Author: earthfirst

London squatting news

Non Com­mer­cial House is Back!

Non Com­mer­cial House is Back!

The Non Com­mer­cial House was a squat­ted autonomous space on 165 Com­mer­cial Street, Lon­don, E1. The project  con­sist­ed of a giant Free Shop for peo­ple to share, recy­cle what they dont need and take what they need. After sev­er­al attempts that were resist­ed, the space was final­ly evict­ed on 30th Novem­ber 2009 by high court bailiffs, on behalf of the own­er The City of Lon­don. 

But the place has been tak­en back!! and on Sat­ur­day 16th of Jan­u­ary there was the Grand Re-Open­ing. Apart from the FreeShop itself and some free food and loads of cup­pas, there was also skill­shar­ing ses­sions and some music in the evening to enjoy the space at its best. [Event]

“We live in a soci­ety of over con­sump­tion and waste. Non Com­mer­cial House aims to offer an alter­na­tive based upon coop­er­a­tion, mutu­al respect and sus­tain­able liv­ing. It is not only about objects but about shar­ing!”

Address: 165 Com­mer­cial Street E1 (next to Bish­ops­gate, Liv­er­pool st tube sta­tion)
Email: noncommercialhouse..at..riseup.net
Web­site: http://london.indymedia.org.uk/groups/non-commercial-house

Chil­dren are very wel­come with­in the space. We are hop­ing to have a kids sec­tion of the free shop with free toys / clothes and hold fam­i­ly friend­ly events. The ground floor is wheel­chair acces­si­ble. How­ev­er, the only toi­let in the build­ing is on the top floor and not.

This is a non-prof­it, non-hier­ar­chi­cal space open to all and your input is val­ued so drop by some time to get involved and let us know what your ideas / thoughts are.

The Non Com­mer­cial House col­lec­tive

Email Con­tact: noncommercialhouse@riseup.net

——

100 flow­ers [Bel­grade Road] evict­ed
19 Jan­u­ary 2010

The 100 flow­ers squat on Bel­grade Road [Hack­ney] has been evict­ed this morn­ing

There were about 30 peo­ple out­side, and a num­ber of peo­ple inside the place which had been bar­ri­cat­ed.

Sev­er­al vans of riot cops came [in full gear] and even­tu­al­ly man­aged to remove the peo­ple out­side, before break­ing in and evict­ing the place.

No arrests that Im aware of.

Mainshill Eviction Date Given: Monday 25th January & research about expansion of open-cast mining in Britain

Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp has received a reli­able tip-off that the site will be evict­ed on Mon­day the 25th of Jan­u­ary.

Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp has received a reli­able tip-off that the site will be evict­ed on Mon­day the 25th of Jan­u­ary.

We’re tak­ing this tip-off seri­ous­ly and are prepar­ing to resist any attempts to remove us from the area. Main­shill has stood in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the local com­mu­ni­ty of Dou­glas for sev­en months and we’re not about to sur­ren­der to the wish­es of fat cat land­lords, scot­tish coal, or cor­rupt coun­cil­lors any time soon!

Please come help us defend the woods! Come to the pre-evic­tion Gath­er­ing and find out how to get involved

For more info: http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/

For more info about com­ing to site please ring 07806926040.

——

150 NEW OPENCAST MINES ON THE CARDS FOR THE UK BETWEEN NOW AND 2025 CLAIMS NEW REPORT FROM THE MINORCA OPENCAST PROTEST GROUP

To meet Britain’s ener­gy needs between now and 2025 a new study under­tak­en for the Minor­ca Open­cast Protest Group argues that they are unlike­ly to be the only local­i­ty in the UK to expe­ri­ence the prospect of an open­cast mine on their doorstep. This new report “Open­cast / Sur­face Min­ing: It’s Role in Pro­vid­ing UK Ener­gy Secu­ri­ty” sug­gests that ten new open­cast sites a year will need to gain plan­ning per­mis­sion between now and 2025, mak­ing 150 sites in all, if tar­gets to ensure Britain’s Ener­gy Secu­ri­ty are to be met. Using Gov­ern­ment and Coal Indus­try data the report high­lights the fol­low­ing:

• Most British coal is already pro­duced by open­cast meth­ods.

