Author: earthfirst

Okanagan Band launches road block to protect their water supply

The Okana­gan Indi­an Band (OIB) launched a “pro­tec­tive block­ade” this morn­ing, Feb­ru­ary 23, at the Okana­gan camp­site near Bouleau Lake in south­ern British Colom­bia.

Okanagan blockade

The Okana­gan Indi­an Band (OIB) launched a “pro­tec­tive block­ade” this morn­ing, Feb­ru­ary 23, at the Okana­gan camp­site near Bouleau Lake in south­ern British Colom­bia.

A mem­ber of the greater Okana­gan Nation, the OIB say they have been left with no choice but to stop the log­ging com­pa­ny Tolko Indus­tries from endan­ger­ing their water sup­ply.

“This is not an action we took light­ly, nor is it one we com­menced with­out exhaust­ing all of our legal options,” states OIB Chief Fabi­an Alex­is, in a recent press state­ment. “How­ev­er giv­en the active col­lu­sion between the Min­istry of Forests and Tolko and the con­tin­ued indif­fer­ence of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment, we had no choice but to act…”

Since at least 2003, the OIB has been seek­ing the legal pro­tec­tion of their water, which is pro­vid­ed by the Browns Creek water­shed. The region has been exten­sive­ly logged for more than forty years; and now, the Okana­gan Peo­ple fear that any fur­ther log­ging will threat­en their health and safe­ty.

“The fact is that when our reserves were first estab­lished it was with the clear under­stand­ing that our water sup­plies would be main­tained for future gen­er­a­tions,” notes Chief Alex­is. “Instead the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment aban­doned its fidu­cia­ry oblig­a­tion and allowed the Province of British Colum­bia to sell off our water rights thus result­ing in a num­ber of fish bear­ing creeks that run through our reserve being reduced to dry gul­lies.”

“Even as these creeks ran dry the province con­tin­ued to autho­rize the indus­tri­al clear cut­ting of the water­sheds that pro­vide our drink­ing water, thus pre­sent­ing a clear threat to the safe­ty and well being of all res­i­dents both indige­nous and non-indige­nous who live on and near our reserve,” he adds.

The OIB is also con­cerned that Tolko will cause irrepara­ble harm to arche­o­log­i­cal sites scat­tered through­out the region. The Okana­gan Nation­al Alliance explains:

“The Brown’s Creek Water­shed is a sacred area of the Okana­gan peo­ple that hous­es archae­o­log­i­cal, eth­no-botan­i­cal and cul­tur­al evi­dence that has been at the heart of lit­i­ga­tion in the Wil­son case since 1999. The lit­i­ga­tion area is sub­ject to a preser­va­tion order issued by Mr. Jus­tice Sig­urd­son, enti­tling the Okana­gan Nation to pre­serve and record evi­dence per­tain­ing to Okana­gan Title. Tolko’s log­ging plans would destroy title evi­dence, dat­ing back as far as 7,500 years and extend­ing into mod­ern times, the Okana­gan Nation have com­mit­ted to ensur­ing that our tra­di­tion­al laws and gov­er­nance sys­tems are upheld for gen­er­a­tions to come. This is our respon­si­bil­i­ty and sacred duty as Syilx (Okana­gan)
Peo­ple.”

Despite the gov­ern­ments aware­ness of this, and the fact that there is ongo­ing lit­i­ga­tion con­cern­ing Abo­rig­i­nal title in the water­shed, on Jan­u­ary 11, the British Colom­bia Supreme Court gave Tolko Indus­tries per­mis­sion to com­mence log­ging in eight sep­a­rate “cutl­bocks”.

Com­ment­ing on the deci­sion, Grand Chief Stew­art Phillip of the Okana­gan Nation Alliance stat­ed that, “the Courts failed to deal with the pro­pri­etary nature of Abo­rig­i­nal Title to the lands and resources with­in the ter­ri­to­ry;” and, that, as a result of the rul­ing, “third par­ty inter­ests are pro­tect­ed at the expense of the community’s drink­ing water, archae­o­log­i­cal his­to­ry and their con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly pro­tect­ed rights.”

Fol­low­ing this, on Feb. 20, the OIB held an emer­gency meet­ing to dis­cuss their options. As a result of the meet­ing, Elders and band mem­bers unan­i­mous­ly agreed to estab­lish check-points on West­side Road, which Tolko has been using with­out the OIB’s per­mis­sion. They also agreed to estab­lish a pro­tec­tive block­ade in the water­shed.

With the block­ade now ongo­ing, Chief Alex­is today declared a full mora­to­ri­um on all log­ging in the water­shed, stat­ing that “no com­mer­cial log­ging will be per­mit­ted in these areas until fur­ther notice.”

“Final­ly, in order to avoid any fur­ther repeat or esca­la­tion of this con­flict we would also advise the Province of British Colum­bia to stop issu­ing cut­ting per­mits in areas where their title to the land is in dis­pute and is still a mat­ter to be resolved by the courts,” Chief Alex­is con­cludes.

What You Can Do

Chief Alex­is is ask­ing peo­ple to call their local MLAs and MPs to express their sup­port for the OIB.

Sup­port­ers are also encour­age to attend the block­ade in per­son. If you’re in the area, a ride can pos­si­bly be arranged by con­tact­ing the Okana­gan Indi­an Band Ter­ri­to­r­i­al Stew­ard­ship Office at (250) 542‑7132.

