Category: Aviation and Roads

Earth First! Summer Gathering Update — programme, directions, website and more

It’s only weeks until the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing begins.
Five days of work­shops, info shar­ing and learn­ing new skills, 1–5 August.

It’s only weeks until the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing begins.
Five days of work­shops, info shar­ing and learn­ing new skills, 1–5 August.

The Earth First Sum­mer Gath­er­ing takes place each year to pro­vide a space in which the rad­i­cal ecol­o­gy move­ment can share skills and plan for future cam­paigns and actions.

Dis­cus­sions around the impor­tance of com­mu­ni­ty build­ing in inner cities, the state of the anar­chist move­ment and patri­archy in activism.

Skill shares includ­ing wom­en’s self-defence, research­ing cor­po­ra­tions and nav­i­ga­tion.

Cam­paign round ups from Frack Off! Smash Edo and Lud­dites 2000 amongst oth­ers.

If you have work­shops you like to run or dis­cus­sions you’d like to facil­i­tate then email us at earthfirstsummergathering@riseup.net

Full pro­gramme.

Camp­ing is on a slid­ing scale of £30 to £15, pay what is gen­uine­ly appro­pri­ate.

Food will be from Anar­chist Teapot and meal tick­ets will be £5 a day.

Kids can have sep­a­rate meals if they want for £3 a day.

There will be a cou­ple of kids spaces, and spe­cial work­shops being ran for kids. If you’d like to run any kids work­shops get in touch at earthfirstsummergathering@riseup.net.

If you want you dog to come along then you’re going to have to email us at earthfirstsummergathering@riseup.net

And of course there will be enter­tain­ment and a bar open in the evenings.

The camp is ½ mile from the Berring­ton vil­lage, and 1 mile from the larg­er vil­lage of Cross Hous­es.

We encour­age non-cycling campers to use pub­lic trans­port if pos­si­ble as Cross Hous­es is on a bus route.

BY TRAIN
The near­est train sta­tion is Shrews­bury. You can then get the bus to Cross Hous­es (see below). If com­ing from a long dis­tance it can some­times be cheap­er to get a tick­et to a large sta­tion such as Birm­ing­ham, Wolver­hamp­ton, Man­ches­ter or Crewe and then a sep­a­rate tick­et on to Shrews­bury. Check nation­al rail for train times and prices. If com­ing from the Lon­don direc­tion, it’s gen­er­al­ly cheap­er to buy a Super Off­peak Return, spec­i­fy­ing “Lon­don Mid­land & Arri­va only”.

BY BIKE
See here for direc­tions and a map to the camp from Shrews­bury for cyclists and dri­vers.

BY BUS
When you arrive at Shrews­bury train sta­tion, ask some­one to point you to the bus sta­tion. It’s only a few min­utes walk from the train sta­tion. The bus ser­vice that runs from town to with­in a mile of Crabap­ple is the 436 towards Bridg­north. It runs every hour from 7.40am to 5.40pm with a “late” one at 7.40pm. The jour­ney to Cross Hous­es is approx 15 mins. You will need to press the stop but­ton when you see the sign for Cross Hous­es. Some of the ser­vices on this route are low-floor acces­si­ble bus­es. Please note that the last bus leaves Shrews­bury at 7.40pm, Mon­day to Sat­ur­day and there are no Sun­day bus ser­vices. For the bus timetable see here http://shropshire.gov.uk/bustimes/timetable.jsc?timetable=436mfi0412.
The camp itself is about 1 mile from the bus stop. From the bus stop at Cross Hous­es, walk back towards Shrews­bury past the petrol sta­tion (on your right) and take the first left turn signed “Berring­ton”. After about ½ mile, the road forks at the edge of the vil­lage. Take the right turn sign­post­ed “Bet­ton Abbots” and we’re about ¼ mile up the road on the right.
If you intend to come by bus but need help get­ting to and from the bus stop, you can arrange a pick up with us: details will be avail­able near­er the time.

BY TAXI
There is also a taxi rank just out­side Shrews­bury train sta­tion. Acces­si­ble taxis can be got from here.- but it is MUCH cheap­er to book a cab from a local com­pa­ny – Comet Cabs 01743 344444, or Vin­cent Cabs 01743 367777. Vin­cents also have a book­ing office just across the road from the sta­tion, which is handy if you don’t have a phone to book a cab in advance.

