earthfirst – Page 178

Mapuche communities mobilize to reclaim land

Several Mapuche communities have begun to reclaim traditional lands in Araucania, central Chile.

The reclamation began on July 23, about 2 weeks after the government of Michelle Bachelet refused to sit down with a group of Mapuche activists and talk about their concerns as Indigenous People.

Several Mapuche communities have begun to reclaim traditional lands in Araucania, central Chile.

The reclamation began on July 23, about 2 weeks after the government of Michelle Bachelet refused to sit down with a group of Mapuche activists and talk about their concerns as Indigenous People.

The activists had traveled 680 km to meet with Bachelet, having already waited for weeks to hear from from Araucania’s governor about establishing a dialogue .

Before heading home, the group left Bachelet a letter, stating they would take action unless the govenrment addressed their concerns.

On July 23, the Mapuche began to occupy properties they identify as part of their traditional lands, including one held by a logging company. Roadblocks have also been set up in at least 5 different areas in Araucania.

The so-called leftist government finally decided to respond—with violence. The police were sent in to protect the logging company and evict the Mapuche – a “violent occupying force” as far as the government is concerned. “Both Mapuche and police were injured in the clashes” that followed, says IPS News.

Several other attacks against the Mapuche have also been reported.

Last week, the paramilitary group “Hernan Trizano Commando” also came forward and publicly threatened to blow up and “disappear from the world” several Mapuche leaders involved in the reclamation, starting August 3.

“In response, Senator Alejandro Navarro, the presidential candidate of a new political party, the Movimiento Amplio Social (MAS – Broad Social Movement) announced… that he would file a lawsuit invoking the anti-terrorism law against the paramilitary group,” IPS continues.

The government itself does not appear to be taking any formal action against this immediate threat. Instead, they are emboldening the vigilante group by claiming the Mapuche effort is nothing more than “violent actions” led by a small minority: seven of Chile’s 2,800 indigenous communities.

Juan Carlos Curinao, a Mapuche “Lonco” or Chief, responded to the claims in a recent interview with IPS.Curinao said that the mobilization is in fact led by 40 Loncos, who together represent every Mapuche subgroup.

He also said that the reclamation is non-violent. “We don’t carry weapons to go around hurting non-indigenous settlers, we are fighting for our culture. It is the state that has attacked us, shooting at us.”

“If I occupy property, it’s not violence; I am reclaiming my territory,” he added.

While “there is no solution in sight”—-in large part because the government refuses to abide by international law and sit down with the Mapuche—there’s a small chance that things will turn for the better this week. The Senate has announced that it will hold a special session on Wednesday, Aug. 5 to discuss “the security situation that is affecting the region of Araucanía.”

Updates in English:www.mapuche.nl. Updates in Spanish: www.observatorio.cl

August 2, 2009: ELF Sabotages Telmex Cable Line in SW Mexico City

SABOTAGE OF EARTH-DESTROYING COMPANY, MEXICO

August 2, 2009: ELF Sabotages Telmex Cable Line in SW Mexico City

SABOTAGE OF EARTH-DESTROYING COMPANY, MEXICO

Once again, the earth-destroying Telmex company was sabotaged in the southwest of Mexico City around 2:30 in the morning on Sunday, August 2 by the Frente de Liberación de la Tierra. The idea was to cut the cables of the posts and then to cut the same post with a saw. It did not matter that it was slow and arduous work. The cable went through the branches of a tree obstructing its free growth. We climbed the tree and with cutters cut the cable, then we took a saw and began to cut the pole halfway through and with a cord tied to the pole we pulled, but unfortunately we could not move it since the movement of the cable that was connected to the next post was very noticeable, which caused nearby neighbors to call the police. This prevented us from continuing to pull the pole at the risk of running into the police; finally we left a mark on the post with spraypaint: ELF and Earth First.

For every tree that is ripped from the earth to serve Telmex there will be thousands of sabotages; we will not stop until we see disgusting civilization, progress and all those who spread it destroyed!

The darkness did not allow us to record the action but there is no excuse for not sharing the pleasure and the courage so we returned at dawn to take pictures of the action.

Earth Liberation Front and Eco-pirómanos por la Liberación de la Tierra [Eco-arsonists for the Liberation of Earth] are fighting!

