earthfirst – Page 127

Tesco anti-GM action

16.4.11
We had a successful Anti-GM action this past weekend (the first in London in a long time).

Regarding GM animal feed Tesco has said (2010) “Unfortunately, because of the vast amount of products we sell, and the turn around on them, we do not have a specific list of products that come from animals that have not been fed on GM feed.” So basically, any stuff that’s not organic could be GM. Let’s go and tell the customers!

We went into a TESCO in Hackney and put stickers on all the meat and dairy. The stickers said said “Tesco cannot guarantee you that this meat or dairy product is GM free.

For more information on genetic modification in animal feed see www.stopgm.org.uk”. We then got dressed in white suits in the store that said “biohazard” and passed out information to customers about animal feed. We also went after GM oil (KTC brand) with stickers. Big jugs of it are sold for chippies and small restaurants. We wandered around the store dressed like outer space handing out leaflets for a half an hour before the security finally asked us to leave. We then set up a table outside and continued to pass out information.

It was all surprisingly easy. If anyone wants a copy of the stickers we can send them on to you.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/geneticmodification/8393880/Shoppers-kept-in-dark-over-GM-ingredients.html

More photos and video at http://ungm.posterous.com/

MACHINERY SABOTAGED TO PROTECT WILD LAND, ITALY

anonymous report, from finoallafine.info (translation):

“Tired of seeing the Earth destroyed, we decided to act. In the night between April 6 and 7 we entered one of the many construction sites in Rome, a city raped by the cement and speculative building that the big manufacturers, with the complicity of the little fascist mayor Alemanno, that are destroying any space that is still wild to construct department stores, malls and parking lots. In this case the work involves the destruction of a very large thicket, with the resulting devastation of the habitat of many animals, birds, insects and mammals. We approached the seven machines (bulldozers and others) that were present; with wire cutters we cut oil tubes, cables and wires, and then we poured gravel and sugar in the tanks and we disappeared leaving a written claim.

This action was taken in solidarity with all who everywhere and at all times struggle against speciesism, anthropocentrism and exploitation, particularly with the defenders of the Russian forests of Khimki and Bitcevski.

Solidarity also with all animal-ecological prisoners, beginning with Walter Bond. For animal liberation, for the liberation of the Earth!”

BP and Culture – time to break it off!

A week of action to kick BP out of our cultural spaces
14–20 April 2011

In the week between BP’s AGM and the one-year anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, we are calling for actions and creative interventions to show the true nature of BP’s damaging activities around the world, and to persuade our most prestigious galleries and cultural spaces to liberate themselves from BP’s dirty money.

Sponsorship of galleries, museums and other cultural spaces is one of the most important ways BP tries to protect its reputation and buy our acceptance. By breaking off BP’s relationship with our most prestigious cultural institutions, we strike a blow to BP’s precious brand, topple BP’s powerful position in our society, and reclaim our public spaces. On the anniversary of the Gulf spill, let’s reveal the sticky black stuff behind BP’s shiny green logo, and pile on the pressure to kick BP out of our cultural spaces for good.

Creative interventions will be popping up at sponsored galleries and institutions throughout the week, so watch this space, or better yet plan your own!

This week of action is called by Art Not Oil, Climate Camp London, Climate Rush, Indigenous Environmental Network, Liberate Tate, London Rising Tide and UK Tar Sands Network

More info including events list, targets and resources:
http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/bpweekofaction
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198819640150485

INCLUDING…
The Great BP-sponsored sleep-in

Sunday 17 April 2011, 2PM at Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG

To mark the one year anniversary of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, join us for ‘The great BP-sponsored sleep-in’, a 4-minute flashmob art installation inside Tate Modern. Imagine the turbine hall of this former power station filled with BP-branded sleeping figures, who will soon wake from their BP-sponsored coma to sound the climate alarm.

BP’s greenwash is sleepwalking us into the climate crisis. BP sponsors galleries like Tate to try and clean up its tarnished image, and distract us from its devastating activities around the world. Every pound of dirty oil money accepted by Tate helps legitimise a long legacy of environmental destruction and human rights abuses. It’s time to take off the blindfold, rub the sponsorship sleep from our eyes, and give Tate and BP a wake-up call.

This family friendly event will highlight BP’s sponsorship to the public, and show that we are not prepared to stand by as the Tate helps BP greenwash its image… and allow us all a few minutes to dream of a future free from oil spills and oil sponsorship of the arts.

