Consumer Culture Brought to Its Knees in Bradford – Buy Nothing/Steal Something Day

In one sweeping stroke the false consciousness of consumption was served a mortal blow in the streets of Bradford today. As the worldwide ripples of Buy Nothing Day crashed upon the shore of BD1, multinational capital trembled in it's bloodstained boots.

The 26th of November has been known by some as Buy Nothing Day for twenty years. A day to celebrate the madness of our self-consumption and to plead for the soul of our civilisation, Buy Nothing Day is about touching people. Inspiring a thought, a doubt, a scrunched up brow, a gob of spit in the face maybe, but a reaction.
Today the hardy shoppers of drizzley Bradford met friendly faces, offering a smile, a song, a book and a drink. No money accepted.
Shivering souls warmed their long neglected cockles with some fine rebel coffee, lovingly grown by Zapatista cooperatives in Mexico.
Confusion reigned as people wondered, "why is this stuff free?". The answer: "why not?"
We can't buy happiness, even dodgy science has shown that paying for experience rather than things is more satisfying. Our habits of purchasing antidotes to alienation are seemingly furthering our descent into dissappointment, and so we fill our lives with shiny things while we deplete our planet of necessary survival items like air and water, and thus ending potential for japes and jiggery-pokery.
Luckily, a collection of people put an end to this cycle of depravity by having some stalls in the soggy streets. A free shop was erected and people played songs, outside a monument to failed capitalism, an empty shop. (The sweet irony of protesting against consumption in a half-vacated city centre was not lost). A worthy target was found, and Starbucks was picketed by free shoppers and Zapatista supporters, highlighting their bullying tactics towards small farmers and their own workers. Their dubious involvement with greenwash front Conservation International was blown wide open (see this http://londonmexicosolidarity.org/content/chiapas-coffee-starbucks-and-conservation-international or http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/starbucks.cfm) and people complained that their independent cafes were being suffocated by this silky sham sofa swarming of sterile Starbucks, with one independent observer commenting "I don't know why people go there, their coffee's shit." The Yorkshire Zapatistas were on hand to offer some free coffee, and a taste of autonomy to curious people, and many fruitful discussions were had.
So is this the end of the consumerist model?

Maybe a Buy Nothing Christmas will hammer the final nails into the coffin.

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Background:

No purchase necessary!

Saturday November 26th is Buy Nothing Day (UK). It's a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from shopping and anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!

Everything we buy has an impact on the environment, Buy Nothing Day highlights the environmental and ethical consequences of consumerism. The developed countries – only 20% of the world population are consuming over 80% of the earth's natural resources, causing a disproportionate level of environmental damage, and an unfair distribution of wealth.

People around the UK will make a pact with themselves to take a break from consumption as a personal experiment or public statement and the best thing is – IT'S FREE!!!

For a quick start to Buy Nothing Day read the FAQ page. If you want to take part in more actively, which is far more fun, then you may want to organise an event – take a look at the TOOLKIT for info and ideas and check the EVENTS page. If there are no events near you – organise one! Get social and follow Buy Nothing Day UK on TWITTER and FACEBOOK

Of course, Buy Nothing Day isn't about changing your lifestyle for just one day – we want it to be a lasting relationship with you consumer conscience – maybe a life changing experience? We want people to make a commitment to consuming less, recycling more and challenging companies to clean up and be fair. The supermarket or shopping mall might offer great choice, but this shouldn't be at the cost of the environment or developing countries.

Buy Nothing Day Website

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Steal Something Day, a shameless 24-hour stealing spree!

Critique and call-out

Stop Shell’s peat removal!

Friday 25th November saw over 5 hours of Shell's peat and stone haulage completely blocked by campaigners, and no arrests were made. First thing in the morning four campaigners had trucks blocked for over an hour and a half, and later on one person climbed on top of a peat truck outside Shell's Bellanaboy refinery, remaining there for 3 and a half hours stopping all haulage.

At about 7.15am Friday 25th November four people went out to Shell's haulage route to stop workers from getting to the Aughoose tunneling compound. A van full of workers was stopped, along with the first load of quarry trucks which came along about 10-15 minutes later.