Highgate Farm Protest Camp

Activists have occupied land near the entrance of Highgate Rabbit Farm in protest against their breeding of rabbits and ferrets for the vivisection industry. They supply several university and commercial laboratories, including Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). The campers are holding a peaceful occupation of the land, calling on the closure of the farm, and for the farmer Geoffrey Douglas to hand the animals over to a suitable organisation for rehoming.

If you can make it to the camp for any period of time, please ring the camp number: 07941184529
The farm is located at: Highgate Farm, Highgate lane, Normanby-by-Spital, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, LN8 2HQ
Click here for a map and directions.

There are several ways you can support the action:

• You can telephone the farm on: 01673 878259 and 01673 878 232.
• You can attend the camp to protest – whether it is for an hour, a day or a week your presence would be greatly appreciated.
* You can write to the farm at the address above.
* You can attend the national protest on the 26th September (click here for details)

Please keep all communications to the farm informative and polite. The purpose of your correspondence is to urge them to stop breeding animals for vivisection, and to allow the animals to be rehomed.

Monday’s timeline
Tuesday’s timeline
Wednesday’s timeline
Thursday’s timeline
Friday’s timeline
Saturday’s Timeline

Titnore Woods threat – Tescos every little Hurts!!!

1.8.2009
Tescos & Worthing Borough Council agree to development of Titnore Woods!

Worthing Borough Council and Tescos HAVE agreed to destroy the ancient Titnore Woods,it was passed yesterday.

Words fail me but Tescos REALLY are living in the age of stupid!

Please bring canned food and rope to the protest camp and yourselves please.

1.8.2009
Tescos & Worthing Borough Council agree to development of Titnore Woods!

Worthing Borough Council and Tescos HAVE agreed to destroy the ancient Titnore Woods,it was passed yesterday.

Words fail me but Tescos REALLY are living in the age of stupid!

Please bring canned food and rope to the protest camp and yourselves please.

More Including directions to camp can be found at www.protectourwoodland.co.uk

Worthing Borough Council please hang your heads in shame those that voted this insane application through!

Latest EF! Action Update bursts forth

Car tyres deflate in the night, diggers halted in their tracks, buildings and MPs covered in slime…airports plagued by crazy golf, picnics, city gents and hostage-taking…eco-villages and other autonomous spaces sprout, as others are under threat…tree-sits, banks evicted, fake phone-masts and whaling ships sunk….it must be time for another Earth First! Action Update, bringing you a concentrated quarterly blast of inspiration and contacts to get out there and take direct action against the bastards threatening this planet and its inhabitants.

News from the front-lines – permanent protest camps old and new, and temporary gatherings in a field near you, all the dates and info you need for a summer of blistering action and torrential outpourings!

Successes here, across the pond and round the very other side of the world.

Successes here, across the pond and round the very other side of the world.

A report back from the Coal Caravan, plus info about the communities along its route.

Court news – what happened after protesters planned to shut a coal-fired power plant, and climbed atop a train, plus handy Security Tips for Going on Actions.

Leaving it All in the Ground – news of global fights against the mining of gold, copper, bauxite and aluminium – blockading, torching and night-time pixieing.

A View from the Trees – a story from our eco-centric cousins. And indigenous Peruvians fight on against the wholesale onslaught on our world.

And a round-up of your favourite public order situations – G20, SmashEDO and Athenian rubbish dumps!

Read, download and print it here, subscribe so you get it direct to your door, or look out for it at a climate camp near you.

If you want to be listed or get a bunch of them to distribute, please get in touch.

Share your inspirational news at EF! Action Reports, and it’ll find it’s way into your very own printed EF!AU, in good old black and white print.

Borneo tribe mounts new blockades against rainforest destruction

30 July 2009
Dozens of Penan tribespeople armed with blowpipes and spears have erected blockades across the roads cut by logging companies deep into their forest in Borneo. The blockaders are calling for an end to logging on their land.

Survival International is calling for recognition of the hunter-gatherer Penan tribe’s land rights and a halt to all development on their land without their consent.

Malaysian police are at the blockades, but no arrests have been reported.

One Penan man told Survival, ‘This piece of forest is the only place left for us to hunt and find food. But there’s only a little bit left. Last night I went hunting and came back with nothing. If we can’t save this bit of forest, we will have nothing to eat.’

The Penan live in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo. They have been struggling for more than twenty years to stop the companies clearing their forests. Some have been successful, but many have seen their forests devastated, their rivers polluted and the animals and plants they rely on for food disappear.