SIX STEPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL SPONSORED SLEEP-IN
1. Synchronise your watch using this website:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fullscreen.html?n=136
2. Enter the building before 2PM
3. Choose your sleep-in spot – café, corridor, lift, gift shop, and of course exhibits are all fair game, but please pick somewhere on Levels 1 (turbine hall level), 2 or 3 (this is where our camera crews will be to film the fun).
4. At exactly 2.15PM, unpack your BP branded sheet, pillow, pyjamas, sleep mask, teddy bear, alarm clock or any other sleep related props (see here for ideas and downloadable props:
http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/bpweekofaction/resources) and start the sleep-in!
5. Exactly 4 minutes later, the flash mob will be over as alarm clocks sound the wake-up call throughout the gallery. Take off your sponsored blindfolds and bedding, leave them behind if you wish, and head outside to…
6. Post-slumber party on the South Bank. Listen to speakers from BP-affected communities from the Gulf of Mexico and the Canadian Tar Sands, help engage gallery-goers with leaflets and vox pop video messages, and enjoy live music and a pedal-powered sound system.

So join us on April 17th, and show the Tate that we won’t take oil sponsorship of the arts lying down!

More info: http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/bpweekofaction/flashmob
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=137704989634221

Cut the crap – GM in Germany

1/4/2011

KWS has again planted genetically-modified sugar beet H7-1 in a field, despite vociferous protests. Today, Friday at noon, we unloaded about 16 tonnes of manure in front of the headquarters in Einbeck, under the slogan: “KWS – keep your GM crap.”

1/4/2011

Images of the action here!
Video here!
Our press release: here!

Climate Camp – South Coast: Ressurection for the Insurrection

——————————————————————-
Location: TBA, Sussex
Dates: approx 23rd Apr – 1st May
Web: http://brightonclimateaction.org.uk/
E-mail: southcoastcamp@riseup.net
Twitter: SC_ClimateCamp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207935279226157
——————————————————————-

Imagine another world. A world where people matter, where the outstanding issues of the day, climate change, community resilience and workers rights are addressed and we can look forward to a more radical and sustainable future.

Imagined it? Good. Now come to the South Coast Climate Camp this Easter and help us build it.

The South Coast Camp for Climate Action will take place from the Easter weekend through to the May Day celebrations somewhere on the beautiful South Downs in Sussex. Through living, eating and working together, we hope the camp will act as a positive catalyst for change, transforming both the camp community and the communities around it.

We aim to create a safe space where people can meet, share ideas, plan actions and then go do them.

At the end of the week we shall, as tradition dictates be taking part in a mass action. This will form part of Brighton’s May Day celebrations where many direct action groups from around the country are converging in the seaside resort for a very special day of direct action.

Workshops are invited from, UK Uncut, Plane Stupid, SolFed, Smash EDO, No Borders, Grow Heathrow, Transition Towns, the Rebel Clown Army and many more. Skill shares will be held on permaculture, guerilla gardening, workers rights and tactics of resistance, cooking, building rocket stoves, bee keeping & community organising: among other stuff.

We will share the knowledge and experience we have gathered over many years with local community groups to leave a lasting legacy; a truly radicalised community. The camp itself is just the sowing of the seed.

**** After the site has been liberated the location will be announced on the website, twitter, facebook etc. Please help spread the word about the camp and get in touch if you can offer any help. ****

Stop GM Gathering, Ireland

Dear Friends,
In mid-February, the EU proposed a relaxing of the legislation around the presence of GM ingredients in food stuffs and animal feed in Europe. This move was supported by Brendan Smith, then Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, without a mandate from the people of Ireland.

It is now time to harvest the growing momentum of concern among the people of Ireland.

Food Action and GM-Free Ireland invite you to participate in ‘Keeping Ireland GM Free/StopGMO – Gathering Momentum’ an all-Island gathering. This will take place on Sunday, 10th of April 2011, at the Dublin Food Coop. The aim of this all day event is to:

1. facilitate networking between food groups, farming groups, community gardeners, social justice and environmental, groups, policy makers, scientists, medical profession, and individuals,
2. develop strategies for:
* building resistance against the push from the GM sector lobbying at a government level
* the communication of information around the use of genetically modification and its implications
* inter-agency work that will strengthen the GM Free movement in Ireland

The programme for the day is yet to be finalised but will be confirmed prior to the event. A vegan, wholefood lunch will be provided and we invite attendants to give a suggested donation of €5.

If you would like to attend, please click here to complete the Registration Form.

If you need further details, please contact stopgm@riseup.net, 0857296088.

