Author: earthfirst

G8 Bike Caravan Action Nijmegen

7.05.2007 — Today a bicy­cle demo against the G8 was held in Nijmegen, Hol­land..

Today the bicy­cle demo against the G8 was a suc­cess. Despite the pour­ing rain and the absence of the major­i­ty of the inter­na­tion­al bicy­cle car­a­van, there were still 30 cyclists ready for action. Sev­er­al loca­tions that had some con­nec­tion with the G8 pol­i­tics were vis­it­ed by bike for some good-spir­it­ed demon­strat­ing . Unlike in Utrecht the police was wise enough not to show up. Tonight the rest of the car­a­van will arrive in Nijmegen, where the cyclists will stop for the night. Tomor­row the car­a­van will con­tin­ue towards Ger­many, where the G8 sum­mit will take place from 6th to 8th of june, in Heili­gen­damm.

7.05.2007 — Today a bicy­cle demo against the G8 was held in Nijmegen, Hol­land..

Today the bicy­cle demo against the G8 was a suc­cess. Despite the pour­ing rain and the absence of the major­i­ty of the inter­na­tion­al bicy­cle car­a­van, there were still 30 cyclists ready for action. Sev­er­al loca­tions that had some con­nec­tion with the G8 pol­i­tics were vis­it­ed by bike for some good-spir­it­ed demon­strat­ing . Unlike in Utrecht the police was wise enough not to show up. Tonight the rest of the car­a­van will arrive in Nijmegen, where the cyclists will stop for the night. Tomor­row the car­a­van will con­tin­ue towards Ger­many, where the G8 sum­mit will take place from 6th to 8th of june, in Heili­gen­damm.

The first stop was made at the local Mcdon­alds. This was sur­round­ed by the cyclists and the entrance road to the mcdrive was blocked with fences.This fast food chain is a sym­bol of exploita­tion of work­ers and envi­ron­ment in third world coun­tries by the rich west­ern soci­ety.

Of course Beren­don­ck was also vis­it­ed. Here, envi­ron­men­tal groups and local nature enjoy­ers are resist­ing the expan­sion of the golf ter­rain, into a valu­able for­est and lake area. The activsts reclaimed the pub­lic space by plac­ing signs pro­claim­ing “This is not a Golf State / Free access recre­ation­al area”. Trees were plant­ed in the holes, and there was a game of foot­ball. Like Beren­don­ck is wast­ed for a small group of rich peo­ple, the same goes for the G8 — on a world wide scale.

The last action was at the local head­quar­ters of the marechaussee (immi­gra­tion police). The gates to the build­ing were locked from the out­side by thick chains. Ban­ners were hung on the fences, on which was writ­ten “no human being is ille­gal” and “break the pow­er of the G8” By this way the activists protest­ed against the Fortress of Europe. The marechaussee plays an impor­tant role in the inhu­mane immi­gra­tion pol­i­tics. Migra­tion is one of the main themes of the protests against the G8.

Pho­tos: http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2007/05/44322.shtml

Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5LnmkG2zOQ

Norwich Rising Tide — First Action

6.05.2007
NRT Spoof action — ‘Build the NDR: Con­crete is Free­dom!’ Pos­ing as mem­bers of the fic­tion­al Coali­tion for Roads And Progress (C.R.A.P), and bran­dish­ing plac­ards bear­ing slo­gans such as ‘Re-tar­mac the streets!’, ‘Oil is Good for the Plan­et’ and ‘The NDR – an indus­tri­al par­adise’ we held a series of mock press con­fer­ences out­side the Forum in Nor­wich city cen­tre.

NDR Norwich demo6.05.2007
NRT Spoof action — ‘Build the NDR: Con­crete is Free­dom!’ Pos­ing as mem­bers of the fic­tion­al Coali­tion for Roads And Progress (C.R.A.P), and bran­dish­ing plac­ards bear­ing slo­gans such as ‘Re-tar­mac the streets!’, ‘Oil is Good for the Plan­et’ and ‘The NDR – an indus­tri­al par­adise’ we held a series of mock press con­fer­ences out­side the Forum in Nor­wich city cen­tre.

