earthfirst – Page 231

Aldermaston Nuke Frocks and shots: on cocktail parties and builder blocking

Yet another fantastic opportunity to mix business with pleasure! Aldermaston Women’s peace camp(aign) host another fabulous women’s cocktail party at the peace camp on Saturday 12 July, while Block the Builders meet in nearby Reading the following afternoon to plot the downfall of the nuclear-industrial complex 😉

Since 2002, the Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston has been the recipient of a substantial investment programme to upgrade and develop new nuclear weapons facilities. The project is on the same scale as Heathrow’s Terminal Five. Aldermaston is where Britain researches, designs and manufactures it’s nuclear weapons. Latest news and background info on developments at the site can be found at http://www.aldermaston.net/news.

In March 2007 a parliamentary vote paved the way for a new fleet of nuclear-armed submarines to replace the existing four Trident subs, with decisions and announcements on new warheads and missiles expected to be made over the coming years (…in public … though who would buy £15bn submarines without already having committed to arming it?)

Between 2006 and 2007 new legislation was introduced aimed at limiting the right to and scope of protest at Britain’s nuclear weapons facilities (SOCPA and military lands byelaws).
Despite this, in March 2008 an estimated 5,000 people came to Aldermaston to make their voices heard in opposition to the extension of Britian’s nuclear weapons programme, and the women’s peace camp continues its 23-year tradition as a visible presence at the wire.

The camp is inviting women to come to Aldermaston on Saturday 12 July to join a celebration of the right to protest (frocks and shots optional but encouraged) and of women’s strength in the struggle against patriarchal military madness. Music, snacks, vegan cake (possibly…), ice and a twist.

Nonviolent direct action network Block the Builders are meeting the following day in Reading to discuss the ongoing builder-blocking efforts at Aldermaston, aimed at slowing and costing the construction of new weapons-related facilities. See http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk for details.

Come and meet us, discuss the issues and have a fabulous time!

info@aldermaston.net
http://www.aldermaston.net

Camp for Climate Action: Great Rebel Raft Regatta update & newspaper launched

THE GREAT REBEL RAFT REGATTA UPDATE

Following a professional reconnaissance and Health and Safety test trip by boat last Wednesday, rebel rafters and experienced sailors gave the thumbs up for the water borne disobedience on the Mass Day of Action, August 9th. Launching with the tides and if the weather is not blowing a gale, the action was deemed totally do able and has the potential to be a spectacular success. The key will be in the number of rafts, the more rafts ( or anything that floats !) there are the more impossible it will be for the forces of darkness to stop the armada reaching it’s target. So start packing paddles, canoes,inflatables, rafts, dinghies, amphibious vehicles etc.. with your tent. Try to encourage any yacht or boat people, pirates or sailors you know to join in. All rebel rafters will be requited to attend a water safety workshop that will be run daily for the three
days leading up to the day of action, and will have to wear life jackets ( if you don’t have your own, these will be provided by the camp). A write up is available on the GRRR website.

Meanwhile many groups across the country are getting excited by the GRRR bug and planning to build rafts and get teams together. If your group has any news, pictures of rafts or ideas to share, then send it to the constantly updated news feed on www.thegrrr.net . For any further enquiries email: pirates@thegrrr.net

CLIMATE CAMP NEWSPAPER HITS THE STREETS AND FESTIVALS

Last week 30,000 newspapers, beautifully designed in black and bright cyan and not looking anything like a boring political paper, came off the printing press and began their journey around the country.

Published to inspire people to come to the camp it is filled with full pages images of last years events, portraits of hot climate campers, a stunning map of this years camp and texts that describe the politics of radical climate activism. If you would like copies to hand out in the street, festivals, drop off in cafe’s etc. contact distribution@climatecamp.org.uk with your address and how many you want, they will be sent out asap or ring Isa 07984158 108 to find out where you can pick some up. The pdf’s is now online here: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/node/23

Trial Set for McDonalds Protester!

Date for trial set for Cambridge protester. Support appreciated!

The campaigner who was arrested under Section 5 of the Public Order Act in a McLibel anniversary protest in Cambridge (See http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401637.html for details and video) had his first hearing last Thursday. A trial date of the 15th Sep, 10.00 a.m. at Cambridge Magistrates Court at 43 Hauxton Road, Cambridge was set. The court set a full day trial for the case.

Date for trial set for Cambridge protester. Support appreciated!

The prosecution handed over witness statements and said they wanted to use CCTV from McDonalds as well as a Youtube video (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld3I4zVxc2A). Well, have a look and judge for yourself. What an evil dangerous protest, right?