In appreciation, Food Action
http://stopgmevent.wordpress.com/

Protests delay destructive Amazon dams

25.3.11
The construction of the Madeira dams in the Brazilian Amazon has been delayed, following violent protests at the Jirau dam site last week.

Construction workers reportedly set fire to buildings and more than 40 buses at the site, and ransacked shops and cash-points, in protest against low pay and bad working conditions.

The protests brought the dam construction to a stand still.

25.3.11
The construction of the Madeira dams in the Brazilian Amazon has been delayed, following violent protests at the Jirau dam site last week.

Construction workers reportedly set fire to buildings and more than 40 buses at the site, and ransacked shops and cash-points, in protest against low pay and bad working conditions.

The protests brought the dam construction to a stand still.

The Jirau and Santo Antonio dams, part of the Madeira River hydroelectric complex, will damage vast areas of land, upon which numerous tribal peoples depend for their survival. The Indians did not give their consent for the dams to be built.

Domingos Parintintin of the Parintintin tribe said, ‘We hope that the project will be stopped, because it is our children who will suffer the consequences. They will no longer have enough fish or enough game to feed themselves’.

The uncontacted Indians living in the area are extremely vulnerable as they depend completely on their forest, and they have little resistance to outside diseases, which threaten to drive them to extinction.

A report in the Folha de São Paulo, one of Brazil’s biggest newspapers, warned of an ‘explosion of criminality’ in the area, particularly homicide, sexual exploitation and drug trafficking, as the dam construction has attracted thousands of immigrants. More than 37,000 construction workers are reported to be building the two dams.

This huge wave of immigration is putting pressure on the land and increasing the risks faced by the uncontacted Indians.

French company GDF Suez is leading the consortium building the Jirau dam.

A banquet of possibilities…the 12th OKasional cafe is on it’s way

March 21, 2011

We are holding regular meetings in the next few weeks before we open up again in a new location, so get in touch to find out when and where our next meet up is. It’s a proper banquet of possibilities so come share your ideas and enthusiasm, join a working group, and get involved.

March 21, 2011

We are taking bookings for workshops already beginning on the 11th of April so hit us up with your proposals…

give us a shout at our email mcrokcafe@gmail.com

OK-UPY & DEFY.X
http://okcafe.wordpress.com

The Unfair Fare Dodge! A railway adventure

16 April, 12 noon

Dressed as The Railway Children (as much tweed as you can manage!) we will hold a rally at Monument station before taking red flannel petticoats and flags to the railway platform. From there you’re invited to join the Unfair Fare Dodge as we pay a reasonable fare for a 30 mile journey (we’ll pay the amount you would pay for the equivalent journey in Europe). Our government plans to increase fares a massive 31% over the next 4 years. To cut carbon emissions, we need to cut – not increase – train fares. We can do something about that.

Organised by Climate Rush
More info: http://www.railwayadventure.wordpress.com

The Climate Renegades are GO GO GO!

At a time when cuts and austerity are grabbing the headlines, the need for action on climate change has never been greater. Floods, heatwaves, energy shortages, rising food prices – these are just the start if we don’t take action now.

This summer the Climate Renegades will tour the country to support grass-root and community struggles, both embryonic and established, based upon local needs and wishes. Are you part of a local campaign against cuts and/or climate change that wants to do something big this summer? Or perhaps you are someone who has skills to offer? If so, read on…

We are a roaming collective of experienced environmental activists with skills to share. We are looking to hold events that raise awareness of the need for action on climate justice, enable independence from a constricting economic system, and empower communities under threat. These events will create a space for collective creativity and free expression, will promote and utilise non-violent direct action as a viable tactic for inspiring radical change, and will act as space for a free exchange of skills, knowledge and ideas.

Climate Renegades is one of a few projects that came out of the Camp for Climate Action’s Space for Change gathering.

We wish to promote progressive change from people coming together within and across communities in the face of dominant powers, to confront problems and take their fate into their own hands. Through a diversity of tactics we wish to support this change.

We find repression and abuse of social struggles by concentrated power – be that state, big business or ‘revolutionary’ Political parties. For this reason, we share a tradition and commitment to active anti-hierarchy and collective decision making.

Climate Renegades is not envisaged to form a movement or a model for future years. Our role is one of facilitating and developing the strength of campaigns, enabling the visioning of common solutions and highlighting the importance of environmental struggles in this time of forced austerity.

For more info, e-mail us or check out our Facebook group!

climaterenegades@riseup.net
http://www.facebook.com/help/?mail_sent#!group.php?gid=116697736256