earthfirst – Page 228

Phones and privacy at the camp for climate action.

Traditionally it has been the content of communication that has been the focus of government surveillance but the police are increasingly interested in data mining techniques to uncover patterns of association. Simple data, when stored, aggregated and analyzed using sophisticated computer algorithms, contains far more information than is commonly appreciated. Collating mobile phone numbers, and the data retained by network providers, can provide the police with a powerful incite into our networks of associations. This is not only an invasion of our privacy but may also threaten our ability to work together effectively.

At least years climate camp the police were taking people phone from them during stop and search. As well as browsing through people
phonebooks and text messages, they were typing *#06# to get the phones unique serial number (IMEI). They would then look up the registered owner of phone then threaten the holder of the phone with being arrested on suspicion of theft if they refused to prove that they were the owner of the phone by revealing their identity.

To reduce the ability of the police to steal our identities and learn
more about our social networks, please consider the following advice.

Mobile phones are useful tools for communicating and organising – we do not advise you to leave them at home. You will find them essential for staying informed and informing others. However…

Copy the entries in your phonebook and leave it at home.

Delete from your phonebook all but the numbers that will be essential during the week.

Rename those contacts to remove surnames, perhaps using code names instead.

Erase your sent and received call logs and text messages and do repeat this regularly.

Make use of the security features of your phone so that a PIN code is required to access any of its features.

There are generally two types of security on mobile phones, the PIN that protects the phone and PIN2 that protects the SIM card so it can’t be used in another phone without the code. It may be a little inconvenient to have to type in the number each time but it’s better than allowing the cops to browse through your phone book, call logs and messages.

If you can’t set your phone to require a PIN code each time it is used, simply switch off your phone when it looks like a police stop and search is likely.

—-

Might be worth noting about mobiles:

* That the police are also able to retrieve phone calls and sent text messages, both from the phone and the SIM. Once deleted off the phone they are NOT gone for good. If you have made a foolish phone call or sent something dodgy, and you are at risk from having your phone taken, get a whole new phone and SIM card.

* Police can use your mobile as a tracking device of your whereabouts, this evidence has already been used in cases – especially if making a call. This pinpoints your exact location. So don’t take it anywhere you’d rather the cops didn’t know about. Disconnecting the phone by taking out the battery apparently can stop this as the phone is no longer connected to any electrical source.

* Police can bug a mobile and use it as a listening device… if you are saying something you don’t want the cops to hear, and you want to be extra paranoid, remove the battery from your phone or leave it elsewhere. Turning it off will not necessarily work!

* If the cops ever get your phone and give it back to you… give it to someone else not involved in anything you are, donate it to charity or burn it. Do not ever use it again!

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Your advice about having an alternative SIM is OK if police are searching the physical phone for text messages. However if you are concerned about surveillance involving your mobile phone company, you should be aware that text messages (and phone calls too I would think) send a SIM ID *and* the phone IMEI. On that basis, sending a message using your contract phone but a PAYG SIM will still be easily traceable to you.

The best approach is to buy a PAYG phone with cash and only top it up with vouchers bought with cash, and use that alongside your regular phone. However you can’t get away from the fact that it is still a location-tracking device. If you have special need to be careful – and that’s a personal judgement – only put the battery in when you are away from your house to collect messages or to make calls. That said if you live in a highly populated area – such as flats in a city – then you have less reason to worry – the location tracking is not very sensitive AFAIK and it’s a right royal pain for the authorities to get the data. If you’re a Climate Camp activist and not part of a terrorist cell then it’s probably too much hassle for them.

It should be obvious but also be careful when sending personally-identifiable information in text messages – telephone numbers, addresses, email addresses, account numbers etc. In theory the same goes for voice content as software now can transcribe voice content quite reliably – however this often can’t be avoided and the best thing to do is not to worry about it too much. Remember: our worrying is what some upper echelons of the police want!

Ultimately for the activist there is a anti-surveillance/convenience trade-off. Don’t get paranoid as this makes you less effective in your chosen field. Be careful but, unless you are doing activism that is targetted for the harshest oppression, tolerate a bit of surveillance rather than re-organising your habits completely to avoid it.

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DO BRING A PHONE TO CAMP!