On a fine Sat­ur­day morn­ing in May, 15 activists head­ed into Nor­wich city cen­tre to hold a rov­ing protest against the pro­posed North­ern Dis­trib­u­tor Road (NDR). Pos­ing as mem­bers of the fic­tion­al Coali­tion for Roads And Progress (C.R.A.P), we held a series of mock press con­fer­ences out­side the Forum, where the Coun­ty Coun­cil are hold­ing an exhi­bi­tion about plans for the NDR.

Stand­ing in front of a ban­ner read­ing ‘Build the NDR: Con­crete is Free­dom’, and sur­round­ed by a crowd of sup­port­ers wav­ing plac­ards bear­ing slo­gans such as ‘Spend More Time in Your Car!’ and ‘Who Needs Green Space or Peace and Qui­et?’, the press con­fer­ence heard from C.R.A.P mem­bers about their rea­sons for sup­port­ing the NDR.

Dr. Sey­mour Rhodes pre­sent­ed new med­ical research about the health ben­e­fits of air pol­lu­tion and the risks of exces­sive walk­ing or cycling. Mr. I. Sell­more, the devel­op­er on the pan­el, blew away the myth that the NDR will ease traf­fic con­ges­tion, instead insist­ing that it will replace the peace­ful vil­lages in North Nor­wich with a new indus­tri­al par­adise. Coun­cil­lor There­sa Gone reas­sured audi­ence mem­bers that the £100 mil­lion cost of the road would not go over bud­get, chal­leng­ing them to name any large infra­struc­ture projects around the coun­try that had not come in on time and on bud­get.

At the close of the press con­fer­ence, which came with much applause from the crowd that had assem­bled, the coali­tion mem­bers stepped out of char­ac­ter and began dis­trib­ut­ing leaflets to passers-by and talk­ing with them about the NDR project.

After an hour out­side the Forum, we moved loca­tions to the mar­ket square, where the press con­fer­ence was repeat­ed for the bustling Sat­ur­day morn­ing shop­ping crowd.

‘It was fun to watch, and real­ly inspir­ing to see peo­ple com­mu­ni­cat­ing such an impor­tant mes­sage in such a cre­ative way,’ said one of the audi­ence mem­bers.

Today’s protest was intend­ed to be a light-heart­ed way of point­ing out some major con­cerns we and many oth­ers have about the pro­posed NDR. The pit­falls of the project have become so great as to bor­der on the ridicu­lous, and we thought we could play on this as a fun and unusu­al way to engage passers by.

See below for the leaflet hand­ed out on the day, which explains both C.R.A.P.’s com­i­cal­ly pro-road posi­tion and our own con­cerns about the NDR.

It was a fun way to spend a Sat­ur­day morn­ing, and a suc­cess­ful and inspir­ing first out­ing for the new Nor­wich Ris­ing Tide group. Watch this space (and www.risingtide.org.uk/norwich) for more actions against the NDR and oth­er local cli­mate crim­i­nals!

norwich@risingtide.org.uk
http://www.risingtide.org.uk/norwich

Spoof Plac­ards

Here’s a full list of the spoof plac­ards that Coali­tion for Roads And Progress (C.R.A.P) mem­bers were bran­dish­ing yes­ter­day: -

NDR – an Urban Indus­tri­al Par­adise
Re-tar­mac the Streets
Oil is Good for the Plan­et!
Escape Flood­ing … by Car
Wim­pey say bring on the NDR
Urban is Joy!
Reward Fat Cats
Who needs Green Space or Peace and Qui­et?
Con­crete is Free­dom
More Con­crete, More Pol­lu­tion
Hoorah for the NDR – Spend more time in your Car
Tescos Loves the NDR
Car Fumes are Cheap­er than Cig­a­rettes
More Con­crete, Few­er Trees
The NDR – You know it Makes Sense!
More Con­crete, Less Green­ery
May Gur­ney has our Best Inter­ests at Heart
Growth is Hap­pi­ness
Sup­port Your Local Share­hold­er
Walk­ing is a Waste of Time!