USEFUL LINKS
See here direc­tions and a map to the camp from Shrews­bury for cyclists and dri­vers.
See a map of where the site is here
See the bus timetable
Direc­tions from places oth­er than Shrews­bury

Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing Col­lec­tive
earthfirstsummergathering@riseup.net

http://earthfirstgathering.weebly.com

Action to re-occupy the ZAD

A reoc­cu­pa­tion action is being planned in case of an evic­tion at the ZAD, near Notre-Dame-des-Lan­des in France: To re-plant and rebuild against the con­struc­tion of the air­port: Vin­ci get out! Not here, not Khim­ki, not any­where! Meet on the 4th Sat­ur­day after the first evic­tion with your pitch­forks, tools, beams and camp­ing gear. Although we don’t know when the troops will be sent in, we are launch­ing this call-out now to be able to cre­ate a mas­sive rapid reac­tion.

A reoc­cu­pa­tion action is being planned in case of an evic­tion at Notre-Dame-des-Lan­des in France: To re-plant and rebuild against the con­struc­tion of the air­port: Vin­ci get out! Not here, not Khim­ki*, not any­where!

This is a joint call out from occu­pants of the ZAD and the net­work Reclaim the Fields to meet on the 4th Sat­ur­day after the first evic­tion, near Notre-Dame-des-Lan­des.

To give an idea of some of the things that have hap­pened:

On 7 May 2011, we were a thou­sand peo­ple on an action, pitch­forks in hand, to clear and put to use an aban­doned plot of agri­cul­tur­al land. This was to cre­ate a space to grow food to feed the strug­gle against the air­port — and it’s been thriv­ing since the action! We’ll be back to strive to pro­tect this farm and oth­er occu­pied places on the ZAD (Zone d’A­me­nage­ment Dif­feré), or in oth­er words, Zone About to be Destroyed).

On 24 June, Vin­ci start­ed evic­tion pro­ce­dures against eight squats, includ­ing Les Planchettes, our col­lec­tive space of organ­is­ing and hos­pi­tal­i­ty.

On 10 July, dur­ing a gath­er­ing a few thou­sand peo­ple made a human ban­ner say­ing “Vin­ci d égage!” (Vin­ci get out!)

On 23 August, the pres­i­dent of the region Pays de la Loire, Jacques Aux­i­ette, asked the local author­i­ties to clean out the rad­i­cal occu­piers of the ZAD. It was an unam­bigu­ous bru­tal call for repres­sion, but this will not pre­vent us from resist­ing, re-occu­py­ing and re-grow­ing.

To fol­low up on May 7, occu­piers from the ZAD and Reclaim the Fields, a net­work of young activist peas­ants, are invit­ing you to be a part of a huge demon­stra­tion to re-occu­py in case of an evic­tion, and urge all groups and col­lec­tives to sup­port this action. If the police force does arrive to clean us out, we want to be back by the thou­sands to give shape to the cry “Vin­ci get out!” and to con­tin­ue to occu­py the zone and to stop con­struc­tion works in their tracks.

For forty years, deci­sion mak­ers and con­struc­tion man­agers have been push­ing a new air­port next to Nantes, at Notre-Dame-des-Lan­des, to make their dreams of mas­sive eco­nom­ic expan­sion and a metrop­o­lis. The ZAD: it’s 2000 hectares of cul­ti­vat­ed and inhab­it­ed land that they want to anni­hi­late under con­crete. The resis­tance against this project is at the cross­roads of many chal­lenges on which to unite, to address issues of com­mon strate­gies and think­ing.

Through this strug­gle we are fight­ing indus­tri­al soci­ety and agri­cul­ture, its eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment poli­cies, its cli­mate change and its con­trol of the land, the mega­lopo­lis and the nor­mal­i­sa­tion of ways of life, the pri­vati­sa­tion of the com­mons, the myth of end­less growth and the illu­sion of demo­c­ra­t­ic par­tic­i­pa­tion …

The deci­sion-mak­ers are con­stant­ly try­ing to sell their project and to give the impres­sion that going back­wards is unthink­able at this stage. So after forty years strug­gling, the pre­lim­i­nary con­struc­tion work of the air­port and its high­way have start­ed: drilling for soil analy­sis, envi­ron­men­tal assess­ments, archae­o­log­i­cal exca­va­tions and clear­ing works… all pre­req­ui­sites for pour­ing con­crete all over the area.

But its oppo­nents are far from giv­ing up and the actions inten­si­fy: block­ing drillings, dis­turb­ing the envi­ron­men­tal assess­ment work of Biotope*, dis­trib­ut­ing news­pa­pers, occu­py­ing offices, con­struc­tion sites, open­ing up Vin­ci’s toll­ways, and much more..

In addi­tion, for more than two and a half years, instead of the ZAD grad­u­al­ly emp­ty­ing to the rhythm of black­mail and destruc­tion, life and activ­i­ty has been flour­ish­ing.