A squad car with one garda was present, but he was unable to stop people from blocking on his own. Eventually more gardaí arrived so people stopped blocking, and the trucks that had been stopped up all morning started making their way to the compound. No arrests made.

Later that day at 3.30pm, three people stopped a peat truck outside Gate 1 of Shell's Bellanaboy refinery. Seeing as there were only three people to block the truck and gardaí would surely arrive soon to move people out of the road, one person climbed on top of the lorry to ensure all haulage would be stopped.

Solidarity camp member Grainne Clancy speaks, “We are doing all we can with the numbers we have at the moment, but we really need more people up here right now. Sometimes there's only a couple of us blocking, if we had even a few more people we could be doing a lot more to disrupt Shell's peat removal”

She continues, “There have been some actions like the last Barrett's [quarry in Bangor] one, where security could barely handle us as it was, and with a couple more people we would have been successful”

See report and photos from Barrett's quarry action here: http://shelltosea.com/content/shells-peat-haulage-has-b…upted

On Friday the person remained on top of the truck for three and a half hours, until Shell stop work at 7pm. All Shell traffic was blocked but local traffic was still able to pass on the other side of the road, aside from when gardaí rather arbitrarily claimed the entire road was blocked, turning local traffic around.

At a lock-on protest earlier in the week a garda was overheard giving orders to “shut the road down to local traffic, if they see a local in the lock-on they'll be delighted," apparently trying to stop local traffic from seeing one of their neighbours with an arm in the concrete lock-on.

At the protest on Friday gardaí were overheard explaining to drivers that protesters have the entire road shut down, when clearly traffic could pass and it was actually gardaí shutting the road down. Eventually the gardaí gave up blocking the whole road and resumed directing local traffic around the stopped lorry.

By 4.30pm a lot of locals had shown up with tea and snacks, and at least 20 people remained there for the early evening. At 7pm the person got down from the top of the peat truck and walked away, escaping arrest.

Grainne Clancy continues, “Friday was great, but the possibilities of what we could do with a few more people is really exciting. Shell are only allowed to use one haulage route, and with us blocking it all the time they'll hardly get any work done. Please come up to Mayo”

The Rossport Solidarity Camp is a welcoming base for anyone interested in learning more about the campaign or anyone interested in taking action against Shell. All are welcome at any time, come visit and see what it's about for yourself. And taking action against shell doesn't have to mean climbing on trucks or doing lock ons. Help is needed with taking photos and video, making dinner, building lock ons, chopping wood, and lots of other things it takes to keep the camp running smoothly.

The camp is located in a field in Aughoose, next to Aughoose Church (between Pullathomas and Bellanaboy).

To ring for directions, questions or to let us know you're coming: 085.114.1170 or email: rossportsolidaritycamp[at]gmail[dot]com

Shell’s Peat Haulage Has Begun… And Been Disrupted !

Shell is removing peat bog from the tunnelling compound in Aughoose, Co. Mayo, Ireland, and replacing it with stone and gravel from nearby quarries. The increased truck movements has not gone unchallenged.

Following the peat truck protest last Wednesday that resulted in 4 people being arrested – https://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/content/campaigners-block-shells-peat-haulage-morning-after-taisce-faces-local-community – protests have been happening almost every day.

On Saturday 19th November, around 12pm, 4 people stopped peat and quarry trucks along the haulage route. By the time Gardai arrived, most of the workers in the compound had gone home and work had stopped for the day.

On Monday the 21st , 8 people entered into Barrett's Quarry in Bangor and tried to get onto diggers to stop work. One campaigner reached one of the diggers, but was dragged down by security before climbing on top. The IRMS security grabbed everyone and held them down until they could drag them out of the quarry. This is the first time entering Barret's Quarry that no-one succeeded in getting on top of machinery. If there had been a couple more people on the action, it may have succeeded (i.e. come up to Mayo!)

On Tuesday 22nd November around 12:15pm, 2 people locked their arms into a concrete barrel; blocking the main haulage route. This happened after the weekly Tuesday morning protest with locals and supporters from 8 to 11am. The morning was very effective in its own right as over 20 people spread out along the Bellanaboy refinery road and stopped many of the peat and quarry trucks at several points. The Gardai present were stretched in dealing with the situation at hand.

