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No Gold, No Masters: Press release of the 1st “Beyond Europe” Camp in Halkidiki #skouries

On Sunday, the August 2015, about 2000 people attended on a demonstration in the mountains of Skouries.

August 27th, 2015

On Sunday, the 23^rd August 2015, about 2000 people attended on a demonstration in the mountains of Skouries. During this heavy clashes between demonstrators and the police took place, with police making massive use of teargas and shock grenades. 78 persons were detained, of which four are still being held in custody.

The demonstration was organised by the anti-authoritarian platform against capitalism, Beyond Europe, together with activist committees of the local villages in the area of Skouries. This protest march was the practical culmination of the international Beyond Europe camp, which has been taking place at the beach of Ierissos close to the area of Skouries. At this camp, 400-500 anti-authoritarians from all over Europe came together in order to exchange ideas with each other and discuss political analyses and practices. The location was chosen very consciously in order to support the ongoing ecological-social struggles against the extraction of gold and other heavy metals in Skouries. and of course we are not only active on behalf of but alongside the local activists. For a long time now, Beyond Europe activists have been engaged in practical solidarity and support for this struggle. It has a strong impact for social movements in Greece and the whole of Europe as an important frontline in the struggle against the reconfiguration of European capitalism through the Troika on the back of the many.

For us, the camp and especially the demonstration is a political success, by being set in the right place at the right time. In January 2015 the left party Syriza took over power and evoked hope in many Leftists. Concerning the issue of Skouries, Syriza played the role of the party of the movement during opposition, but has acted very different since it has been in power. Shortly before the march the Alexis Tsipras’ government resigned, only two days after the start of the Beyond Europe camp and since Syriza had learned about our demonstration. Meanwhile the energy minister Panos Skourletis ordered to suspend the mining operations in Chalkidiki on 19^th August, claiming the company violated environmental contract terms. We attribute the announcement to close the mine as a result of us choosing to organise a camp here, but we did not rely on the government’s announcement as being the end of the struggle– which we have seen to be justified. One day after the announcement, during our walk from the camp to the mountain by the village Megali Panagia we could see that the works at the mines were continuing. This was just one more expression of the most basic but important lesson in the questions of relation between parties and the movements: although they may improve tiny things within their limited capacity, the possibility to create real progress and emancipation lies in our hands. Delegating desires for change towards parties will always be a dead end, since parties in power will always need to work to enact national interest. We agree with Syriza that the mines in Skouries need to be closed, but it is up to us to fulfill this task. Our action sent this message to any party which will take power in the Greek re-elections in September.

Sunday’s demonstration put the important and vital struggle of Skouries back on the table. Its impact was felt deeply all over Greece and beyond. We see this as a political success as now, since the first time after the huge general strike of 2012, a new political dynamic from below is being created in Greece. After a drought of social movements since that year, Syriza’s seizure of power seemed to have paralyzed large parts of it due to a position of granting the Tsipras’ government time. Our camp and demonstration was an effort to put an end to this drought and rely on our strongest weapon – self-organisation and social struggles.

As always when social struggles are effective, the state’s repression also continued yesterday. In the several years in the ongoing issue of Skouries, police and secret services have been heavily trying to oppress the local movement by harassment, arrests and juridical prosecution. Yesterday again, the police violently dispersed the demonstration, arrested 78 people and injured several. One person suffered a broken leg while being arrested by the cops. Our wishes for a quick recovery are with her and with everyone else suffering beating or gas injuries. And of course we are in solidarity with the four still detained, as well as all the other activists being prosecuted in the last years. This might only have been a small step towards an anti-authoritarian organisation beyond borders and against the sadness of real existing capitalism, but it was a step nonetheless. And there is more to come.

from beyondeurope.net

Into the Heart of the Beast: Occupying Germany’s Open Cast Coal Nightmare

Last weekend I along with around one thousand other people took part in mass direct action against one of the largest open cast lignite mines in Europe, owned by RWE, which along with surrounding mines and coal powers stations is the largest source of greenhouse gases in Europe.

I took part because fossil fuel capitalism is destroying our Earth. Waiting for companies and governments to do the right things is not working and is not going to work so people must stand up and force them to.

Earlier this year, the German government caved in to the lobbying might of RWE, backtracking on plans to put a levy on the most polluting power plants, which would have led to a phase out of lignite. Last weekend, people stood up in protest to say ‘Ende Gelände’, here and no further.