Many of the hous­es left aban­doned were refur­bished and occu­pied, new hous­es were con­struct­ed on the ground and in the trees, col­lec­tives occu­pied land to make veg­etable gar­dens. Meet­ing spaces, guest acco­mo­da­tion, a bak­ery and a library were opened for one and all. There are more than a hun­dred peo­ple per­ma­nent­ly occu­py­ing the ZAD, sup­port­ed by many oth­ers, local and else­where, who meet and organ­ise. The occu­pa­tions are part of a move­ment that has many dif­fer­ent forms. Among oth­er things, they have a allowed rapid reac­tions to the first steps tak­en by Vin­ci towards con­struc­tion work.

In June 2011, Vin­ci began evic­tion pro­ce­dures in order to have the legal means to remove the occu­piers of the ZAD who have “no right or title”. Now they want to stop the growth of the move­ment and make a clean sweep to start the work: as well as evict­ing the occu­piers, they are think­ing about the ten­ants, own­ers and farm­ers. At the same time, those names who are pro-air­port do every­thing they can: run­ning a cam­paign to iso­late the occu­piers, attempt­ing to divide the move­ment and break up sol­i­dar­i­ty, rein­force the dai­ly police pres­ence and repres­sion of col­lec­tive action.

Despite this con­text, we’re keep­ing the mem­o­ry of past vic­to­ries in France against mega­lo­man­ic projects, from nuclear to mil­i­tary, like at Car­net, Plo­goff or Larzac, and we know that this air­port can still be stopped. We look to the oth­er side of the Alps, where oppo­si­tion to the con­struc­tion of the Lyon-Turin high-speed train line across a val­ley, where tens of thou­sands of peo­ple pre­vent work. We are prepar­ing the same here: any attempt to con­crete the place will cost them dear­ly.

This call for action sig­ni­fies that evic­tions do not mean in any way the end of the strug­gle; it allows us to launch col­lec­tive attacks after the poten­tial evic­tions as well. It affirms that they can­not mil­i­tarise or ster­ilise this place at all times and that what­ev­er their efforts they won’t stop us reoc­cu­py­ing it. It shows the com­mon will to keep the occu­pa­tions going to pre­vent the air­port project. This event will allow, as nec­es­sary, the recon­struc­tion of col­lec­tive spaces for organ­is­ing, hous­ing, or again for grow­ing food.

Although we don’t know when the troops will be sent in, we are launch­ing this call-out now to be able to cre­ate a mas­sive rapid reac­tion. We pro­pose to meet again on the fourth Sat­ur­day after the first evic­tion — bring your pitch­forks, tools and beams — to reclaim the land and rebuild togeth­er.

In addi­tion to this call for reoc­cu­pa­tion, oth­er ini­tia­tives are clear­ly wel­come: sol­i­dar­i­ty actions wher­ev­er you are, pres­ence at evic­tion time to hin­der the police … And until then, efforts con­tin­ue to pre­vent the air­port, and life on the ZAD as well!

Prac­ti­cal Info:

- Check reg­u­lar­ly  http://zad.nadir.org, espe­cial­ly in case of an evic­tion. The date and exact meet­ing loca­tion will be spec­i­fied at the time.

- It will be pos­si­ble to arrive on the eve of the event, for the final prepa­ra­tions and bring­ing every­one up to speed. Come pre­pared to camp.

- We invite you to stay here after the action to pro­tect the re-occu­pied spaces and con­tin­ue the con­struc­tion.

*Extra expla­na­tion:
Vin­ci is the biggest con­struc­tion com­pa­ny in the world and is respon­si­ble for build­ing the air­port at Notre-Dame-des-Lan­des. It is also engaged in build­ing pris­ons, high­ways, nuclear pow­er sta­tions, deten­tion cen­ters for ille­gal immi­grants, exploit­ing the ura­ni­um mines in Niger and destroy­ing the for­est of Khim­ki near Moscow.
Biotope: An enti­ty respon­si­ble for ensur­ing, through envi­ron­men­tal expert on the flo­ra and fau­na, the eco­log­i­cal sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the air­port … the new fron­tiers of green cap­i­tal­ism!

A call-out from occu­piers on the ZAD and Reclaim the Fields

 reclaimthezad@riseup.net

zad@riseup.net
zad.nadir.org

Earth First! Winter Moot, what to expect

This years Earth First! Win­ter Moot takes place in South Lanark­shire, Scot­land. In a months time envi­ron­men­tal­ists from across the UK and beyond will con­verge to dis­cuss and debate. Below is an update from the organ­is­ing col­lec­tive who are work­ing on the pro­gram.

This years Earth First! Win­ter Moot takes place in South Lanark­shire, Scot­land. In a months time envi­ron­men­tal­ists from across the UK and beyond will con­verge to dis­cuss and debate. Below is an update from the organ­is­ing col­lec­tive who are work­ing on the pro­gram.