The lock-on was put in place an hour after the end of the morning protest. At one stage Gardai briefly attempted to pull out one person's arm while they were screaming that they were locked into the barrel, which required some angry reminders from others present that cutting them out was going to be the only acceptable way. The lock-on was highly effective and lasted from 12:15pm until 5:30pm. There was local support for a while before the Gardai proceeded to close down the road. Up to 12 trucks were sat waiting in the Aughoose compound and diggers and other machinery therefore had nothing to do. The 2 campaigners were arrested and released later that evening.

Also worth mentioning were several trucks being stopped or slowed down throughout the week for half an hour or so when the opportunity arose. No arrests were made on those occasions.

If you and/or your friends are interested in coming down to the ongoing campaign and being almost certain of halting work for all or most part of the day, then now is the time !

Show your support – the battle goes on !

www.shelltosea.com

www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org

Timber Barons are the 1%: Occupy Eugene Meets Forest Defence

18th November 2011

Cascadia Forest Defenders and marchers with Occupy Eugene shut down Umpqua Bank yesterday from noon to close. Activists raised a banner reading “Stumpqua funds clearcuts,” and soft blockaded both customer entrances. Umpqua, which was the first stop in a series of N17 Occupy Eugene bank closures, chose to lock its doors rather than call on law enforcement.

Umpqua Bank has a long history of providing low interest loans to Oregon’s timber barons. The bank is most infamously tied to Roseburg Forest Products’ sole owner, Allyn Ford, who is also the chairman of Umpqua Bank’s board of directors. Over the last year RFP logged hundreds of acres of Cascadia’s ancient temperate rainforests and laid off over 200 Oregon mill workers. In targeting Stumpqua, activists hope to thwart attempts of green and local washing on the part of bank executives.

After the Umpqua action, marchers proceeded on to U.S. Bank, Bank of America, and Chase. Between the three banks, law enforcement arrested 17 activists for similar soft blockades.

East Gippsland forest protests & background

Logging East Gippsland old growth forests destroys wildlife refuge in a warming climate

17 November 2011

Logging East Gippsland old growth forests destroys wildlife refuge in a warming climate

17 November 2011

Environmental activists have been out in old growth Forests in East Gippsland this week attempting to stop more rape of our natural environment and protecting important refugia habitats for endangered species. Logging operations on Survey Rd on the Errinundra Plateau were halted by a tree-sit attached to five logging machines and suspended 40 metres up in the tree canopy.

"In the face of recent Baillieu government moves to weaken the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, conservationists have again taken their message to logging sites where important wildlife habitat continues to be logged for woodchips", said Ms Amelia Young, spokesperson for the conservationists of the Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO) (Facebook).

"This site on Survey Road is another controversial logging coupe, in precious, ancient forest right on the border of the national park. Forests on and around the national park have been identified as key refugia – a safe place – for threatened wildlife; that they continue in 2011 to be targeted for short-term logging projects, is inexcusable."

"The future of the logging industry lies in sourcing saw and pulp logs from plantations. Government assistance should be procured immediately to support the industry to make this transition out of our publicly owned high-conservation value forests."

"With waratahs in flower, individual trees expected to be in excess of 500 years old and endangered spot-tailed quolls detected in the area, there’s no question this old-growth forest is worth more standing", concluded Ms Young.

Both sides of traditional politics have supported the logging of old growth forests, even though native old growth forests are so important to preserve for a raft of reasons that rise above the economic exploitation for wood pulp and timber:

Forests play a major role as carbon sink say scientists
Victorian forests are amoung the world’s most carbon-dense which should be preserved and protected.
Logging of Victorian mountain ash forests increases bushfire risk
Intact native Forests mitigate bushfire in a warming climate
Old growth forests provide an important refugia for species biodiversity in a time of climate change.

Earlier this month the State Government quietly announced Logging contractors will be able to seek exemptions from state environment laws protecting endangered species under proposed changes by the Baillieu state government. The Secretary of the Department of Sustainability and Environment would be able to exempt a logging project from the requirements of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act. Goodbye endangered species habitat!

The Supreme Court of Victoria last year banned VicForests from logging old-growth forest at Brown Mountain in East Gippsland after activists released a video of a long-footed potoroo filmed in a logging coupe on Brown Mountain.