Cornwall goes Critical

At mid­day this Sat 5th May cyclists gath­ered in the town square in Fal­mouth for the towns first Crit­i­cal Mass bike ride. The cel­e­bra­tion of com­bus­tion free lib­er­ty, pic­nics and ever so slight­ly fan­cy dress boast­ed near­ly 50 rid­ers. There was loads of diver­si­ty, from skater boys to hip­py chicks, bikey blokes to art stu­dents, crusties, mid­dle aged pro­fes­sion­als, old Earth­firsters, and fam­i­lies with kids. Not bad for a small town vir­tu­al­ly falling off the edge of the coun­try.

Falmouth's 1st Critical Mass 1
Falmouth's 1st Critical Mass 2At mid­day this Sat 5th May cyclists gath­ered in the town square in Fal­mouth for the towns first Crit­i­cal Mass bike ride. The cel­e­bra­tion of com­bus­tion free lib­er­ty, pic­nics and ever so slight­ly fan­cy dress boast­ed near­ly 50 rid­ers. There was loads of diver­si­ty, from skater boys to hip­py chicks, bikey blokes to art stu­dents, crusties, mid­dle aged pro­fes­sion­als, old Earth­firsters, and fam­i­lies with kids. Not bad for a small town vir­tu­al­ly falling off the edge of the coun­try.

The sam­ba band grabbed a fair bit of atten­tion for the ini­tial gath­er­ing, and then every­one set off for a rather dis­joint­ed but joy­ous per­am­bu­la­tion down the town. The response from the high street was a dra­mat­ic, sev­er­al jaws lit­er­al­ly dropped. Once peo­ple got over the shock almost every­one grinned. There was very lit­tle dri­ver lairy­ness, and the police (who had been tak­en unawares, and weren’t there to mind the start) made no real­ly inter­ven­tions.

Sat­ur­day lunch is of course an unusu­al time for a Crit­i­cal Mass, but it does kind of make sense in a small tourism based com­mu­ni­ty, and a good time was gen­er­al­ly agreed to have been had by all…There are plans to do it reg­u­lar.

These pho­tos aren’t par­tic­u­lar­ly rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the ride, but do show lots of peo­ple being hap­py on bikes.

Gloucester pipeline action group

May 6, 2007
There has been an action group formed in Glouces­ter to raise aware­ness about the pipeline and to protest against the pipeline. We meet up around once month and also stage direct actions, put on ben­e­fit gigs and have info stalls in Glouces­ter and at local events. Please send an email to fightthepipe@hotmail.co.uk for more infor­ma­tion or con­tact us through our myspace http://www.myspace.com/fightingthepipe

May 6, 2007
There has been an action group formed in Glouces­ter to raise aware­ness about the pipeline and to protest against the pipeline. We meet up around once month and also stage direct actions, put on ben­e­fit gigs and have info stalls in Glouces­ter and at local events. Please send an email to fightthepipe@hotmail.co.uk for more infor­ma­tion or con­tact us through our myspace http://www.myspace.com/fightingthepipe

We would love to hear from any­one whether you just want email updates on what we are doing, put up a few posters and give leaflets to friends or get involved with direct actions.

Togeth­er we can make a dif­fer­ence!

SHAC TAKES THE FLAK: FLIMSY PRETEXT FOR COUNTRY-WIDE ARRESTS OF ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

4.5.07
In yet anoth­er ham­merblow aimed at the ani­mal rights move­ment, police made 32 arrests across the UK in the ear­ly hours of Tues­day morn­ing in ‘Oper­a­tion Achilles’. Assis­tant Chief Con­sta­ble Adri­an Lep­pard of Kent Police says the arrests are “one of the largest, if not the largest, police oper­a­tion that has tar­get­ed ani­mal extrem­ism in the UK.” Three prop­er­ties were also searched in Bel­gium and the Nether­lands.

4.5.07
In yet anoth­er ham­merblow aimed at the ani­mal rights move­ment, police made 32 arrests across the UK in the ear­ly hours of Tues­day morn­ing in ‘Oper­a­tion Achilles’. Assis­tant Chief Con­sta­ble Adri­an Lep­pard of Kent Police says the arrests are “one of the largest, if not the largest, police oper­a­tion that has tar­get­ed ani­mal extrem­ism in the UK.” Three prop­er­ties were also searched in Bel­gium and the Nether­lands.