Now, where the valuable trees have all been taken, the companies are starting to clear the land completely for oil palm plantations. Palm oil is used in many foods and cosmetics, and increasingly for biofuels.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘The logging and oil palm companies are robbing the Penan not just of their forests but of their food and water. It is essential that the Malaysian government recognizes the Penan’s rights to their land and stops allowing the companies to take everything in sight.’

The notorious Malaysian company Samling is logging in the Long Daloh area, and a subsidiary of the company KTS is logging in the Ba Marong area.

Survival researcher Miriam Ross visited the Penan earlier this year, and is available for interview.

Visit Survival’s webpage about the Penan

For more information and images please contact Miriam Ross:
T (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367
E mr@survival-international.org

Two Irish Anti-Shell Campaigners Jailed for Civil Disobedience

31.7.2009

— Eight and four month sentences show dramatic increase in repression —

31.7.2009

— Eight and four month sentences show dramatic increase in repression —

Shell to Sea campaigners Maura Harrington and Niall Harnett were sentenced to four and eight months in jail respectively at Bellmulet district court today. Both protesters have been convicted for taking action as part of a campaign of peaceful civil disobedience against the ill-fated Corrib Gas Project. Maura was given her four month sentence under Section 8 of the Public Order Act; ‘failing to comply with the directions of a Garda’. The sentence was handed down in relation to an incident that occurred duing a protest at Shell’s ‘landfall’ compound gate on 30th August 2008. Niall was sentenced to eight months in relation to two separate incidents. He was given a four month sentence under Section 8 of the Public order act, and another four months under Section 2, for the supposed assault of a Garda.

Maura had driven her car to the gate of the compound which is the site where the high pressure gas pipeline is to come ashore. She then refused to move her car in one of several acts of peaceful civil disobedience that Maura has engaged in. This is the third time this year that Maura Harrington, retired local school principal, has been jailed for peacefully protesting against the Corrib Gas project.

The alleged assault for which Niall was convicted occured at the compound fence and eye witness acounts and video footage shows Niall attempting to aid another protester garda who is being violently assaulted by a Garda. Niall, who is on his way to Castlerea Prison (Co. Roscommon.) after sentencing this afternoon said:

“I have been jailed for my opposition and civil disobedience to Shell and their facilitators in the Irish State, and for my part in a brilliant protest which will continue and will grow. They will not get away with the destruction of the community, the environment and the giveaway of Irish natural resources. My motives are pure, and this sentence will have served a purpose if it exposes the lengths the State will go in their complicity in the rip-off of Ireland’s natural resources”.

Both defendents were forced to choose between signing restrictive bonds to keep the peace or lengthy jail terms. The bonds would have placed limits on and prevented each of them from exercising their democratic rights to freedom to protest and freedom of movement. Under such bonds they would have been forbidden from attending any protest and excluded from the areas around any Shell sites.

Shell to Sea spokesperson Terence Conway said: “Certain prominent protesters appear to have been targeted in an attempt to crush resistance in the area. These jail sentences represent the lastest examples of a sustained campaign by the state, in conjunction with Shell, to criminalise and intimidate the local community and their supporters in order to implement their project at any cost. Maura and Niall are courageous campaigners against the destruction of the environment, the threat to health and safety and the giveaway of Ireland’s natural resources. ”

A protest was organised by Dublin Shell to Sea group for Thursday 30th July outside Mountjoy prison where Maura was taken after sentencing on Thursday morning.

Daring Action Gets Supplies To Vestas Workers Occupation

30.7.2009
A group of twenty people successfully brought vital supplies into the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight this afternoon, to the whoops and cheers of the occupying workers.

The group including workers, local supporters, and campaigners from the Climate Camp, Workers Climate Action, the Anarchist Federation and Workers Liberty split into two teams. At around 2pm, one team approached the main entrance of the factory, carrying decoy bags of food, to draw off police and security guards. While this first team was being escorted and carried bodily from the site, a second team ran through a hedge and were able to pass a large sack of supplies up to the occupying Vestas workers. The supplies were based on a wishlist provided by the occupiers, and included food, drink, and crucially a kettle with tea and coffee.

Jim Spencer, a member of the Climate Camp who took part in the action, said the Vestas management have been attempting to starve the occupiers out. After much protest, they are currently providing them with one insubstantial meal per day such as a single slice of pizza or a lone sandwich per worker. This is an utter disgrace, and so many of us camped outside have been thinking about how to get supplies in to them. It turned out that some of the factory workers and their local supporters were thinking the same way, so we all decided to work together.