For more infor­ma­tion please con­tact: Chief Fabi­an Alex­is cell (250) 306‑2838, phone (250) 542‑4328 or Sher­ry Louis, Exec­u­tive Assis­tant Okana­gan Indi­an Band – 12420 West­side Road, Ver­non, BC, V1H 2A4 – okibcouncil@okanagan.org – PH: 250.542.4328 FAX: 250.542.4990

Local Democracy Dumped! — Sizewell nuclear plant blockaded again

22.02.2010
As gov­ern­ment ends flawed con­sul­ta­tion on nuclear pow­er, anti-nuclear pow­er activists step up resis­tance and block­ade Sizewell nuclear pow­er sta­tion in Suf­folk, Eng­land.

Sizewell democracy!22.02.2010
As gov­ern­ment ends flawed con­sul­ta­tion on nuclear pow­er, anti-nuclear pow­er activists step up resis­tance and block­ade Sizewell nuclear pow­er sta­tion in Suf­folk, Eng­land.

Since 6.40am this morn­ing, anti-nuclear pow­er activists from the ‘Peo­ple Pow­er not Nuclear Pow­er Coali­tion’ [1] have been blockad­ing Sizewell pow­er sta­tion in protest against the flawed gov­ern­ment con­sul­ta­tion on nuclear new build, which ends today, and the dump­ing of local democ­ra­cy.

Sizewell is one of ten sites nom­i­nat­ed for nuclear new build; and, togeth­er with Hink­ley in Som­er­set, one of the two most like­ly sites for one of the first new nuclear reac­tors to be built by EDF Ener­gy.

In prepa­ra­tion for new nuclear reac­tors, the gov­ern­ment intro­duced the 2008 Plan­ning Act [2] to lim­it the local plan­ning pro­ce­dure to rel­a­tive­ly unim­por­tant mat­ters, and cen­tralise sit­ing and nuclear design deci­sion on the nation­al lev­el. Today, the seri­ous­ly flawed con­sul­ta­tions end on the Nation­al Pol­i­cy State­ments for ener­gy, includ­ing nuclear pow­er, [3] designed to give the go ahead for ten new nuclear pow­er sta­tions in the UK.

“In order to build new nuclear pow­er sta­tions, gov­ern­ment dumped local democ­ra­cy”, Mell Har­ri­son, 38 from Gelde­ston and a cam­paigns work­er for the Cam­paign for Nuclear Dis­ar­ma­ment (CND) said.

“We are blockad­ing Sizewell today, to show that the gov­ern­ment will not achieve its aim to fast track nuclear pow­er. If local democ­ra­cy is dumped, then non­vi­o­lent direct action will be our answer. Any new build will be met with resis­tance, and this block­ade today is just the begin­ning.”

She con­tin­ued:

“The gov­ern­ment and the nuclear indus­try present nuclear pow­er as low car­bon ener­gy and a neces­si­ty to com­bat cli­mate change; but nuclear pow­er is dan­ger­ous, expen­sive and does not deliv­er any sig­nif­i­cant reduc­tions in car­bon emis­sions. It locks us into a cen­tralised ener­gy sys­tem, and is part of the prob­lem of cli­mate change, not part of the solu­tion.”

“Chip­per”, 44, a male activist from Stop Hink­ley added:

“The gov­ern­ment and the nuclear indus­try approach the prob­lem of nuclear waste with wish­ful think­ing, as the con­clu­sion of the Nation­al Pol­i­cy State­ment for Nuclear Pow­er Gen­er­a­tion shows.” [4]

Andreas Speck, 45, from Lon­don, orig­i­nal­ly from Ger­many, added:

“Just to wish away the prob­lem of nuclear waste is high­ly irre­spon­si­ble. Spent nuclear fuel is high­ly tox­ic and remains radioac­tive for tens of thou­sands of years. Here at Sizewell, a new dry stor­age facil­i­ty is planned, to store spent fuel rods for more than 100 years in casks. How­ev­er, how long these last is unknown, and prob­lems with sim­i­lar casks at Gor­leben in Ger­many after only a few years show that this is no solu­tion. There is no final safe stor­age [for high lev­el radioac­tive waste] in exis­tence any­where in the world. The respon­si­ble thing to do is to shut down all nuclear pow­er sta­tions imme­di­ate­ly and stop pro­duc­ing yet more nuclear waste.” [5]

Notes:

[1] The Peo­ple Pow­er not Nuclear Pow­er Coali­tion is a non-hier­ar­chi­cal cam­paign­ing coali­tion of groups and indi­vid­u­als to pro­mote and encour­age vis­i­ble and effec­tive action against nuclear pow­er in the UK and world­wide, to leave a nuclear-free, safe and healthy envi­ron­ment for future gen­er­a­tions. More infor­ma­tion at: http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com

[2] The Plan­ning Act 2008 intro­duced a new stream-lined sys­tem for deci­sions on appli­ca­tions to build nation­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant infra­struc­ture projects (NSIPs) in Eng­land and Wales. The new sys­tem for nation­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant infra­struc­ture cov­ers appli­ca­tions for major ener­gy gen­er­a­tion, rail­ways, ports, major roads, air­ports and water and waste infra­struc­ture. Nation­al pol­i­cy will be set out by Min­is­ters in a series of Nation­al Pol­i­cy State­ments (NPSs), there­by dump­ing local democ­ra­cy. Fore more infor­ma­tion, see Friends of the Earth:

