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.

People stop logging trucksCar 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.

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.

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.

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.

UtendDuring 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

ELF Mexico Targets Former City Councilman’s Truck & Telmex

Planetary destruction has been at a peak now for several years, as this has been happening the enormous complicity of governments (whatever form they take: fascist, socialist, democratic, republican or any other shitty one) with private companies, both domestic and foreign, engaged in large scale ecocide is amazing, leaving only remnants of what were once large wooded regions and green areas of wilderness. Civilization has almost completely destroyed it.

ELF Burns Former City Councilman's Truck in Protest of Corruption and Urban Sprawl in Mexico Planetary destruction has been at a peak now for several years, as this has been happening the enormous complicity of governments (whatever form they take: fascist, socialist, democratic, republican or any other shitty one) with private companies, both domestic and foreign, engaged in large scale ecocide is amazing, leaving only remnants of what were once large wooded regions and green areas of wilderness. Civilization has almost completely destroyed it.

Earth Liberation Front Communique: 07.21.09

ELF Burns Former City Councilman’s Truck in Protest of Corruption and Urban Sprawl in Mexico

Communique:

“Planetary destruction has been at a peak now for several years, as this has been happening the enormous complicity of governments (whatever form they take: fascist, socialist, democratic, republican or any other shitty one) with private companies, both domestic and foreign, engaged in large scale ecocide is amazing, leaving only remnants of what were once large wooded regions and green areas of wilderness. Civilization has almost completely destroyed it.

Today, those people directly connected to the destruction of the environment for urbanistic development continue to be targets of the Frente de Liberación de la Tierra [Earth Liberation Front]. They have names and addresses and we, with rage, conviction and gasoline will not stop in our struggle against all that destroys the planet of which we are a part, along with the animals, the wind, the plants, the water, the trees and all the natural elements worthy of being respected.

This time the target that we hit was in a small town in Mexico State. A former town councilman who voted for urbanist expansion in a large section of greenspace, where dozens of trees were cut down to build a pedestrian corridor, was visited by the FLT.

Upon reaching the area around his home, we looked on as this murderer was watching his plasma TV, comfortable in his luxury couches, enjoying the exploitation (this bastard also now owns a social event hall where plates of dead animal bodies are served) and the corruption of his past political administration. Our action was to leave a clear message for this destroyer of ecosystems at the door of his home with a note that read: ‘It will all be paid for someday’. Later we placed an incendiary device under one of the front tires of his small truck, the device worked well and in a few minutes a flame was lifted to the skies, filling the streets of the town with chaos. Haulers who had been passing through, desperately joined with the evilborn ecocidist who at that moment shot out of his house to find that his truck was on fire. They managed to control the fire and so this time the damage was not as we had planned it to be if the fire had spread further. The result was damage to the front section, the window and the tire of the small truck. Nonetheless what we have caused is incalculable damage, damage that cannot be quantified, the psycho-emotional damage that this destroyer of the earth will have after watching his truck set on fire right before his nose and after a few minutes he will see our intimidating message.

The destroyers of the earth will receive what they deserve, not from a judge, nor from the laws that govern Mexico which is currently in the midst of a military siege, but from cells of concious people fed up with the devastation of the earth, they will receive blows …from the Frente del Liberación de la Tierra.

‘Years after many dozens of trees were cut down, small flowers returned to be reborn from between the cracks in the pavement that divides up the city’

ELF México”

Earth Liberation Front Communique: 07.20.09

ELF Targets Telmex Branch office in Mexico

Communique:

“On the last night of July 20th we went to one of the many Telmex branch offices in Mexico State. Its walls were very high and around this was metal fencing used to protect the property. Police presence a few streets away and the security cameras did not stop us from carrying out our action. Our action was fast, while one of us sealed the front door with a lot of glue, another left a clear message below the door which read:

‘All the painted and cut telephones, the telephone control boxes set on fire, the burned trucks with punctured tires, these are not technical problems, they are acts of sabotage against the biocidal Telmex company, as is this warning attack.

We are the Ludditas Contra La Domesticacion de la Naturaleza Salvaje [Luddites Against the Domestication of Wild Nature] and we form part of a cell of the Frente de Liberación de la Tierra F.L.T. [Earth Liberation Front E.L.F.], this is only a warning message, get ready for war!

For the Liberation of the earth
Sabatage the bastards!

And in case the threat was not enough for the employees, the day after they were frightened by this message we threw a homemade bomb into the facility, ignoring the sign hanging outside this office that said that any act that damaged the property would be considered an attack on the channels of communication in general and was therefore a federal crime. The bomb detonated a few seconds after our escape, the sound was deafening and could be heard from two streets away.

We know very well that civilization will collapse one day, but there must be an acceleration of that collapse.

