earthfirst – Page 129

Sinixt Nation Establishes a Protection Camp on Their Ancestral Land

The Sinixt Nation, declared extinct by the Canadian government more than 50 years ago, has set up a protection camp on their ancestral land, halting all commercial logging in the area known to the Sinixt Nation as “Slhu7kin”.

On October 26th 2010, the Sinixt Nation asserted their sovereignty by initiating the Sinixt Slhu7kin (Perry Ridge) Protection Camp on their ancestral lands. The Sinixt, by declaration, have established the “Sinixt Slhu7kin – Perry Ridge Wilderness Preserve to protect the rich bio-diversity on Perry Ridge and the collective domestic watershed interests of the Perry Ridge community.”

Sinixt Nation members, local residents, and supporters are gathered at the beginning of the Perry Ridge Forest Service road near the town of Slocan, BC. The camp has halted all commercial logging in the area.

After a complete refusal to consult with the Sinixt Nation, BC Timber Sales via BC Ministry of Forests and Range sold the logging rights to 4 controversial cut-blocks on Perry Ridge to Sunshine Logging LTD of Kaslo, BC. Sunshine Logging purchased the 2 year contract for approximately $330,000 after BC Timber Sales dropped the auction bidding price because no companies wanted to touch the highly contentious contract with a ten foot pole.

This isn’t the first time people have taken a stand to protect the area known as Slhu7kin to the Sinixt. In 1997 local residents, the Perry Ridge Water Users Association, and Sinixt members took both legal and direct action and successfully halted road building on the ridge. Over 300 people blocked the road demanding protection for the area.

Known as the Arrow Lakes Indian Band under the Indian Act, Canada officially declared the Sinixt extinct in 1956. This left Sinixt members living on the Colville Reservation (in the USA) or scattered among other nations in BC without recognition.

Many Sinixt returned to the Northern part of their territory to protect their ancestral burial sites in Vallican, BC in the late 1980’s when a BC Ministry of Transportation road development project desecrated their burial sites, removed bones and artifacts and placed them in museums. After a tremendous amount of effort from the Sinixt and supporters, remains of their ancestors were returned to them and were reburied at the site. The Sinixt to this day continue to live peacefully and re-occupy their land in Vallican making it the longest re-occupation in Canadian history.

Sinixt territory spans from the headwaters of the Columbia River north of Nakusp, to Kaslo in the West, Revelstoke in the East, and down into what is now known as Washington State. Over 80% of the territory lies on the “Canadian side” of the 49th parallel.

In BC alone, 15 dams were built on Sinixt Territory. In 1954, Kaiser Aluminum proposed a dam on Arrow Lake. The Keenleyside Dam flooded 140 Sinixt cultural sites. The Cominco smelter at Trail built a dam on the Kootenay River near the ancient Sinixt village of kp’itl’els. The zinc and lead smelter has since dumped over 13 million tonnes of toxic slag, including mercury, into the Columbia River.

“A visitor to the Columbia Basin will be unlikely to see any indication that there was ever a native culture that thrived for so long in this region. Most of the Sinixt traditional villages and burial grounds were flooded with the damming of the Arrow Lakes. We know of only one monument to the Sinixt. In the town of Edgewood, there is a totem pole that was erected in the late 1960’s. It was commissioned by B.C. Hydro as a commemorative to an extinct race.”

But the fact of the matter is that the Sinixt never had totem poles and they aren’t extinct.
What You Can Do

The Sinixt Nation and their supporters are encouraging people to help out any way they can.

Financial donations can be made payable to the Sinixt Nation Society. Mail well concealed cash, money orders and cheques to: The Sinixt Nation Society, RRI G-I6 C-2, Winlaw, BC VOG 2JO.