Plan­ning Act removes demo­c­ra­t­ic deci­sion mak­ing, http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/fair_future/news/planningbill_law_17248.html

[3] For more infor­ma­tion, see Friends of the Earth press release from 22 Jan­u­ary 2010: Legal warn­ing to Gov­ern­ment over ener­gy pol­i­cy state­ments, http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/nps_22012010.html

[4] See para­graph 3.8.20, page 25 of the Draft Nation­al Pol­i­cy State­ment for Nuclear Pow­er Gen­er­a­tion (EN‑6), Novem­ber 2009, https://www.energynpsconsultation.decc.gov.uk/nuclear/nps/

‘Hav­ing con­sid­ered this issue, the Gov­ern­ment is sat­is­fied that effec­tive arrange­ments will exist to man­age and dis­pose of the waste that will be pro­duced from new nuclear pow­er sta­tions. As a result the IPC (Infra­struc­ture Plan­ning Com­mis­sion) need not con­sid­er this ques­tion.’

[5] The exist­ing stor­age facil­i­ty for spent fuel at Sizewell will be full in 2015. In addi­tion, a dry stor­age facil­i­ty is to be built to cre­ate new stor­age capac­i­ty. In there, spent fuel rods will be stored in stor­age casks in a sim­ple 110m stor­age hall with nat­ur­al air cool­ing. Sim­i­lar stor­age casks in Ger­many showed prob­lems with the mon­i­tor­ing of pres­sure after only a few years (see http://www.contratom.de/news/newsanzeige.php?newsid=19588 — in Ger­man)

Activists tak­ing part in this morn­ing’s action include:

- Mell Har­ri­son. 38 from Gelde­ston. Mell works for CND and is a mem­ber of Shut Down Sizewell and the Sizewell Block­aders. She was recent­ly acquit­ted for aggra­vat­ed tress­pass at Sizewell A and B for a block­ade that took place in 2008.

- Andreas Speck, 45, from Lon­don. Andreas works for War Resisters’ Inter­na­tion­al. He was involved in the anti-nuclear pow­er move­ment in Ger­many from the 1980s, until his move to Lon­don.

- “Chip­per”, 44, from Wilt­shire. He is a mem­ber of Stop Hink­ley and CND.

- “Zig­gy”, 39, an artist and his­to­ri­an from Ipswich, Suf­folk. He is a mem­ber of CND and Shut Down Sizewell.

- Helen Swanston, 35, a milliner from Cromer. Helen is a mem­ber of Tri­dent Ploughshares.

- Jus­tus, 23, a stu­dent from Lon­don. He is involved in the Camp for Cli­mate Action.

- Irene Willis, 65, from Wales. Irene is a Sizewell Block­ad­er and a mem­ber of Tri­dent Ploughshares.

- Nicky, 39, an envi­ron­ment edu­ca­tion work­er from Bun­gay. She was also recent­ly acquit­ted fol­low­ing the Sizewell Block­aders’ action at Sizewell in 2008.

Nuclear Peo­ple Pow­er
vd2012-npp [at] yahoo.co.uk
http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com

Updates:

10:44
One of the block­aders, Chip­per, was get­ting the chills after lying in the rain for sev­er­al hours and decid­ed to self release. He was imme­di­ate­ly arrest­ed with­out warn­ing on sus­pi­cion of aggra­vat­ed tres­pass and tak­en to Low­est­oft police sta­tion. The remain­ing block­aders are still in posi­tion as of 10.40am. At least one TV crew is on the scene.

Main­stream cov­er­age: http://bit.ly/d9ALSd

12:10pm

Anoth­er man arrest­ed on sus­pi­cion of aggra­vat­ed tres­pass. Two more block­aders still being cut out of lock-ons by police.

Fol­low on Twit­ter: http://twitter.com/NukePeoplePower

1:20pm

The two remain­ing block­aders (a female in her six­ties and a male in his twen­ties) are still being drilled out of a con­crete block lock-on. The police cut­ting team say it will take them at least anoth­er hour.

The pair have now been in the road for near­ly sev­en hours, in wet, cold con­di­tions.

Twit­ter updates: http://twitter.com/NukePeoplePower

2:40pm

Last block­ad­er just drilled out and arrest­ed after 8 hours in the cold and wet. Four peo­ple arrest­ed in total.

Lat­est update, plus more pics

Approx. 9.30pm on Mon­day evening: The four arrestees are released after being inter­viewed and held in police cus­tody for up to 11 hours. They have been bailed to return to Low­est­oft police sta­tion on 30th March, at 2pm.

More pho­tos from yes­ter­day’s block­ade: http://tinyurl.com/Sizewell22Feb10

Kernow Action Now — Send us Mail

Ker­now Action Now is hap­py to pub­li­cise all actions and com­mu­ni­ty events that edu­cate and inform peo­ple about, or pre­vent, the exploita­tion of the envi­ron­ment and the com­mu­ni­ty.