If you can, bring a new PAYG phone, don’t fill it with your friends numbers, don’t use it from home and don’t call your mum on it.

Don’t ever put your normal SIM in your new phone or your new SIM in your normal phone.
Use the phone at the climate camp to:
keep the legal team informed about arrests and stop & searches
keep the media team informed about protests and actions
keep yourself informed about things going on around camp and beyond
call for help in a medical emergency

http://www.activistsecurity.org/

Little Peace Boat on the way to Climate Camp, arrives in Brighton Marina

Update on veteran peace campaigner,
Peter Le Mare, in his Little Peace Boat,
“Be Disarming”
…on the way to The Climate Camp and then to Westminster, London for this 50th anniversary year of CND peace symbol on Hiroshima Day, August 6,
….to draw attention to the linked problems of Catastrophic Climate Change and World Peace.

Peter under sail on the “Be Disarming”

The journey so far:
Monday 7th July the “Be Disarming” little peace boat slipped out of Penzance Harbor gates, the start of its voyage, moored in Newlyn for the night. Tuesday headed for Falmouth, arriving late after an eventful first days sailing including storm sun rain and calm.
Plymouth Friday for the SW regional Climate Camp meeting.
Sunday arrived in Brixham and stayed there to catch the tides right for Exmouth, arriving Monday,
leaving Wednesday morning for Weymouth catching some good winds taking the 20ft boat to 8 knots.
Arrived in Southampton Sunday after an easy trip through the Needles and with the tide managed 10 knots.
As they sailed towards Selsey Bill a RIB with 2 MOD Police came along and one boarded the Little Peace Boat.
Very pleasant conversation and enquiries, lastly asking if there was any intention of doing anything on “Navy Days”
They were given a Give Peace a Chance sticker!
Wed morning (23rd), arrived in Brighton marina just before 1am
Now looking around for support and interest in Brighton before leaving for Hastings in the morning tomorrow

Call Peter on mobile 0788 619 5596

Peter says:
“Almost every war that involves the Major Powers is about oil and the global power it represents.
He is using his epic voyage to highlight the UK Government’s decision to deploy new nuclear weapons.
In 1967 the UK signed a treaty obligation to get rid of these weapons of mass destruction.
In 1996 the World Court ruled that they were subject to international law which says that any weapon which incinerates and irradiates people indiscriminately could never be used lawfully.”

Peter argues that billions of pounds are being squandered on useless, illegal, and dangerous nuclear weapons. If we concentrated on measures to combat climate change we could effectively reduce our Carbon Footprint.

The email: info@littlepeaceboat.net
News, downloadable leaflet PDF’s and links will be established through the website.
www.littlepeaceboat.net

The project is running on a shoestring budget, sailing close to the wind.
Please help in any way you can

Plane Stupid Activist Glued To PM Inside Downing Street

22nd July 2008
A campaigner from the climate action group, Plane Stupid, is currently super-glued to Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the State Dining Room of 10 Downing Street.

Dan Glass, a 24 year old MSc student based in Scotland, gained access to the PM’s official residence at 5pm this evening. He greeted Mr Brown and asked the Prime Minister why he and his ministers have refused to meet West London residents opposed to the construction of a third runway at Heathrow. He simultaneously put his super-glue covered hand onto Brown’s polyester suit. When Brown went to turn away he found he had been super-glued by his clothing to Plane Stupid, and had no option but to listen to Dan.

Dan read messages to the PM from people whose villages will be bulldozed if Brown agrees to BAA’s expansion plans. He also read out testimony from communities across the world threatened by climate change while Downing Street aides attempt to extract the Labour leader from the green campaigner. Dan hoped to stay glued to the PM long enough to begin quoting from confidential documents secured through the Freedom of Information Act, which reveal the government’s public consultation on Heathrow expansion was fixed. The papers reveal Ministers have engaged in an extraordinary level of collusion with airport operator, BAA, fiddling pollution figures and developing a joint strategy to beat opposition groups.

The government consultation received 80,000 responses from the public, almost all of which opposed the government’s plans, despite the fact that people were not even asked whether they wanted a third runway and no consideration of the climate impacts appeared in the consultation documents.