The campaigner is still awaiting his request for legal aid and so has no representation at this time.

Section 5 of the Public Order Act basically is words or behaviour likely to cause ‘harassment, alarm or distress’ and as we all know holding a placard and expressing your views in McDonalds is very harassing, alarming and distressing and a terrible crime!

Trial Date:
15th Sep, 10.00 a.m. at Cambridge Magistrates Court at 43 Hauxton Road, Cambridge – Support Welcome!

New Social Centre Opens / Frome Squatters’ Network

6.07.2008
The new Social Centre in Frome, a short ways south of Bath, is hosting it’s first public event this Thursday – the first meeting of the Frome Squatters’ Network!

The Frome Autonomous Zone

6.07.2008
The new Social Centre in Frome, a short ways south of Bath, is hosting it’s first public event this Thursday – the first meeting of the Frome Squatters’ Network!

The Frome Autonomous Zone
..is a large house on Somerset Road, Frome, which aims to become a fully functioning Social Centre as soon we get our acts together. We can offer meeting and arts spaces and are working on a music room.

The center is at 36, Somerset Road, near the junction with Weymouth Road. Just look for the huge banner and the red and black flag fluttering proudly from the roof!

The Frome Squatters’ Network
…aims to connect with squatters and everyone interested in squatting, in order to create a social, political and practical network for the promotion of squatting in the Frome area. If you’re in the area and looking to squat, drop by – there’s plenty of empties to go round!

The meeting begins at 7pm.

No Cops – No Journos – No Fash

Arsonist hit car dealership (Athens, 5/7/2008)

A fire erupted at 03:22, inside a car dealership, on Kalamakiou street, 97, at Alimos, wrecking 5 cars and damaging 14 others and also the building.

Source: http://www.naftemporiki.gr/news/static/08/07/05/1535490.htm

A fire erupted at 03:22, inside a car dealership, on Kalamakiou street, 97, at Alimos, wrecking 5 cars and damaging 14 others and also the building.

Source: http://www.naftemporiki.gr/news/static/08/07/05/1535490.htm

250 hens liberated for Sean Kirtley

“With one more comrade behind bars, we decided to turn to a more direct form of action.

“With one more comrade behind bars, we decided to turn to a more direct form of action. Sean Kirtley got over 4 years for editing a website. So why bother doing anything legal?

Taking the message from the government loud and clear, we took up the tools of liberation during the night and made our way to an egg battery farm south of York. We ‘broke in’ by opening the door to the lower section of the farm and climbing up to the cages. Over-night we freed 250 hens and took them all to new homes across the country.

This action is dedicated to Sean whose spirit will still be outside those bars helping animals in the face of government stitch-ups and a corrupt legal system.

The change is in our hands, the battle has just begun…
The Animal Liberation Front”

anonymous communique – additional photos

Support Sean Kirtley

Support Sarah Whitehead

Sarah Whitehead is a committed vegan activist who has dedicated her life to saving animals and helping people. She worked tirelessly as a nurse whilst rescuing and rehoming abused and neglected animals, as well as campaigning against the notorious Huntingdon Life Sciences. She is not someone to sit back and let animals be tortured and abused, she stands up and fights wherever she sees injustice and never puts herself first.

Sarah had been informed about an abused beagle. It was living outside in a wooden cage, and was muzzled at all times except for when it got to eat. The dog was made to wear an electric shock collar and the neighbours informed Sarah that they had witnessed beatings from its owners. The neighbours had also heard the dog screaming on many occasions.

The RSPCA had been called numerous times, but they failed to help this dog and left it with owners who had on occasions tied it to a radiator.

All avenues had been explored in trying to lift this animal from hell. The RSPCA, despite numerous complaints and visits to the owners, did nothing; even the police had been called by neighbours, but they just told them to call the RSPCA.

What else was Sarah to do, but rescue the beagle herself? How else could this beagle be saved? Knowing how much it was suffering, could anyone just leave this beagle to live in pain?

Sarah was already on a suspended sentence for rescuing animals from a notorious puppy farmer in West Sussex, which meant that if she re-offended within two years she would be sent to prison for that “crime”. Even knowing this risk to her freedom, Sarah put the dog’s life and well-being first and lifted him to freedom.

Unknown to Sarah she was under police surveillance during the rescue as part of Operation Achilles and the campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences. Police followed her and watched her rescue the beagle, and then watched her take the dog to its second stage of its journey to it’s new home.