This is my experience of the day. It was a long, exhausting and confused day, and what I experienced will not be the same thing that others in different parts of the action experienced. But I hope this can help anyone reading understand what happened.

The assault

“Guten Morgen, Ende Gelände!” Those were the words I woke up to at 5:45 am in my tent. An early start for a momentous day, I rushed to scramble my stuff together, go to the loo and then hastily join up with my affinity group.

We were in the ‘Green Finger’ one of the four groups with approximately 250 people in them, that would be laying siege to the mine.

When the whole finger was formed up with everyone in their agreed place, my affinity group was in the middle. The first kilometre or so passed calmly enough. I could even hear someone play ‘The Diggers Song’ on a pipe, as we searched for a way across the motorway between us and the mine.

In the end, we came upon a tunnel with only about four lines of cops blocking it. It was at this point that many people there had their first experience of police violence, in some ways I was lucky I knew what to expect from previous actions.

So they resorted to filling the air with a mist of pepper spray and beating everyone they could reach with their clubs, in the hope of separating them from the group. Everyone around me bunched up like rugby players in a scrum so the police couldn’t drag any of us away.

After this came a mad dash across the fields going through two more police lines. Even when they weren’t in front of us, the police followed behind us on foot and in vans trying to beat and pick off any stragglers. One person in my affinity group got pepper spray in their face, so we had to guide him by hand as we ran through a break in the police line.

I’m humbled by the trust he showed in us to make sure he wasn’t beaten to a pulp. The way everyone rallied to help those around them who had been beaten or pepper sprayed was one the most beautiful displays of practical solidarity I had ever seen.

Into the mine

After we successfully got across the fields, we walked along a dirt track by the edge of the mine that was in line with some water sprinklers used to stop dust escaping. Before this point I hadn’t really grasped the scale of the place. It looked large enough to fit at least two good sized towns in. It went from sand coloured at the top down to pitch black at the bottom.

We descended down the mine on a sandy ramp wide enough to drive a van down. At a bend near the bottom there was an attempt to block the path, but we evaded the police by travelling out the bank and bypassing them instead.

We then moved as fast as we could along the top tier of the mine, shadowed by a group of riot cops on the cliff top. When we reached one of the corners of the top tier, where conveyor belts over a kilometre long ended, we met a small group of security, which most of us were able to get past without much trouble. As we moved along the side of the conveyor belt towards one of the massive Baggers the police raced after us in borrowed 4x4s.

The police tried to form a line to block us off, but there were too few of them to do anything, so we were able to bust through the line with ease. My legs were burning from running in the sand with a heavy bag full of water. My right arm felt like it was on fire from the pepper spray.

After this we formed a line in order to stop any more police being able to join those in front of us. They tried again to block our path, but we held our line together by linking arms. We successfully stood our ground and they were forced to retreat. Seeing the police retreat was a wonderful sight.

Eventually we came to a point that was too wide for us to fully block and even more police managed to get past us. They had a much stronger line in front of us, which was thickest next to the conveyor belt where I was walking. On the very far side from me people managed to break through their line next to some smaller diggers.

The members of the affinity group I was with tried to run over to flow through the police, but by the time we got there they had closed it. I saw one police officer grab someone by their front and beat them across their back, while others lashed wildly in every direction, and others pepper-sprayed around them hoping to burn someone.

Detention

After two hours, roughly seven kilometres, and numerous police lines, we were kettled at 9 am. Even then we were still winning, as just by being there we stopped the mine from running and the police guarding us couldn’t work to keep others out.

We could see the Baggers lying still while in the distance wind turbines moved. A couple of hours in, they started to pull us out one by one, taking our photos and trying to get our names. Almost no one told them.

After this, they tied our hands with zip ties behind our backs. Through all this we supported each other, and worked to keep our spirits up by playing games and chatting (small talk when you can’t say your name, or say too much about yourself is strange).

After five to seven hours we were moved onto buses and taken to a police station. We sat for several more hours chatting, singing and sharing food (our hands had been freed by then). Eventually, they gave up on trying to process several hundred people that refused to give their names and resisted having their fingerprints taken.

Around 11 pm we were dumped outside a railway station and made our way back to camp, tired but triumphant. For the train ride back, some of us brought a couple of crates of beer, we celebrated the day and talked about what we’d been through on the train back. By around 1 am I was back in my tent exhausted, sore, emotionally drained, but also felt great about what we’d done together and achieved.

