Author: earthfirst

Manual for Sabotaging Wolf Hunts Released

“And in that case, we choose to be saboteurs for the wild.”

The following text is from a press release of the Earth First! Media office, which provides correspondence to news outlets around the world.

“And in that case, we choose to be saboteurs for the wild.”

The following text is from a press release of the Earth First! Media office, which provides correspondence to news outlets around the world.

Download the Earth First! Wolf Hunt Sabotage Manual Here

Download the Earth First! Wolf Hunt Sabotage Manual Here

by Earth First! News

Earth First! Media has released a manual which provides detailed information for disrupting wolf hunting in those states that allow it. Titled The Earth First! Wolf Hunting Sabotage Manual, the text, complete with step-by-step graphics, explains how to find and destroy wolf traps, handle live trapped wolves in order to release them, and various methods, including the use of air-compressed horns and smoke-bombs, for stopping wolf hunts.

The authors of the manual describe themselves as,  “hunters and proud of it,” adding, “But we aren’t proud of what passes for hunting these days and especially for what passes as ‘sportsman’ hunting. Somehow, the National Rifle Association, yuppie trophy hunters, cattle barons, and the Obama Administration are in cahoots in an effort that promises to wipe wolves clean off the planet. And in that case, we choose to be saboteurs for the wild.”   

The manual, which was sent to Earth First! Media by unknown persons calling themselves “the Redneck Wolf Lovin’ Brigade,” is being published electronically at Earth First! News and is being offered for others to print and distribute.

Panagioti Tsolkas, a correspondent with Earth First! Media, says the manual is being published in light of regional delistings of wolves in the Great Lakes region and the Northern Rockies since 2011 where subsequent wolf hunts have accounted for over 1,500 wolves hunted or trapped. “According to several wildlife agencies’ reports, there are fewer than 6,000 wolves left in the lower 48 states where wolves once numbered in the hundreds of thousands,” Tsolkas added.

In June of this year, the Obama administration announced that it plans to push for nearly all wolves, excepting those in the U.S. Southwest, to be stripped of Endangered Species Act protections despite compelling evidence from numerous scientists that wolves have not recovered as a species. “We are coming into a new era of wolf genocide,” said Tsolkas, adding, “It will be important for individuals and groups with a passion to protect wolves to take this manual into consideration. It will surely save lives, but it is also a very dangerous undertaking. Wolf hunters have guns and obviously little morals when it comes to what they shoot.”

Over its 33-year history, Earth First! activists have used hunt sabotage to disrupt hunts across the country. “This wolf hunting manual could very well spark a new version of Whale Wars. It’ll be called Wolf Wars.”

Earth First! is an international radical environmental movement which began in 1979. The movement also publishes a quarterly magazine and online newswire.

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28 Days Later: Please spread far and wide

Cuadzilla Balcome Rolling Blockade Red Version

Cuadzilla Balcome Rolling Blockade Red Version

A Rolling Blockade of the Balcombe fracking site, 1st September – 28th September

Fracking company Cuadrilla’s governmental licence to drill in Balcombe ends on September 28th. The government may be allowing them to drill but they have no social licence from the people of Balcombe to frack their land and threaten their water supply.  Neither do they have any mandate to begin an entire wave of fracking across the country. The vast majority of people in the UK want cleaner, greener energy.
After the upsurge of climate activism at Reclaim the Power in August, let’s make these last 28 days count. Let’s halt their work at Balcombe, and also send a strong message to those wanting to frack elsewhere.

A blockade has been on-going at the drilling site, but trucks have still been getting through. Now it’s time to up the ante.

We invite groups from around the country to come and play a part in a 28 day rolling blockade.

Think creatively and act responsibly. Pick a weekday before September 28, gather friends and useful kit get yourselves to Balcombe.

Fracking is stoppable, another world is possible.

* People are reminded that this is a peaceful blockade and that the Balcombe camp is alcohol-free.

