earthfirst – Page 235

field trial with genetically modified wheat destroyed (zurich, switzerland)

the local press reports as following:
early friday morning (june 13, 2008) around 35 persons entered the research area (“Forschungsanstalt Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon ART in Zürich Affoltern”) close to zurich and destroyed nearly the whole field trial with genetically modified wheat by scything and trampling the plants.

the research is initiated by Agroscope, university of zurich and ETH (polytech. university).
the present security agents were threatened and couldn’t stop the action.
the police arrested 5 persons after the action in the surrounding area, but it might be difficult to prove they’ve been involved.

http://tagi.ch/dyn/news/zuerich/888308.html
http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/zuerich/zerstoerungsaktion_in_gentech-versuchsfeld_1.759006.html

in 2003 a similar, but smaller field trial was done by ETH in another village. during weeks greenpeace tried to prevent other activists destroying the field so they could do an own spectacular action later on: greenpeace dumped dung on the field, but was stopped by the agents present.

Protesters end blockade of Brazil mining railroad

Jun 13, 2008
SAO PAULO – Hundreds of Brazilian protesters ended a blockade of a railway line that transports iron ore for mining company Vale, the company said late on Thursday.

It was the latest in a series of protests this week, some of them violent, by landless peasant groups targeting large companies and multinationals in Brazil.

Jun 13, 2008
SAO PAULO – Hundreds of Brazilian protesters ended a blockade of a railway line that transports iron ore for mining company Vale, the company said late on Thursday.

It was the latest in a series of protests this week, some of them violent, by landless peasant groups targeting large companies and multinationals in Brazil.

Protesters left peacefully after the Minas Gerais state’s justice department ordered them to leave the tracks earlier on Thursday or risk being removed by police or fined 30,000 reais ($18,000) for every day they remained, Vale said in a note.

“It started around 6 a.m. this morning,” a Vale spokeswoman said, adding more than 30 trains were delayed in the 10 hours that protesters had stopped traffic on the railway.

Trains on the line each carry around 14,000 tonnes of ore from the company’s network of mines in the state to ports but Vale could not immediately confirm how many were transporting the commodity. It said around 70 trains a day carry iron ore and other cargo down the line.

One passenger train was stopped by the protest as well as trains carrying goods for other firms, Vale said.

The Via Campesina peasant movement said about 1,500 people were occupying the railway to pressure Vale to negotiate with 500 families who will be dislodged by the construction of a hydro-electric dam in which the company is involved.

Protesters occupied properties of industrial conglomerate Votorantim and a supermarket belonging to the Wal-Mart group on Wednesday.

The peasant groups are demonstrating against the advance of one-crop farms they say harm the environment and small farmers. They are also protesting high food prices, the growing use of biofuels and the influence of multinational companies in Brazil.

Via Campesina said in a statement it was holding another protest in front of Goias state’s electricity company over price increases.

ALF target farming union offices over badger cull

The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) have sabotaged farming union offices in protest against the Welsh assembly’s decision to cull badgers, who are accused of spreading bovine TB, despite dairy cattle raised on intensive farms being the culprits.

The Carmarthen offices of both National Farmers Union (NFU) Cymru and the Farmers Union of Wales (FUW) were daubed with slogans including “no cull”, “cull farmers not badgers” and “ALF”.

The locks at the FUW’s office in the town were also glued shut, with slogans also painted on four other NFU Cymru buildings, including those at Haverfordwest and Swansea.

Source: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401046.html

—
Stop the Cull!: Viva! National Rally for the Badgers
Cardiff, Saturday, June 28 2008
1pm outside the Welsh Assembly Building (Debating Rooms)

Info + poster: https://indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/400088.html

More info: http://viva.org.uk/badgers

Redecorated: McDonalds for Sean Kirtley & SUVs for Jeff Luers

“McDonalds in South Yorkshire had their toilets redecorated with ‘Free Sean Kirtley’ posters and ‘McDonalds=McMurder’ (Sheffield & Barnsley restaurants)

Till all are free..

PS: Some SUVs at a garage on Ecclesall Rd, Sheffield, needed their paintwork redoing after a little redecoration in red…free Jeff Luers!”

“McDonalds in South Yorkshire had their toilets redecorated with ‘Free Sean Kirtley’ posters and ‘McDonalds=McMurder’ (Sheffield & Barnsley restaurants)

Till all are free..