The Moot 2012 col­lec­tive has felt that at pre­vi­ous EF! Gath­er­ings groups have pri­mar­i­ly attend­ed to recruit for their respec­tive cam­paigns. Yet those who attend EF! Gath­er­ings are pre­dom­i­nant­ly already active, mak­ing them good places for net­work­ing, but not nec­es­sar­i­ly for out­right recruit­ment. We recog­nise the effort gath­er­ing organ­is­ers put into plan­ning agen­das but often the more dis­cur­sive aspects of the gath­er­ings focus on larg­er, abstract ques­tions and debates have often been framed by self-appoint­ed experts. We feel that these dis­cus­sions inef­fec­tive­ly attempt to find answers or reach con­sen­sus where this is inap­pro­pri­ate.

For exam­ple at the first EF! Gath­er­ing 20 years ago the ques­tion was asked: ‘What is EF!?’ 20 years lat­er in 2011 at the last Moot the same ques­tion was still being asked …

The answer is EF! is what we make it, and this year we are going to make it a space in which we can approach our cam­paigns both crit­i­cal­ly and ana­lyt­i­cal­ly by ask­ing more spe­cif­ic and prac­ti­cal ques­tions. Our activism should be con­stant­ly evolv­ing not stuck in a rut ask­ing the same ques­tions again and again.

The agen­da will be designed to ask ques­tions around four key issues: the tac­tics we use; the strate­gies that we employ in our cam­paigns; com­mu­ni­ty sol­i­dar­i­ty; and sus­tain­able activism. There will be no attempt to reach con­clu­sions or con­sen­sus espe­cial­ly about what EF! is. Instead we want to have dis­cus­sions that lead to new ideas that could evolve ongo­ing cam­paigns or give cre­ative inspi­ra­tion to ones that are just get­ting start­ed.

A free space will be pro­vid­ed in which cam­paigns will be able to hold meet­ings and have fur­ther dis­cus­sions if they wish, and there will also be some space giv­en for cam­paign updates with an empha­sis on hon­est analy­sis rather than pro­mo­tion.

For updates and more info check the web­site or email us.

EF!WM Crew
e-mail: efwintermoot@noflag.org.uk
Home­page: http://earthfirstgathering.org.uk

Earth First! Winter Moot 2012 — 24–26th February 2012. Updated: location & what to expect

A week­end of dis­cus­sion and net­work­ing for those tak­ing direct action against eco­log­i­cal destruc­tion. 

Please note date & loca­tion change (due to date clash & venue prob­lems):

24–26th Feb­ru­ary 2012, near Glas­gow

Near­est train sta­tion: Lanark.

A week­end of dis­cus­sion and net­work­ing for those tak­ing direct action against eco­log­i­cal destruc­tion. 

Please note date & loca­tion change (due to date clash & venue prob­lems):

24–26th Feb­ru­ary 2012, near Glas­gow

Near­est train sta­tion: Lanark.

See earthfirstgathering.org.uk for fur­ther infor­ma­tion about loca­tion,  pro­gramme and con­tact details

Update:

Where — this years Earth First Win­ter Moot will take place in Gle­spin Vil­lage Hall, South Lanark­shire. Gle­spin is a small vil­lage about 14 miles south of Lanark, and 35 miles south of Glas­gow. South Lanark­shire also has many beau­ti­ful areas with rivers, hills, forests and peat bogs.  Full direc­tions

What to expect — this years Earth First! Win­ter Moot takes place in South Lanark­shire, Scot­land. In a months time envi­ron­men­tal­ists from across the UK and beyond will con­verge to dis­cuss and debate. Below is an update from the organ­is­ing col­lec­tive who are work­ing on the pro­gram.

The Moot 2012 col­lec­tive has felt that at pre­vi­ous EF! Gath­er­ings groups have pri­mar­i­ly attend­ed to recruit for their respec­tive cam­paigns. Yet those who attend EF! Gath­er­ings are pre­dom­i­nant­ly already active, mak­ing them good places for net­work­ing, but not nec­es­sar­i­ly for out­right recruit­ment. We recog­nise the effort gath­er­ing organ­is­ers put into plan­ning agen­das but often the more dis­cur­sive aspects of the gath­er­ings focus on larg­er,  abstract ques­tions and debates have often been framed by self-appoint­ed experts. We feel that these dis­cus­sions inef­fec­tive­ly attempt to find answers or reach con­sen­sus where this is inap­pro­pri­ate.

