your creative ideas with
us and keep in touch on N30.



azresistsmedia@gmail.com 



http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/



#occupyALEC, #shutdownALEC and/or #ALECexposed



-Hold a Teach-In or other educational outreach event (an informative
power point and other resources are available:
http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/more-info-on-alec/)



-Shut down the 1% ! Occupy an ALEC corporation near you…too many to
choose from? Focus on the board of directors
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Boards_and_Task_Forces)



-Bring your message to an ALEC legislative member near you. What’s your
local connection to ALEC? – In AZ we are focusing on the ongoing
colonization and exploitation of Native land and ALEC’s connection to
immigration and the private prison industry.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Politicians



-Street theater exposing corruption – Remember Billionaires for Bush? -
Form a “business suit bloc” and March!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAv8Mv9tzoA)



-Literally “Expose” ALEC – two letters per butt cheek...just sayin’...
Or get a trench coat and hide ALEC’s sample bills inside…show people
what’s under your coat…



Go to the website and see “Find ‘Find Model Bills’ here”
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed



-Twitter and Blog about ALEC on N30- get the word out far and wide!



-So many issues! Can’t decide? Focus on how private prisons affect your
community.



http://www.thenation.com/article/162478/hidden-history-alec-and-prison-labor



-Got a projector? Have a guerilla movie night to expose ALECs major
funder the Koch brothers.



http://kochbrothersexposed.com/thepress/2011/05/13/guerrilla-drive-in-at-lincoln-center-shames-koch-brother/



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vykr06dMwY&feature=player_embedded



Lots more information can be found at:



http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Corporations



http://www.alecexposed.org/



______________________________________________________________________




Take Action on N30!SHUT ALEC DOWN!



  From November 30 to December 3rd, 2011,some of the most powerful
corporations and thousands of state legislators will be bringing Wall
Street politics and greed to Scottsdale, AZ.  The American Legislative
Exchange Council (ALEC), will be having their States and Nations Policy
Summit where they can continue their drive for profits, and to control
and destroy our communities and the earth.



Most of us learned about ALEC, a secretive nation-wide
organization, when they were exposed for their relationship with private
prisons and their role in SB1070 and its copy cat laws, although they've
been involved in various efforts to criminalize people through such
things as the mandatory minimum sentencing and three strikes laws.  They
were also involved in the creation of the animal enterprise terrorism
act (AETA), they support companies (including BP) involved with energy
extraction across the world (including Tar Sands), as well big
pharmaceutical companies.



We are calling for a *national day of action*on November 30 to
demonstrate against ALEC during their conference.



Join us in Scottsdale, AZ on occupied Onk Akimel O’odham lands, to
expose, confront, and resist ALEC and what they represent.



ALEC is everywhere. If you can't make it, find one or more
representatives of ALEC (corporate, government, or non-profit org) in
your area to expose, confront, and resist!



Please spread the word!



http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com 



http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Corporations



http://www.alecexposed.org/



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Some Messaging:



“We want ALEC to be so transparent they don’t exist anymore”



“ALEC is the 1% ”



“Corporations write legislation?!? This is corrupt and should stop!”



“People over Profits! No more profiting of the misery of others”