Author: earthfirst

Anti-Highway Protester Faces Eight Year Sentence

Will Parrish in the wick drain stitcher. January 22nd From June 20th to July 1st, locally well-known journalist and activist Will Parrish lived 50 feet above ground in a wick drain &l

Will Parrish in the wick drain stitcher. January 22nd From June 20th to July 1st, locally well-known journalist and activist Will Parrish lived 50 feet above ground in a wick drain “stitcher” in the northern Little Lake Valley (ie, Willits Valley) wetlands, where the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) is building an unnecessary and environmentally destructive freeway bypass.

By putting his body inside the framework of this destructive equipment, which is in the process of installing roughly 55,000 80-foot drainage tubes into the Little Lake wetlands, Will blocked it from operating and brought nationwide attention to the harm CalTrans is causing the Little Lake Valley watershed.  This harm includes destroying the largest Northern California wetlands area of any project in over 50 years.

As punishment for Will’s more than 11 day stand on behalf of the Valley’s land and people, Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster is charging him with 16 misdemeanors (14 counts of “unlawful entry” and two of “resisting arrest”), with a maximum eight-year jail sentence.  He also wants Will to pay Caltrans a mind-boggling $490,002 in restitution. This is an unheard of move by a district attorney in Mendocino and Humboldt Counties, which each have a rich tradition of struggle for social justice and the natural environment.  If the DA and Caltrans have their way, Will would spend the rest of his life paying off these absurd penalties.

About The Case

When Mendocino County DA David Eyster first filed a complaint against Will on July 2nd, the charges consisted of three infractions corresponding to each of Will’s three non-violent arrests protesting the Bypass.  This complaint included a requirement to pay undisclosed restitution fees.

Under an infraction, the defendant’s case is presided over by a judge rather than a jury.  Will was unwilling to accept the uncapped restitution stipulation and was also adamant about his right to receive a jury trial, so his attorney (Omar Figueroa of Sebastopol) asked that Eyster re-file the charges as misdemeanors.  Will understood and accepted that the infractions would become misdemeanors, and would include the possibility of jail time, but was not prepared for Eyster’s arbitrary decision to add thirteen additional counts for misdemeanor violations.

Notably, Will already endured a form of house arrest in the wick drain stitcher and was deprived of food, water and medical attention by the CHP (at the behest of CalTrans). The CHP even arrested six people who attempted to bring him supplies.  Will went for almost six days with no food, survived partially on rain water, and was bitterly cold after being drenched by more than two days of unseasonal rain.

Why Will Is Pursuing a Jury Trial

This part of the case bears repeating. There is a common misconception that Will is seeking a jury trial because he wants to leverage his case for maximum publicity.  This claim has been repeated in numerous media accounts of the case.  But it is largely untrue.  While Will is indeed interested in maximum publicity for his case, he is exercising his Constitutional right to a jury trial primarily because of DA Eyster’s draconian insistence that he pay criminal restitution to Caltrans.

Will believes a jury trial provides the best opportunity for him to oppose the criminal restitution stipulation.

Will adamantly opposes this harsh criminalization of environmental activism on principal, particularly when the real criminals in this case are those who preside over Caltrans’ Willits Bypass construction.  Criminal restitution has not been pursued against direct action protesters in Northern California in recent memory.  Thus, the imposition of restitution would also have a chilling effect against future activism.  Besides not wanting to be in a position of paying off Caltrans for the rest of his life, Will is dead set against seeing people who stand on their rights to defend the earth from illegal plunder be persecuted for it. He is willing to risk a jail sentence to oppose this dangerous precedent.

HUNTING TOWERS TOPPLED, BURNED AND BLOWN UP

January 20, 2014 – Germany  The following is a summary of recent incidents in Germany reported on the Anti-Hunting Blog (animal rights activists may not be responsible for all of these incidents):

January 20, 2014 – Germany  The following is a summary of recent incidents in Germany reported on the Anti-Hunting Blog (animal rights activists may not be responsible for all of these incidents):

– A hunting seat/tower was destroyed by fire in Hettenshausen (Bavaria) on January 18.

– According to news reports, between January 6-7 a hunting tower at the edge of a nature reserve near Salem (Schleswig-Holstein) was knocked over. Two other hunting towers in the same area were damaged in November and December. Police blamed "Militant hunting opponents."

– In early January, two hunting towers were demolished near Hagen (North Rhine-Westphalia). Local police speculated that animal rights activists were responsible.

– On December 24, a hunting tower was set on fire near the city of Hildesheim (Lower Saxony).