* For further information please contact 28dayslater.balcombe@gmail.com

* Follow us on Twitter (@28_dayslater) and like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/28dayslaterrollingblockade)

Arson against police training building and attack of security services vehicles

The (under construction) Police Firearms Training Centre in Black Rock Quarry, Portishead, situated directly beneath the Avon and Somerset Police regional headquarters was our target on the night of 26th August, and we left it with flames licking high. The facility is intended to serve forces across the South West.

The (under construction) Police Firearms Training Centre in Black Rock Quarry, Portishead, situated directly beneath the Avon and Somerset Police regional headquarters was our target on the night of 26th August, and we left it with flames licking high. The facility is intended to serve forces across the South West.

After climbing into the quarry we used accelerant to burn the major electrical cables at five junction points throughout the complex, and doused and lighted a pallet of electrical fittings and wires. More than twelve hours later the fire is still burning. It put smiles on our faces to realise how easy it was to enter their gun club and leave a fuck you signature right in the belly of the beast, with a curious fox as our only witness.

On the same night others of us attacked two vehicles near St George, Bristol with paint stripper and by slashing the tyres – one G4S and one Amey. In the UK and globally G4S provide prison and security services and profit from many aspects of prison society. Amey, in a joint venture with GEO transport prisoners in England and Wales and run courthouses in Bristol and North Somerset.

In the City around us the lock down increases; there is a general atmosphere of rising fear and powerlessness; there is more and more surveillance, and security guards with handcuffs appear on more and more doors. Tensions across the world are simmering as people lose faith in the system. As a response to this insecurity the state is militarising it's police with firearms, remote control drones and 'non-lethal' weapons that regularly kill. At the same time they develop the preventative 'soft cop' buffer of community support officers, liaison teams and so on, that are more fitting with the democratic image. They even get some help from leftists such as John Drury from Aufheben with his contributions on crowd control, who is as terrified of the unmanageable as the ruling classes are. The British state is a world leader in counter-insurgency techniques. Their expertise is the result of generations long brutal colonisation, like in India, Kenya and to this day in Ireland.

Two years after the major UK riots we think an important door was opened for radical and combative refusal of our daily existence on a wide scale. For those of us who took to the streets it was a breath of clean air in the dungeons, a reminder that the encroachment and control is not complete. Even when the apathy and isolation seems to have taken hold again we continue our attacks. The police and security industry specialise in making us feel powerless in our own lives, and making these attacks goes a long way to overcoming this feeling.

This is also our way of marking two years that Bristol anarchist Badger has evaded capture after the riots. Stay free, keep fighting!

Speaking of which, the night of our action coincides with the announced start of the planned cull of wild badgers in the South West of England. Through attempting to facilitate the cull and stop resistance the police shore up the interests of agricultural industry and the land owning classes. We hope this will be one of many rebellions against this slaughter. Because the state and corporate security forces are integral to this world of exploitation and authority.

Our best wishes to the Greek anarchist Kostas Sakkas in recovery from a successful hunger strike for pre-trial release after 30 months on remand.

The struggle will continue until all are wild and free.

-Angry Foxes Cell in collaboration with ACAB

—

From the BBC:

An anarchist group has claimed it started a fire which ripped through a police firearms training centre being built in Somerset.

A passing officer spotted the blaze at the Black Rock centre in Portishead in the early hours of Tuesday.

In a post on the Bristol Indymedia website, the group, called "Angry Foxes Cell", says it "used accelerant to burn the major electrical cables".

Police said it is too early to decide "cause or responsibility".

The centre, which is being built at Black Rock Quarry, is to be used by the Avon and Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire forces.

The facility, which will contain two indoor firing ranges and classrooms, is due to open in January.

It is part of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deal, worth more than £100m, which will also see police stations and other operational facilities built in Patchway, Keynsham and Bridgwater.

Photos & videos from Canton police station eviction resistance in Cardiff

Eviction of Canton Police Station in Cardiff on August 23rd.

