Capitalism / Globalisation

UK: 4 new releases from green anarchist zine Return Fire (PDFs)

Just now we’ve sent out the PDF versions of our recent releases, for downloading and printing (for past issues, see 325).

https://en-contrainfo.espiv.net/2016/06/05/uk-4-new-releases-from-green-anarchist-zine-return-fire-pdfs/ for links to the PDFs

Just now we’ve sent out the PDF versions of our recent releases, for downloading and printing (for past issues, see 325). To summarise, there’s the full length edition of Return Fire vol.3 (Winter 2015-2016), full of news, theory, poetry and antagonism (download in low-res here); a companion piece consisting of our ‘glossary’ entry for the issue, on Colonisation; an imposed and print-ready version of ‘Smarter Prison?’ as a supplement to vol.3, which we received from ‘Radical Interference’ and released for December of 2015; and lastly, we’ve uploaded one of the feature texts from vol.3, ‘The Veil Drops’, to theanarchistlibrary.org as a separate file for reading and reproduction. Also, there is both colour and black-and-white versions of the cover included, in case some comrades want to do their own printing.

Return Fire vol.3

A continuation of our project to bring incisive anarchic content from around to world to an anglophone readership. New editorial content, reprints of things we’ve found useful, artwork, action listings, foraging information, the usual.

There’s a few previously-untranslated articles in this issue. For example, one is an extract from the latest cover story of Italy’s eco-insurrectionary periodical Terra Selvaggia, on ‘The Advance of Urbanisation’ and, simultaneously, cracks opening in the concrete which we could utilise… Annie Archet meanwhile tells a life-story of evading identity, in Portrait of the Invisible Woman in Front of Her Mirror. To name some out of the texts we’ve assembled from selections of pre-existing ones, David King looks at the reductionist and patriarchal implications of modern reproductive technologies in ‘Into Her Inner Chambers’, and Nicola Gai speaks to acting within ‘The Maximum That Our Abilities Allow’ (from his contribution to the founding issue of the Croce Nera Anarchica).

The content we have harvested whole includes The Intensification of Independence in Wallmapu, John Severino’s poignant reflections on a project within an indigenous Mapuche community; The ‘Wild’ as Will and Representation, about commodified and alienated approaches in the urgent need for land reconnection, simply signed M.; and Sean Dunohoe’s harrowing (if limited) polemic against the Close Supervision Centres within the British prison system. (We note that this year the organising collective for the June 11 project of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners has called for a focus on such units wherever they are in the world; hence we’d like to dedicate this version in that direction.)

As for our usual columns… We take a retrospective look at some Global Flash-Points of insurgent activity in the months following our last volume. Rebels Behinds Bars covers the State’s aggressions against our comrades, and the latter’s thoughts on topics from surviving incarceration or repression to (anti-)organisation for the attack on authority. ‘To Create & Maintain Their Wealth’ and ‘Sensuality, Magic & Anarchist Violence’ address gendered and speciesist domination through reviews of Silvia Federici, Arthur Evans and Jason Hribal.

The Poems for Love, Loss & War are from Rydra Cosmo, Henry Zegarrundo, Natasha Alvarez and other appreciators of all things feral. For our Memory as a Weapon segment, we’ve used Unsettling America’s spellbinding telling of civilisation’s spread through Europe from the south and beyond, and subsequent trajectory, in The Witch’s Child.

And of course, much more! (All prisoner addresses and also some court-case news is now up to date in the PDF version.)

Colonisation

This time, we ended up printing the ‘glossary’ separately to the main body of the zine. This sizeable essay could be a stand-alone on the subject (one which we feel to be both key and misunderstood by anarchists in much of the world) and distributed as such, but is also relevant to several items in contents of vol.3.

‘Smarter Prison?’

Newly laid out in A5 imposed format, this exploration of the ‘Internet of Things’ and the technological ideology which it advances was first submitted to us during the Black December mobilisation. (We’re happy that since then, Silvia, Billy and Costa, who are referenced in ‘Smarter Prison?’, have been told they will not face trial again for their thwarted attack on the IBM facility.) The struggle against the nano-world continues…

‘The Veil Drops’

This is a reader on counter-insurgency through the lens of ‘crisis’, the social and de-civilising. It’s the longest editorial piece from vol.3, and up on The Anarchist Library for wider accessibility.