Mr Spencer went on: The fact that workers, locals, environmentalists and labour campaigners are all working together reflects how important this occupation is. It’s vital to the factory workers and their families, it’s vital to the local economy, and it’s vital in the fight to avert climate disaster. The Vestas wind turbine factory must be saved.

ENDS

For interviews with someone onsite, call 07932 096677
To contact the Climate Camp media team:
phone: 07040 900 905 (or 07772 861 099 or 07932 096 677)
email: press@climatecamp.org.uk

A Number of Small Actions in Reykjavík

During the last days, a number of small actions have taken place in Reykavík; banner drop in the center of Reykjavík, graffiti and stinky liquid at Jarðboranir and a nighttime shut-down of Útlendingastofnun.

This morning, July 30th, a huge banner was dropped in the center of Reykjavík, bringing attention to the connection and co-operation between the aluminium industry and the weapon industry. The banner said: “30% of all aluminium goes to the weapon industry – Stop the aluminium industry!” From the beginning of our campaign we have not only focused on the destructive environmental impact of aluminium production and big dams, but also the social and humane impacts. Alcoa in Iceland has steadily refused the connection, but with only a little look at the website of n.b. Alcoa Defense, one sees with own eyes that Alcoa does not only produce aluminium for weapon manufacturing, but proudly takes a huge part in the design of military equipment of all types.

Several articles have been written about the issue as well as many press releases following Saving Iceland’s actions:
Lygar og Útúrsnúningar (in Icelandic only)
Agya, What Do You Mean With Development?
Saving Iceland Blockades Rio Tinto-Alcan’s Smelter in Hafnarfjörður
Saving Iceland Disrupts International Aluminium Conference in Germany

Drill your own heads!
Yesterday night Saving Iceland received an anonymous letter titled Solidarity Action, which though did not include any photos:

“The workers of Jarðboranir received a disgusting surprise this afternoon. The company’s fancy entrance was covered in rotten and smelly liquid. Rotten like their hearts, smelly like the money they earn by drilling the Earth. The message we wrote to the workers was: DRILL YOUR OWN HEADS – BASTARDS!”

Jarðboranir (Earth Drilling ) owns the drills that are used to search for geothermal energy. Jarðboranir have recently signed contracts with several energy companies; Landsvirkjun, Reykjavík Energy and Þeistareykir ehf. about drilling for energy, which is meant to run already constructing and upcoming aluminium smelters.

The lack of public knowledge about test drilling is one of the main reasons for the myth about geothermal energy being ‘green’ and sustainable. For each test drill, a piece of land in the size of a football field has to evened out, e.g. for road construction. The test drilling’s efficiency is very limited; only very few of the holes end up providing energy. By then the area is already destroyed and the destruction won’t be taken back.

Companies like Jarðboranir have not been very visible in the critique and resistance against the destruction of Iceland’s wilderness, but is as important as the aluminium and energy companies. Without every single part of the chain, the chain does not work.

Útlendingastofnun

Poke in a belly!
And a little off-topic but still concerning the Icelandic government…

On Wednesday morning, Útlendingastofnun (The Directorate of Immigration) was targeted by no-border activists. The anarchist website Aftaka published this press release:

“This morning, when the workers of The Directorate of Immigration showed up to work, they faced closed and locked doors. Therefore they could not start their everyday job: To look for ways how to deport refugees to deportation camps in Greece or to the open death in their own home countries.

After long-lasting and ineffective protests, article writing and meetings with the authorities, a small group to the issues in its own hands, glued the locks of the office’s doors, threw red paint on the walls and wrote S.S. on windows.

The group realizes that the action is very small-scale, only a tiny little poke in the belly of a gigantic institution, but hopes that it will become a figurehead and an inspiration for other groups who are tired of protesting against fascism and will rather break it down with their own force.

The action group Poke in a Belly!”

This happened only one day after Saving Iceland glued and closed the offices of six institutions and companies that are involved in the heavy industrialization of Iceland.

Climate Camp Scotland Legal Briefing Released

The Legal Guide for Climate Camp Scotland, taking place next week, is available now from our website.

Go to http://climatecampscotland.org.uk/?page_id=291

See you all next week!

The Legal Support Working Group

The Legal Guide for Climate Camp Scotland, taking place next week, is available now from our website.

Go to http://climatecampscotland.org.uk/?page_id=291

See you all next week!

The Legal Support Working Group