Attentively, The cell of the ELF-LCDNS México”

Source – http://www.elfpressoffice.org

Flotilla / vigil against nuclear power, Bradwell, Essex – Sun 9 August

Sunday, 9th August 2009 – from 14.00 to 16.00 hrs
join a peaceful summer vigil in the Blackwater Estuary

The future of the Blackwater Estuary should concern everyone. Any despoiling of this unique facility will take away the opportunity for its enjoyment for many generations to come.

Sunday, 9th August 2009 – from 14.00 to 16.00 hrs
join a peaceful summer vigil in the Blackwater Estuary

The future of the Blackwater Estuary should concern everyone. Any despoiling of this unique facility will take away the opportunity for its enjoyment for many generations to come.

This does not apply just to “the waterfolk”, but to all who enjoy outdoor pursuits and activities around the Estuary, such as local residents, fishermen, birdwatchers, ramblers and walkers, wildfowlers and for those who just like the “open and peaceful space of the Estuary”.

If we are not vigilant, the Estuary, as we like it, could be irretrievably ruined for the future.

The intention is to attract recreational and commercial users of the estuary and its surroundings to join a PEACEFUL VIGIL at Bradwell in protest against the development of a proposed new nuclear power station (possibly more than one) and the associated high level radioactive waste dump.

Watercraft –

anchor/float about off the beach to include yachts, motorboats, dinghies, kayaks canoes and “whatever” between 14.00 and 16.00 hrs

Show your participation by displaying flags/banners, if afloat – from the rigging – make these up out of old bedsheets or something similar. Just display anything to show your protest!

Walkers, birdwatchers and beachcombers –

make it an outing – bring family and friends and enjoy a picnic or barbecue on the beach in front of the old station.

If you unable to get afloat or visit Bradwell, a group will be meeting for a picnic from 1.30 onwards on West Mersea beach, close to St Peter’s Steps, and just a short walk down Coast Road from West Mersea Church. – Don’t forget to bring a sunshade if it’s a sunny day, especially if you are bringing any children!

DIRECTIONS: If coming by rail and/or bus, the two-hourly West Mersea bus 67 leaves the North Station bus stop from 8.10am onwards on the south side of the bridge. So for example if you get the one which leaves North Station at 12.10pm, Colchester High Street at about 12.15pm, and the bus station at 12.20pm it gets to Mersea near the church at 12.50pm.

Don’t forget there are special bargain bus fares on Sundays. The bus returns at 3pm, 5pm, 7pm, 9pm and 11pm so you can make a day of it. Cut your carbon footprint and leave your car at home for a change perhaps if you would normally travel by car???

There is free car parking behind the library if there are any spaces, or you can park along various roads including St Peter’s Road – go past the church and it’s to the right off Coast Road.

We want to highlight:

* Environmental damage to the Estuary foreshore, wildlife, pleasure and commercial fishing and local oyster industries
* Potential restriction on access for recreational use to the Estuary and its foreshore
* Long term on site storage of highly radioactive waste
* Increased health risks to surrounding population resulting from toxic waste and from the lack of long term evacuation plans for the surrounding areas
* Negative Visual impact of the new facility and the retention of the former station

Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG)
http://www.banng.org.uk

Saving Iceland Closes Nature Killer’s Offices

July 28 2009
Last night Saving Iceland closed the offices of companies and institutions that are heavily responsible for extreme destruction of nature. Super-glue was put in to the locks and signs put up saying: “Closed because of destruction of nature!” Locksmiths had to be called to open the doors when workers showed up in the morning.

July 28 2009
Last night Saving Iceland closed the offices of companies and institutions that are heavily responsible for extreme destruction of nature. Super-glue was put in to the locks and signs put up saying: “Closed because of destruction of nature!” Locksmiths had to be called to open the doors when workers showed up in the morning.

The companies and institutions that were targeted have all shown their determined criminal will against Icelandic nature and don’t stop at anything in their search for an easy financial growth and favorable contracts, even with companies who have scandalous history. These companies should have been closed long time ago to prevent more destruction to take place.

The following companies and institutions were targeted: the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Environment, who have cleared the way for heavy industry here in Iceland; ÍSTAK (construction company), which takes care of most of the earth destruction that has to take place before test drills and the construction of heavy industry related buildings; Jarðboranir (Earth Drilling), which owns the drills that are used for geothermal drilling all over the country; and HRV (engineering company), which does most of the Environmental Impact Assessments for heavy industry projects as well as taking a big part in designing the infrastructures connected to heavy industry.

Saving Iceland also closed an office shed on one of ÍAV’s (construction company) construction areas in Reykjavík, but the company is now busy with building Century’s aluminium smelter in Helguvík.