Eviction of Canton Police Station in Cardiff on August 23rd.

Antagonistic Collective Against BoredomClick here for more photos:
http://cardiff.squat.net/canton-police-station-eviction-resistanc

Bailiffs smashing in the door:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2HbkdTmNXU

Last squatter leaving the property:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-1KYVfuzYk

Antagnoistic Collective Against Boredom (ACAB)
cardiffsquatters@riseup.net
cardiff.squat.net

Message To Supporters From Imprisoned Anarchist Hacker Jeremy Hammond

Originally Published August 20, 2013

Rebel greeting!

I hope this evening finds you all in the best of health and highest of spirit. Thanks for coming out to show support for me and Barrett Brown.

Originally Published August 20, 2013

Rebel greeting!

I hope this evening finds you all in the best of health and highest of spirit. Thanks for coming out to show support for me and Barrett Brown.

I want to shout out to all my brothers and sisters locked down, here at New York Metropolitan Correctional Center, at Brooklyn MDC, at Rikers Island, in the Tombs, at Cook County Jail in Chicago, and to all those on hunger strikes in California prisons and Guantanamo Bay.

And to Bradley Manning, Barrett Brown, Julian Assange, the Tinley Park Five, the NATO Five, Jerry Koch, and my wonderful twin brother, Jason Hammond.

Also thanks to the folks who put this event together, who have attended my court dates, who have written letters and sent books, and who went to the noise demonstrations outside the jail here. Your acts of solidarity bring us all great encouragement, inspiration, and strength during these harsh times.

Comrades, we are up against a racist capitalist power structure that wages wars, destroys the environment and spies on our every move! They lock up millions of people in cages for “crimes” that corrupt governments and multi-national corporations also commit on an everyday basis and on a greater magnitude, yet we are the criminals.

They lock us up for guns and drugs when defense contractors and pharmaceutical companies are the top traffickers.They call us thieves when it’s Wall Street 1%ers who rob us blind, exploit our labor, evict us out of our homes, and get billion dollar bailouts.

They condemn hackers and leakers when the NSA, CIA, and FBI illegally spy on everybody, and wage cyber espionage through viruses and hacking for foreign government systems.

They put signs everywhere that say “If you see something, say something” as if their extensive surveillance camera systems aren’t enough, they also want us to become additional eyes and ears for the police against our own neighbors.

But if you point out suspicious activities of our own government, if you leak information that should be free and public anyway, then they will follow you to the ends of the Earth to put you in prison.

Even if you simply report on these leaks, they will discredit you, subpoena you for your sources, or just put you in prison on a bunch of trumped up charges like they did Barrett Brown.

They repress us, infiltrate us, entrap us, harass our families and friends, and call us criminals, terrorists, and traitors, and break their own laws to try to stop us because we work to expose the truth.

They are scared that if people know the truth, the day will come when they will have to answer for their own crimes.But can we trust whatever “independent review panel” they put together to investigate the NSA? After all the lies and egregious illegality, do you think any of them will be charged or do time? Will we ever be satisfied with any reforms they promise?

The answer is obviously no.

Justice can never be found in their courtrooms.

Yes, we need to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, but Attorney General Eric Holder doesn’t give a damn about prison overcrowding.

The Obama administration is not interested in any such debate about “the balance of privacy and security” because they will keep spying on everyone, regardless of public opinion, until we stop them.

The time for talk is over, it’s time for collective refusal, civil disobedience, and direct action. We must support all those who risked their freedom and lives to expose and confront the power structure, and continue the struggle until we stop these wars and the prison walls come crumbling down and we can all be together again free and equal!

Yours for the revolution, Jeremy Hammond.

http://www.freehammond.org
http://freeanons.org/
https://www.wepay.com/donations/jeremy-hammond-defense

Memorial at Greenham Common bulldozed

27.8.13

I have just heard via a local woman that the memorial to the sisters who protested outside the Greenham Common Nuclear site from 1982 until the government was forced to remove the nuclear cruise missiles located there has today been removed by the owners of the Greenham Common Enterprise Centre that owns the site. 