– Police are investigating an explosion that completely destroyed a hunting tower in Pollhagen (Lower Saxony) in mid-December. The exact cause of the blast has not been determined.

– Late on December 14 a hunting tower was damaged by an explosion in Samern (Lower Saxony). photo: gn-online.de

– On November 14, the inside of a hunting tower in Duderstadt (Lower Saxony) was soaked with butyric acid, making it unusable.

Moscow, Russia: ELF Torch Excavator and Dozer During New Year Festivities

During the night of December 31 – January 1 we torched 2 vehicles used in development project in Southern Moscow. Security didn’t expect us to show up as they were busy drinking themselves into oblivion at the guardhouse. So we used 2 jelly cans of gasoline and some rags to destroy unguarded machinery.

During the night of December 31 – January 1 we torched 2 vehicles used in development project in Southern Moscow. Security didn’t expect us to show up as they were busy drinking themselves into oblivion at the guardhouse. So we used 2 jelly cans of gasoline and some rags to destroy unguarded machinery. No harm came from our actions (only harm being made was that to the developer’s purse).

We dedicate this action to anarchists from Belarus, those who stay imprisoned. Guys, we remember you, we miss you and wait for you to become free again. We ask for ABC Belarus to help us in spreading this information and letting our imprisoned comrades know of our words and deed. We hope the news will help to lighten up the mood and keep you warm and smiling in the grey prison reality.

As for our ecodefence activism, we are not planning to make a U-turn. Unlike Mrs. Chirikova [self-proclaimed leader of mass protests during Khimki forest struggle – trans.] we are not looking for a comfortable chair in local administration. So we can afford to do what needs be done. We don’t accept moanings like: “Violence is bad, we shouldn’t be torching vehicles, we should get more signatures under petition, so as to be heard by federal government.” This reminds us of the fears of a person who’s afraid to loose the goodwill of powers-that-be. If we allow somebody to commit violence against ourselves, it means we’re raising the white flag. It is time to question the rationale behind continuous withdrawal under the blows of authorities. It is time to stop hiding your inability to act behind phrases like: “we shouldn’t act, this is violent tactics” or “this is too macho-ist” or “this is illegal”. If you want to ask for permission to protest, you must understand that you’re in fact selling yourselves. Only uncontrollable forms of resistance can hope to remain free. Any protest coordinated from under liberal umbrella organization is doomed to a failure. Gather your strengths, stay free and be wild, god damn it!

Blockade of Mine Site Enters Third Day

mb_wide_maules-20140115000958462076-620x349 14th January 2014 Activists have blockaded the Maules Creek mine site at Boggabri in New South Wales, Australia, for three days now.<

mb_wide_maules-20140115000958462076-620x349 14th January 2014 Activists have blockaded the Maules Creek mine site at Boggabri in New South Wales, Australia, for three days now.

On Monday, 30 protestors, including members of Aboriginal groups and the organization Leard Forest Alliance, descended on the site, with some locking themselves to heavy machines.

Yesterday, 10 more protestors joined the group, re-enforcing an ad-hoc encampment and locking down to bulldozers.

The Leard Forest is set to be destroyed by the open pit coal mine, and the heavy machines are supposed to start clearing forest for Witehaven Coal’s operation. The forest is important habitat, as well as a cultural and burial site for Aboriginal people in the area.

Activist group the Leard Forest Alliance said the heavy vehicles were at the site to begin clearing forest for a road and railway line to service Whitehaven Coal’s $767 million open-cut coalmine. The alliance says the mine will destroy Aboriginal cultural and burial sites and valuable forest and animals.

Peru: Achuar Indigenous Leader on Prison Hunger Strike

Monday, January 13th, 2014  Achuar indigenous leader Segundo García Sandi began a hunger strike Jan. 7 to demand his freedom at Huayabamba prison in Iquitos, Peru. García Sandi was arrested Dec.

Monday, January 13th, 2014  Achuar indigenous leader Segundo García Sandi began a hunger strike Jan. 7 to demand his freedom at Huayabamba prison in Iquitos, Peru. García Sandi was arrested Dec. 5, on charges of tampering with an oil pipeline run by Argentine company Pluspetrol through his people’s territory in the remote north of Loreto department. He claims he is being held illegally without evidence, but a habeas corpus action filed by his supporters has met with no response by Peru’s judicial authorities.