Ker­now Action Now is hap­py to pub­li­cise all actions and com­mu­ni­ty events that edu­cate and inform peo­ple about, or pre­vent, the exploita­tion of the envi­ron­ment and the com­mu­ni­ty. This includes reports of actions (sent anony­mous­ly) that inflict eco­nom­ic dam­age on those prof­it­ing from the destruc­tion of the envi­ron­ment and the com­mu­ni­ty, and on insti­tu­tions that are clas­sist and exploita­tive, so long as all nec­es­sary pre­cau­tions are tak­en against harm­ing any ani­mal — human or non-human. We do not sup­port and will not pub­li­cise actions that are racist, sex­ist or homo­pho­bic.

To con­tact us, send us use­ful infor­ma­tion or leaflets, write to:

KAN
c/o Unit 1356
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL

http://kernowaction.wordpress.com

Zapatistas reclaim Mother Earth

On 6th Feb­ru­ary 230 civil­ian Zap­atis­tas took part in an action to retake con­trol of their reclaimed lands at Bolon Ajaw, Chi­a­pas, Mex­i­co, which had been invad­ed and tak­en over since 20 Jan­u­ary by the para­mil­i­tary group OPDDIC, report the human rights group Fray Bar­tolome de Las Casas.

Zapatista solidarity grafittiOn 6th Feb­ru­ary 230 civil­ian Zap­atis­tas took part in an action to retake con­trol of their reclaimed lands at Bolon Ajaw, Chi­a­pas, Mex­i­co, which had been invad­ed and tak­en over since 20 Jan­u­ary by the para­mil­i­tary group OPDDIC, report the human rights group Fray Bar­tolome de Las Casas. The 25 Zap­atista fam­i­lies of Bolon Ajaw, part of autonomous munic­i­pal­i­ty Coman­dan­ta Ramona, were giv­en sol­i­dar­i­ty by Zap­atis­tas from fur­ther afield.

The human rights activists of Fray Bar­tolome present a detailed report which dis­miss­es claims by the state gov­ern­ment, OPDDIC and the mass media that on 6th Feb­ru­ary the Zap­atis­tas shot at OPDDIC mem­bers, killing one and injur­ing oth­ers. On the con­trary, report Fray Bartholomew, it was OPDDIC who at least four times opened fire on the Zap­atis­tas, wound­ing three Zap­atis­tas, includ­ing a six­teen year old.

Fray Bartholomew (Fray­ba) con­firm that the OPDDIC mem­ber killed and those wound­ed were shot by mis­take by fel­low OPDDIC mem­bers, as two dif­fer­ent OPDDIC groups opened fire on the inhab­i­tants of Bolon Ajaw, from oppo­site sides of the vil­lage. OPDDIC, linked to the PRI — the Insti­tu­tion­al Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Par­ty which gov­erned Mex­i­co for many decades — have been involved in numer­ous attacks and harass­ment of Zap­atista com­mu­ni­ties over recent years.

Fray­ba give a detailed account of the sev­er­al clash­es which occurred dur­ing the day. Actions includ­ed the Zap­atis­tas repuls­ing an attempt by OPDDIC to retake the land, and the Zap­atis­tas break­ing out of an armed ambush and encir­clement by OPDDIC in order to go to the aid of the inhab­i­tants of Bolon Ajaw, who were being shot at by OPDDIC gun­men.

The Zap­atista Good Gov­ern­ment Coun­cil based at More­lia has also issued a full state­ment http://www.edinchiapas.org.uk/node/266 . This details the attacks by the OPDDIC para­mil­i­taries, nam­ing names, and hold­ing all three lev­els of gov­ern­ment — local, Chi­a­pas state, and the nation­al fed­er­al gov­ern­ment — respon­si­ble for the attacks against the indige­nous peo­ple and their lands. The state­ment describes how on 6th Feb­ru­ary OPDDIC shot at unarmed Zap­atis­tas, seri­ous­ly wound­ing one man in the stom­ach, how they com­plete­ly destroyed a Zap­atis­ta’s home, and smashed up sacred objects in the Bolon Ajaw church.

The Zap­atis­tas stress their will­ing­ness to hold talks over the prob­lems:
‘We, the Coun­cil of Good Gov­ern­ment, have nev­er closed the door on find­ing a good solu­tion to prob­lems, we always show good will..’

HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN

The Fray­ba inves­ti­ga­tion empha­sis­es that gov­ern­ment plans for major tourist devel­op­ments at the renowned local water­falls lie behind the attacks on the Zap­atis­tas. Near­by Agua Azul Falls are already heav­i­ly pro­mot­ed, fea­tur­ing in inter­na­tion­al tourist guides such as Lone­ly Plan­et, and Bolon Ajaw counts with five more as yet unde­vel­oped Falls which are even more beau­ti­ful.

These pro­posed devel­op­ments are part of a much big­ger tourist devel­op­ment plan. Enor­mous inter­ests are at stake in the Palenque CIP project, which cov­ers six munic­i­pal­i­ties in the north of Chi­a­pas around the world-famous Mayan tem­ples of Palenque. The state gov­ern­ment of Chi­a­pas is due to invest half of the mon­ey involved, the bal­ance pre­sum­ably com­ing from pri­vate invest­ment. The Project has been in devel­op­ment since 2007, and a major exten­sion of Palenque air­port is due this year.