PS: Some SUVs at a garage on Ecclesall Rd, Sheffield, needed their paintwork redoing after a little redecoration in red…free Jeff Luers!”

Sean Kirtley: http://supportsean.wordpress.com
Jeff Luers: http://freefreenow.org

Source: http://directaction.info

Double supermarket expropriation (Athens, 13/6/2008)

“Today at 13:30 goods of basic necessity were expropriated from 2 supermarkets (Veropoulos and DIA) and handed out in the open market of M. Voda. Following is the communique distributed at Veropoulos.

Thousands of supermarkets so full of goods, why don’t we just pillage them for our old age! -N. Asimos

Finally! the supermarket and corporation sharks frozen the prices of their products! Some of them were even more generous reducing their prices, in order to raise the “purchasing power” of the consumers. In simpler words: to gain more! As we can tell that no one takes into account this bullshit about a so-called price reduction, we put into action again our own “pack of measures” against costliness, expropriationg foods and basic stuff from large supermarkets.

PS. As far as it concers our covered faces, we say that: keeping in mind that society is yet unready and uneasy to listen closely and support these facts, so we think it’s necessary to adopt the basic measures for our own security, against the systems of security and repression mechanisms, in order to continue live and act freely. THE ONLY MEASURE AGAINST COSTLINESS IS THE EXPROPRIATION. MASSIVE INVASION IN THE SUPERMARKETS TO TAKE BACK ALL THAT BELONG TO US.

Angry anarchists against costliness”

From: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=880457

Vandalism at subway station (Athens, 13/6/2008)

From reports at http://athens.indymedia.org it seems that a group attacked Victoria’s subway station, breaking down cameras and ticket checking machines, throwing leaflets and spray painting slogans against surveillance and control and in solidarity to the detained M. Tsourapas-Chr.Kontorevithakis. A nearby bank on Patission avenue was also attacked.

Protest halts Drax coal train as summer of discontent against coal continues…

Media – Interviews are available with protestors: call 07944 367755 Photos from the protest at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sitefeed/ Protestors have halted a coal train carrying fuel for Drax power station in Yorkshire, the single biggest source of CO2 in the UK. The protest comes six weeks before the 2008 Camp for Climate Action at Kingsnorth power station … Continue reading “Protest halts Drax coal train as summer of discontent against coal continues…”

Media – Interviews are available with protestors: call 07944 367755
Photos from the protest at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sitefeed/

Protestors have halted a coal train carrying fuel for Drax power station in Yorkshire, the single biggest source of CO2 in the UK. The protest comes six weeks before the 2008 Camp for Climate Action at Kingsnorth power station – which will also highlight how using coal to supply energy will be a disaster for the planet.

Dressed in white overalls and canary outfits, they used safety signals to stop the train on a bridge overlooking the power station, before climbing on board and dumping coal off onto the tracks.

The train has been stopped on a branch line used exclusively for delivering coal to Drax. Protestors have used a network of climbing ropes to suspend themselves under the bridge from the train – meaning any movement while the protest continues is impossible.

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

Updates at http://thecoalhole.org/

To find out what happened next, go to http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20903

Squat news – London, Cambridge

12.06.2008

Bowl Court Social Centre Days Are Numbered – London

12.06.2008

Bowl Court Social Centre Days Are Numbered – London

The courting hearing today ruled in favor of the property developers claiming ownership of the derelict warehouse in Bowl Court that has been used as a radical social centre since opening 23rd March. The David vs Goliath case was clearly motivated by Hammersons desire to prevent the new social centre becoming a hub for the local campaigns against their proposed development for the area, the biggest development in London since Docklands in the eighties.

The victorian social centre is located in the Shoreditch Street Conservation area and previous attempts to obtain planning consent for demolition have been refused. The neighboring warehouse was knocked down without planning permission by Gamma City Developments which was purchased by Hammerson, along with vast tracts of lands earmarked to become a forest of glass skyscrapers over the next ten years. Number 6 Bowl Court was left empty for years with a gaping hole cut in the roof and deep excavations dug around it’s external walls, apparently with the aim of speeding up it’s decay to justify future applications for demolition.