• In future, of an expect­ed 20m tonne British coal pro­duc­tion, 10 ‑12m tonnes ini­tial­ly is expect­ed to be from cur­rent and future open­cast mines, pos­si­bly ris­ing to a 100% open­cast pro­duc­tion in the 2020’s.

• How­ev­er there are no cur­rent pro­jec­tions for the need for coal if CCS tech­nol­o­gy does not prove itself to be viable prac­ti­cal­ly or com­mer­cial­ly.

• Nor do cur­rent esti­mates for the demand for coal take account of the pos­si­bil­i­ty of devel­op­ing new tech­nolo­gies that use coal such as Under­ground Coal Gasi­fi­ca­tion.

• Only sev­en deep mine are left work­ing in Eng­land.

• No new deep mine is like­ly with­out a pub­lic sub­sidy.

• Unless new invest­ment is under­tak­en the exist­ing deep mines have a lim­it­ed life and all could be closed by the end of the next decade.

• To ensure ener­gy secu­ri­ty, a mix of ener­gy sources includ­ing pre­dom­i­nate­ly open­cast British coal is need­ed accord­ing to the Gov­ern­ment.

• That the Coal Author­i­ty, respon­si­ble for pro­mot­ing and safe­guard­ing coal, argued in 2006 that to ensure ener­gy secu­ri­ty, 10 new ‘low impact’ open­cast mines would be need­ed a year for the fore­see­able future.

• In the opin­ion of those opposed to open­cast min­ing, by increas­ing­ly rely­ing on open­cast coal to pro­vide ener­gy secu­ri­ty for the UK the Gov­ern­ment are con­don­ing the cre­ation of new coal sup­plies by meth­ods which are not only extreme­ly envi­ron­men­tal­ly destruc­tive but will blight the lives of thou­sands of peo­ple over the next 15 years. Coal pro­duced by such meth­ods. ‘Clean’ coal? It is hard­ly that.

• Numer­ous areas of the UK are at risk of being the vic­tims of open­cast min­ing in the future, 9 coun­ties in Eng­land, 10 in Scot­land, 3 in Wales and 1 in North­ern Ire­land. In addi­tion 21 uni­tary author­i­ties across Eng­land Scot­land and Wales could also be affect­ed.

This, the sec­ond of MOPG’s Research Reports reach­es these con­clu­sions after under­tak­ing exten­sive research and analysing the results. It claims to be the first report of its kind on Britain’s Ener­gy Pol­i­cy writ­ten from the per­spec­tive of those who oppose open­cast min­ing.

Steve Leary, the Report’s author and MOPG Spokesper­son said

“This report demon­strates that those oppos­ing the Minor­ca appli­ca­tion in Leices­ter­shire are not just engaged in a ‘Nim­by’ issue. Oppos­ing the Minor­ca appli­ca­tion rais­es sig­nif­i­cant ques­tions about the future ener­gy pol­i­cy the Gov­ern­ment is being locked into – a grow­ing reliance on open­cast coal pro­duc­tion. MOPG is to ask the House of Com­mons Select Com­mit­tee on Ener­gy and Cli­mate Change to enquire fur­ther on the find­ings of this report and to ask ques­tions about whether cur­rent pol­i­cy is worth the des­e­cra­tion of 10 new open­cast sites a year for the fore­see­able future.”
Minorca Opencast Protest Group logo
This 32 page report can be down­loaded from the fol­low­ing web page:
http://www.leicestershirevillages.com/measham/mopg-reports.html
It will be avail­able on the MOPG web site short­ly at this site address
http://mopg.co.uk/MOPG-Research-Reports.php

Philippine community blocks entry of large mining firm

Jan­u­ary 19, 2010
The com­mu­ni­ty of Anis­la­gan on the island of Min­danao has suc­cess­ful­ly blocked the Philex min­ing com­pa­ny from enter­ing their lands.