700 police were involved as homes and ani­mal sanc­tu­ar­ies were raid­ed, with police seiz­ing com­put­ers, mobile phones and cash. The whole oper­a­tion was designed with max­i­mum pub­lic­i­ty in mind — the press were tipped off in advance and duti­ful­ly report­ed on the lat­est crack­down on ani­mal rights ‘extrem­ism’. Almost all those arrest­ed had some con­nec­tion with the SHAC cam­paign

Of course what did­n’t hit the head­lines was the num­ber of prop­er­ties raid­ed with­out arrests being made and the fact that 24 hours lat­er only nine of those arrest­ed had been charged — two with black­mail and the oth­er sev­en with ‘con­spir­a­cy to black­mail’. Twen­ty were released on bail and one with­out charge. Two of those nicked, main organ­is­ers in the SHAC cam­paign, have been held for fur­ther ques­tion­ing.

Cru­cial­ly, the police inves­ti­ga­tion — in a nod to cor­po­rate mar­tial law — used intel­li­gence and foren­sic sup­port from the pri­vate sec­tor. The phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal and biotech­nol­o­gy indus­try greet­ed news of the raids with glee: “News of today’s oper­a­tion will act as a great fil­lip to the med­ical research com­mu­ni­ty across Europe,” said a state­ment issued by Ais­ling Bur­nand, chief exec­u­tive of Britain’s BioIn­dus­try Asso­ci­a­tion.

One source close to SHAC told SchNEWS, “This has all the hall­marks of a fish­ing expe­di­tion, designed to cause mas­sive dis­rup­tion to ani­mal rights cam­paigns and show Big Phar­ma here and abroad that the police are mak­ing strides against the ani­mal rights move­ment.”

NETCU CLOSES IN

As details emerged of the botched raid on Fresh­fields Ani­mal Sanc­tu­ary in Liv­er­pool, sanc­tu­ary head Dave Cal­len­dar told SchNEWS, “At 5.30 they kicked in the door and seized three staff mem­bers. At 6.20 they seized two oth­ers as they turned up for work. There were about six­ty cop­pers — they set up a cor­don and refused access to any­one. Those seized were held in vans but not arrest­ed. My farm man­ag­er had his col­lar­bone bro­ken after he was grabbed by three police when he climbed the back wall to check on our pigs. He was held in a van for three hours and refused access to med­ical atten­tion. Although the police brought an RSPCA inspec­tor with them it was clear that when we regained access to the site that noth­ing had been done for the ani­mals. Also they allowed ani­mals to escape, which we’re still look­ing for. They took every sin­gle piece of hard­ware, mobile phones, pho­to­copiers, you name it — but they did­n’t take a sin­gle piece of paper­work. It’s dif­fi­cult to see it as any­thing oth­er then delib­er­ate intim­i­da­tion and dis­rup­tion — nobody here is involved with the Hunt­ing­don cam­paign. We’re a pro-active com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tion and we’re not going to let them walk all over us.”

The raids come against a back­drop of a decline in crim­i­nal inci­dents relat­ed to ani­mal rights and demon­strate that the Nation­al Extrem­ism Tac­ti­cal Co-ordi­nat­ing Unit’s (see www.netcu.org.uk) efforts are now aimed firm­ly at the ‘legit­i­mate’ above ground ani­mal rights move­ment. With SHAC once again able to con­duct demos out­side HLS (see SchNEWS 581) and activism spread­ing across Europe, Britain’s polit­i­cal police seem intent on decap­i­tat­ing the A.R. move­ment, by any means nec­es­sary.

* See www.shac.net for more
* Fresh­fields Ani­mal Sanc­tu­ary see www.freshfieldsrescue.org.uk

The Basement Fire / Flood Update. WE NEED YOU!

The Base­ment is a social cen­tre in Cen­tral Man­ches­ter with a veg­an cafe, activist library, book­shop, com­put­er hub and exhi­bi­tion space. We have been bad­ly affect­ed by the mas­sive fire on Mon­day and we are appeal­ing for help so we can get back open again as soon as pos­si­ble.

The Base­ment is a social cen­tre in Cen­tral Man­ches­ter with a veg­an cafe, activist library, book­shop, com­put­er hub and exhi­bi­tion space. We have been bad­ly affect­ed by the mas­sive fire on Mon­day and we are appeal­ing for help so we can get back open again as soon as pos­si­ble.