Contact the Sinixt Nation:

Marilyn James (Official Appointed Spokesperson)
Bob Campbell (Headman)
Phone: 250 226 6726
Fax: 886 685 7376

For more information and background, visit: http://sinixtnation.org, http://www.firstnations.eu/invasion/sinixt.htm, http://sinixt.kics.bc.ca, http://www.aaanativearts.com/colville-tribe/lake-indians.htm

More photos and updates can be found on the Sinixt Nation’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sinixt-Nation/255421804460

Note sure how to say “Sinixt”? Want to know why the government says they don’t exist? Listen to the one-hour radio documentary: Keeping the Lakes Way: The Past and Future of the Sinixt

Update from Coal Action Scotland & THWAC

30th October 2011
Hello all,

Here’s a brief update of what’s been going on with Coal Action Scotland and what’s coming up. There’s a week to go before the Autumn Gathering and lots has been happening!

1. New THWAC! short film
2. THWAC Gathering 6th-10th November
3. Coal Action Scotland October Newsletter
4. Action Roundup
5. Recent News

*1. New THWAC! short film*

30th October 2011
Hello all,

Here’s a brief update of what’s been going on with Coal Action Scotland and what’s coming up. There’s a week to go before the Autumn Gathering and lots has been happening!

1. New THWAC! short film
2. THWAC Gathering 6th-10th November
3. Coal Action Scotland October Newsletter
4. Action Roundup
5. Recent News

*1. New THWAC! short film*

A short film about the Happendon Wood Action Camp and fighting Scottish Coal in the Douglas Valley, and publicising the gathering next week can be watched here: http://politube.org/show/3075 and http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2206

*2. THWAC Gathering 6th-10th November*

The Happendon Wood Action Camp (THWAC) was occupied on 12th September 2010 to resist the destruction of the Douglas Valley by Scottish Coal and SRG Estates.

Join us for our five day autumn gathering in the woods!

As part of what they’re calling their “forward strategy”, Scottish Coal have begun the process of closing the circle of open cast mines around the communities of the Douglas Valley by announcing three new open cast applications.

For too long now Scottish Coal, (with the help of rich landowners and corrupt councillors) have been shitting all over the Douglas Valley, causing ill health to the local communities in the area and contributing to climate change. This has got to stop.

The eviction at Mainshill was not an end but just a beginning. We’re back to finish what we started. If Scottish Coal want to obliterate what’s left of the Scottish countryside, we will obliterate them.

We’re calling for affinity groups to come to the site with energy and ideas for action to destroy Scottish Coal’s plans.

There will also be the usual skillsharing, including action workshops, information-sharing and opportunities to get involved in the campaign and day-to-day life on camp.

**WHAT TO BRING:**

* warm clothes, boots and waterproofs, a tent, sleeping bag and mat
* tools for building work and action materials if you can
* Most importantly bring yourself and friends.

FOOD:
There’ll be communal vegan food for a donation, so come prepared to help with chopping veg.

GETTING THERE:
>The camp is near junction 12 of the M74, which runs from Carlisle to Glasgow. The nearest train stations are Lanark and Hamilton and there are frequent direct buses to near the site. Email us or call the sit phone if you need a lift from the train station.

MORE INFO AND CONTACT:
Email: contact [at] coalactionscotland.org.uk
Site phone: 07806926040
Post: Happendon Wood Action Camp
Wolfcrooks Road
South Lanarkshire
ML11 9PA

Check out the brochure of coal targets in Scotland plus Digger Diving for Beginners here <http://coalaction.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Oct-10-first-three-pages.pdf

back page:
http://coalaction.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Oct-10-back-page.pdf

*4. Action Round-up*

Borehole Drilling Machine sabotaged in solidarity with The Happendon Wood Action Camp <“>http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2185>

“Nae Coal at Hunterston”: Action against Ayrshire Power and Peel
Holdings <“>http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2166>

Beginnings of a new wave of direct action in the Douglas Valley against Scottish Coal <“>http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2197>

Scottish Coal given a slap on the wrist for environmental damage in Ayrshire < Author earthfirstPosted on October 30, 2010Categories Climate Chaos, Scotland (Central & Southern), Squatting / Free Spaces / Protest Sites, Wilderness Defence

Kayford Mountain, USA – dozens march onto “reclaimed” site and plant trees

KAYFORD MTN., W.Va.–Forty-four people risked arrest yesterday on Kayford Mountain by trespassing on a Patriot Coal Company “reclamation” site to plant trees. “The coal companies sure as hell aren’t going to do anything about it – someone’s got to,” said Junior Walk, 20, of the Coal River Valley.