 

27.8.13

I have just heard via a local woman that the memorial to the sisters who protested outside the Greenham Common Nuclear site from 1982 until the government was forced to remove the nuclear cruise missiles located there has today been removed by the owners of the Greenham Common Enterprise Centre that owns the site. 

 

Bulldozers arrived at around 8am and began to rip up all the flowers and stones including even the memorial to Helen Thomas who was killed while protesting there.   The memorial was a garden of seven standing stones encircling the 'Flame' sculpture which represented a camp fire.  I have called the Greenham Common Trust who run the site and they said the memorial had "been there long enough" and was "a problem for local traffic".  I understand the entire garden is now gone and the land is simply earth with all traces removed.

 

People may wish to contact the Greenham Common trust and let them know what they think of this disgusting action

 

 

Swedish anti-mining protest camp against Beowulf Mining

Right now there is a battle to save Sápmi (occupied by Sweden) from more mines. Sápmi has already been exploited and colonized by the Swedish state and corporations for generations. Now an entirely new area is under attack from the mining industry, the forests, mountains and lakes west of Jokkmokk are threatened.

Since a month there is a blockade against british Beowulf Mining´s test mining project in Gállok (swe: #kallak) going on. Activists have joined together with indigenous Sami people to save the place from a big iron mine. The 29th of July the swedish police came and tore down the first blockade and arrested 6 persons. The same night the blockade was raised again, with improvements to the company´s great disappointment. The activists plan to stay for the winter when the reindeer and herders come and legally can stop the test mining.

Resistance against the planned mine is growing while the swedish police have said they are doing what the mining corporation orders them to. Beowulf is currently silent and probably don’t want more bad exposure and might try to beat the activists in the waiting game. Meanwhile more people join the protests in different ways through art and music as well as supporting the growing protest camp. The activists are now building Pentagon, a house supposed to work to decolonize the world.

Update: The second barricade was also destroyed by the cops the 12th of August and a security guarding company is hired to protect the testmines and the road from protesters. This only to do test mining.

More recent update: Yesterday they started blasting, with 4 people near by in trees not outside the blasting safety zone. pigs removed barricades in the morning. many people got pulled off the road and chased from the forest. 8 people were arrested. last night and again tonight the road is barricaded to delay work. now 10 security workers work 12hr shifts, day and night. our spirits are high. the battle continues.

http://kolonierna.wordpress.com/ for more info, pictures and videos.

Peruvian Campesinos Tear Down Mining Gate

A gathering of campesin@s tore down a gate at the site of the controversial Conga Copper Mine in Peru on August 20. The farmers claim that Yanacocha, the company in charge of the mine, built the gate illegally in the first place, so there’s really no need to have it there.

A gathering of campesin@s tore down a gate at the site of the controversial Conga Copper Mine in Peru on August 20. The farmers claim that Yanacocha, the company in charge of the mine, built the gate illegally in the first place, so there’s really no need to have it there.

The gate would impede a traditional path used by locals to access the important Laguna Namocoha, so campesin@s took up their farm implements and dug it out. National Police did not intervene. If a meeting is not held with campesinos, they have promised to tear down two other gates accessing lagunas Azul and Cortada

The Yanacocha mining company is actually a front for the Newmont Mining Company based in Denver, and they have a terrible reputation in Peru. In 2011, their existing gold mine was halted by a blockade, during which time eight machines were torched costing 2 million dollars and kneecapping their stock for some time.

The start of the new Conga Copper Mine has been halted for for over a year by local direct action, including large blockades. As recently as June, thousands of farmers and miners gathered at El Perol Lake to demonstrate against the obliteration of local fresh water.