Until next time,
R.F.

Attacking UK’s coal transport system – Severing the lines that feed the machine

Severing the lines that feed the machine is not impossible. When people take up civil uprising in the UK, if people are able to shove their obligations to one side to open up an avenue, they mainly have the ability and possibility to be able to grasp their will for something new. The war is not over when those moments stop, it sparks up in little raptures here and there, showing that we are not crushed, things can be brought to a grinding halt again, even for a split second.

It just takes a few bright spirits and we see it clear, when the smug confidence of authorities is knocked, a few pins get hit out and things can be seen in a different light. Out of synch and off balance, everything no longer appears structurally sound, life feels more up for grabs.

The new horizon peaked through our cloudy day, Sunday 6th March, and we hope this uncomplicated act of sabotage we have undertaken exposes the vulnerability of their complex matrix.

We took a risk assessment and as night just started to close in we entered the 1st railway tunnel, we cut both lines with a portable disc cutter, we didn’t imagine de-railing a locomotive but wrecking disruption and economic damage (time is money). We entered a 2nd and did a further two cuts, marking them all with pink paint, and leaving a banner as a warning.

The line in question runs through the Avon Gorge from Royal Portbury Dock over from Avonmouth, it’s freight only (no passengers), 70% of the UK’s imported coal for power generation comes through these docks. This line is a bottle-neck to the country’s dispersal. Most of it from USA where they blow apart mountains to get it out and Russia from the Shor and Teleut ancestral lands laid waste in Siberia, also places like Indonesia which drive back the forests for sprawling mines and plantations. That’s to keep factories running and city lights on, when we’ve got a feeling for escaping the work prisons and regaining the stars. Other loads carried on the line include construction aggregate and new built vehicles on their way to the show room. More high-speed trainlines are coming to the UK, more roads, more ancient woodland and wildlife wiped out in the frenzy of progress.

After seeing the firey activities against the coal flow in the Hambach forest of Germany since New Years – don’t give up the fight!, or the cutting of the coal belt in Scotland some years back by persons unknown when the battles against coal mining raged, we realise we’re not original. It’s not even the first time for eco-sabotage ambushes on that line from Portbury or the troublesome cargo, over the years. We see attacks following attacks on trainlines in different countries, it’s within reach to hinder the circuits powering the giant, we just have to harness our courage, keep an eye peeled for soft spots, maybe starting small but always dreaming big. Right now we’re reading about economic damage this month from trainline saboteurs in the north of Spain, we affirm our solidarity and respect too for the anarchists there with showcase court cases or police attention otherwise, we laugh to hear about the rowdy spirits that keep up when repressed for the fight to reject dominion. Maybe the sparks kicked up in the train tunnels even reflected over the Alps and beyond to light the sky for those in dark cells for trying to stop high-speed capitalism and also its nano-world technologies.

Joining our strength with the near and distant tribes, refusal and attack! Block the flows, up the fighters!

Toward a life that’s wild and free from coal, quarries, cars or cops. Avon Gorge sabotage group “Sand In The Gears”, signing out…..

actions in Paris at #COP21 & around the world

For all the latests updates on climate direct actions taken around the world, including in Paris parallel to the UN climate negotiations, see our twitter feed

Sabotage at Hambach open-cast mine

On Monday night, we sabotaged some construction machinery at the open-cast mine Hambach, Germany.

29.10.15

On Monday night, we sabotaged some construction machinery at the open-cast mine Hambach, Germany. Five diggers, two bulldozers, one road roller and one other, expensive looking machine ahd their hydraulics and electronic cables cut. the fuel and oil tanks were filled with sand, some mechanic parts damaged and all the windows were smashed. Despite the massive security-measures RWE and the police put up against us, it was still really easy to do serious damage to these tools of destruction.