Anislagan vs PhilexJan­u­ary 19, 2010
The com­mu­ni­ty of Anis­la­gan on the island of Min­danao has suc­cess­ful­ly blocked the Philex min­ing com­pa­ny from enter­ing their lands.

Accord­ing to a press release from the Legal Rights and Nat­ur­al Resources Cen­ter-Kasama sa Kalikasan (LRC-CdO), near­ly the entire com­mu­ni­ty gath­ered to greet Philex, the largest min­ing firm in the Philip­pines, with a makeshift check­point they put togeth­er, on Jan­u­ary 11, 2010.

The com­pa­ny was plan­ning to com­mence work on a “liveli­hood train­ing cen­ter.” How­ev­er, “The Philex 6‑vehicle con­voy backed out after they failed to pass through the thou­sand res­i­dents of Anis­la­gan,” states the LRC-CdO.

To rein­force the check­point, the com­mu­ni­ty formed into a human a human bar­ri­cade, leav­ing the com­pa­ny with nowhere else to go

“Women and chil­dren here are ready any­time to defend our land. This land is where we sur­vived. We should fight for it!” said Riza­li­na Lis­bos, a moth­er of four, who was on the front line of the bar­ri­cade.

Pro­vid­ing some back­ground, the LRC-CdO explains: “Philex start­ed its actu­al min­ing oper­a­tion in the adja­cent Barangay (vil­lage) of Tima­mana, Tubod, Suri­gao del Norte in the 1st quar­ter of 2009. Philex’s oper­a­tion in Tubod, also known as the ‘Bayu­go Project’, start­ed as ear­ly as 1999 for their explo­ration activ­i­ties. There was strong oppo­si­tion from the Tubod peo­ple until the min­ing com­pa­ny start­ed their com­mu­ni­ty rela­tions projects, like liveli­hood, drainage improve­ment, sports activ­i­ties etc. After that peo­ple start­ed to begrudg­ing­ly agree to the min­ing project.”

“How­ev­er, the adja­cent vil­lage of Anis­la­gan sus­tained their oppo­si­tion to min­ing for almost ten years, led by Anis­la­gan Ban­tay Kalikasan Task Force (ABAKATAF), which is com­posed of mul­ti-sec­toral and inter­faith groups in the vil­lage.”

“Anis­la­gan pro­vides irri­ga­tion to rice field in their vil­lage and to adja­cent villages.We don’t need a liveli­hood train­ing cen­ter inside our vil­lage from a min­ing com­pa­ny. What for?” states Mr. Ormega, the new pres­i­dent of ABAKATAF. “We have an exist­ing self-sus­tain­ing and com­mu­ni­ty liveli­hood here. The min­ing com­pa­ny already affect­ed our irri­ga­tion, our rivers, and even to our water sup­ply from their Bayu­go project and now they are propos­ing a liveli­hood cen­ter.”

If the pro­posed “liveli­hood cen­ter” is the insult, than the min­ing project is the injury—and its bit­ter­ly iron­ic: If min­ing in the region goes ahead as planned, it would destroy the com­mu­ni­ties’ liveli­hood and their nat­ur­al resources.

For more infor­ma­tion, please vis­it: http://saveanislaganwatershed.blogspot.com and http://lrcksk.org

Drilling-Rig Sabotaged at Mainshill Woods

In the ear­ly hours of Jan­u­ary the 13th an Apex drilling rig at Main­shill Woods was sab­o­taged.

The Machine was one of two drilling rigs work­ing on the site of anoth­er open­cast coal mine planned for South Lanark­shire.
Resis­tance is strong with a series of actions already this year.

See and take action against a list of con­trac­tors work­ing in Main­shill Woods here: mainshill.noflag.org.uk

In the ear­ly hours of Jan­u­ary the 13th an Apex drilling rig at Main­shill Woods was sab­o­taged.

The Machine was one of two drilling rigs work­ing on the site of anoth­er open­cast coal mine planned for South Lanark­shire.
Resis­tance is strong with a series of actions already this year.

See and take action against a list of con­trac­tors work­ing in Main­shill Woods here: mainshill.noflag.org.uk

This action was tak­en by an autonomous group of peo­ple and is in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp.