This from Climate Connections:

“Over the course of the ongoing occupation of the Conga site, police have sometimes used violence but mostly sought to avoid confrontations that could win sympathy for the protesters. Quiet harassment of project opponents has continued unabated, however. On July 28, journalist César Estrada, who has documented the occupation for local media, was detained near the Conga site by agents of the National Police Special Operations Diectorate (DINOES) and men in orange safety vests who appeared to be Yanacocha workers—but, like the police agents, in ski masks. The men confiscated his camera, cell phone and wireless modem before releasing him. (Celendin Libre, Aug. 3)

Mobilizations against other mineral and energy develpoment projects in Cajamarca are gaining ground. Earlier this month, hundreds of campesino residents of San Marcos and Cajabamba provinces held a five-day cross-country march, dubbed the “March in Defense of the Condebamba Valley,” to oppose the operations of the Sulliden Shahuindo mining company, as well as unlicensed “informal” mining in the area, which they charge is contaminating local waters. (Servindi, Aug. 9 via Consulta Previa)

On Aug. 17, a public forum was held in the town of Celendín entitled “Hydro-electicity in the Amazon: Rivers, Life and Extractive Industries,” analyzing the dangers posed by 24 new dams planned for the watershed of the Río Marañón, and especially the Chadín 2 project, intended to spur further mineral development in Cajamarca. Researcher Antonio Zambrano Allende of Forum Solidaridad Perú said the new thrust of hydro development would result in “thousands of forced displacements” in the regions of Cajamarca and Amazonas. The highland region of Cajamarca straddles the continental divide that separates waters bound for the Pacific from those flowing into the Marañón, a major tributary of the Amazon. (AlertaPeru, Aug. 21 via Celendin Libre)

A new report by Peru Top Publications finds that mining investment in Peru in 2013 has reached a record $9.9 billion, a 15% increase over last year, with 54 major projects planned or already underway. Peru now ranks eighth in global mining investment, and its ranking will likely advance in the next two years. However, the report notes that the country currently lacks the energy capacity to meet the demands of the new mining projects, and a major expansion of the electricity sector will be necessary for the projected growth in the mineral sector. (La Republica, June 27)”

www.youtube.com/embed/0bxeWZPRQ7c

Coal company and police try to prohibit climat camp

Climat Camp near Cologne, Germany starting tomorow got problems with the camp site. 

Climat Camp near Cologne, Germany starting tomorow got problems with the camp site. 
The administration action of climate-camp-organizers at the administrative court in cologne against the restrictions against the climate/rtf-camp by the district police got rejected. The district police had approved the legal registration of the camp, but forbade "infrastructure in terms of accommodation and food services" to be established. the district police had filed an application for rejection against our administrative action with some outrageous claims.

That these conditions are now confirmed by the administrative court, is a blow against our basic right to freedom of assembly. Previously, the city of Kerpen announced that in the event of registration as an event also high requirements would be imposed, such as professional security service, even though it had only been at Pentecost that there was a Catholic youth camp with around 200 participants in Manheim, a without such requirements. Similarly, the city of Kerpen forbade the use of the sanitary facilities of a sports field to which the camp participants had easy access in recent years.

Like that the climate camp should be banned by the back door, so as to avoid unpleasant critical publicity at Hambach. "We believe that RWE has put pressure on the city and police because they do not like the camp," says Claudia Henry of the preparatory group, "but the stones that are placed in our way, just show how thick the sleaze between energy companys and local institutions is. "

At the moment, the people that are building up the camp are put under massive pressure to take the tents down again!

But the fight against climate change and for our livelihood can't be forbidden. The organizers of the camps will not be intimidated by administrative barriers and police harassment and will do everything so that all the camps can take place. Spread the news, stay up to date, solidarise yourself and come around.

http://www.ausgeco2hlt.de/klimacamp/en/camp-2013-2/

Activists Boat onto Sludge Pond; Confront politician on Dangers of Coal Sludge

21 August 2013 – This morning at 7:30 a.m. two activists paddled out onto the 2.8 billion gallon Shumate slurry impoundment in Raleigh County with banners reading, “Slurry Poisons Appalachia” and “Gov.