More recently, the Victorian Supreme Court has stopped logging of old growth forests at Sylvia Creek in Victoria's central highlands because it threatens the habitat of the endangered Leadbeater's Possum. A court injunction presently prevents logging old growth forests in this area till 2012, while the case is heard. The changes by the State Government seek to undermine the Supreme Court rulings to protect endangered species.

The Wilderness Society has attacked the Baillieu Government for undermining Victoria's environmental laws.

"Decades of overlogging and three major fire events in Victoria's forests have pushed many species closer to extinction. Our unique wildlife, including Victoria's endangered faunal emblem, the Leadbeater's Possum, need their native forest homes protected, not betrayed to the Baillieu government bulldozers. It is not too late to turn this decision around." says the Wilderness society.

The State Government has no electoral mandate for making these changes. Liberal MP Mary Wooldridge told an environment forum held at Melbourne Town Hall on 18 November 2010 during the Victorian state election campaign, of the importance of protecting forest that contains threatened species such as Leadbeaters Possum.

"Some concerns we can address are issues about pre logging assessments and making sure the areas we are logging don't have protected species or different issues with the Leadbetter's possum in relation to in terms of the catchment areas. Making sure we are doing those assessments, making sure if areas are logged they don't have those assets, insuring those assessments are done and those areas are protected before hand." said Mary Wooldridge MP.

It seems this is just another broken promise from a Government marching backwards on climate and the environment, as well as general social conditions in public hospitals and health, and in education in Victoria.

Background: Coalition’s 2km wind farm veto sets a risky precedent | Retreating on climate policy – Victorian Government stops discussions on Hazelwood closure | Victorian Government needs to come clean on plan to achieve 20 percent emissions cut by 2020

Image Source: GECO – Logging machinery, awesome cabling and trees that once stood tall – Survey Rd blockade November 2011

Campaigners block Shell’s peat haulage morning after An Taisce faces local community

Friday 18th November 2011

On Tuesday 15th November, An Taisce board member Attracta Uí Bhroin travelled to Belmullet Civic Centre to defend the withdrawal of An Taisce’s legal challenges to the validity of consents for the Corrib Gas project. An Taisce have claimed that their settlement is a 'victory for the environment' despite the fact that the State remains in breach of European environmental directives in proceeding with the Corrib project. The next day campaigners stopped Shell’s peat haulage outside Bellanaboy refinery site to demonstrate that despite An Taisce settling with the State, local campaigners will continue to defend the safety of the community.

“We'll have to fight for another day, the whole community. Ye might settle for money with them, but we are not going to.”

The next morning, peat extraction trucks were spotted for the first time travelling from the Aughoose compound to the Srahmore peat deposition site in Bangor Erris. Shell’s use of these very large trucks signals the start of their attempts to remove peat from Aughoose and haul stone in order to begin the process of tunneling through Sruwaddacon estuary.

Shell plan up to 475 truck movements a day through the affected route and villages in this period of construction. Members of the local community and Rossport Solidarity Camp responded by gathering at 12.30pm outside the Bellanaboy refinery to show their continuing opposition to the project. A peat truck was stopped at 12.45pm, as three campaigners climbed inside. A fourth campaigner locked on underneath the lorry at 2.30pm. With campaigners occupying the peat truck, local residents recorded that ten further trucks were prevented from either leaving the Aughoose compound and or leaving the refinery. The peat lorry blocked all Shell trucks to and from the Aughoose compound until 3.20pm.

Last Friday over 80 local residents and supporters came to Bellanaboy to demonstrate their opposition and honour eleven years of resistance. Banners were hung at the gates of Bellanaboy gas refinery which stated that the State is violating the European habitats directives in proceeding with the Corrib project. Local campaigners are asking people to travel to Erris and help to defend the safety of this community and place.

Mass environmental justice uprising engulfs Damietta on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast

Nov 15, 2011

The popular movement against a Canadian petrochemical plant has forced the Egyptian government to shut down the Agrium-Mopco gas-fertiliser factory, after residents shut down highways, bridges and a deepwater port, and battled the Egyptian military in the street.

Grainy photos and video-clips tweeted out – especially by Al-Jazeera’s @Mansourtalk – show locals standing up to military forces using live ammunition and tear gas. After 25 were arrested, fellow protestors besieged an army unit and APC until their friends were released. At least one local – Islam Abdullah – was killed by police or military and many others injured.