The CIP Project empha­sis­es spe­cial­ist and lux­u­ry tourism, and long-stay vis­i­tors. A nat­ur­al theme park is planned for the Agua Azul Water­falls, with com­mer­cial areas and sig­nif­i­cant accom­mo­da­tion for ‘eco’, adven­ture and sport­ing tourism. But, inter­na­tion­al con­sul­tants point out, ‘before attract­ing invest­ment the State must find a solu­tion to the prob­lems of acquir­ing the land and the prob­lems of access.’

In oth­er words, for the state and busi­ness inter­ests, the Zap­atis­tas and their deter­mi­na­tion to defend Moth­er Earth are ‘a prob­lem’ stand­ing in the way of the real­i­sa­tion of mul­ti-mil­lion tourist invest­ments.

These planned tourist devel­op­ments are close­ly linked to a new high­way through Chi­a­pas, which threat­ens a num­ber of com­mu­ni­ties on its route from the colo­nial tourist cen­tre of San Cristo­bal de Las Casas to the mag­nif­i­cent Mayan tem­ples at Palenque. As well as Bolon Ajaw, the com­mu­ni­ties of San Sebas­t­ian Bacha­jon http://www.edinchiapas.org.uk/node/235 , near Bolon Ajaw, and Mitzi­ton near San Cristo­bal, both adher­ents to the Zap­atista-ini­ti­at­ed Oth­er Cam­paign, are among the com­mu­ni­ties resist­ing the new high­way in the face of state and para­mil­i­tary oppres­sion.

Fray Bar­tolome denounce the Chi­a­pas State author­i­ties for try­ing to blame the Zap­atis­tas and the Oth­er Cam­paign sup­port­ers of San Sebas­t­ian Bacha­jon for the vio­lence. They accuse the author­i­ties of ‘gen­er­at­ing the
con­di­tions for a mil­i­tary inter­ven­tion ordered by the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment against the civil­ian pop­u­la­tion.’

The lands at Bolon Ajaw were reclaimed by the Zap­atis­tas in the after­math of the 1994 upris­ing. Till then they had been in the hands of pri­vate own­ers who bru­tal­ly exploit­ed the local indige­nous peo­ple. Fray­ba detail the numer­ous attacks by OPDDIC on the Zap­atis­tas since 2003.

DEFENDING MOTHER EARTH

These lat­est events at Bolon Ajaw are note­wor­thy not only for the scale of the threats fac­ing the Zap­atis­tas, but for the exem­plary sol­i­dar­i­ty, courage, self-organ­i­sa­tion and self-dis­ci­pline dis­played by the Zap­atis­tas in tak­ing col­lec­tive direct action to defend ‘Moth­er Earth and its nat­ur­al resources’.

In Bolon Ajaw, in Montes Azules http://www.edinchiapas.org.uk/node/263 , in Mitzi­ton, in Sebas­t­ian Bacha­jon, in Chico­muse­lo http://www.edinchiapas.org.uk/node/262 and through­out Chi­a­pas and Mex­i­co a
war is being waged by the state, para­mil­i­taries and big busi­ness to once more rob the indige­nous and poor peas­ant peo­ples of their land and destroy Moth­er Earth for mon­ey.

In Chi­a­pas, and also in oth­er Mex­i­can states like Oax­a­ca and Guer­rero, the peas­ant and indige­nous peo­ples’ resis­tance and strug­gle for auton­o­my con­tin­ues — inter­na­tion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty is need­ed.

As the Fray Bar­tolome cen­tre state:
‘We issue an URGENT call to civ­il soci­ety, in Mex­i­co and inter­na­tion­al­ly, to all those com­mit­ted to the defence of human rights, to come out and denounce the clear increase in the actions of vio­lence against the civil­ian, peace­ful process of auton­o­my being devel­oped by the Zap­atista bases of sup­port and their Coun­cils of Good Gov­ern­ments which are civ­il author­i­ties.’

NOTES

If inter­est­ed in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Zap­atis­tas and peo­ple of Chi­a­pas and Mex­i­co con­tact Edin­burgh Chi­a­pas Sol­i­dar­i­ty Group edinchiapas@yahoo.co.uk
www.edinchiapas.org.uk
Plus UK Zap­atista site http://ukzapatistas.wordpress.com/
There have already been sol­i­dar­i­ty actions in var­i­ous towns and cities in the Span­ish State and in Mex­i­co.

Full state­ment by Zap­atista Coun­cil of Good Gov­ern­ment of More­lia on the events at Bolon Ajaw on 6th Feb­ru­ary, in Eng­lish http://www.edinchiapas.org.uk/node/266

Fray Bar­tolome site, info in eng­lish
http://www.frayba.org.mx/index.php?hl=en

Reg­u­lar reports from Chi­a­pas, main­ly Span­ish, some Eng­lish, on Indy­media Chi­a­pas
www.chiapas.indymedia.org

Full report by Fray Bar­tolome human rights group on the events at Bolon Ajaw on 6th Feb­ru­ary, in Span­ish
http://chiapas.indymedia.org/article_173362

Let­ter of protest to Mex­i­can gov­ern­ment about the evic­tion of Zap­atista com­mu­ni­ty in Montes Azules, Chi­a­pas, in Span­ish
http://www.europazapatista.org/spip.php?article2409

More info and protest let­ter in Eng­lish can be found at:
http://glasgowchiapassolidaritygroup.wordpress.com

New eco village starting soon in London

20.02.2010
Fol­low­ing the evic­tion threat to Kew eco vil­lage, there will be a new eco vil­lage set up in Lon­don. A new site has already been locat­ed. Peo­ple are need­ed to help set it up. A cou­ple of oth­er sites have also been locat­ed in case the cho­sen site gets blocked off before we can occu­py it. No details of the loca­tion can be giv­en at this stage.