For exam­ple at the first EF! Gath­er­ing 20 years ago the ques­tion was asked: ‘What is EF!?’ 20 years lat­er in 2011 at the last Moot the same ques­tion was still being asked …

The answer is EF! is what we make it, and this year we are going to make it a space in which we can approach our cam­paigns both crit­i­cal­ly and ana­lyt­i­cal­ly by ask­ing more spe­cif­ic and prac­ti­cal ques­tions. Our activism should be con­stant­ly evolv­ing not stuck in a rut ask­ing the same ques­tions again and again.

The agen­da will be designed to ask ques­tions around four key issues: the tac­tics we use; the strate­gies that we employ in our cam­paigns; com­mu­ni­ty sol­i­dar­i­ty; and sus­tain­able activism. There will be no attempt to reach con­clu­sions or con­sen­sus espe­cial­ly about what EF! is. Instead we want to have dis­cus­sions that lead to new ideas that could evolve ongo­ing cam­paigns or give cre­ative inspi­ra­tion to ones that are just get­ting start­ed.

A free space will be pro­vid­ed in which cam­paigns will be able to hold meet­ings and have fur­ther dis­cus­sions if they wish, and there will also be some space giv­en for cam­paign updates with an empha­sis on hon­est analy­sis rather than pro­mo­tion.

For updates and more info check the web­site or email us.

efwintermoot@noflag.org.uk

Plane Stupid on the runway at Southend

3.11.11

16 pro­tes­tors, who occu­pied the run­way at Southend Air­port, have been arrest­ed by Essex Police.  It is believed they are being held at Southend Police Sta­tion. Cam­paign­ers from Plane Stu­pid and Cli­mate Rush entered the air­port short­ly after 9am this morn­ing.  The protest is against the planned expan­sion of Southend Air­port.

3.11.11

16 pro­tes­tors, who occu­pied the run­way at Southend Air­port, have been arrest­ed by Essex Police.  It is believed they are being held at Southend Police Sta­tion. Cam­paign­ers from Plane Stu­pid and Cli­mate Rush entered the air­port short­ly after 9am this morn­ing.  The protest is against the planned expan­sion of Southend Air­port.

Plane Stu­pid installed solar pan­els on the run­way.  Cam­paign­ers from Cli­mate Rush, dressed as pilots and cab­in crew, were on a near­by foot­path per­form­ing a dance rou­tine.

A spokes­woman for the pro­tes­tors said:

“Southend Coun­cil say the expan­sion will bring jobs.  But invest­ment in renew­able ener­gy would cre­ate many more jobs with­out dam­ag­ing the cli­mate.  What we need is solar pow­er not plane pow­er.  The big­ger run­way is bad for cli­mate change, bad for local res­i­dents under the flight path and is not need­ed to help the local econ­o­my.” 

Southend Air­port has been bought by Sto­barts, the logis­tics firm.  Easy­jet has announced that it plans to start oper­at­ing com­mer­cial flights from the air­port in spring 2012.

There has been a major local cam­paign.  It has focused on the impact the air­port would have on the thou­sands of peo­ple who will live under the flight paths.

Ryanair ejected by Manchester students

Octo­ber 29, 2011

Ryanair had to can­cel a mar­ket­ing event at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­ches­ter Stu­dents Union ear­li­er this week after stu­dents dis­man­tled their pro­mo­tion­al stall in protest against the com­pa­ny’s record on the envi­ron­ment and work­ers’ rights.

Octo­ber 29, 2011

Ryanair had to can­cel a mar­ket­ing event at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­ches­ter Stu­dents Union ear­li­er this week after stu­dents dis­man­tled their pro­mo­tion­al stall in protest against the com­pa­ny’s record on the envi­ron­ment and work­ers’ rights.

Ryanair had adver­tised to hold a stall from 12pm to 3pm last Thurs­day (29th Octo­ber 2011) . How­ev­er, at 12.30pm, a group of around nine stu­dents began dis­man­tling the com­pa­ny’s ban­ners and dis­play boards and pop­ping their pro­mo­tion­al bal­loons. The Ryanair sales team soon left the build­ing.

Stu­dents said the action was in anger at Ryanair’s dis­re­gard for the dan­gers of cli­mate change by aggres­sive­ly mar­ket­ing cheap flights. They said the action was also tak­en in sol­i­dar­i­ty with dis­grun­tled Ryan Air work­ers. Last August, Ryanair work­er John Foley staged a rooftop protest at Liv­er­pool John Lennon Air­port against the com­pa­ny’s anti-union activ­i­ties and poor record on work­ers rights.

Physics stu­dent Cather­ine Red­cliffe said, “Ryain Air’s relent­less pur­suit of prof­it over all oth­er con­cerns is tram­pling on work­ers rights and endan­ger­ing our future at the same time. The avi­a­tion indus­try takes more mon­ey out of North­west region than it puts in.”