Pre-Eviction Gathering! Sat 23rd to Tues 26th January

*A long week­end of action, work­shops and defence-build­ing in prepa­ra­tion for the evic­tion of the Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp*

Pre-eviction gathering*A long week­end of action, work­shops and defence-build­ing in prepa­ra­tion for the evic­tion of the Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp*

With the long-await­ed and high­ly-antic­i­pat­ed evic­tion of the camp sure­ly draw­ing clos­er, join us for the week­end (and as much time after that as you can spare!) to add the fin­ish­ing touch­es to defences, build new ones and for­ti­fy bar­ri­cades. Ever want­ed to build your­self a tree­house? Dig your­self a tun­nel? Make your­self a lock-on? Now is your chance!

We’re ask­ing any­one who wants to be a part of stop­ping this open cast coal mine, any­one who wants to fight cor­po­rate greed, cor­rupt gov­ern­ment and the feu­dal land own­er­ship, and any­one who wants to defend a com­mu­ni­ty from the self-inter­est of the few, to come to the camp and help us build a viable alter­na­tive to the destruc­tion that will oth­er­wise ensue.

Ask­ing nice­ly has failed. Its time to fight back!

What to bring:

* Warm clothes and water­proofs
* Sleep­ing bag

Tasty veg­an food will be pro­vid­ed, but bring any sup­plies you can. Any build­ing mate­ri­als, tools, climb­ing equip­ment, bed­ding or any­thing on our wish list you can spare please bring it along.

Direc­tions – http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/?page_id=415#How%20to%20Get%20There

http://mainshill.noflag.org.uk/

Eric McDavid Update — 1/13/10

Dear friends,

Today marks the fourth year of Eric’s incar­cer­a­tion. These are not the kind of mile­stones we would like to be writ­ing about to you. While oth­er peo­ple have been cel­e­brat­ing the New Year, we have been incred­i­bly con­scious of the pas­sage of time in an entire­ly dif­fer­ent way. For four years, New Years has served as a reminder to us – as it prob­a­bly does to mil­lions of oth­ers — of how long we have been sep­a­rat­ed from our loved one. While oth­ers are cel­e­brat­ing new begin­nings, we are faced with the real­i­ty that, so far, there has been no new begin­ning as far as Eric’s phys­i­cal free­dom is con­cerned. Some things remain painful­ly the same. Eric is still locked away by the state.

Dear friends,

Today marks the fourth year of Eric’s incar­cer­a­tion. These are not the kind of mile­stones we would like to be writ­ing about to you. While oth­er peo­ple have been cel­e­brat­ing the New Year, we have been incred­i­bly con­scious of the pas­sage of time in an entire­ly dif­fer­ent way. For four years, New Years has served as a reminder to us – as it prob­a­bly does to mil­lions of oth­ers — of how long we have been sep­a­rat­ed from our loved one. While oth­ers are cel­e­brat­ing new begin­nings, we are faced with the real­i­ty that, so far, there has been no new begin­ning as far as Eric’s phys­i­cal free­dom is con­cerned. Some things remain painful­ly the same. Eric is still locked away by the state.


Please remem­ber that this time of year can be par­tic­u­lar­ly dif­fi­cult for folks who are locked up. Take a minute to write Eric – or anoth­er polit­i­cal pris­on­er – and let them know that folks on the out­side are still think­ing of them and sup­port­ing them.

Appeal Update
——————
Unfor­tu­nate­ly, there’s not a lot of news about the appeal. The gov­ern­men­t’s response to Eric’s open­ing brief is cur­rent­ly due on Feb. 1 (they’ve now asked for two exten­sions). We will let you know as soon as we hear any­thing more. Once the gov­ern­ment files their response, Eric’s lawyer will have two weeks to file his final response (more poten­tial exten­sions notwith­stand­ing ). Once every­thing is filed it could be more than a year before a deci­sion is made.