Dan took today’s extraordinary step because Brown and his Transport Secretary, Ruth Kelly, have refused to meet residents from Sipson – the west London village, which would be wiped off the map if new Labour gives into BAA’s demands for a third runway. Some of the messages Dan is reading out to the Prime Minister are quotes from newspaper interviews with Sipson residents.

Plane Stupid activist, Graham Thompson who is currently facing prosecution for scaling Parliament in February and branding the Palace of Westminster “BAA HQ,” today said:

“Gordon Brown’s only got two possible legacies, the first Prime Minister to really get climate change or the last one not to. Brown needs to realise we can beat climate change, but not by doubling the size of the world’s biggest international airport. That’s why we took our peaceful campaign from the roof of Parliament to 10 Downing Street.”

When BAA first sought permission to build Terminal 5, the company wrote to nearby residents promising never to seek further Heathrow expansion. Now they have colluded with the government to get a third runway and a sixth terminal by manipulating the consultation process which has been widely condemned as unfair, undemocratic and fundamentally dishonest.

Graham Thompson continued:

“Brown’s consultation was a fix, pure and simple. It was the single most anti-democratic thing this wretched government has done since the Iraq war, and that’s saying something. Dan thought that if super-gluing himself to the Prime Minister was the only way to cut through the power of giant corporations like BAA and ensure he hears what people from West London really think, then so be it.”

– ENDS –

MORE INFORMATION AND AUDIO OF THE ACTION:

www.planestupid.com
press@planestupid.com

NOTES:

Dan Glass biog:

Dan Glass is a 24 year old student from Barnet, north London. He is currently studying an MSc in human ecology and climate change at Strathclyde University in Scotland where he is researching the impacts of airport expansion on community cohesion. Dan joined Plane Stupid about 18 months ago after he was inspired by reading George Monbiot’s books. Dan is a graduate of Sussex University where he studied Geography and Development Studies and where he was elected to be president of the university student union. His father is a lawyer and his mother works for a Jewish Music Institute. Dan says he draws his motivation to stand up for what he believes in from his grandparents who are holocaust survivors.

Details of the FoI documents detailing the fixed consultation:

Sunday Times revelations: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3512042.ece

FoI documents: www.greenpeace.org.uk/baa

Audio link available here

info@planestupid.com
http://www.planestupid.com

Traps & Enclosures Sabotaged – Ilkley Moor Shoot

Grouse Liberation Front Communique:

“Up in the White Crag plantation off Ilkley moor. A large grouse pen was identified and trashed, the water pipes and distributors were left split and smashed. The wire fencing from the entire enclosure was brought down. The electric fencing was cut and the system destroyed. Two set fen traps were discovered and placed permanently out of commission.

Grouse Liberation Front Communique:

Two smaller pens were found nearby and the netting roof and wire surrounds were left in tatters. Feeders in the area were also tampered with.

Grouse Liberation Front”

Reported by Bite Back Magazine

50 Turkeys Liberated For Sarah Whitehead

“Animal liberation volunteers are claiming responsibility for the direct intervention in the animal farming industry, as an act of solidarity with Sarah Whitehead who is currently behind bars for doing the right thing. While Sarah remains locked in her cell for freeing animals from pain and misery, volunteers successfully liberated 50 Turkeys from an Eastern factory farm.

This action means these sentient beings were spared from constant suffering, their lives destined to be cut short with the blade of slaughterhouse machinery. No longer will their existence be to fill the mouths of a salivating and greedy nation. They now exist as valued individuals, remaining happy and free.

Love and liberation for Sarah and all other captive individuals!
Animal Liberation Front”

Anonymous communique reported by Bite Back Magazine

ACTIVISTS SQUAT NEWHAVEN INCINERATOR SITE IN PROTEST

22.07.2008
‘Stop Incineration Now!’ protestors demonstrate their fury now that construction on the highly controversial incinerator plant has begun.

Activists have taken over the site of the proposed new incinerator plant in Newhaven. They entered the premises under the cover of darkness last night in an organised attempt at non-violent direct action, after resistance through democratic means failed them. Several protestors formed a barricade by superglue-ing themselves to the road in an attempt to prevent vehicle access, whilst on the site itself, other members of the group ‘locked-on’ to machinery in order to halt further activity. They claim to be exercising their democratic right to protest non-violently in a last-ditch attempt to promote their concerns about the consequences of incinerators on public health and safety.