Nonethe­less, Ryanair seemed adamant that the day had been a suc­cess claim­ing that their staff were “about to pack up and head home” when the stall was dis­rupt­ed at 12.30pm, even though they intend­ed to stay until 3pm.  Spokesper­son Stephen McNa­ma­ra said, “Ryanair thanks the Plane Stu­pid clowns for once again turn­ing a good pro­mo into a great pro­mo.”

Stu­dent Union democ­ra­cy

The stu­dents, who did not claim to be from any par­tic­u­lar group, were fur­ther angered at Stu­dent Union man­age­ment for rent­ing the space to Ryan Air in the first place. Pre­vi­ous­ly, stu­dents had vot­ed that their Union should cam­paign on cli­mate issues and not have busi­ness rela­tions with envi­ron­men­tal­ly-dam­ag­ing com­pa­nies.

Geog­ra­phy stu­dent Marc Hemp­ton, 20, said, “I want­ed to show how Ryanair’s pres­ence was a breach of our demo­c­ra­t­ic process. This is my Union and our col­lec­tive deci­sion had been side­lined by unelect­ed man­age­ment. We should­n’t allow envi­ron­men­tal­ly dam­ag­ing com­pa­nies in our Union where we have fought for pos­i­tive poli­cies on cli­mate change and against rela­tion­ships with uneth­i­cal com­pa­nies. I’m glad we sent them pack­ing for the day.”

On Wednes­day, activists had peti­tioned the Union man­age­ment with let­ters signed by stu­dents to can­cel the pro­mo­tion­al event. Man­age­ment refused, say­ing that Ryanair stall was bring­ing in extra cash.

Hemp­ton added, “In some ways, this is a micro­cosm of prob­lems regard­ing cli­mate change and work­ers rights. Where mak­ing a quick prof­it is pri­ori­tised at the expense of peo­ple and our envi­ron­ment, it makes it hard­er to address these issues and cre­ates big­ger costs fur­ther down the line.”

manchester@climatecamp.org.uk

 

Thomson protesters strip to reveal the Naked Truth about biofuels

6.10.2011

3 pro­test­ers dis­rupt­ed the launch of Birm­ing­ham airport’s first bio­fu­el pow­ered flight by strip­ping to reveal slo­gans opposed to the con­tro­ver­sial new depar­ture.

6.10.2011

3 pro­test­ers dis­rupt­ed the launch of Birm­ing­ham airport’s first bio­fu­el pow­ered flight by strip­ping to reveal slo­gans opposed to the con­tro­ver­sial new depar­ture.

The Plane Stu­pid pro­test­ers min­gled with pas­sen­gers before calm­ly remov­ing their clothes. Dressed in noth­ing but red body paint that declared ‘bio­fu­els aren’t green’ they called on Thom­son to recon­sid­er their plans.

Thom­son claim that bio­fu­els offer a green­er future for avi­a­tion, but respect­ed envi­ron­men­tal and social jus­tice organ­i­sa­tions from Friends of the Earth to The World Devel­op­ment Move­ment and Chris­t­ian Aid believe that they will make the prob­lems of glob­al warm­ing worse.

Today’s launch fol­lows a delay of some months, after Thom­son found they couldn’t source enough used cook­ing oil. Even for one short haul flight a week from one air­port.

Pro­test­er Jo Turn­er said-
“It’s not sur­pris­ing that Thom­son have strug­gled to find enough recy­cled oils for their stunt. Demand for recy­cled road trans­port bio­fu­els already far out­strips sup­ply. Sad­ly, any­one with basic maths can see that used veg oils will nev­er be a viable solu­tion. They’re just a way of soft­en­ing up the mar­ket to make way for the real nas­ties like palm oil and jat­ropha. Bio­fu­els are a dev­il in dis­guise — a mas­sive­ly inef­fi­cient way of mak­ing fuel that destroys the very ecosys­tems we need to con­trol run­away cli­mate change.”

Pro­test­er Chris Coop­er added-
“Thomp­son seem to be acknowl­edg­ing that we can’t con­tin­ue busi­ness as usu­al in the face of the cur­rent cli­mate emer­gency. It’s a shame their solu­tion is to make mat­ters worse. Vast tracts of rain­for­est, ecosys­tems vital to halt­ing cli­mate change, are cur­rent­ly being trashed to make way for bio­fu­el plan­ta­tions.

Land that grows food is being stolen from some of the world’s poor­est peo­ple so that it can start feed­ing planes. It’s a dis­as­ter.”

All three have been arrest­ed and are await­ing charges.
Con­tact Emi­ly Simon 07864643650 for inter­views and more infor­ma­tion.