The Base­ment Social Cen­tre in Man­ches­ter was bad­ly dam­aged in the huge fire which start­ed on Dale Street on Mon­day morn­ing. It is now closed for essen­tial repairs but we hope to open again in the near future, In the mean­time apolo­gies to all our user groups, cus­tomers and friends.

Luck­i­ly we did not go up in flames; how­ev­er we have suf­fered smoke dam­age and more sig­nif­i­cant­ly severe flood dam­age from our sprin­kler sys­tem

Some of us were able to briefly go in and sal­vage impor­tant items; the scene that greet­ed us was grim but rather less apoc­a­lyp­tic than we first feared. There were pud­dles of water rather than the 2 metres we were warned about but many books, leaflets and art works are well beyond repair. Ceil­ing tiles have come down and we can not yet be sure how bad­ly affect­ed the IT hub and kitchen are.

We are not cur­rent­ly able to gain access to start the clean up or even ful­ly assess the dam­age, this is because the area is still deemed unsafe until adja­cent build­ings are demol­ished. Lat­est reports sug­gest we will be able to get in some­time next week. This is incred­i­bly frus­trat­ing and obvi­ous­ly damp things will fes­ter so we are fac­ing a huge chal­lenge,

When we are able to start we would be huge­ly grate­ful for any help with the clean up. Its going to be a mas­sive task and the more vol­un­teers the bet­ter. We will also need finan­cial sup­port because although we do have some insur­ance it will not cov­er all our loss­es. Exten­sive ren­o­va­tion and restock­ing will be nec­es­sary and we real­ly do need you.

We have all been touched by many mes­sages of sol­i­dar­i­ty and sup­port we have received. Thank you every­body. Cheers also to the Fire Brigade who have been ace.

We now ask that you think about turn­ing kind words into action. We have a new web­site which includes a place to reg­is­ter offers of prac­ti­cal help and also an online dona­tion facil­i­ty. Any con­tri­bu­tions you can make, phys­i­cal or finan­cial will be much appre­ci­at­ed.

Please go to http://thebasement.clearerchannel.org/new/

The Base­ment will rise, phoenix like, and be stronger and more glo­ri­ous – but we will need the help of our friends and sup­port­ers to do so

Love and under­wa­ter kiss­es

The Base­ment Col­lec­tive
mustsocial@yahoo.co.uk

critical masses of people in manchester cm!

last fri­days crit­i­cal mass had well over a hun­dred peo­ple rid­ing through the streets of man­ches­ter.. it was an amaz­ing feel­ing, we chat­ted and sang along to the soundsys­tem and rode around in the sun..it was ace.. loads of peo­ple cheered and we had no both­er what­so­ev­er.. after­wards we went to hang out in the park it real­ly was fan­tas­tic.

Manchester Critical Mass April 07last fri­days crit­i­cal mass had well over a hun­dred peo­ple rid­ing through the streets of man­ches­ter.. it was an amaz­ing feel­ing, we chat­ted and sang along to the soundsys­tem and rode around in the sun..it was ace.. loads of peo­ple cheered and we had no both­er what­so­ev­er.. after­wards we went to hang out in the park it real­ly was fan­tas­tic.

see some pho­tos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spinneyhead/476759467/in/set-72157600155903889/

the next one is fri­day 25th may meet 6pm cen­tral library

Plane Stupid mark ten years of Blair — BAA HQ blocked

2.05.2007 Green activists today marked the tenth anniver­sary of Tony Blair com­ing to pow­er by vis­it­ing his best friends in indus­try to high­light the revolv­ing door between Labour and the avi­a­tion indus­try and his fail­ure to tack­le cli­mate change. (1) A team of pro­tes­tors from cli­mate action group, Plane Stu­pid, (2) are block­ing the ‘revolv­ing door’ to BAA’s Heathrow HQ to oppose gov­ern­ment and indus­try plans for air­port expan­sion.