However, once the beagle was handed over, instead of following the beagle in order to return it to its owner, they carried on following Sarah. Luckily this means that the beagle is still safe and living in a loving home.

Some time later once the police had finished following Sarah around she was arrested, the police weirdly tried to accuse her of stealing the dog so that she could sell it for £500 to raise money for SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) Where this sum of £500 came from is anyone’s guess and it shows how little the police understand the concept of animal rights!

Sarah went on trial for burglary in June 2008. She pleaded not guilty to the offence as she believed she had not committed a crime in rescuing this beagle. She told the court she believed she had acted reasonably and honest and that it was the right thing to do because the police and RSPCA had failed to save this dog. Statements from the neighbours were read in court which described the cruelty to the dog, the beatings, and the screams but bizarrely the jury took the view that Sarah should have left the dog where it was and she was found guilty.

The judge sentenced Sarah to two years in prison, nine months of this is from the suspended sentence she was on, and the extra 1 1/3 years is for rescuing the beagle.

You can write to Sarah at:

Sarah Whitehead VM7684
HMP Bronzefield,
Woodthorpe Road,
Ashford,
Middx
TW15 3JZ.
United Kingdom

Click here for Sarah’s support page

Before going to prison, Sarah campaigned for the following groups, so please check out their websites:

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
Southern Animal Rights Coalition
Greyhound Action
Uncaged
BUAV
Vegan Prisoners Support Group
Dr Hadwen Trust

ELF target Coca-Cola twice and wild boar freed

In solidarity with the Austrian activists, imprisoned illegally by the state, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) twice this month targeted Coca-Cola in Mexico for their crimes against the earth and its inhabitants, whilst in Spain, ELF and Animal Liberation Front activists reported that they freed a boar that was awaiting death.

Reported: 28th June

received anonymously:

“On June 1 the bottler and distributor of the multinational coca cola was attacked in Mexico state; its walls were covered in paint and a large painting at the entrance read, ‘Multinational murderers;’ the attacks do not stop and will go on increasing.

Solidarity with prisoners of Austria!
For animal liberation!
For the liberation of the land!
For human liberation!
Sabotage and direct action!

FLT/ELF”

Reported: 24th June

translation from www.accionvegana.org:

“On thursday 12 of june we freed a wild boar in Caceres. We opened the fence that kept him encaged. This easy action has given back freedom to an animal that was waiting to be murdered by hunters.

We want to show our solidarity with our Austrian comrades repressed and to every animal liberation activist in jail.

ALF/ELF”

Reported: 7th June

anonymous communique (translation):

“Coca-Cola, one of the American multinationals responsible for the destruction of our planet, complicit in the exploitation and theft of water from indigenous communities (Chiapas), generating human exploitation by forcing children to work more than 10 hours a day in their sugarcane crops (El Salvador), massive pollution of rivers with toxic products (India), contractor of paramilitary groups that killed union workers (Colombia), financer of death by voluntarily giving a portion of their profits to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, racist since the days of Nazi Germany, partnering with large magnates and multinationals such as Nestle, McDonalds, Chrysler, Texaco, (likewise) responsible for global warming, the brutal exploitation of the land and the food crisis afflicting the world today, should be a primary objective for all those combatants who are fighting against the many aberrations and for the liberation of the land, animals and humans, because this global company alone is an example of the influence of the capitalist system on its owners, the extreme abuse of power and the advancing of its global control over many innocents.
Hence the Frente de Liberación de la Tierra has taken firm action against this scourge; in the evening of June 5 the walls of the company were splashed with paint with a special stench, the vehicles of the administrators were likewise victims of our first but not last attack.
We will return but with even more force.

Dedicated to the fighters of Austria = recently imprisoned by the fascist state of that country.
Forward!

..:FLT:.. – Estado de México”

See also the previous Mexican ALF/ELF action, click here

coal power station actions in Australia

Yesterday (Friday June 27) CIA (Concerned, Independent Activists) locked on to and shut down a conveyor transporting coal into Muja power station in Collie. Two activists were arrested.