Amidst a storm of controversy and fierce opposition from local residents concerned about pollution and health risks, construction of the incinerator by Veolia (Onyx) began early in June this year despite the fact that planning permission had not been officially approved and a judicial review of the process was still incomplete. Angry at what they saw as a direct attack on the health of the public and a lack of transparency throughout the planning process, local Newhaven campaign group Dove2000 fought to keep the issue in the public eye and generated 15,000 written objections to the scheme. It claimed that, falling way short of providing a necessary solution to waste management, the plant instead would be responsible for the inevitable contamination of the local area, the release of highly dangerous toxins into the atmosphere and the disastrous consequences of toxic ash disposal.

The devastating health implications for the environment and those living or working within the (10-15 mile radius) fallout zone of the incinerator plant have been well documented by groups like Dove2000, and according to Dr. Neil Catman (former incinerator inspector and internationally recognised expert on toxic waste incineration),

‘in licensing these incineration operations, the government is creating zones of sacrifice….I’m not just talking about people getting sick. I’ve seen them die. If the wind would blow the smoke towards the school on a Monday you’d see the children being at home sick on Tuesday and Wednesday. The schools near the incinerators had the highest absentee rates in the district. I met a lot of these children. I’ve seen them die of leukaemia, brain cancer and a host of other disorders’.

It is claimed* that incinerators emit some of the most toxic and bioaccumulative air pollutants including acidic gases and fine dust particles which penetrate deep into the lungs causing respiratory disease and asthma; dioxins which suppress the immune system, cause cancer, and pose a particular problem for pregnant or breastfeeding mothers as they pass through to babies, readily reducing the rate of male births, causing hormonal disruption, learning difficulties and behavioural problems. Also emitted are nanoparticles and 2.5 micron particles which are known carcinogens able to migrate around the body, and a variety of dangerous heavy metals which affect the kidney and lungs, cause nerve and brain damage and adversely affect the central nervous system.
* (www.dove2000.org.uk). The decision to use incinerators for burning radioactive waste from nuclear power stations is also being considered.

By last year alone the cost of the project had soared to £145.7 million, with Brighton and Hove City Council and East Sussex County Council having collectively invested at least £2 million in legal fees to bring the project beyond the planning stage. There are a further 100-168 incinerators planned for use in the UK, though it appears that the Stop Incineration Now! network of protestors are determined to assert their belief that this money could be more advantageously spent on recycling initiatives to combat waste management problems more sustainably without creating further environmental problems for present and future generations.

The activists from Stop Incineration Now! continue to occupy the site determined to bring the discussion to the national forum.

# # #

If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Francesca Corvino, please call herself on 07828178710 or email Francesca at fmcveigh@yahoo.com.

Cambridge Critical Mass Bike Ride

On Saturday 19 July more than twenty cyclists took to the streets of Cambridge in the evening, to regale in the joy of two-wheeled transportation. From the meetup point at the underpass of the Newmarket/East Road roundabout, the group covered some ten kilometres in a little over an hour. On the way we managed to pick up some random cyclists who decided to join forces with us.

Besides the predictable odd cheesed-off car driver, the event went smoothly. The ride ended up in the Cafe on Jesus Street. Given the success of this critical mass event, the participants decided to make it a monthly outing. So watch this space…

Saving Iceland Blockades Century Aluminum Smelter and Elkem Steel Factory

Saving Iceland, July 21st 2008
Press Release

Saving Iceland, July 21st 2008
Press Release
GRUNDARTANGI – Today 20 activists from Saving Iceland blockaded the single supply road to Century Aluminum’s smelter on Hvalfjordur and Elkem – Icelandic Alloys steel factory. They have chained themselves to each other using arm tubes to form a human blockade as well as using tripod for the first time in Icelandic history.

The action went on for three hours and nobody was arrested. “We protest the environmental and human health hazards Century’s bauxite mining and refining activities in Jamaica, their plans for a new smelter and refinery in West Congo. Both Century’s and Elkem’s expansion plans will also mean destruction of unique geothermal areas in Iceland and produce large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions,” says Miriam Rose of Saving Iceland (1).