Notes to edi­tors:

1. The avi­a­tion indus­try talks about ‘nov­el’ bio­fu­els which won’t com­pete with food and forests. While major con­cerns remain around these process­es, includ­ing their use of syn­thet­ic biol­o­gy, none are wide­ly avail­able. Palm oil appears to be the only real­is­tic choice for com­mer­cial avi­a­tion bio­fu­els over the next few years, it’s wide­ly recog­nised for it’s destruc­tive impact.

2. Cur­rent­ly palm oil plan­ta­tions for a vari­ety of uses cov­er 12 mil­lion hectares of land. The avi­a­tion indus­try claims that bio­fu­els rep­re­sent ‘zero car­bon growth’. Bio­fu­el watch cal­cu­late that by 2030 avi­a­tion would need 45 Mil­lion hectares of land to meet their growth goals. For more infor­ma­tion see www.biofuelwatch.org.

3.On 1st July 2011 com­mer­cial air­lines got per­mis­sion to use 50% bio­fu­els made from spe­cial­ly refined veg­table oils as well as oth­er plant oils and ani­mal fat in their engines.

4. Plane Stu­pid is a grass roots group that uses direct action to oppose air­port expan­sion.

Bolivia suspends road project after indigenous protest

29.9.11

Bolivia’s Pres­i­dent Evo Morales has sus­pend­ed plans to build a major high­way through indige­nous peo­ples’ land in the Ama­zon rain­for­est.

29.9.11

Bolivia’s Pres­i­dent Evo Morales has sus­pend­ed plans to build a major high­way through indige­nous peo­ples’ land in the Ama­zon rain­for­est.

His deci­sion fol­lows a 40-day protest march, which was brought to an abrupt halt on Sun­day, when police used tear gas and trun­cheons to dis­pel 1,000 pro­test­ers.

Morales faced pres­sure from with­in his gov­ern­ment to use less force. His Defense Min­is­ter Cecil­ia Cha­con resigned in protest at plans to inter­vene in the march.

There are also reports the tear­gas caused a baby to die of asphyx­i­a­tion.

Morales said on Mon­day his deci­sion to sus­pend the road was made in the ‘midst of this nation­al debate’ and that he would ‘let the peo­ple decide’.

The pro­posed 300-kilo­me­ter high­way would cut across the heart of the Isi­boro Sécure nation­al park. It is home to Chi­man, Yuru­care and Mox­os Indi­ans.

On Sun­day pro­test­ers were near to com­plet­ing their 500km march from the north­ern town of Trinidad to Bolivia’s cap­i­tal, when police used tear­gas to dis­perse them.

Pri­or to this crack­down, a police block­ade detained indige­nous pro­test­ers for sev­er­al days, alleged­ly to pre­vent clash­es between angry colonists and the marchers.

Brazil­ian com­pa­ny OAS has been con­tract­ed to con­struct the road with fund­ing from the Brazil­ian Devel­op­ment Bank.

ELF ACTIONS IN RUSSIA APRIL/MAY 2011

received anony­mous­ly:

received anony­mous­ly:

“Dur­ing the night of may 4th we sneaked upon anoth­er tree har­vester and torched it, using the heavy rain as cov­er. 15 min­utes lat­er it explod­ed (we sus­pect fire in hydraulics to be the cause). Police and city offi­cials con­firmed the suc­cess­ful torch­ing and evac of the destroyed vehi­cle (link to the eco-cam­paign site with cita­tions: http://ecmo.ru/news/n‑1778/).

This spring saw works to clearcut a huge Khim­ki for­est con­tin­ue unabat­ed. In spite of numer­ous and mas­sive peo­ple protests, all the legal and lib­er­al stuff (polls, peti­tions, law suits, con­certs, demos, vig­ils, etc.), author­i­ties, law enforce­ment, and their fas­cists and mafia lack­eys (for­ev­er togeth­er in Rus­sia) push for the com­ple­tion of clear-cuts so that they may get on to the actu­al road-build­ing. And in one part of the for­est they’ve already redi­rect­ed a flow of a riv­er (a sin­gle and major body of water and site of sig­nif­i­cant avian pop­u­la­tion in the area) to facil­i­tate con­struc­tion of a road junc­tion link: (in russ­ian, but has pho­tos http://ecmo.ru/news/n‑1772/).

We ask of all whom it may con­cern to con­sid­er actions against Vin­ci, France (the inter­na­tion­al con­sor­tium financ­ing this defor­esta­tion project), as it seems the only viable tar­get out­side Rus­sia. Appre­ci­a­tion for your sol­i­dar­i­ty out there, peo­ple, and our sol­i­dar­i­ty with your local fights of our glob­al resis­tance!