Twitter: Protestors besiege APC demanding release of their comrades @mansourtalk

Following the repression by the Egyptian state, the Damietta uprising has escalated its demands, calling for closure of other polluting factories in Damietta (including Methanex and SEGAS LNG – financed by RBS), and banning the construction of similar factories and complexes.

Repression threatens the uprising in Damietta @mansourtalk

The popular campaign against Agrium’s plant – using local gas to produce urea fertiliser – already scored a victory in 2008, forcing the Canadian company Agrium’s plans for a new petrochemical factory to merge with Egyptian Mopco. People in Damietta – and especially the Ras El-Barr island designated as the site – were worried about pollution destroying their health, the fish, the natural environment and potential for tourism. Fertiliser-producing plants are known to make local communities sick, with Agrium specifically facing controversy in several countries. Opposition to the new factory was strong across the town – including lawyers, fisherfolk, political activists, families and tourism developers. Black banners against the ‘factory of death’ were draped from homes and across streets: “Against Resource Drain and Pollution in Damietta…and No to Pollution in Ra’s al-Barr.”

Public unhappiness with the pollution from the existing factory and continuing construction grew since January, using the political space generated by the revolution. Newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm quotes a statement from the protestors:

“They told us Agrium factory was moved out of Damietta. In 2011, after the revolution, we found out that we were deceived and that the factory wasn’t moved. The committee formed to mull the region’s environmental status proved that this factory had caused people many diseases and dangerously affected man, animal, plant and fish resources.”

The paper also quoted a local resident, Mohamed Hassouna, as saying

“We are choking from the toxic fumes coming out of the garbage dumped close to residential areas. The fumes are causing serious respiratory problems among the elderly and the ill.”

The uprising – in which the local community successfully shut down Damietta’s massive deepwater port and blockaded the highways and bridges for days – has touched a nerve in Egypt. There is already widespread unhappiness about the collusion between foreign multinationals, military-controlled companies and private Egyptian elite interests in using Egyptian resources (land, natural gas, etc) – frequently subsidised – to make outrageous profits. The role of the military in attacking the Damietta community physically enacts this co-operation against the people.

Pollution and dumping of waste in Egypt – such as in Idku by BG and BP – is increasingly being publicly challenged as a political decision, that prioritises profits for those in charge over the lives and rights over fenceline communities. The language of the revolution is being used to describe environmental injustice.

The militarisation of the Susa Valley: final act & Brief History of the No TAV movement

12.11.11

Berlusconi’s moribund government has finally managed to pass a decree – with the opposition’s approval – that formalises the current state of militarisation in the Susa Valley. The construction site in La Maddalena will become a “site of strategic national interest”, that is, a military area. The consequences for those who trespass will be the same imposed by law for any other military area trespass: a prison sentence between 3 months and one year, or the payment of a fine between 51 and 309 Euro. That’s not it, though! The rock extracted on the site will become a legal construction material, even if contaminated by uranium, asbestos and other chemical products released by the excavation process. This will have a huge impact on the industry of the “great useless public works” beloved by the current government; and it’s a huge present to the construction mafia. Also, it’s another heavy attack to freedom of protest and dissent, and a clear message for the people of the Val Susa: don’t disturb the construction!

In the meantime, a couple of weeks ago a public youth hostel managed by an organisation close to the NO TAV movement was attacked and vandalised. The building is often used by NO TAV protesters coming from the surrounding areas. The attackers stole money and damaged the furniture. Special attention was reserved to the books, magazines and original materials about the Antifascist Resistance which the building makes available to the public. Just in case it wasn’t clear who was behind the attack.

Nevertheless, the state of permanent mobilisation declared last May by the NO TAV carries on; the national tour that started in October in Bologna will conclude in the next few days in Genoa, and more initiatives have been announced to protest against the new decree.

Sources: this article, and various other things borrowed and recycled from Italy Indymedia.

Written/translated by Italy Calling.

NO TAV (No to the High Speed Train) is a movement based in the Susa Valley in Piedmont that opposes the creation of the new high speed railway line between Turin and Lyon in France. This line is part of a EU project which plans to connect Lyon to Budapest and then onto Ukraine. Similar protest movements were active in the early 90s in Florence, Bologna and Rome, but their militancy and the brutal repression that this triggered in the Susa Valley has made the Piedmontese movement the most talked about.