How to Help
————
We recent­ly added a Pay­Pal but­ton to Eric’s web­site (again). You can find it on the “Help” page: http://www.supporteric.org/howtohelp.htm Please con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to Eric’s sup­port fund. Cur­rent­ly the major­i­ty of these funds are being used to help his part­ner cov­er the costs of going to vis­it him. These vis­its are incred­i­bly impor­tant to Eric and his part­ner and are imper­a­tive for main­tain­ing every­one’s san­i­ty. They would not be pos­si­ble with­out all of the sup­port that Eric has received. Our sin­cer­est thanks to every­one who has donat­ed in the past. If you would like to donate but would pre­fer not to use Pay­Pal, please let us know and we will send you the details about who to make the check out to and where to send it.

If you can­not donate mon­ey, there are oth­er ways you can help. Eric is locked away from his loved ones and his com­mu­ni­ties and he does­n’t have access to a lot of infor­ma­tion. Receiv­ing news from the out­side helps him feel a lit­tle more con­nect­ed to the issues he cares about. If you run across a good arti­cle from an inde­pen­dent media source that you think Eric might like, please send it his way. Just keep in mind that Eric is still in the appeals process, and every­thing he receives is read by the author­i­ties. Even unso­licit­ed mail can result in sanc­tions against pris­on­ers. Be pru­dent with your choice of mate­r­i­al.

Our thanks to every­one for all of your sup­port these last 4 years.

Yours,
Eric’s Sup­port Crew

http://www.supporteric.org

Hasty Lane Adopt-a-Resident Launch- Manchester — Sun 7th Feb 2010

On Sun­day 7th Feb­ru­ary 2010, Hasty Lane ten­ants threat­ened by the expan­sion of Man­ches­ter Air­port will be team­ing up with cli­mate jus­tice cam­paign­ers in the pub­lic launch of the Adopt-a-Res­i­dent scheme.

Hasty Lane Adopt-a-Resident logoOn Sun­day 7th Feb­ru­ary 2010, Hasty Lane ten­ants threat­ened by the expan­sion of Man­ches­ter Air­port will be team­ing up with cli­mate jus­tice cam­paign­ers in the pub­lic launch of the Adopt-a-Res­i­dent scheme. Like at Heathrow, the scheme aims to build sol­i­dar­i­ty and cam­paign­ing links and to send out a mes­sage that if the bull­doz­ers come, they will have to deal with peo­ple from across Man­ches­ter stand­ing togeth­er to pro­tect peo­ple’s homes and to pro­tect the cli­mate.

Pub­lic launch — Sun­day 7th Feb­ru­ary 2010

Hasty Lane ‘Adopt a Res­i­dent’ Launch
Sun­day 7th Feb­ru­ary 2010
1pm — 3pm

Hasty Lane, next to Man­ches­ter Air­port, WA15 8UT

What will the day involve?
———————————————
We’ll have a grand tour of Hasty Lane, includ­ing the threat­ened hous­es and near­by wildlife spots. We’ll intro­duce each oth­er and have a live video link up with Sip­son vil­lage near Lon­don Heathrow. There will be tea, cake and music.

What what what?
———————————————
In Novem­ber 2009, Man­ches­ter City Coun­cil approved plans to bull­doze peo­ple’s homes on Hasty Lane to expand the World Freight Cen­tre at Man­ches­ter Air­port.

Not only do these plans threat­en peo­ple’s homes, but the ris­ing emis­sions from air freight also threat­en the sta­bil­i­ty of the cli­mate.

But we can stop them. We’re invit­ing you to Adopt-a-Res­i­dent at Hasty Lane. Togeth­er, we can team up to rein in Man­ches­ter air­port’s cli­mate wreck­ing expan­sion plans. Togeth­er, we’ll also show that if the bull­doz­ers come, they will have to deal with peo­ple from across Man­ches­ter stand­ing togeth­er to pro­tect peo­ple’s homes and to pro­tect our future.

At the same time, we’ll be twin­ning Hasty Lane with Sip­son vil­lage at Heathrow. Like Hasty Lane, Sip­son is also threat­ened by air­port expan­sion plans. A third run­way at Heathrow would bull­doze around 400 homes.