In the early hours of this morning a group of climate campaigners entered the perimeter of the Muja coal-fired power station near Collie. Western Australia and shut down the conveyor belt supplying coal into the station. This is a peaceful protest against the continued use and expansion of polluting and unsustainable power generation in Western Australia. One person has locked onto the conveyor belt used to transport coal into the power station, preventing its operation and stopping the conveyor belt supply of coal into the plant. Benjamin Cody, a thirty year old father of four from Bunbury said that he was shutting down the plant to highlight and protest against government approval of two new coal-fired power stations and plans for the construction of two more. “Each of these will have a lifetime of at least thirty years, committing ourselves and future generations of West Australians to dirty, polluting and unreliable energy until around 2040. The Carpenter and Rudd Governments need to be held accountable, and the transition to WA’s dean energy future has to start now,” Mr Cody said. “Generating electricity from coal-fired power stations is the dirtiest way to produce power on the planet Collie could be the ‘Silicon Valley’ of renewable energies if the government were to direct investment into renewable technology. Instead this money is all being directed towards the coal industry”.

Concerned Independent Activists (CIA) spokesperson, Nicholas Morgan said, “It is disappointing and frustrating that short sighted politicians and vested interests are preventing WA from moving forward into the renewable energy industry. This is not about taking away jobs, it’s about creating more jobs in energy industries that are sustainable and reliable, such as wind, solar, wave, and geothermal. Currently in Germany, there are roughly 250,000 jobs in the renewable energy industry which is growing every year,” Mr Morgan said,”The worldwide renewable industry is worth over $100 billion and is doubling in size every 20 months. Australia has real innovative strength and could play a big part, with environmental, employment and other economic benefits to follow. Australia risks being left behind in the dark ages”.

The action is also taking place in the shadow of WA’s gas and energy crisis. “It is absolutely unacceptable that in this day and age the West Australian government is still relying on fossil fuels for the state’s energy needs” said Mr Morgan. “Western Australia’s energy emergency highlights the need to invest in a range of clean and reliable resources such as solar and wind. It is a sad joke that the government is responding to the lack of gas by reopening the states dirtiest power station which was decommissioned because it used old, polluting technology”.

This action is part of a growing trend around Australia of communities who are frustrated with the lack of action being taken by governments on climate change. “All over the world people are reclaiming their power and asserted their right to live in a world free from dangerous climate change”.

———-

3rd July 2008 – Climate Camp hails Greenpeace action: promises more to come…

Organisers of the Camp for Climate Action have applauded Greenpeace for this morning shutting down the country’s biggest single source of carbon dioxide, Eraring Power Station, south of Newcastle…

Eraring power station is equal first in the dubious honour of biggest CO2 emitter in Australia with another Hunter power station, Bayswater in Muswellbrook.

Camp spokesperson, Holly Creenaune, said that direct action against the causes of climate change was a reasonable response to the inaction of Government on reducing coal dependence.

“The longer the Government prevaricates on this issue, the more people will take action themselves against coal power and exports.”

“Greenpeace have taken action that any reasonable person would take in the face of the urgent need to stop emitting greenhouse gases and the hesitancy of Government to take leadership.

“Next week hundreds of people will follow their bold lead and take part in the largest single direct action against the causes of climate change that Australia has ever seen.”

The Camp for Climate Action will culminate in a peaceful direct action on 13th July at the Carrington coal terminal, where hundreds of people will walk onto the coal rail line and stop coal exports in their tracks.

“This is the reality of the situation: having wasted the last decade doing nothing about climate change but carrying on increasing our greenhouse pollution, we are now faced with the need to begin decommissioning power stations and winding back coal exports.”

For further information

Holly Creenaune 0417 682 541
Georgina Woods 0438 223 771

Issue Two of the ‘Roadblock Report’ Now Out!

3/7/2008
Issue two of the independent newsletter of the I-69 campaign is now out for your downloading, printing and distributing pleasure.
You can find both the first and the second issue on the website of Roadblock Earth First! http://stopi69.wordpress.com/resources or on the media archive section of the I-69 Media Office’s website http://i69mediaoffice.wordpress.com/media-archive

– letter from the editors about media/independent media
-breaking news stories about
• the tree sit eviction,
• Bloomington torch march,
• retaliatory actions across Indiana,
-action reports on:
• home demos,
• solidarity demos,
-updates on
• the nature walks on the route,
• the community barbq,
-opinion pieces about
• the flooding in Indiana,
• a response to allegations of violence in office demos.
-I-69 Listening project interview
-Critical thought piece on the future of the ‘anti-globalization movement.

The second issue is formatted in 8.5”X11”, to be double sided. Email roadblockreport (at) yahoo.com if you would like a different format.

As well, the I-69 Media Office is announcing the launch of its new website, i69mediaoffice.wordpress.com . The I-69 Media Office is an independent clearinghouse for anti-I-69 information and action reporting. Please explore our ‘under construction’ website for more information on what we do.