The simple principle behind the movement is that a new high speed railway line in the Valley is completely useless and not needed, its only purpose being the profit of the many private companies that have shares in it. The NO TAV think that the current railway line between Piedmont and France is more than sufficient, considering that traffic in the area has never been incredibly high. More importantly, the construction of the line would utterly and irreversibly destroy a huge part of the Susa Valley, causing not only an environmental but also an economic and social disaster, with businesses closing down and villages being completely disfigured or disappearing.

High speed railway lines in Italy are considered to be of “strategic interest”, which translated from political bullshit language means that the law allows this type of works WITHOUT consulting the local population and institutions whatsoever. At a time of economic collapse such as Italy is going through, the works require billions of Italian taxpayers’ money, at the expense of primary services like education and health. It would mainly be construction and other private companies profiting from it, but when finished and in use, the low demand for the line would end up making it a loss-making burden on the taxpayers. Like in Rossport, Ireland, the locals’ concerns and proposals are being completely ignored in the name of the only Modern God: money.

The NO TAV came up with their own plan for the area which would include:
– changing the production and distribution processes to decrease transport of people and goods, especially on long distances
– supporting local sustainable trades instead of big industries
– creating or improving local means of sustainable and green transport for workers and students
– supporting and incrementing the use of the already existing local railway line

The main source of this article is Turin’s NO TAV website.

Solidarity Call ANTI-HSL DEFENDANTS for pie throwing on Mrs Barcina

Call of the movement Mugitu! to publish press releases, notes or letters of solidarity with the opponents to the HSL prosecuted for pieing the Navarrese president Yolanda Barcina:

From the movement of disobedience to the HSL of Euskal Herria Mugitu! we call all the groups and people defending the civil disobedience as a way of struggle to express your solidarity and support of the three opponents to the HSL prosecuted in the Spanish Special Court “Audiencia Nacional” as a result of the action of pie throwing against the HSL carried out on the Navarrese president Yolanda Barcina last 27 of October in Toulouse. The action of pieing, which in any place of the western world is merely a humorous action of protest that has very few legal consequences, is in our case, however, object of a political and media criminalization that borders on ridicule: so much so that the three authors of the protest may be sentenced to jail sentences as they have been prosecuted under the accusation of “attack” against the authority in the Special Court “Audiencia Nacional” of Madrid, the exceptional court which mostly deals with crimes described as “terrorism” and before which they will have to make a statement on 16 of November.

For this reason, we want to call you all to express your solidarity with the defendants publishing a press release, a brief note in the media or a letter of support in terms of denunciation of the manipulation and political criminalisation, rejection of the HSL and support to disobedience; that is to say, denouncing the clear manipulative and criminalising spirit of the process driven by the Government of Navarre and defending civil disobedience as a way of fighting the imposition of great infrastructures that bring about serious ecological, economic and social impacts, as it is the case of the HSL in our country.

The call is framed within the initiatives of support and solidarity with the defendants which have been decided in an assembly of last Sunday 6 of November in Pamplona under the motto “I would do also it! HSL STOP: Disobedience”.

Looking forward to your solidarity, we also want to invite you to spread this call around you and to send any manifestation of support that is made public to the following address. Thank you very much…

Movement Mugitu!

@mail: mugituaht@gmail.com

Tel: (0034) 654480589

http://mugitu.blogspot.com/

Account of what happened between the anti-HSL pieing in Toulouse and the transfer of the case to the Spanish Special Court “Audiencia Nacional”:

The movement Mugitu! of disobedience to the HSL –in fight against the imposition of the “Basque Y” and the “Navarrese corridor of High speed”–, supported by the Occitan movement Libertat, made a protest action on 27 of October interrupting the 29th Plenary Council of the CTP (Community of Work of the Pyrenees) that was being held in the Occitan city of Toulouse and throwing three meringue pies in the face of the president of the Foral Community of Navarre Yolanda Barcina, with the aim of denouncing the imposition of the HSL in our country. Indeed, the Basque Government and the Navarrese are determined to impose these disputed projects at a time when the construction of new lines of High speed is questioned in many countries because of its ruinous and destructive character. At the same time of the pieing, we demonstrators explained the reasons of the action in the meeting room, showed posters and shouted slogans against the HSL as we threw leaflets demanding the immediate paralysation of the “Basque Y” works and the abandonment of the project of the Navarrese corridor of the HST, infrastructures of high ecological, economic and social impact in our country and characterized by an absolute lack of information and social debate, refusing the participation of the population in the decision making. “In any case – we said–, the solutions must be found in a deep transformation of the present society, because the crisis is becoming worse and it is evident that we must not only reduce and distribute the “pie”, but also and mainly change its recipe”.

In Toulouse , the action of the pieing was made without any other incidents, taking place like anywhere else in the world as a humorous action of protest that has very few legal consequences. There was no intervention from the police or from the agents in charge of the security of the meeting, so nobody was arrested and after the action, the activists even gave a small press conference in the outside of the building explaining the reasons for the protest. Nevertheless, in the Spanish state, the Government of Navarre immediately made a public declaration of “condemnation”, conceived with clear aims of politically manipulating and criminalising the anti-HSL pie throws, finally suspending the activity of the foral parliament and boasting about being a victim, which bordered on ridicule, whereas in the street the action was received with an enormous delight in ample sectors of the population.

In view of the informative poisoning started by the Government of Navarre, those of us who took part in the action quickly decided to call a press conference for the following day in Pamplona, with the purpose of giving all the details about the protest and in order to deny the supposed “violent” character of the pie throws, making clear that this form of action does not mean to cause physical harm to the chosen person, but to damage the image of the authority that he /she represents. But as soon as we arrived in Pamplona in the afternoon of the 28th, the Foral Police arrested the three activists of the group in the street, when they were going to the press conference. The police said that they were accused of “Attack to the authority” and transferred them to police station. When we contacted several lawyers, these showed their surprise about the circumstances in which the arrests were made, as there were apparently no judicial diligences in the country where the protest had taken place. Concerning the arrests, it must be said that the last person who was set free had spent 22 hours in jail and denounced the treatment received since he had been prevented from sleeping during the night. The arrested were forced to give DNA samples as an indispensable condition to be released, although neither is it obligatory nor did it have any justification in this case since the action had been public and the arrested people were going to give a press conference, also public.

Finally, our companions were set free by the Foral Police that charged them for a crime of “attack to the authority”, in addition transferring the case to the Spanish Special Court “Audiencia Nacional”. In other words, the Navarrese president Yolanda Barcina, who considered, in her first declarations, the action of the anti-HSL pieing to be “a very sweet beginning” for her presidency at the front of the CTP, has not accepted the “sweetness” of our protest very well. It is so much so that with the accusation made, these three people may be sentenced to jail by an exceptional court, before which they have been called to make a statement next 16 of November

Occupy Shellanaboy set up at refinery gates in Erris (& solidarity with Ogoni 9)

November 11, 2011

About 40 Shell to Sea campaigners blocked the Aughoose compound this morning – all Shell employees prevented entering compound 7.30 to 9.30. The road was kept open to local traffic by the campaign. There was no Garda presence. Just after 10 Shell to Sea activists started setting up an Occupy Shell Corrib Camp at the gates of the refinery in a show of solidarity with the global Occupy movements!

At 9.30 campaigners started moving from the Aughhoose compound to the refinery site where there will be meet up at 10. This action was part of the day of solidarity called both to remember the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and for people from around Ireland to stand in solidarity with the local community in Erris, Mayo.

Local residents and their supporters will gather at 10am at the gates of Shell’s inland refinery. From there they will walk to Bellanaboy Bridge to commemorate a baton charge by Gardaí on November 10th, 2006. The baton charge resulted in numerous injuries to campaigners and is one of the low points of the 11-year struggle against the inland refinery and high pressure pipeline. They will also be marking the 16th anniversary of the execution of nine activists in Ogoniland, Nigeria. Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others were hanged by the Nigerian government on November 10th, 1995 for their opposition to Shell’s environmental destruction in the Niger delta. The walk which is now (11.20) underway is lead by people carrying the 9 crosses to commemorate the Ogoni 9 executed on this day in 1995. Over 100 people are taking part