“The coal industry does not attempt to return the landscape to its previous biodiversity – leaving it up to the citizens to reclaim it themselves. Fixing the ruined landscape will provide long term jobs for those put out of work by the abolition of mountaintop removal” said John Johnson, a forester and environmentalist.

…

People in the front of the march included Ken Hechler, Larry Gibson and two Colombian union coal miners, National President of Sintramienergetica Raul Sosa and Jose Brito of the SintraCarbon union. The Colombian Network Against Transnational Large-Scale Mining sent letter of support to Appalachian Rising. The two Colombians joined the march to the mine’s edge as part of a solidarity tour that included a meeting with the Matewan local UMWA and people working to save Blair Mountain. Free trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (CTPA) hurt workers, communities and environments both here and in Colombia.

Leaders in their unions have been assassinated by paramilitaries, and the union says Alabama-based Drummond Co. is behind them. The tour is the result of work by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and possibly others.

Don’t miss the video from the day!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 25, 2010

Hundreds rally on Kayford Mountain; dozens march onto “reclaimed” site and plant trees

Contact:
Charles Suggs or Josh Graupera: 304.854.1937

NOTE: Information, Photographs, & Video will be updated on www.climategroundzero.org. Banners: Reclamation Fail; Over 500 Mountains Destroyed, Reclamation Jobs Now; EPA, We’re Doing Your Job

The standard reclamation practiced by mining companies is inadequate, which involves regrading high walls into gentle, highly-compacted slopes and seeding the rocky soil with grass. Some companies plant trees but rarely return to tend them–most trees don’t survive long. The extremely diverse mixed mesophytic forests of Central Appalachia, which rely upon the micro-climates created by the area’s folded land, cannot regrow on reclaimed surface mines. Native plants like ginseng require the steep north-facing slopes of Appalachia that retain moisture, and will never grow on the gentle slopes of a reclaimed strip mine.

The coal industry defends mountaintop removal by touting the flat land of reclaimed mine sites as prime for development. According to a recent report by the Natural Resoures Defense Council, however, “only about four percent of mountains in Kentucky and West Virginia, where the vast majority of this mining is occurring, had any post-mining economic activity.”

The day’s rally began in the Stanley Heir’s Park, a small island of green surrounded by 12,000 acres of mountaintop removal, much of which is in some state of reclamation.

“I am a 6th generation West Virginian from Mercer County and I’m a granddaughter and great granddaughter of coal miners. And they’d be mad about mountaintop removal,” Wendy Johnston said. “The battle of Blair Mountain lives on in my and my fathers’ spirit.”

The rally and action comes on the heels of the EPA’s recommendation to veto the Spruce No. 1 mine’s permit and Appalachia Rising, the largest national gathering of people in opposition to mountaintop removal coal mining to date. Appalachia Rising culminated with a march to the White House of over 2,000 people and 114 arrests for non-violent civil disobedience at the White House, PNC Bank, Department of Interior and Army Corps of Engineers.

Ken Hechler, a long-serving West Virginia statesman said at the rally, “I may be 96 but there’s a fire in my belly. I’m here to help save these beautiful mountains of West Virginia and put people back to work doing useful things.” Ken Hechler has been a vocal opponent of mountaintop removal since the early 1970’s.

Huntington Lane Eviction Call Out!

Site A Eviction Shock!
Wednesday 13th October, 2010

Site A at Huntington Lane has now been evicted and the camp members are putting out an urgent call out for people to get themselves down to help defend the main protest camp, which is expecting eviction any minute.