García Sandi’s organization, the Río Corrientes Federation of Native Communities (FECONACO), asserts the arrest is retaliation for his demands for environmental justice. FECONACO reports that five Achuar children died in December as a result of contamination related to oil operations in the area, and that a state of emergency announced by Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal in October for the Corrientes Valley, calling for special monitoring, is going unenforced. The Environment Ministry in November took the rare step of fining Pluspetrol $7 million for contamination to the Loreto rainforest. (Servindi, Jan. 11; La Región, Loreto, Jan. 8; Mariátegui blog, Jan. 7; La Región, Dec. 20; AP, Nov. 27)

Barton Moss – locking on top of lorries (Day 48/13 Jan 2014)

A human blockade at the end of Moss Lane has left a convoy of tankers backed up onto the A57.

Protectors have swarmed the vehicles and climbed on top. Come down to support and stop fracking at Barton Moss.

A human blockade at the end of Moss Lane has left a convoy of tankers backed up onto the A57.

Protectors have swarmed the vehicles and climbed on top. Come down to support and stop fracking at Barton Moss.

Three protesters have been arrested at Barton Moss after they climbed two stationary lorries at the site refusing to get down for more than an hour.

Police brought in the Protester Removal Team to bring the men down, after they were formally arrested for obstruction.

The men finally came down after officers assembled temporary scaffolding and ladders and ordered the men to remove themselves from the lorries delivering to the iGas fracking site.

Anti-fracking defendants found not guilty as movement grows

10th Jan 2014 via Corporate Watch Eleven anti-fracking campaigners have been found not guilty after a three day trial at Brighton Magistrate's Court.

10th Jan 2014 via Corporate Watch Eleven anti-fracking campaigners have been found not guilty after a three day trial at Brighton Magistrate's Court.

The defendants had been arrested on the 2nd day of the protests against Cuadrilla's exploratory drilling Balcombe last summer while sitting on or around a log which had been dragged outside the gates to the Cuadrilla site.

The protesters were approached by what one defendant described as “battalions” of police and arrested en masse. The arrests were violent, with police using pressure point techniques as they dragged people away. One man, who was drinking a cup of tea at the time the police approached was arrested for assault for spilling tea on a police officer during his arrest.

The arrests were part of a concerted police strategy to stamp out resistance to fracking in Balcombe before it had begun in earnest. Those arrested were given stringent bail conditions not to go back to the area close to Cuadrilla's operations. However, police bullying tactics were not successful, despite over 120 arrests during the 2 months that the Balcombe Community Protection Camp was in place. The resistance, which included regular blockades and direct action, significantly delayed Cuadrlla's work. The company's planning permission expired in September 2013 and they left the site on September 28th having dug their well but without beginning testing. It is estimated that the policing costs amounted to £3.7 million during the course of the protests.

The Trial

The campaigners were initially arrested under the provisions of article 241 of the arcane Trade Union and Labour Relations Act, a law brought in by John Major's Conservative government to prevent trade unionists picketing in solidarity with other workers or, as the judge put it (with a straight face) “to protect people's right to work”. One defendant said during his evidence, “I think they were just scraping the barrel and couldn't find a real reason to arrest us and had dug up this obscure secondary picketing law”. The charges were later amended to obstructing the highway.

Several defendants said they were shocked at the police tactics. One woman described a carnival atmosphere at the gates of Cuadrilla with children playing tennis and hopscotch in the road before “militarised” police waded in to break up the protest and arrested her in front of her daughter.

One demonstrator, who had dragged the log into the road, said he had done so to make the point to Cuadrilla that “we need to have a conversation about what you're trying to enforce on a community who don't want this sort of business going on in their back yard”.

The judge ruled that he could not be sure that the defendants had intended to obstruct the highway and that the fact that the road was closed while it was being resurfaced went in their favour. The court had heard that the police had not given sufficient warning before making arrests.

At least another 19 defendants are awaiting trial after being arrested during the Balcombe protests.

The struggle continues

Charlotte Wilson, a spokesperson from the Frack Off campaign said, on hearing the verdict: “The fracking blockades at Balcombe and now Barton Moss near Manchester, are testament to the level of anger and fear surrounding these developments. There are now 70 or more groups resisting fracking developments nationwide. The industry is losing. Each new well is met with months of protests and millions in policiing costs. The scale of the governmrent's sell-off means that roughly 60% of the UK is now available to fracking companies, huge numbers of people are threatened and as a result communities from all corners of the country are getting organised.”