21 August 2013 – This morning at 7:30 a.m. two activists paddled out onto the 2.8 billion gallon Shumate slurry impoundment in Raleigh County with banners reading, “Slurry Poisons Appalachia” and “Gov. Tomblin, Put Health Over Profit.”  Later this morning, one activist locked himself to a barrel of black water in front of Gov. Tomblin’s mansion in a Tyvek suit reading “Locked to Dirty Water”.   Activists are calling attention to the failure of the state government to protect its citizens from the abuses of the coal industry and the threats posed by coal slurry disposal.

 

“I grew up in Eunice drinking water poisoned by coal slurry, went to Marsh Fork Elementary under that dam, breathed the dust from that prep plant, and I’ve suffered the lifelong health consequences of that.  These same abuses are taking place today across our great state, and the blame for that lies squarely at the feet of Gov. Tomblin,” said Junior Walk of Rock Creek, W.Va. who attended today’s protest at the Governor’s mansion.

Coal slurry, the toxic byproduct of “washing” impurities out of coal before it is sold, has long been a matter of deep concern for area residents.  Its common disposal methods have created tragic disasters such as poisoning the public water supplies of Prenter and Eunice, W.Va., and slurry floods in Martin County, Ky., and Buffalo Creek, W.Va..  Despite this, evidence mounts that West Virginia regulators continue to fail at adequately regulating impoundments.

Just this year, two Office of Surface Mining (OSM) investigations found serious problems with the WV Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) oversight, both in preventing impoundments from breaking through into underground mines and ensuring proper compaction, a key measure of impoundement safety.  The compaction report revealed that over 75 percent of tests of coal slurry impoundments in West Virginia failed.  In February, the U.S. Department of Labor asked a federal judge to order the immediate shutdown of an impoundment in Barbour County that had not been certified by an engineer for two years, because mine operators were “flouting federal law, ignoring violations and fines, and putting the public at risk.” WVDEP had the ability to shut down this impoundment, but it didn’t until weeks after the Dept. of Labor took action.

DEP’s finances reveal its priorities.  During its 2011 study of the water and health crisis in Prenter, W.Va., the DEP spent over 6 times as much money hiring a private law firm to sue EPA on behalf of the coal industry as it spent on that study.  Meanwhile, Dr. Yorem Eckstein of Kent State University confirmed long held community suspicions that the well water in Prenter had been contaminated with coal slurry based on years of water quality data.  Despite this evidence and extensively documented health problems including high incidence of brain tumors, DEP’s study on Prenter’s water released last year concluded that water was uncontaminated.

“Our politicians and regulators say that it’s safe to dump slurry in our communities, but they don’t want it on their doorstep.  Gov. Tomblin could order to coal industry to install filter presses that would eliminate slurry while creating jobs for less than a dollar a ton,” said Chuck Nelson, retired UWMA coal miner of Glen Daniel, W.Va.  “That’s the way it also goes.  Our Governor puts the interests of the coal industry above the health of our communities.”

There is mounting evidence that coal’s impacts on West Virginia go far beyond coal slurry.  New studies continue to document the damage to community health and water quality from out of control mining, but Gov. Tomblin continues to blindly defend the industry.  Gov. Tomblin has not only ignored the evidence of the coal industry’s impacts on the health of West Virginia communities, he has also rejected calls for alternative economic development in the face of a declining coal industry.  Central Appalachia is in the midst of a steep decline as predicted by many industry analysts.

“I was scared on the impoundment, but I am more terrified of the coal industry’s continued disregard for human life and land. After taking all of the coal, Alpha will abandon Appalachia in order to find other resources and communities to extract,” said Ricki Draper, one of the two activists that boated onto the sludge impoundment.