We had stopped the diggers for a day but it was also about more than just that. In economic terms it will have also damaged RWE’s position on the market (their share price just hit a new low) and made them seem less trustworthy to investors.

In addition to this many there had never taken part in direct action before but now know that by working together and taking matters into our own hands we can achieve more than waiting for salvation from those above us in society could ever do.

Many people both there and watching the events from afar will also have seen the role of the police, not as keeping of the peace but as guard dogs of social and economic order which is killing us and our planet. Last weekend, we fought and we won.

by Toni Belly / The Ecologist

Activist’s 75th Birthday Party Disrupts Spectra Pipeline Construction in CT

August 20th, 2015

NORTH WINDHAM, CT: In celebration of his 75th birthday today, Middletown resident Vic Lancia locked himself to two giant “birthday cakes”—actually concrete-filled barrels decorated with candles and frosting— on the sole road leading up to a site where Spectra Energy stores construction equipment and materials for use across Connecticut. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reports posted at capitalismvsclimate.org confirm what local residents have seen: Spectra trucks regularly using the facility to expand fracking infrastructure.

By blocking Spectra workers from accessing the site, Vic aimed to disrupt Spectra’s ongoing construction of it’s “AIM Project”, a billion dollar fracked-gas pipeline expansion affecting communities across the State.

“It’s simple,” Vic explained. “Capitalism and the burning of fossil fuels are destroying our beloved and beautiful planet, the habitat for all humanity and life, all for profit and convenience. Isn’t it time to resist? Do we not care for our children, the generations beyond our lives, and for life itself?”

After blocking the entrance to the site for over two hours – Vic negotiated with the police and unlocked. Vic wasn’t arrested and we got to keep the concrete “birthday cakes”.

Vic is a member of Capitalism vs. the Climate, a horizontally-organized, Connecticut-based group that takes direct action against the root causes of the climate crisis. About ten other members and supporters joined Vic, sharing chocolate cake and waving balloons. Beneath the festivities, however, they expressed outrage at Spectra’s pipeline expansion.

“Spectra’s pipeline expansion is catastrophic in many ways. It creates incentives for fracking in the shale fields. It transports highly flammable gas just one-hundred feet from a nuclear power plant in New York, potentially endangering tens of millions of people. It accelerates global warming, since fracked gas has an even higher impact on the climate than coal does,” said Willimantic resident Roger Benham.

Click here to make donations to support the action.

Please share the Facebook “meme” at: http://on.fb.me/1WGLJFV

Turkish Army Burns Down Forests in Kurdistan – Call for an International Delegation!

With the restart of the war in North-Kurdistan by Turkish state in end of July 2015 the Turkish Army has started to burn down forests.

With the restart of the war in North-Kurdistan by Turkish state in end of July 2015 the Turkish Army has started to burn down forests. After 2,5 years of negotiations about the start of a peace process between the Turkish government and the Kurdish Freedom Movement, the Turkish side decided to attack the PKK Guerrilla HPG (Peoples Defense Forces) and legal political activists.

In a planned and systematic manner the Turkish Army shoots with munition and bombs which result in forest fires. Particularly in the provinces of Dersim (Tunceli), Sirnex (Şırnak) and Amed (Diyarbakır) the Army has burned down several ecologically highly sensitive forests in its operations against the HPG. Thereby the Turkish Army hopes to limit the mobility of HPG. This method in fighting the long-lasting Kurdish rebellion has been used widely already in the 90’s in North-Kurdistan. Almost every greater forest in the contested regions has been burned down in that years.

The most forest fires have been initiated in areas which have been declared by the Turkish government as “security areas” just after the restart of the war. That is why local people and activists – like from our movement – have been hindered by the Turkish Army to go to the affected areas and try to extinguish the fires. These initiatives have been created while the responsible governmental bodies did not act. We assume that they have been instructed by the government not to intervene. To date several hundred hectares of forests have been burnt down in North-Kurdistan where the main tree type is the oak.

We call on the international political activists, social movements and NGO’s working on ecological issues to join an international delegation. This delegation could investigate the dimension and impacts of the forest fires of the last weeks, the subsequent behavior of Turkish officials, the efforts of locals to extinguish the fires and if existing the ongoing fires and inform the international public based on their observations. We think that the extremely destructive behavior of the Turkish State in this dirty war must be treated also on international level. The period for the international delegation is planned from the 8th to the 12th September 2015. Write us in case of interest.