Site A Eviction Shock!
Wednesday 13th October, 2010

At around 8:30am today police officers and members of the National Eviction Team arrived on Site A to find the tree houses sadly unoccupied. The tree houses have now been removed and branches lopped off the trees so they can’t go back up.

Protesters have been threatened with arrest should they trespass upon Site A. An eviction notice is yet to be served but this chain of events would appear to suggest its imminent arrival. We would encourage any concerned individuals to pay a visit to camp whether it be to stay on, help out with defences, leave a donation or lend their moral support.

Site A is the southern most part of the site (see below marked as ‘site 2′) and the area where the mines infrastructure is to be built and the mining is to begin.

The southern most part of the site (called site 2 in this image) has been evicted

The infrastructure process has now begun and is expected to be completed relatively quickly and the commencement of mining operations is set to follow.

Please call 07503 583419 for info or to get involved.

Shell Garage closed near Elephant

26.9.10

Protestors in solidarity with Rossport layed siege to a Shell garage near Elephant and Castle in south London yesterday evening at 17:00.

26.9.10

Protestors in solidarity with Rossport layed siege to a Shell garage near Elephant and Castle in south London yesterday evening at 17:00.

The protestors, members of the ‘petrosiege crew’ climbed on to the roof of the garage to force its closure on a busy saturday evening as part of ongoing solidarity actions over the oil refinery and local people’s struggle in County Mayo in the north west of Ireland (Rossport)

Exact location:

Shell Walworth South

The Passion for Freedom knows no borders

26.9.10

London, Friday 24 September: around 2pm. a number of anarchists and sympathizers from various parts of the metropolis converged on the shopping centre in the middle of the busy intersection Elephant and Castle, chosen because of the thousands of people from Latin American countries living in the area.

After dropping banners over the main entrance in solidarity with the Mapuche hunger strikers and the 14 anarchists arrested in Chile, they dispersed into and around the shopping centre and local market giving out hundreds of leaflets in English and Spanish.

Unnoticed by the State and private security who were too intent on defending the bosses’ wares, the banners stayed in place for hours in full view of hundreds of bus passengers from almost every country on the planet on their way to and from their places of exploitation.

Today’s outing, chosen to coincide with the international solidarity date for our Chilean comrades, rather than being a fait accompli is a call to action everywhere, without delay.

SDL and BNP: Smashed out of Glasgow!

22.9.10

A last minute mobilisation of anti-fascists on Sunday saw off both the BNP and the Scottish Defence League, who both attempted to hold separate public activity in Glasgow city centre.

22.9.10

A last minute mobilisation of anti-fascists on Sunday saw off both the BNP and the Scottish Defence League, who both attempted to hold separate public activity in Glasgow city centre.

With fears that the SDL were attempting a ‘flash-mob’ style protest, in the vein of what the EDL organised in Oldham last weekend, SAFA activists were already keeping an eye on the city centre, when they came across the BNP setting up a stall around 1pm.

SAFA activists – plus people from left-wing stalls elsewhere in the city centre – were able to quickly mobilise to confront the BNP. Around 1.45pm, a large number of anti-fascists descended on the stall, which was kicked over and the contents of it torn up or seized. With a large crowd now gathered around, the BNP were left standing beside the ruins of their stall as up to 100 onlookers and anti-fascists chanted at them. The police showed up around 15 minutes later and attempted to gain control of the situation, but in the end were forced to remove the BNP members for their own safety.

Meanwhile, the SDL were beginning to gather in The Goose pub on Union Street. They indicated that they would heading to George Square at 5.30pm, for an assembly at the Cenotaph – their full intentions were unclear. By the time the 15 SDL supporters showed up, around 100 anti-fascists and local youth were gathered in the square. A brief confrontation ensued, with one SDL supporter arrested, alongside a 14 year old, who allegedly threw a punch in the direction of the SDL.