IGas Energy, who describe themselves as a “leading British oil and gas explorer and developer”, are currently trying to set up a well to begin exploratory drilling in Barton Moss, near Manchester, in the face of concerted resistance and direct action from another camp which has been set up for around 45 days. Information about the campaign can be found at the Northern Gas Gala website at  http://northerngasgala.org.uk/.

For more information about anti-fracking movements in the UK see www.frack-off.org.

Bath – arson at car showroom

8th of January – incendiary device on delay left at Kia car showroom, Lower Bristol Road, Bath. Damage to the building facade. A brand new 4-x-4 and three cars also consumed by the flames. A direct attack on exploitative manufacturing industries who profit from choking our world, who also make status symbols for our class enemies.

8th of January – incendiary device on delay left at Kia car showroom, Lower Bristol Road, Bath. Damage to the building facade. A brand new 4-x-4 and three cars also consumed by the flames. A direct attack on exploitative manufacturing industries who profit from choking our world, who also make status symbols for our class enemies. This section of the Earth Liberation Front and Informal Anarchist Federation has them in our sights.

With the cops cleared of the execution of Mark Duggan that started the riots of 2011, as good a time as ever to re-ignite the streets.

Unfortunately for the enemy, the 32 year old man arrested for the action has no relation to our group.

Active solidarity with:
– the stirrings of new struggle against road building programs in the UK (traces of which we saw in Combe Haven), specifically with the ones who won't take the path of liberals and pacifists next time
– Swiss anarchist Marco Camenish (who is on hunger strike and refusing work since the 30th of December) and also informal anarchist prisoners Alfredo Cospito and Nicola Gai in Italy
– Henry Zegarrundo (who we recognise as a kindred spirit through his letters) targeted by the Bolivian prosecutors, those on the run, and the anarchist and indigenous peoples still fighting the highway development

Perennial Resistance ELF-FAI

Bristol – Toluca – Jakarta – Moscow – Buenos Aires – Melbourne – keep the fires burning

Balcombe Protectors Acquitted

09 January 2014 People celebrate outside Brighton Magistrates Court after Balcombe protectors acquitted on all charges as a resul

09 January 2014 People celebrate outside Brighton Magistrates Court after Balcombe protectors acquitted on all charges as a result of their courageous actions to defend Sussex from fracking last summer.

Over 120 people were arrest during the 2 month blockade of Cuadrilla's Balcombe fracking site. More than twenty trials are still scheduled over the next few month at the moment.

 

  • 10:00am – Court back on
  • 10:00am – Judge tries to explain Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 to public gallery
  • 10:45am – Judge states proceedings could finish today!
  • 11:00am – Defence reads character references. Prosecution doesn’t like them but judge says he will make up his own mind
  • 11:50am – Defence establishes no warning given before arrests
  • 11:55am – Protector explains how his act involves a bed of nails and the police tried to drag him off it without asking him to get up
  • 12:15pm – Bed of nails was placed between log and gate on health and safety grounds
  • 12:25pm – Penultimate protector describes how he was physically assaulted by the police prior to his arrest
  • 12:30pm – Protector describes police using pressure points to inflict great pain on him
  • 12:45pm – Balcombe resident takes the stand as a witness
  • 12:50pm – Witness confirms that road was closed
  • 12:55pm – Witness had picnic with kids
  • 1:00pm – Witness describes how atmosphere changed when a battalion of police arrived – they were trapped as police started violently arresting people – her 5 year old son was traumatised
  • 1:10pm – Prosecution is asking to reopen case and produce new witness – a Cuadrilla drilling supervisor. Defence is objecting.
  • 1:15pm – Judge hearing objections
  • 1:15pm – Judge to allow prosecutions new evidence. Court rises for lunch back at 2pm
  • 2:00pm – Court back in session
  • 2:10pm – Cuadrilla drilling supervisor in witness box
  • 2:35pm – Cross examination of Cuadrilla employee completed
  • 2:55pm – Final protector takes the stand
  • 3:20pm – Defence case over; Court in recess until 3:30pm
  • 3:30pm – Court recovened
  • 3:35pm – Prosecution summing up
  • 3:40pm – Prosecution claim protectors should have just protested e.g. with a placard, and let Cuadrilla get on with fracking Sussex
  • 3:45pm – Judge about to announce verdict
  • 3:45pm – One protector is found not guilty on ridiculous assault charge resulting from police knocking
  • 4:00pm – All protectors acquitted!
  • 4:00pm – District Judge found their actions were reasonable in the circumstances and that they acted with dignity.
  • 4:00pm – Suggested that the Police had very bad memories with regard to their evidence! Big question was deemed to be limits of freedom of speech.