- ELF-Rus­sia, Inter­na­tion­al Net­work of Action and Solidarity/ Infor­mal Anar­chist Fed­er­a­tion”

—–

report­ed by activists in Rus­sia:

“An ELF group claims respon­si­bil­i­ty for torch­ing of a work­ers’ shed (the build­ing was checked to ensure it was unoc­cu­pied pri­or to the attack) at a tree­cut site in south­ern Moscow (Bitcevs­ki for­est) on the night of april the 11th. An 5 litres of gaso­line and incen­di­ary device for time delay were used because of close prox­im­i­ty to guard­house and seri­ous sen­try pres­ence in the region. The for­est has seen numer­ous eco­tage actions (spik­ing, torch­ings of vehi­cles and stor­age sheds, etc), hence intense police atten­tion. No pho­tos or videos were released. The shed and its con­tents explod­ed 5 min­utes lat­er for unknown rea­sons.
— ELF-Rus­sia, Inter­na­tion­al Net­work of Action and Sol­i­dar­i­ty — Infor­mal Anar­chist Fed­er­a­tion”

—–
Bitcevs­ki

“Urban gueril­las” in Moscow have claimed respon­si­bil­i­ty for the torch­ing of a large exca­va­tor at a con­do­mini­um con­struc­tion site near the Bitcevs­ki for­est on April 9. The con­do­mini­um is being built in part by the Russ­ian Mil­i­tary Intel­li­gence Ser­vice. Mil­i­tary per­son­nel are sup­posed to be sta­tioned in the build­ing. Video from the action and the Russ­ian com­mu­nique avail­able here: http://blackblocg.info/index.php/protestnye-dejstviya/93-gorodskie-partizany-atakovali-tochechnuyu-zastrojku-v-yasenevo

—–

anony­mous report:
“On the night of april the 5th, 2011, an exca­va­tor was set aflame and explod­ed 10 min­utes lat­er at the high­way con­struc­tion site that cuts through forests of Moscow region.

- ELF-Rus­sia”

HIGHWAY PROJECT SABOTAGED

received anony­mous­ly:

“10 kms of inter­state high­way staked out for exten­sion were sab­o­taged last week in North­ern Ukraine.

received anony­mous­ly:

“10 kms of inter­state high­way staked out for exten­sion were sab­o­taged last week in North­ern Ukraine.

Although some could argue that activism like this is not even worth men­tion­ing (that’s our own atti­tude on the mat­ter, for exam­ple, like shoplift­ing or sten­sils), we do find it nec­es­sary to men­tion the act.

First rea­son is an impor­tant notice that usu­al­ly fails to make its way into minds of some of our com­rades. While it is impor­tant to respond to Sys­tem offen­sive actions (like reac­tive attacks that took place in Kharkov and Saint-Peters­burgh and Moscow and basi­cal­ly every­where, where eco-anar­chists RESPOND to rap­ing of Nature), we find it more impor­tant to con­tin­ue our attacks on tech­nol­o­gy and its means of destruc­tion of nature even when no con­crete offense is tak­ing place.
In our case we just hap­pened upon some old high­way exten­sion project, which, like many cost­ly projects in Ukraine, was sus­pend­ed because of awful econ­o­my of the coun­try. Moth­er-Nature has already start­ed reclaim­ing the area, with grass and dirt cov­er­ing plates of con­crete and some sur­vey stakes.

But its obvi­ous for every­one liv­ing in here that projects like this (inter­state high­way between Moscow and Kiev) will be put to life, for exam­ple as soon as next bil­lion of dol­lars gets send by IMF or some­thing.
So our small vagabond group of earth lib­er­a­tionists went to van­dal­ism as soon as sur­vey stakes were noticed. Just to help the Wild and has­ten the process. We do believe the task was worth it.

And the rea­son for this is the thing that’s often lost in com­mu­niques of our com­rades world-wide. Its the most won­der­ful and mag­i­cal feel­ing of com­mu­nion with nature. When one does not only feels invig­o­rat­ed and excit­ed because of his deeds, but some­thing extra­or­di­nary hap­pens, that gives hope and pro­vides the momen­tum nec­es­sary for con­tin­u­a­tion of our project.

Dur­ing the process of (tire­some and dan­ger­ous ’cause of police inter­ven­tion) joy­ful destruc­tion, our hun­gry and thirsty band (rea­sons for our thirst and hunger being banal trav­el from point A to point B) kept stum­bling upon boun­ti­ful bush­es of wild sweet­bri­ar, so that we man­aged to fill our­selves and eat/suck the juices to our delight.
It is in moments like this that one gets to real­ly appre­ci­ate the con­nec­tion that comes into being when one turns away from civ­i­liza­tion and towards untamed Wild.

- Inter­na­tion­al ELF/FAI”