Century in West-Congo: opencast bauxite mining
In 2007 Century Aluminum Company signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Republic of the Congo (ROC) for the exclusive right to develop an aluminium smelter, alumina refinery and a bauxite mine (2). It specifies a minimum commitment of 500 megawatts of gas-generated electrical energy. Century is surveying where to mine the bauxite and will start building the smelter as soon as possible (3).

“We believe that the Republic of the Congo has all of the ingredients necessary to sustain a profitable aluminum industry,” said Century CEO Logan W. Kruger (2).
“Kruger is right,” says Snorri Páll Jónsson Úlfhildarson of Saving Iceland. “Transparency International rated the ROC as one of the most corrupt regimes in the world. Exactly the kind of regimes aluminium corporations like to deal with…” (4)

“It’s very unlikely the poor will have any benefit from this development but they will pay the price of the environmental impact. Oil revenue in the country has never reached them, why would it be different for bauxite?” Úlfhildarson continues.
“Considering the bauxite reserves in West Congo, it is clear that Century is planning large scale open cast mining there, in the same way other corporations are attempting in Orissa and what has also happened in Jamaica, Guyana and Guinea,” says Indian aluminium expert and author Samarendra Das who will be talking on this topic at Reykjavik Academia on Wednesday (see note a.).

“All over the world, where bauxite is mined the environment is being destroyed and people’s livelihoods and health taken away from them. People in Iceland need to know where the bauxite that is refined and then smelted into aluminium comes from,” says Das.
Century in Jamaica: environmental and health hazards
Century-owned St Ann Bauxite, it’s predecessor Kaiser as well as the ALCOA, RioTinto-Alcan and Rusal (which owns 1/3 of Century), are also active in Jamaica, have been held responsible for rainforest being destroyed and toxic pollution of drinking water (5,6,7). Century want to open up a second mine and refinery in a joint venture with Chinese Minmetals. That company is associated with prison labour factories and gross human rights abuses in China and elsewhere (see note b.).

Elkem – Icelandic Alloys: pollution accidents every week
Elkem – Icelandic Alloys wants to expand its facility at Grundartangi on Hvalfjordur for producing ferrosilicon for the steel industry. It is already one of Iceland’s largest contributors to greenhouse gases and other pollutants; expansion of the smelter would lead to a significant increase in Iceland’s carbon emissions (1).
In July 2007 it was reported (8) that Elkem ‘accidentally’ released a huge cloud of pollution from their plant. Apparently the accident was due to human error. Thordur Magnusson, an Elkem spokesman, then said that this human error “recurs several times a week.” Sigurbjorn Hjaltason, chairman of Kjosarhreppur parish, said that Elkem usually produced the emissions at night throughout the year.

About Saving Iceland
Last Friday, Saving Iceland stopped work at the construction site of Century Aluminum’s planned new smelter in Helguvík. This is part of their fourth summer of direct action against heavy industry in Iceland. In July 2007 activists also blockaded the smelter and steel factory.
Saving Iceland was started by Icelandic environmentalists asking for help to protest the Icelandic wilderness, the largest remaining in Europe, from heavy industry. As well as Century, other aluminium corporations ALCOA and Rio Tinto-Alcan want to construct new smelters. This would require exploitation of all the geothermal areas in the country, as well as damming all major glacial rivers (see note c.).

This year, the fourth action camp to protect Icelandic nature has been set up near the Hellisheidi geothermal plant east of Reykjavik, which is currently being expanded to produce electricity for Century Aluminum.

More information
http://www.savingiceland.org

with a movie of the action
savingiceland at riseup.net

Notes

A.) On Wednesday July 23, 19.30 h. Saving Iceland and Futureland will hold a conference with the Indian writer, scientist and aluminium expert Samarendra Das and ‘Dreamland’ author Andri Snær Magnusson, on the influence of the aluminium industry in the third world. Also, the concept of aluminium as a ‘green’ product will be examined. It will take place at Reykjavik Academia, Hringbraut 121. Mr Das is available for interviews; please contact one of the Saving Iceland contacts above.