Although at least two other squatters occupy nearby properties which Hammerson claim to own, the attempts to evict Bowl Court came about only as it became apparent that the social centre was becoming involved in the local campaigns against the redevelopment plans for the area. The company had been informed of the occupation on the 24th March but only made moves to repossess the property three weeks ago.

In court, the defendants questioned the evidence presented by the claimants regarding ownership. Their land registry title was contradicted by titles known to be held by other companies. There was also issue over whether the notice of the proceedings had been correctly served as residential property requires five days clear notice but only three had been given. With no professional representation, the defendants were unable to put together a robust defense and also found themselves threatened with over £21,000 in costs. However, the judge also considered the costs to be outrageously inflated an choose to award just £2,500 in costs.

The future of the social centre is now obviously in doubt but in the meantime events continue as normal. See http://www.bowlcourt.co.nr for details.

——-

Mill Road Social Centre May Stay For Flippin’ Ages – Cambridge

A possession order was granted to Tesco today in court, yet representatives of the Mill Road Social Centre had apparent confirmation of indefinite leave to remain from Tesco’s solicitors.

About 20 social centre groupies went to court today dressed in all our wet finery and had a friendly bit of banter with the Tesco legal representative and the judge. The judge decided that, although we pointed out in our defense that their claim wasn’t accurate and so should be thrown out, she was happy to quickly amend it in court. This meant that we no longer had a defense as that was the only way our legal assistance had found for rejecting the claim. So, the judge awarded Tesco the possession order, as we thought they might.

We raised the issue of Tesco stating that they didn’t want to apply the possession order immediately, they just wanted hold of it. The solicitor again confirmed that this was the case.

SO, net result, as far as we know, we can remain in there doing fun things until Tesco want to get the builders in, hopefully sometime never. Obviously it’d be useful to keep open some kind of dialogue with Tesco about when they’re going to move in and we’ll look into that, however the early hope is that we actually have the space for a number of weeks and can get cracking in earnest to make it even more lovely and useful.

The solicitor said in court that “Tesco has no use today for the premises.” to which the judge replied “So they are in no position to commence redevelopment at this moment?”, and the solicitor answered “No.”. So if that’s right, and if they do want to wait on the planning process before trying to evict us, it could be a long long time. Hurrah! 🙂 It also means they were fibbing when they said they could open a store “tomorrow” in the evening news. Cheeky blighters.

millroadsocialcentre@lists.riseup.net
http://millroadsocialcentre.wordpress.com

—

social centre attacked (again)

15.06.2008
At about half 1 this morning the mill rd social centre was attacked for the second time in a week. Thugs armed with an iron bar smashed windows and damaged vehicles in attempt to intimidate the occupants, then drove off. No Pasaran.
———-

New autonomous and creative social space in South London

The Chapel project is an autonomous and creative social space situated in the heart of Nunhead. The space is used for all kinds of creative and socially minded workshops and events. Our main aim is to provide affordable cultural activities to people, promoting creative interaction and therefore social change.

Come and get involved. Whatever ideas, materials or positive energies you can share would be great whether its running a workshop, showing your art work, or just spreading the word. We hope to see you soon.

http://www.chapelproject.com

Action day for persecuted eco-activists in the US

This Saturday (14th June), there will be an international action day for the, by now numerous, eco-activists who are currently imprisoned in the US.

The repression against people carrying out direct actions in the United States continues to rise. The most recent conviction in a series of sentences is that of Eric McDavid, who was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison ( http://supporteric.org/). He has actually never carried out any actions, but was allegedly part of a group that (according to a police informant) was planning them. He was sentenced on grounds of a witness statement of this police informant, who had not only infiltrated but actually steered the group, and received at least 75.000 USD for her “work”. Eric is 19 years old. Because he refused to “confess” or cooperate in the investigation, he received this incredibly high sentence.

Eric’s conviction is only one of many examples. Many more people are persecuted and prosecuted and consequently threatened with life in prison. The prosecutions started when North American authorities started an offensive against the radical ecological movement; the resulting investigation and prosecutions were later referred to by activists as “green scare” (see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Scare). A court case is currently held against Marie Mason, for example ( http://freemarie.org/). Briana Waters has already been found guilty and is awaiting her sentencing in prison ( http://supportbriana.org). Tre Arrow ( http://trearrow.org/) is also facing trial after he was extradited from Canada. Although Tre Arrow “confessed”, in the hope for a lower sentence, he has refused to provide the authorities with information about others.