With res­i­dents, sup­port­ers, cam­paign­ers and activists link­ing up across Man­ches­ter and across the coun­try — we can stand togeth­er to pro­tect peo­ple’s homes and to pro­tect our cli­mate.

For more infor­ma­tion, see:
http://stopmanchesterairport.blogspot.com/

or con­tact: manchester@planestupid.com

TRANSPORT
———————————————
Stop Expan­sion at Man­ches­ter Air­port will be organs­ing trans­port from cen­tral Man­ches­ter. To book your space email manchester@planestupid.com with the sub­ject HASTY LANE.

Otherwise,TRAIN + BUS
Get the train to Man­ches­ter Air­port trans­port inter­change then either bus num­bers 18 & 18A towards Hale Barns/ Altrin­cham. Get off at the top off Hasty lane.
take the TRAM to Altrin­cham inter­change and take bus­es num­ber 18 or 18a towards the Airport/Wythenshawe. Get off at the top off Hasty lane.

Stop Expan­sion at Man­ches­ter Air­port
— Home­page: http://stopmanchesterairport.blogspot.com/

Rapid Technology Transfer Group to take over the Earth Centre

A cam­paign has been run­ning to reclaim the earth cen­tre in don­cast­er as a com­mu­ni­ty skill share cen­tre. It has come to light that the local coun­cil and a con­glo­morate of many multi­na­tion­als has been plan­ning a take over. They deal in chem­i­cals, con­struc­tion, nuclear, engi­neer­ing, audio­vi­su­al, 3D tech, aero­space, defense and a whole lot more.

A cam­paign has been run­ning to reclaim the earth cen­tre in don­cast­er as a com­mu­ni­ty skill share cen­tre. It has come to light that the local coun­cil and a con­glo­morate of many multi­na­tion­als has been plan­ning a take over. They deal in chem­i­cals, con­struc­tion, nuclear, engi­neer­ing, audio­vi­su­al, 3D tech, aero­space, defense and a whole lot more.

They planned an open day to our knowl­edge this has not been pub­li­cised and very few peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty are aware so in order that the com­mu­ni­ty not be exclud­ed again! We feel it impor­tant to share this infor­ma­tion and urge you to attend:

Earthw rks
Devel­op­ment Plan­ning 2010
First Quar­ter – Open Days — Tues­day, Feb­ru­ary 9th and Wednes­day, March 31st
This is an open invi­ta­tion to all organ­i­sa­tions and indi­vid­u­als will­ing to con­tribute exper­tise to restore the site of the for­mer Earth Cen­tre as a nation­al resource for research­ing, under­stand­ing and prac­tis­ing sus­tain­abil­i­ty.

Please e‑mail mike@therttg.org to reg­is­ter and receive full details. Out­door wear is rec­om­mend­ed. Pho­tog­ra­phy for per­son­al use is per­mit­ted in all areas.

for more details of this sit­u­a­tion please see http://welovetheearthcentre.blogspot.com

climate camp ‘where next?’ regional gatherings and reader

PROPOSALS FOR 2010 SO FAR

We’ve got a new dis­cus­sion board up on the Cli­mate Camp web­site with all the pro­pos­als for the region­al gath­er­ings received so far, plus some oth­er use­ful texts from the Where Next? dis­cus­sions. Join the dis­cus­sion here:

http://discussion.climatecamp.org.uk

REGIONAL GATHERINGS IN JANUARY

PROPOSALS FOR 2010 SO FAR

We’ve got a new dis­cus­sion board up on the Cli­mate Camp web­site with all the pro­pos­als for the region­al gath­er­ings received so far, plus some oth­er use­ful texts from the Where Next? dis­cus­sions. Join the dis­cus­sion here:

http://discussion.climatecamp.org.uk

REGIONAL GATHERINGS IN JANUARY

Here are the lat­est con­firmed details of our region­al gath­er­ings in Jan­u­ary…

(More details as we have them will be post­ed at:
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/get-involved/national-gatherings/next)