B.) In 2004 Minmetals attempted a takeover of Canadian mining company Noranda but were declined in 2005 due to serious concerns over human rights abuses by the Chinese company. This report details Minmetal’s association to forced labour:
Dhir, Aaron A. (2006). ’Of Takeovers, Foreign Investment and Human Rights: Unpacking the Noranda-Minmetals Conundrum’, Banking and Finance Law Review, 22, 77-104.
C.) For more details and an overview of projects in Iceland, see: http://www.savingiceland.org/sos
References
(1) Icelandic Ministry of the Environment (2006). Iceland’s fourth national communication on climate change, report to the UNFCCC. http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/natc/isl… [Accessed 20-6-08]
(2) AZ Materials News (2007). Century Aluminium to Build Aluminium Smelter in Republic of Congo. http://www.azom.com/News.asp?NewsID=7734 [Accessed 20-6-08]
(3) Afrique en Ligne (2008). Congo to build aluminium smelter in Pointe-Noire. http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/africa-… [Accessed 20-6-08]
(4) Transparency International (2006). Corruption Perceptions Index 2006. Transparency International, Berlin.
(5) Zadie Neufville, April 6, 2001, ’Bauxite Mining Blamed for Deforestation’. See http://forests.org/archive/samerica/baux…. [Accessed 20-6-08]
(6) Mines and Communities report,’Bauxite Mine Fight Looms in Jamaica’s Cockpit Country’, 24th October 2006. http://www.minesandcommunities.org/artic…. [Accessed 20-6-08]
(7) Al Jazeera (2008). Environmental damage from mining in Jamaica, June 11, 2008 News. Available through http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJa2ftQwf…. [Accessed 20-6-08]
(8) MBL.is (2007). Reykur frá járnblendiverksmiðjunni Grundartanga. http://mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2007/07… [Accessed 20-6-08]

Camp for Climate Action: mass action promo video, Heathrow conference & newspaper

CLIMATE CAMP MASS ACTION PROMO VIDEO

How to take down the fences at Kingsnorth & have fun while you’re at it! Watch it & forward to your mates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVaUYVF-Cfk

CLIMATE CAMP MASS ACTION PROMO VIDEO

How to take down the fences at Kingsnorth & have fun while you’re at it! Watch it & forward to your mates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVaUYVF-Cfk

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Climate Camp goes back to Heathrow
Heathrow Conference
Saturday 26th July, 12 noon – 5pm,
Harlington Baptist Church,
High St, Harlington

All Welcome

Last August thousands of people spent a week camping in a field in the village of Sipson, which would be destroyed if Heathrow expansion went ahead, to draw attention to the threat of climate change. The event transformed Heathrow expansion into a national and even international debate on how we respond to climate change.

While this year we are concentrating our efforts at Kingsnorth where energy giant E.ON the Government is proposing to build a new coal-fired power station, we have not forgotten Heathrow. So, we decided to organise a conference to discuss with local residents and environmental organisations the next steps in the campaign to stop Heathrow expansion, titled:

“What do we do if the worst comes to the worst and the Government says ‘yes’?

The conference brings together the Camp for Climate Action, local campaign groups HACAN and NoTRAG (No Third Runway Action Group), and Greenpeace to discuss a broad strategy against expansion. This is the first time that local campaign groups and international environmental organizations have teamed up with the Camp for Climate Action to stage an event. We see this cross-fertilisation of ideas and experience as essential parts of Climate Camp strategy to develop a diverse social movement against climate change and for social justice.

The conference will focus on fusing our different ideas on how to stop expansion, from political lobbying to mass direct action, so we can all support each others efforts. More than that, we hope that we can learn from each other and develop new ideas that can have broad appeal.

The day will begin at 12 noon with short introductory talks on the latest state of play, on the implications of expansion for noise, climate change and community destruction, and around ideas for effective campaigning. After lunch, the bulk of the day will involve more structured discussions around moving forward together, followed by a final plenary session.

We’ve had conformation that in addition to many climate campers and local residents, politicians and trade unionists will be attending, so it looks like being an exciting event!

The following day Camp for Climate Action will set off in ‘a climate caravan’ on their journey to Kingsnorth in Kent where this year’s camp will be held.