BAA 10 years of Blair2.05.2007 Green activists today marked the tenth anniver­sary of Tony Blair com­ing to pow­er by vis­it­ing his best friends in indus­try to high­light the revolv­ing door between Labour and the avi­a­tion indus­try and his fail­ure to tack­le cli­mate change. (1) A team of pro­tes­tors from cli­mate action group, Plane Stu­pid, (2) are block­ing the ‘revolv­ing door’ to BAA’s Heathrow HQ to oppose gov­ern­ment and indus­try plans for air­port expan­sion.

The activists have chained up the front doors to the offices and have dumped copies of the sci­ence of cli­mate change, reports from the UN and from the Tyn­dall Cen­tre, into the recep­tion area. The activists have pledged not to allow the staff out until they’ve read the sci­ence. Oth­er cam­paign­ers have unfurled a ban­ner out­side the build­ing stat­ing, “Read the sci­ence. www.planestupid.com”

Cam­paign­er for Plane Stu­pid, Leo Mur­ray, explained:

“In years to come, Blair will be remem­bered for sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly approv­ing cli­mate-wreck­ing projects like air­port expan­sion. But it might not have hap­pened if it weren’t for the fact that the revolv­ing door between Labour and BAA just hasn’t stopped spin­ning.” (3) (4)

He added:

“We can’t believe that if BAA had read the sci­ence, they’d still be push­ing ahead with their cli­mate-crazy plans for air­port expan­sion. With Blair prepar­ing to leave office, UN cli­mate sci­en­tists gath­er­ing in Bangkok, and the hottest April on record, it’s time BAA used their enor­mous influ­ence to tell Blair to ditch expan­sion plans or leave with a lega­cy of fail­ing on cli­mate change.”

This Friday’s IPCC report on mit­i­ga­tion of cli­mate emis­sions, a draft copy of which has been obtained by Plane Stu­pid, con­firms, “Land use plan­ning and trans­port demand man­age­ment can make a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion.”

Plane Stu­pid are one of the groups behind the adver­tise­ments in today’s nation­al news­pa­pers head­lined, “Vote for cli­mate change.” (5)

Notes for Edi­tors:

(1) The BAA/Labour revolv­ing door:
— In advance of the government’s 2003 avi­a­tion white paper which paved the way for their expan­sion pro­gramme, BAA was the main sup­port­er of lob­by group, “Free­dom to fly.” This group is thought to be the brain child of Steve Hard­wick, Direc­tor of Pub­lic Affairs at BAA who took time out to work on the Labour elec­tion cam­paigns of 1997 and 2001.
— “Free­dom to fly” was direct­ed by John Prescott’s for­mer per­son­al polit­i­cal advi­sor from 1999–2001, Joe Irvin. When, after a year, Joe Irvin resigned, he was replaced by Dan Hodges. Hodges is the son of Glen­da Jack­son MP, who hap­pens to have been Labour’s first avi­a­tion min­is­ter.
— Joe Irvin has this week been appoint­ed as one of Gor­don Brown’s top advi­sors (4)
— BAA’s “Free­dom to Fly” was chaired by Labour peer, Bren­da Dean.
— The gov­ern­ment appoint­ed Avi­a­So­lu­tions to assess the respons­es to its con­sul­ta­tion on expan­sion. Avi­a­So­lu­tions is run by for­mer high-fly­ers from BAA, Sea­mus Healey, Paul Eden and his wife, Liz. Also on the company’s board was Lyne Mered­ith, who pre­vi­ous­ly worked as BAA’s direc­tor of plan­ning and envi­ron­ment.
— BAA hosts from its West Lon­don offices, “Future Heathrow,” an indus­try lob­by group chaired by Labour peer, Lord Soley. Launched per­son­al­ly by then-trans­port sec­re­tary, Alis­tair Dar­ling, it was estab­lished to ensure that the third run­way and sixth ter­mi­nal is built.

(2) Plane Stu­pid is Britain’s first nation­al direct action group against the unsus­tain­able avi­a­tion growth. www.planestupid.com

(3) For more details and sources on the revolv­ing door between BAA and Labour: http://www.turnuptheheat.org/?page_id=24

(4) http://news.independent.co.uk/people/pandora/article2483864.ece and http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0„2–2007180865,00.html

(5) For more on the ads, includ­ing the press release, see www.spurt-aviation.com

For interviews/info:

press@planestupid.com
www.planestupid.com

- ENDS –

At 5.30pm — four peo­ple were arrrest­ed for aggra­vat­ed tres­pass after BAA refused to read the sci­ence.