The SDL were denied the use of the Cenotaph, and the police were again forced to step in to remove the fascists from our streets.

All in all, a hugely successful day of direct action against fascism – let’s hope they got the message and don’t return any time soon.

Appalachia Rising: end mountaintop removal mining!

22.9.10

Appalachia Rising is a mass mobilization in Washington, DC, September 25-27, 2010, calling for an end to the devastating practice of mountaintop removal mining.

22.9.10

Appalachia Rising is a mass mobilization in Washington, DC, September 25-27, 2010, calling for an end to the devastating practice of mountaintop removal mining.

Mountaintop removal has already destroyed over 500 of the world’s oldest mountains and more than 2,000 miles of streams, and has contaminated our nation’s waters. Together, we will bring Appalachia’s cry to our nation’s capital: We must end mountaintop removal and transform the economies of Appalachia away from destructive mining practices and toward clean-energy jobs and a sustainable and healthy future.

The weekend includes two full days of strategizing workshops, learning, featured speaker panels and discussions, cultural events, and entertainment. On Monday, September 27, we will march, rally, and support individuals taking part in dignified non-violent civil disobedience against mountaintop removal mining.

Join thousands of Appalachian and national leaders, policymakers, coalfield residents and miners, concerned citizens, activists, mountain groups, environmental justice organizations, and Americans from coast to coast for this momentous movement-building summit, gathering, and call to action. Hear the voices of those most impacted by mountaintop removal coal mining, and let your voice be heard in this movement to offer America hope for a better future.

Shell to Sea campaigners target Shell executives in Ireland

The folks in suits finally got a taste of the conflict they’ve been orchestrating in Co. Mayo, Ireland for the past decade.

The folks in suits finally got a taste of the conflict they’ve been orchestrating in Co. Mayo, Ireland for the past decade. Representatives from Shell and their team of expert witnesses who are presenting the planning application for the Corrib Gas onshore pipeline to the Irish planning board were prevented from leaving the oral hearing Thursday night by protesters from the Rossport Solidarity Camp.

Thursday was a long day for Shell’s expert witnesses, bosses, and executives. The planning board’s oral hearing into the Corrib Gas pipeline has been ongoing in Co. Mayo for the past four weeks, and local residents have been questioning Shell experts on details surrounding the proposed onshore pipeline.

At 10pm, exhausted and with long journeys ahead of them Shell delegates exited the front doors of the hotel to discover that protesters had boarded their bus, holding placards and banners with messages reading “Energy shouldn’t cost the earth”and “Shell: destroying the world, one community at a time.”

At one stage when four high up Shell people tried to leave in a car, two protesters met them at the road and blocked their car with a banner reading “Shell’s lies cost lives.” The annoyed driver attempted to drive through the banner and in the process ran over one person’s foot. No serious injury was sustained and the driver refused to make any apologies for his actions.

After delaying the Shell suits for over an hour, one member of the protest explained that “it was so satisfying to finally see these people at the top, who are never held accountable suddenly be confronted with their own responsibility for this project and the devastation it has caused to the community”

The Crude Awakening: Mass Action- 16.10.10

Mass Action in London to switch off oil

Mass Action in London to switch off oil

Floods in Pakistan – Drought in Russia – Huge glaciers breaking up in Greenland

Our climate system is rapidly sliding into crisis, as oil companies destroy people’s lives and the environment to keep sucking up their profits. Oil saturates every aspect of our lives. Oil profits lubricate the financial markets and its sponsorship clings like a bad smell to our cultural institutions. It flows through pipelines to the pumps, airports and factories of our cities.

The failure of the UN COP15 process showed us – if there was ever any doubt – that government and industry can’t tackle climate change. It’s up to us and it’s time to up the ante. As a movement, our actions against coal and aviation have made a real difference. Now oil’s time is up.

Together, on October 16, let’s give the oil industry a really Crude Awakening.

http://www.crudeawakening.org.uk/