Ercan Ayboga
for the Mesopotamian Ecology Movement

Contact:
email: e.ayboga@gmx.net
fb: www.facebook.com/mezopotamyaekolojihareketi

Sources about the fires:
Al-Monitor, 21.07.2015: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/07/turkey-kurds-pkk-forest-fires-cause-political-mayhem.html
Firat News Agency, 05.08.2015: http://en.firatajans.com/kurdistan/forest-fires-caused-by-turkish-army-expand
Kurdish Daily News, 09.08.2015: http://kurdishdailynews.org/2015/08/09/forest-fires-caused-by-turkish-airstrikes-in-zap-and-xakurke/

Call out to get involved in a research project on sexual violence in activist communities

Was your sexual abuser a high-profile activist? Have you felt unable to speak out about it?

Was your sexual abuser a high-profile activist? Have you felt unable to speak out about it? Or have you spoken out about it only to be accused of making it up and/or dividing the movement? Did your anti-state activism and/or experience of police brutality rule out going to the police? Were you able to kick out your abuser using other methods? Did the accountability process backfire? Did your abuser just move on to a different group and do the same thing to someone else? Was the trans community so small that you didn’t want your partner to lose it? Do you want to be involved in taking action and challenging sexual violence in activist communities?

We want to hear from survivors who identify as women, gender-queer or trans who are ready to talk about their experiences of sexual violence within current or past organising in radical social justice movements in the UK. This may have happened once or multiple times, we are interested in hearing from folks with a variety of experiences of sexual violence including unwanted touching, flashing, harassment, stalking, sexual assault and rape.

Salvage is a collective of academic-activists, survivors and activists. We got together through a workshop on survivor-led approaches to gendered violence and abuse at AFem 2014. This is our first research project. We aim to develop resources, information and practical recommendations to work towards creating effective challenges to gendered violence, abuse and harms within social justice movements and communities.

If you are interested in getting involved and/or want more information about this research project:

Web: https://projectsalvage.wordpress.com/research

Twitter: @Project_Salvage

Flood the System Organising Booklet is Now Available to Print or Download

Click here to download the Flood the System organising booklet! This 35 page booklet has everything you need to know about organising an event to #FloodTheSystem.

Click here for the same booklet as above, but set up so when you print it front/back, you can fold it into a booklet.

We envision Flood the System as a step towards building the DNA of a robust movement that has the collective power to challenge global capitalism, racism, patriarchy, and oppression.

This booklet is designed to give you a sense of why we need to escalate, what Flood the System might look like, and what structures we will all use to organize.

The authors drew inspiration for this booklet from the 1986 Pledge of Resistance Handbook, the 1999 WTO Direct Action Packet and the 2014 Ferguson Action Council Booklet.

Protesters Storm Open-Pit Coal Mine in Western Germany

Protestors look at a huge bucket-wheel excavator as they arrive for a demonstration at the open-pit coal mine near Garzweiler

Protestors look at a huge bucket-wheel excavator as they arrive for a demonstration at the open-pit coal mine near Garzweiler, western Germany Saturday Aug. 15, 2015. Several hundred environmental activists have stormed a lignite mine in western Germany to protest against the use of coal for electricity production. dpa via AP Marius Becker

August 15th, 2015

Environmental activists have stormed a lignite mine in western Germany to protest the use of coal, a major source of greenhouse gases.

The German news agency dpa reports that several hundred people from a group calling itself Ende Gelande — which loosely translates as “it’s finished now” — broke through a police line in Garzweiler, west of Cologne.

Police spokesman Anton Hamacher says officers used pepper spray to stop the crowd and are removing protesters from the site.

A spokesman for German energy company RWE says several huge bucket-wheel excavators used at the open-pit mine had to be shut down for safety reasons. Spokesman Lothar Lambertz says RWE has canceled plans to bring employees onto the site to rally in favor of coal mining.

from Associated Press

Tarnac 9 Cleared of Terrorism Charges Over Rail Sabotage

An alleged “anarchist cell” at the centre of one of France’s most politically-charged legal sagas is finally to be tried for sabotaging high-speed train lines.

August 9th, 2015

An alleged “anarchist cell” at the centre of one of France’s most politically-charged legal sagas is finally to be tried for sabotaging high-speed train lines.

But in a major blow to police, who conducted a seven-year investigation into the group, the four will not face terror charges, judicial sources told AFP on Saturday.