—

Cli­mate Camp Read­er

Dysophia and Shift Mag­a­zine have joined forces to put togeth­er a Cli­mate Camp Read­er, “Crit­i­cism with­out Cri­tique”, pub­lished in Jan­u­ary 2010. This read­er hopes to encour­age and facil­i­ate debates at the next cli­mate camp gath­er­ings. To down­load it fol­low this link:
http://dysophia.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/cca_reader.pdf
The edi­to­r­i­al is post­ed below:

Edi­to­r­i­al

In Jan­u­ary & Feb­ru­ary 2010, the Camp for Cli­mate Action will go through a peri­od of intro­spec­tion as it works out where it shall go next. While in some ways the Camp has been a suc­cess, it has also come under a bar­rage of crit­i­cism from some quar­ters with­in the rad­i­cal move­ments that spawned it.

To help this debate we have put togeth­er a set of resources and rel­e­vant arti­cles to inform and spark dis­cus­sion relat­ing to this crit­i­cism. Our bias is obvi­ous, though the opin­ions expressed are those of the authors alone. Whether you agree with them or not, we believe they are worth tak­ing on board. We hope at least that you feel con­fi­dent answer­ing their chal­lenges, rather than just dis­miss­ing them.

Now is the time for the Camp to exam­ine its pol­i­tics in more depth, to work out just what it stands for. This is a cross-roads in its devel­op­ment, to con­tin­ue down a path of ever increas­ing lib­er­al, reformist approach, or to be the noisy rad­i­cal, point­ing out all the white ele­phants in the cli­mate change debate. The future of the move­ment around the camp is being shaped here. The deci­sions being made now will have pro­found impacts on who is and who is not involved in the future.

The Camp for Cli­mate Action grew out of the rad­i­cal anar­chist and envi­ron­men­tal move­ments, a syn­the­sis of the organ­i­sa­tion­al skills devel­oped at the Anti-G8 protest camp at Stir­ling, and the eco­log­i­cal direct action move­ments such as Earth First! The per­cep­tion that emerges from these crit­i­cisms is this has been lost along the way.

We accept that this book­let makes chal­leng­ing read­ing and that we offer lit­tle in the way of solu­tions. These, we believe, must come from with­in the camp itself. How­ev­er, it is appar­ent that there is a need for two things. First­ly, a greater vis­i­bil­i­ty for the anar­chist roots with­in the day to day life of the CCA process and pro­pos­als. Sec­ond­ly, and just as impor­tant, a more open and explic­it cri­tique of cap­i­tal­ism and how it is the root cause of cli­mate change.

If we do nei­ther out of fear of a main­stream media back­lash, then we are reduced to being anoth­er NGO. Yet, the pow­er of the Camp has always been the promise of a gen­uine alter­na­tive action in the face of pre­var­i­ca­tion and obstruc­tion from gov­ern­ments and cor­po­ra­tions – now is the time to spell that cri­tique out and use it to build real alter­na­tives, not legit­imis­ing the sys­tem we com­plain of. It was the strength of the Camp’s found­ing cri­tiques that gave it the bold­ness its sub­se­quent suc­cess­es have rest­ed on.

Ulti­mate­ly, the mes­sage of the Camp is a very rad­i­cal one – that rad­i­cal social change is need­ed, espe­cial­ly if we are to tack­le of the root caus­es of cli­mate change. The answer is not to water down our actions and our mes­sages, but to be bold­er than ever. That is the excite­ment and pow­er that gives the Camp its life.

To down­load the read­er fol­low this link:
http://dysophia.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/cca_reader.pdf

http://dysophia.wordpress.com/
http://www.shiftmag.co.uk/

Forest occupation against Very High Voltage power lines in Catalonia

Since Octo­ber 17th we’re occu­py­ing a piece of for­est that was meant to host one of the hun­dreds of elec­tri­cal tow­ers that con­form the new Very High Volt­age (MAT) pow­er line, and that will even­tu­al­ly inter­con­nect France, Spain and, time will tell, A

Des dels boscos welcome signDes dels boscos walk-waysSince Octo­ber 17th we’re occu­py­ing a piece of for­est that was meant to host one of the hun­dreds of elec­tri­cal tow­ers that con­form the new Very High Volt­age (MAT) pow­er line, and that will even­tu­al­ly inter­con­nect France, Spain and, time will tell, Africa. The place we now call our home is in an area called Guil­leries (Girona), near Sant Hilari Sacalm vil­lage, at about 1000 metres high and sur­round­ed by moun­tains in a pret­ty iso­lat­ed envi­ron­ment.