Directions to the Conference are:

Heathrow Conference
Harlington Baptist Church,
High St, Harlington

About 8 minutes walk from Bath Road.
Take the 90 bus from Feltham, Hatton Cross or Hayes and Harlington Station;
Or take the 140 from Heathrow or Hayes and Harlington Station
Or the H98 from Hounslow, Cranford or Hayes and Harlington Station.- all stop outside the church.

NB there is only limited parking available.

The event is free but small donations on the day towards lunch and venue hire will be welcome!

Feel free to just turn up but it would be ideal if you could let us know before if you will be coming. Email info@hacan.org.uk or call John Stewart on 020 7737 6641

—-

Climate camp newspaper [5.3MB] at http://climatecamp.org.uk/themes/ccamptheme/files/paper.pdf

Shell to Sea Update

Dear Friends,
Hope this email finds ye well. Here is a brief update on the current situation:

1. Shell activity in the area is ramping up lately and if you are thinking of visiting the area we would call on you to do it over the next few weeks as help in resisting the work that is listed below is needed. You are always more than welcome to stay at the new camp house; email us (rossportsolidaritycamp@gmail.com) or phone 0851141170 to say when you can come. Check out our new website too: www.rossportsolidaritycamp.110mb.com

2. Shell plan to start offshore pipeline laying shortly as the Soltaire (pipe laying ship) is currently off the coast of Donegal. Shell have also been visiting houses lately around Glengad where the pipeline is due to come ashore saying that there would be some digging and noise disturbance in the area shortly. However they have hit a hitch with the Erris Fishermen as this week they had a protest to object to where Shell are placing their waste outflow pipe. Pat O Donnell said “We’ve been fishing these waters for generations and we all have licences to fish them. So let the Minister for Justice and the Government protect our rights now the way they brought in the Gardaí to protect the workers on the gas refinery,”
He added that if Shell wanted to remove his crab pots from the route of the pipeline, they would have to get a court order. “And I won’t heed the court order so they’ll have to send me and other fishermen to jail”. Read a report of it here http://www.indymedia.ie/article/88366

2. Shell have begun working on their compound in Glengad by starting to put in security fences which are in order that work will be able to begin on some of the offshore work. (See pictures here http://www.corribsos.com/index.php?id=1815). Most of this work occurs on a Special Area of Conservation with some of the fencing only about 200m from where the camp was. This work is almost certainly illegal as planning permission has still not been granted for any of the onshore pipeline. But the powers that be are ignoring all attempts to highlight the situation and letting Shell operate as they wish. Two people were arrested in the last week on the site but were released without charge.

3. Shell security: There is now a new security firm operating in the area on behalf of Shell. Over the last week Shell have got some seriously bad press over the surveillance and intimation of local residents which included the filming of families and children on glengad beach (see: http://www.corribsos.com/index.php?id=1820). Now anyone who visits the area and goes for a swim in the sea just beside where the camp used to be, the chances are you will be filmed. Today Shell were put under pressure on national radio to identify the security firm but refused to do so, making it obvious that Shell have something to hide as to who the firm is (it is rumoured locally that it is the Golan group). However even these heavies need protecting as evidenced by how the gardaí escorted them off when the full security bus was stopped by locals for failing to display any tax or insurance but this infringement was as usual ignored by the gardaí.

4. Mayo County Council building a road for Shell. The local authority is building a road through the area specifically for Shell against the wishes of the local people. It shows how invidious the Shell mentality is, as now you have council employees going around bribing and threatening local residents to give permission for the council to widen the road. So far these bribes and threats have only swayed one or 2 of the landowners and the local resident are fighting the road upgrade through legal channels. (See http://www.indymedia.ie/article/88317).

There is also alot of other stuff going on, such as Shell being stopped from accessing Rossport commonage lately, loads of submissions gone into the planning applications and a European Petitions Challenge. As always we need help with everything from direct actions, to banner making, to helping out on the camp garden so please visit if you have time to spare. Also big thanks to the people in Leeds for the recent camp fundraiser.

Anyway see all the latest campaign news on http://www.shelltosea.com

Hope to see some of ye soon.

Best wishes from the Rossport Solidarity Campers x