20.02.2010
Fol­low­ing the evic­tion threat to Kew eco vil­lage, there will be a new eco vil­lage set up in Lon­don. A new site has already been locat­ed. Peo­ple are need­ed to help set it up. A cou­ple of oth­er sites have also been locat­ed in case the cho­sen site gets blocked off before we can occu­py it. No details of the loca­tion can be giv­en at this stage.

Full details of the site will be post­ed on here with­in a cou­ple of weeks when the eco vil­lage is set up. But first peo­ple are need­ed to help out with it.

Con­tact diggers360@yahoo.co.uk for more details and to get involved.

Construction equipment destruction — Lancaster, PA

Lan­cast­er police are seek­ing the public’s help in find­ing the van­dals who caused about $30,000 dam­age to some heavy equip­ment near a con­struc­tion site over the week­end.

The van­dals spray-paint­ed mes­sages, broke win­dows, cut engine wires and did oth­er dam­age to a bull­doz­er and an exca­va­tor on Pave­ment Road near Nichter Road, police said.

Lan­cast­er police are seek­ing the public’s help in find­ing the van­dals who caused about $30,000 dam­age to some heavy equip­ment near a con­struc­tion site over the week­end.

The van­dals spray-paint­ed mes­sages, broke win­dows, cut engine wires and did oth­er dam­age to a bull­doz­er and an exca­va­tor on Pave­ment Road near Nichter Road, police said.

The inci­dent, dis­cov­ered Sun­day, appar­ent­ly occurred some time between Fri­day night and Sun­day.

http://www.buffalonews.com/437/story/959258.html

Disruption to 350 Road Projects in Chhattisgarh, India

Maoists Hold up Road Con­struc­tion in Chhat­tis­garh

Maoists Hold up Road Con­struc­tion in Chhat­tis­garh

Raipur, Oct 19 – Maoist guer­ril­las have held up con­struc­tion work at more than 350 road sites in Bas­tar region of Chhat­tis­garh, an offi­cial said Mon­day. ‘At least 350 road con­struc­tion projects under Prime Minister’s Rur­al Roads Scheme were held up in Maoist vio­lence-hit Bas­tar region, main­ly in Dan­te­wa­da, Bijapur and Kanker dis­tricts. It is dif­fi­cult to con­tin­ue the work due to vio­lence,’ an offi­cial in pan­chay­at and rur­al devel­op­ment depart­ment told IANS. The projects amount­ed to Rs.1,000 crore (Rs.10 bil­lion).

The con­trac­tors had told dis­trict police author­i­ties that they were find­ing it dif­fi­cult to car­ry on con­struc­tion work due to Maoist inter­ven­tion. Accord­ing to police, Maoist guer­ril­las had set ablaze at least 65 vehi­cles this year alone in Bas­tar that were engaged in road con­struc­tion projects. Sev­er­al offi­cials and work­ers who were car­ry­ing out con­struc­tion work were abduct­ed by the rebels and set free only after they guar­an­teed not to return to work.

Experts say Maoist guer­ril­las are hold­ing up rur­al road con­struc­tion projects as they do not want the infra­struc­ture be built up in the inte­ri­ors as it will give easy access to police and para­mil­i­tary forces to the forest­ed areas.….

http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/maoists-disrupt-construction-of-350-road-projects-in-chhattisgarh/

Support the Local Campaign Against Bradley Proposed Open-cast

This years EF! win­ter moot was held in Dip­ton Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, which looks over the pro­posed site for an open-cast at Bradley. Mem­bers of the local cam­paign against the mine have asked if peo­ple who attend­ed the moot, (as well as those who did­n’t) would write in their objec­tion to the devel­op­ment.

This years EF! win­ter moot was held in Dip­ton Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, which looks over the pro­posed site for an open-cast at Bradley. Mem­bers of the local cam­paign against the mine have asked if peo­ple who attend­ed the moot, (as well as those who did­n’t) would write in their objec­tion to the devel­op­ment.

UK Coal’s appli­ca­tion is expect­ed to be heard by the plan­ning offi­cials in the near future. The local cam­paign would appre­ci­ate it if peo­ple would write in let­ters of objec­tion to the fol­low­ing address, stat­ing the APPLICATION No. CMA/1/37

Mrs C.L.Teasdale
Plannng Devel­op­ment Con­trol Team
Regen­er­a­tion and Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment
Durham Coun­ty Coun­cil
Durham
DH1 5UQ

Appar­ent­ly let­ters hold more weight if you say that you have vis­it­ed the area.