The rea­sons for this occu­pa­tion are many: we won’t accept with­out fight­ing yet anoth­er gigan­tic infra­struc­ture that will solve absolute­ly noth­ing and in fact, will wors­en things up. We have to choose which side we’re in: either we stand for west­ern civ­i­liza­tion or we fight against it. It’s time for action. This is an attempt to show that some peo­ple still have what it takes, that chal­leng­ing the estab­lish­ment is a con­di­tion for us to be able to live in this world.

Some of the “prob­lems” this MAT line hopes to solve are: to be able to secure elec­tri­cal pow­er for the tourist vil­lages (espe­cial­ly in sum­mer) of Girona (Cos­ta Bra­va, for exam­ple); elec­tri­cal sup­ply for the TAV/AVE (which would hap­pen to be the first one to need it!); avoid elec­tri­cal black­outs like the one of 2007? in Barcelona… We’re not going to enter the debate are­na in which one side shows an “inde­pen­dent study” that states how much this pow­er line is need­ed and the oth­er side comes yet with anoth­er study that shows the oppo­site. It’s obvi­ous which side we’re with, but we state that it is imper­a­tive to actu­al­ly FIGHT this pow­er line and not just keep debat­ing and mak­ing press con­fer­ences.

In the mean­time, we’re try­ing to build the foun­da­tions of a new world start­ing right here and now, recon­nect­ing with the Earth. Liv­ing what our instincts tell us, hurt­ing the empire and mak­ing pres­sure on its fis­sures. From here, from the forests that have always hid the rebels, maquis, con­spir­a­tors and plot­ters. We can still be kin­da invis­i­ble and feel pro­tect­ed by these forests.

They’ve sold us the idea of progress and sci­ence as a nostrum/panacea that will free human­i­ty of its fears and that will give us com­modi­ties nev­er dreamed before. A com­mod­i­ty that, on the oth­er hand, we nev­er get to catch because progress has to cre­ate new gad­gets every sin­gle minute. What we’re able to see is that progress reduces us to total use­less per­sons, full of inse­cu­ri­ties and pas­siv­i­ty. Every moment we spend in this world we lose knowl­edge about how a life would be with­out all these com­modi­ties they sell to us.

So long the occu­pa­tion is very suc­cess­ful. In this (almost) two months, a lot of struc­tures have been built: many beds on the trees, a com­mu­nal “chill” house in between three trees to read and plot, a com­mu­nal kitchen, a info point, a “ware­house” to store mate­ri­als and keep things dry…and many resis­tance struc­tures that will keep police busy for (we hope) some days when they try to evict us. Also very impor­tant has been the help and involve­ment of many peo­ple we did­n’t know until some weeks ago: local peo­ple from the near­by vil­lages, peo­ple from Barcelona and oth­er cities that show up and help, peo­ple that decide to stay for some days (or even that came to live with us) and bypassers that are curi­ous of what we’re doing.

Our com­mu­ni­ca­tion strat­e­gy has been to try to com­mu­ni­cate direct­ly with peo­ple instead of let­ting mass-media por­tray us and manip­u­late us as they want. No work has been done with them. We have used our own means: texts, fly­ers, posters, face-to-face talk­ing with peo­ple of the vil­lages, social move­ments and our own blog (desdelsboscos.blogspot.com). Mass-media are nev­er impar­tial, less when they’re means to enrich them­selves and to keep this cap­i­tal­ist machine run­ning full-speed. That’s why we invite every­one to show up with no cam­eras or micro­phones.

From the for­est, a big hug to all peo­ple try­ing to get rid of this cap­i­tal­ist-indus­tri­al­ist sys­tem and that strug­gle to cre­ate a world with­out any kind of dom­i­na­tion!

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Des dels boscos web­site — http://desdelsboscos.blogspot.com/