Many are already sentenced and imprisoned, many others could face new investigations and procedures at any point in time. The threat for radical activists is enormous, especially when considering that home security legislation has turned the US into a police state (see www.greenscare.org for background information).

Direct action

Those prosecuted are accused of having taken part in actions carried out in the collective names of ELF (Earth Liberation Front) or ALF (Animal Liberation Front), see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Liberation_Front. No one ever got hurt in any of the actions, which were generally related to fighting climate change and the introduction of genetic technology.

The 14th of June has been declared international day of action by the campaign supporting the first eco-activist to be imprisoned, Jeffrey ‘Free’ Luers. His campaign also shows that international solidarity actually works. He was initially sentenced to a horrendous 22 year imprisonment (his “crime”: setting fire to three SUVs owned by a car dealer). In appeal, the sentence was reduced to ten years. Jeffrey, who has been in prison since 2001, is expected to be released at the end of 2009! (see http://freefreenow.org/ for more information).

One of the biggest problems in resisting this extraordinary level of repression by the state is the American justice system, which rewards people who make statements incriminating themselves and others. Some of those accused also did this, and part of this “evidence” has been proven to be incorrect, and yet was rewarded with concessions in sentencing. Some of these snitches are therefore either not sentenced, or free after a shorter prison term, even though they were accused of the same “crimes” as those who are spending decades in prison. These people are of course not supported by solidarity campaigns.

Others have decided to confess and cooperate in the procedure against them, yet have refused all other form of judicial cooperation. And then there’s the brave ones, who have denied all charges and all forms of cooperation. These people are of course faced with the harshest forms of repression, and are in most need of support.

What to do?

Those accused, their friends and their family welcome international solidarity very much. Publicity about their plight is also very important. It should be considered, however, that those accused, especially when they are in the middle of a trial, are sometimes not waiting to be linked to wild actions which are used by the prosecution to criminalise them even further. Financial support is also welcome, for the individual trials as well as for the general campaigns. A small campaign office that manages a high work load with little means is the CLDC ( http://cldc.org/).

Daniel McGowan ( http://suportdaniel.org), one of the many victims who was sentenced (to seven years), declares in one of his newsletters why the work of the CDLC is so important ( http://supportdaniel.org/blog/?p=33).

Furthermore, it is important to send letters, postcards and books to the prisoners. The North American prison conditions are, however, very strict (and here also, prisoners might not want to be linked to illegal political actions). Also, do not forget to protect your own privacy ( http://security.resist.ca/).

And 14 & 15 June is time for solidarity actions!
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/05/375753.shtml

More information:

http://greenscare.org/
http://midwestgreenscare.org
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/topic/greenscare/
http://www.ecoprisoners.org/
http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/
http://www.anarchistblackcross.org/
http://breakthechains.info/
http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/
http://www.whosarat.com/

Women and Trans DIY-SQUATTING Weekend in London, 28th-29th June

This is a callout to all women and trans-folk that would like to be involved in a weekend of workshops around diy-squatting

We plan to take advantage of all the usual challenges that semi-derelict buildings pose as a platform for sharing our knowledge, skills, and experience in all the tasks related to opening and maintaining a healthy and happy squat!

This is a callout to all women and trans-folk that would like to be involved in a weekend of workshops around diy-squatting

These are all the areas that we’ve thought of so far, but more ideas are always welcome:

* Electricity
* Plumbing
* Gas
* Security- doors/locks etc
* Barricading
* Legal
* Dealing w/ cops/owners- talk about experience/share tactics
* Women/Trans squatting- open discussion on experience of squatting from a women/trans-perspective.
* Sustainable energy

All levels of experience in any of the above areas are welcome, and even if you have no experience in any of the practical, diy-related areas, we hope to have a platform to share
experiences, stories and advice related to all aspects of squat-living from a trans/woman’s perspective.

Please get in touch if you’d like to help out at all in organising this weekend – We’ll need help finding a suitable space and preparing it for the weekend, publicising the gathering, and then running workshops on the weekend itself, as well as collecting and preparing food.
We also hope to provide childcare (on a rota-basis), so please let us know if you can help with that.

This gathering will be held on the weekend of the 28th – 29th June.

You can e-mail us at diy_squatting@riseup.net

Please spread the word!

**Let us know if you would like to be sent leaflets**