The facts about this pro­posed mine:
UK Coal has applied to sur­face mine 556,000 tonnes of coal from a coal seem cov­er­ing 22,000 acres.
The cur­rent ver­sion of the appli­ca­tion is has not yet gone to the Plan­ning Author­i­ty.
The appli­ca­tion is being resist­ed by The Pont Val­ley Net­work www.pontvalley.net
If the appli­ca­tion goes ahead the res­i­dents are par­tic­u­lar­ly con­cerned about the loss of their her­itage sites.
The final des­ti­na­tion for the coal is either the steel indus­try or a pow­er sta­tion gen­er­at­ing elec­tric­i­ty.
Burn­ing this coal will release over 2 mil­lion tonnes of CO2 being released into the atmos­phere.
UK coal say the mine will cre­ate 38 jobs. Mr Cory of UK Coal says that there will be no new jobs but peo­ple will be trans­ferred to this site.
The mine will need 3 lor­ry trips per hour, each way.
UK coal and oth­er sur­face min­ing com­pa­nies have appli­ca­tions at the plan­ning stages for a fur­ther 13 mines in the area and a fur­ther 5 have been grant­ed in the area.
The near­est planned site also cur­rent­ly at the plan­ning stages is Skons Park, which Hall con­struc­tion are apply­ing to extract half a mil­lion tonnes of coal fire clay. This appli­ca­tion was last refused in 2007 but Halls have since reap­plied this year.

The Bradley site is 10 miles south of New­cas­tle in a beau­ti­ful area. The pro­posed site can be seen from New­cas­tle and Cheviot on a clear day. A mine would scar the land­scape; cause habi­tat destruc­tion which would affect many species, includ­ing Great Crest­ed Newts and Red Kites; con­tribute to glob­al warm­ing; increase traf­fic local­ly and destroy the remains of wag­on-ways and bell pit and shaft mines in the area. Res­i­dents are also con­cerned that if the mine is giv­en the go ahead then they will see fur­ther exten­sions applied for and grant­ed.

For more infor­ma­tion about the site and to add strength to let­ters of objec­tion please see http://pontvalley.net under NOTT cam­paign on the left hand side.

attempt to arrest whalers — Sea Shepherd captain abducted — crocodile assault

Feb­ru­ary 15 2010
Cap­tain Pete Bethune Boards Shonan Maru 2 to Arrest Japan­ese Skip­per

At 0629 Hours (Perth Time), New Zealand Cap­tain Pete Bethune of the recent­ly sunk Sea Shep­herd ves­sel Ady Gil breached the Japan­ese gov­ern­ment secu­ri­ty ship Shonan Maru 2 and suc­cess­ful­ly board­ed the ves­sel under cov­er of dark­ness.

'Crocodile egg' attackFeb­ru­ary 15 2010
Cap­tain Pete Bethune Boards Shonan Maru 2 to Arrest Japan­ese Skip­per

At 0629 Hours (Perth Time), New Zealand Cap­tain Pete Bethune of the recent­ly sunk Sea Shep­herd ves­sel Ady Gil breached the Japan­ese gov­ern­ment secu­ri­ty ship Shonan Maru 2 and suc­cess­ful­ly board­ed the ves­sel under cov­er of dark­ness.

His mis­sion is to attempt a citizen’s arrest of the skip­per of the Shonan Maru 2 for the destruc­tion of the Ady Gil and attempt­ed mur­der of the six Ady Gil crewmem­bers.

At 0600 Hours, Cap­tain Bethune (of New Zealand) left the Sea Shep­herd ship Steve Irwin on a Jet Ski dri­ven Lar­ry Rout­ledge (of Great Britain).

The Jet Ski lay in wait for the Shonan Maru 2 to approach. With the Japan­ese ves­sel mak­ing 14 knots through the water, Rout­ledge maneu­vered the Jet Ski into posi­tion under the anti-board­ing spikes along the port side of the Shonan Maru 2.

Cap­tain Bethune made the jump and climbed onboard the whal­ing ship with­out being noticed. Cap­tain Bethune is present­ly onboard the Shonan Maru 2 await­ing sun­rise to make his pres­ence known.

Cap­tain Bethune also has a bill for $3 mil­lion dol­lars to present to the Mas­ter of the Shonan Maru 2. The bill is for the cost of replac­ing the Ady Gil.

Cap­tain Bethune will be demand­ing that the Shonan Maru 2 Cap­tain sur­ren­der him­self to Sea Shep­herd or take his ship to the near­est Aus­tralian or New Zealand port to turn him­self in to legal author­i­ties.

Cap­tain Bethune will make it clear that he does not wish to return to a Sea Shep­herd ship with­out the Cap­tain of the Shonan Maru 2.

Sea Shep­herd antic­i­pates that the Japan­ese will hold Cap­tain Bethune as pris­on­er onboard the Shonan Maru 2.

“This was an impos­si­ble mis­sion,” said Cap­tain Paul Wat­son. “Cap­tain Bethune board­ed a Japan­ese whal­ing fleet secu­ri­ty ship at high speed in total dark­ness, breached the spikes and anti-board­ing nets and is present­ly onboard and the Japan­ese crew are still not aware that he is there. He is there to demand jus­tice for the sink­ing of his ship.”

—

Japan Takes A Pris­on­er In their Cru­sade to Plun­der the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary

The Japan­ese gov­ern­ment has said they will have Cap­tain Peter Bethune of New Zealand tak­en to Japan to be tried on unknown charges in a Japan­ese court.

The Sea Shep­herd Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety and Cap­tain Peter Bethune were pre­pared for this pos­si­bil­i­ty pri­or to the board­ing of the Shonan Maru #2 by Cap­tain Bethune.