The so-called Tarnac group was rounded up in high-publicised raids in November 2008 accused of sabotaging the TGV network around Paris, a powerful symbol of French national pride and technical know-how.

Thousands of passengers and more than 160 train services were delayed after steel rods were put across overhead power cables on three high-speed lines between Paris and London, Brussels and the French regions.

Then interior minister Michele Alliot-Marie branded the group a dangerous “ultra-left anarchist movement”, but the group — who lived in a rural commune in central France — and many on the French left, accused President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing government of trying to frame them.

But in a major blow to the authorities, anti-terrorist judge Jeanne Duye came down against their demands in her long-awaited judgement Friday to try them for terror offences.

Yildune Levy, suspected of belonging to a ‘terrorist organisation’ with her then-boyfriend

– ‘The Coming Insurrection’ –

She did, however, send the group’s reclusive leader Julien Coupat, his wife Yildune Levy and two others for trial on conspiracy charges, sources said.

The group’s lawyers called the decision a “total repudiation” of the allegations against the four.

“After nearly seven years of trying to pin the blame on them, we finally have a courageous judicial decision. It is a total repudiation of the prosecution case,” Marie Dose and William Bourdon said.

“From the beginning, our clients were considered and treated like terrorists. Finally they have realised that it doesn’t stick,” they added.

“Our arrest was purely political and was based on false testimony from the police,” said another of the accused, Mathieu Burnel. “All this will fall apart at our trial.”

The case centred on the charismatic figure of Coupat, 40, a far-left intellectual from a wealthy family who had gathered a group of 20 followers around him in a remote village in the Correze region of central France.

Relying heavily on passages from a 2007 book attributed to Coupat, “The Coming Insurrection”, investigators claimed the group — the “invisible committee of the imaginary party” — had tipped over from radical anarchist politics into terrorism.

The book discussed sabotage and other ways to “finalise the fall of the state”, and mentioned the high-speed TGV network as an “easy” target.

But Coupat, who refused to confirm he was its author, said it was “risible that terrorism charges could be brought on the basis on a book on public sale.”

Coupat and Levy, 31, admitted being close to TGV lines east of Paris when an iron bar was placed on the track on the night of November 7, 2008, but denied putting it there.

Coupet spent more than six months in jail as police tried to build a case against him, with Levy also locked up for more than two months.

The prosecution has five days to appeal the judge’s decision.

from AFP

Addition: their arrest was in part down to Mark Kennedy, the British undercover cop embedded in Earth First! and the wider ecological direct action movement for over 7 years. More info

Germany: Last Living Barricade in Hambach Forest Evicted; Freedom for Jus!

Germany: Last Living Barricade in Hambach Forest Evicted

July 28th, 2015

On the 22nd of July the tower – to this date the only remaining living barricade – got evicted. The tower blocked an important access way to the Hambach Forest [previously on S!N]and its occupation.

During the 14 hours of the eviction, four activists were arrested of who three have been released, while one is in detention awaiting trial in the JVA (jail) in Köln-Ossendorf. Jus is accused of resisting the eviction. The cops are trying to justify the detention by claiming that Jus doesn‘t have a legal address and allegedly “no social obligations in Germany”. Therefore, they think that it’s likely that he will “stay away from trial”.

Innu Blockade Hydro-Quebec Construction in Northern Quebec

photo thanks to Warrior Publications

July 17th, 2015

Quebec’s Minister of Aboriginal Affairs is urging members of Natashquan’s Innu Community to stop their blockade near the La Romaine construction site.

The group of protesters set up a barricade Thursday near Havre-Saint-Pierre in eastern Quebec, about 200 kilometres east of Sept-Îles.

It says Hydro-Québec is not respecting an agreement it signed with the community before work on the hydroelectric project began.

The protesters have been letting workers out of the site, but they say they will not let anyone in until Premier Philippe Couillard speaks with them in person on the North Shore.

Rodrigue Wapistan, the chief of Natashquan’s Innu band council, said Hydro-Québec has flooded basins near the worksite without the community’s consent.

He said that will drown more than half the trees in the area.

“They have completely trampled on our rights. It is something that is unacceptable in my book — all while creating a situation that is catastrophic for our next generation,” Wapistan said.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Geoff Kelley said he recognises there are differences between the Innu community and Hydro-Québec, but said protesters should try to resolve its issues through negotiations.

map thanks to Warrior Publications

from CBC News