Squaf: Sheffield Squat Café and Social Centre

Open­ing tonight, 1st May 2007, for a lim­it­ed time only (depend­ing on input), is a new squat­ted social cen­tre and café in the for­mer Tramway pub on Lon­don Road, Sheffield. The first event is a Open Mic Night from 8pm, oth­er planned events include:

Squaf logoOpen­ing tonight, 1st May 2007, for a lim­it­ed time only (depend­ing on input), is a new squat­ted social cen­tre and café in the for­mer Tramway pub on Lon­don Road, Sheffield. The first event is a Open Mic Night from 8pm, oth­er planned events include:

# Café
# Freeshop
# Bike Work­shops
# Gigs
# Work­shops
# Wom­en’s day
# Dis­cus­sions
# Bar-B-Qs’

For more info see the SQUAF web site: http://www.squaf.aktivix.org/

End of the line for coal: Protestors blockade coal trains, New Zealand/Aotearoa

Press release: Save hap­py Val­ley Christchurch
Sun­day 29th April 2007

Save Hap­py Val­ley mem­bers have locked onto the train tracks near Christchurch to call for an end to new coal mines in New Zealand. Oth­er mem­bers have hung a twen­ty-two metre ban­ner – ‘Sol­id Ener­gy: Govt Spon­sored Cli­mate Chaos – along two of the coal wag­ons. They are on Kirk Road, Tem­ple­ton.

Press release: Save hap­py Val­ley Christchurch
Sun­day 29th April 2007

Save Hap­py Val­ley mem­bers have locked onto the train tracks near Christchurch to call for an end to new coal mines in New Zealand. Oth­er mem­bers have hung a twen­ty-two metre ban­ner – ‘Sol­id Ener­gy: Govt Spon­sored Cli­mate Chaos – along two of the coal wag­ons. They are on Kirk Road, Tem­ple­ton.

“Cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mat­ic events are already occur­ring; cli­mate change is hap­pen­ing now,” said Gra­ham Jury, Save Hap­py Val­ley Christchurch spokesper­son. “Ear­li­er this year New Zealand final­ly reached the end of the line for coal fired pow­er sta­tions. It must also be the end of the line for coal min­ing.”

Two activists are locked onto the tracks, while a fur­ther twen­ty are on the tracks by the train. Save Hap­py Val­ley works for the pro­tec­tion of Hap­py Val­ley, pro­posed site of Sol­id Ener­gy’s next open­cast mine on the West Coast of the South Island. The group also cam­paigns for a just and swift tran­si­tion away from coal min­ing.

“Sol­id Ener­gy is ever increas­ing its pro­duc­tion, leav­ing dec­i­mat­ed ecosys­tems and water­ways in its wake. Already, they are respon­si­ble for annu­al car­bon diox­ide emis­sions approx­i­mate­ly equiv­a­lent to New Zealand’s entire trans­port fleet. Say­ing “no” to new coal mines would be an easy first step in actu­al­ly address­ing cli­mate change,” said Simon Rid­del, one of the activists locked to the tracks.

“The world’s cli­mate is becom­ing increas­ing­ly unpre­dictable and human-induced green­house gas emis­sions are evi­dent­ly respon­si­ble. The fos­sil fuel indus­try is a pre­ventable cause,” said Gre­go­ry Curline, the sec­ond activist ‘on the line.’

“Half of the coal extract­ed is sent off shore, gen­er­at­ing emis­sions out­side of our Kyoto Pro­to­col oblig­a­tions. How­ev­er, New Zealand is respon­si­ble for the coal it exports. The Gov­ern­ment must pull its state owned enter­prise back under con­trol,” said Mr Jury.

// ENDS

Media Con­tact
Gra­ham Jury, Save Hap­py Val­ley Christchurch spokesper­son, 0273070448

Notes
In March 2007, Mighty Riv­er Pow­er, anoth­er SOE, announced that it had dis­card­ed its plans to turn Mars­den B into an oper­a­tional coal fired pow­er sta­tion.

http://savehappyvalley.org.nz