“Cap­tain Peter Bethune’s $3 mil­lion dol­lar ves­sel the Ady Gil was rammed, sunk and destroyed by the Cap­tain of the Shonan Maru #2. The inci­dent injured one of the six crewmem­bers and could have killed all six,” said Cap­tain Paul Wat­son, “Cap­tain Bethune was entire­ly in his rights to con­front the man who almost killed him and destroyed his ship. And now this same Japan­ese cap­tain who destroyed a ship almost killing its crew is intent on bring­ing Cap­tain Bethune back to Japan as his cap­tive. The ques­tion must be asked — who are the pirates here?”

The Sea Shep­herd Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety sees this as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to ral­ly sup­port for Cap­tain Peter Bethune in New Zealand and Aus­tralia. These Japan­ese poach­ers plun­der the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary with impuni­ty and now they are haul­ing a coura­geous Kiwi hero to the Land of the Ris­ing Sun to cru­ci­fy him for defend­ing the whales.

Cap­tain Peter Bethune is no longer just a man who set a world record in boat­ing and had the courage to defend the whales. He will now be the very sym­bol of the cit­i­zens of New Zealand and Aus­tralia and their love for the great whales.

The last time a Kiwi was tak­en pris­on­er to Japan was in their great war of impe­ri­al­ism when they attempt­ed to enslave both Aus­tralia and New Zealand. They have now returned to plun­der Aus­tralian and New Zealand waters and once again they are arro­gant­ly flaunt­ing the law and tak­ing pris­on­ers.

“I don’t think that Aus­tralian and New Zealan­ders are going to tol­er­ate the abuse of Peter Bethune by the thugs from Japan who annu­al­ly plun­der the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary for prof­it in the name of research,” said Steve Irwin Chief Cook Lau­ra Dakin of Can­ber­ra.

“If the Japan­ese put Peter Bethune on tri­al in Japan, it will be a case that will draw the atten­tion of the world,” said Cap­tain Paul Wat­son, “What is the Japan­ese gov­ern­ment think­ing? The per­se­cu­tion of Cap­tain Peter Bethune will a ral­ly­ing point for an inter­na­tion­al cam­paign to free Cap­tain Bethune and to end the bru­tal ille­gal slaugh­ter of the whales in the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary.

—

Steve Irwin Launch­es Croc Assault on the Japan­ese Whal­ing Fleet

Crikey! And now for some­thing com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent.

The Sea Shep­herd Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety always likes to inject a lit­tle humor into our cam­paigns and today we decid­ed to do just that.

As a trib­ute to the late and leg­endary Steve Irwin for whom the Sea Shep­herd flag­ship is named, the crew of the Steve Irwin deliv­ered dozens of croc­o­dile eggs onto the flens­ing deck of the Nis­shin Maru.

Each of these eggs was spon­sored by Sea Shep­herd sup­port­ers on shore who paid $50 to inscribe a mes­sage on the out­side of the egg. When these eggs make con­tact with water, a baby croc­o­dile emerges from the egg and expands rapid­ly.

A few of the eggs were signed with mes­sages from Ter­ri, Bin­di and Robert Irwin.

“I can­not think of any­thing more appro­pri­ate for the Steve Irwin to toss onto the bloody flens­ing decks of the Nis­shin Maru than croc­o­dile eggs and baby crocs.” Said Cap­tain Paul Wat­son.

Of course these baby crocs and their eggs are not real. We can just see the Japan­ese try­ing to accuse Sea Shep­herd of cru­el­ty to ani­mals for this action and they prob­a­bly will since they can’t seem to tell the dif­fer­ence between fact and fic­tion.

“Before his trag­ic death Steve want­ed to join us in our efforts to defend the whales in the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary,” said Cap­tain Paul Wat­son. “Because of that, we asked Ter­ri Irwin for per­mis­sion to name our ship in his hon­our.”

The croc deliv­ery went very well. Japan­ese water can­nons pro­vid­ed the mois­ture to crack the eggs and to release the expand­ing crocs onto the deck of the Nis­shin Maru.

“Steve would have loved this,” said 3rd Offi­cer Vin­cent Hayes of Williamstown, Vic­to­ria.

So down here in the South­ern Ocean today — Crocs rule!

We love you Steve!

Bath Black Cat occupied social centre moves again!!

15.2.10
For 6 months, the Black Cat has been pro­vid­ing Bath with a lib­er­at­ed com­mu­ni­ty space fea­tur­ing a rad­i­cal library, freeshop, cafe, debt advice cen­tre, and dozens of film nights, meet­ings, activ­i­ties and work­shops .

15.2.10
For 6 months, the Black Cat has been pro­vid­ing Bath with a lib­er­at­ed com­mu­ni­ty space fea­tur­ing a rad­i­cal library, freeshop, cafe, debt advice cen­tre, and dozens of film nights, meet­ings, activ­i­ties and work­shops .

UPDATE — After a brief stay at 63 West Avenue, the Black Cat, Baths only occu­pied social cen­tre has moved on to a big­ger and bet­ter build­ing. The loca­tion will be secret for the next week or so, but to get involved in help­ing pre­pare the space, or to drop by and check it out, drop us an email at bathsocialcentre@googlemail.com and keep check­ing out the Black Cat blogspot (www.blackcatcentre.blogspot.com) for more info.