This action is targeted against the mine’s operator RWE and its accomplices, which are destroying the basis of life on this planet.

While the big mass of people in germany is sitting silently in front of their television screens, distracted from the daily destruction of our lives by smart entertainers and prophets of constant growth, hundrets of thousands of people are dying on the other side of the world through the effects of climate change.

While most people should be aware that we can’t go on like this, it is unfortunately only a small minority that is acting against this destruction, risking their health and freedom in the process.

Three of these eco-defenders are currently imprisoned in Aachen and Cologne, for their attempts to stop the clearcutting of the Hambach forest throughthe energy-giant RWE.

All three were heavily abused during their arrests, either by police or RWE’s private securities, with one person even getting their nose broken and several teeth smashed in. Therefore we want to dedicate our action to the imprisoned people of Hambach and send our solidarity to them.

Also we want to make it clear that we will not be scared into submission and hope that more people will be motivated by our action, to commit similar acts of resistance against the brown-coal-death-machine.

The Chaos Engineering Crew

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.

Reclaim the Fields International Gathering 2015

Reclaim the Fields

About the camp

Reclaim the Fields (or RTF) UK was born in 2011, as a star in a wider constellation of food and land struggles that reaches around the globe. Since 2011, camps and other RTF gatherings have helped support local communities in struggle, share skills, developed networks, and strengthened the resistance to exploitation, in Bristol, west London, Gloucestershire, Nottingham and Fife among other locations.

Every two years there is also an international camp, where people from around Europe and beyond meet together to support a local struggle (from gold mining in Romania to open cast coal mining in Germany, for example). People share share stories and ideas about resistance and reclaiming our food system beyond national borders. This year, an international gathering will be held in the UK, in Dudleston, Shropshire, on the Welsh/English border.

The aims of the camp are:

To support local communities in the west and north west of England, and the north of Wales with their struggles against fracking
To increase participation in Reclaim the Fields
To demonstrate visible, active opposition to prison construction
To support Dudleston Community Protection Camp build a garden and infrastructure to become more self-reliant
To demonstrate the interconnection between these struggles
To inspire and radicalise everyone involved

What’s taking place?

Two days of Action – Tuesday 1st & Wednesday 2nd September – demonstrations & actions against companies involved in the construction of the North Wales prison, as well as local fracking-related targets.

Workshops & Skillshares – Over the bank holiday weekend there will be abundant opportunities to learn, share, discuss and connect with other people.

Building & Growing on the site – Be part of installing gardens & low impact infrastructure at the community protection camp. Learn about permaculture, agroecology, forest gardening, mushroom growing, pallet construction, compost toilet making, off-grid electrics and more.

Why this camp? Why now?

This camp has been organised to support the local community in Dudleston to resist fracking in their area (as well as working with other local anti-fracking groups & protection camps in the North West who have been resisting extreme energy developments for a number of years). To find out more about their struggle visit: http://frack-off.org.uk/blockade/dudleston-community-protection-camp/

It has also been organised to give attention to the North Wales Prison Project that is being constructed. This will be Europe’s second largest prison holding 2100 prisoners and the first of a number of ‘mega prisons’ that the UK Government wish to build. Click here for more information about the prison, why we are against it & links to articles about the prison industrial complex in the UK

Practical Information about the Camp

Click on the links below to find more practical information about the camp and how to get involved:

Getting involved

This is a DIY camp and everyone is needed to get stuck in to make it happen. People are needed to:

Support with publicity before the event – sharing the gathering online, putting posters up, encouraging your local group to get involved. People are also needed to help design the programme, respond to emails & plan facilitation.

Helping with site set up & building infrastructure (planning this in advance & being on site a few days before the gathering)

Signing up to a shift over the weekend to help with cooking, site set up & safety, being on the welcome tent & so forth

Supporting local groups to organise actions

If you can help with any of these tasks please email info@reclaimthefields.noflag.org.uk

Who are Reclaim the Fields?

We are a group of peasants, landless and prospective peasants, as well as people who are taking back control over food production.

We understand “peasants” as people who produce food on a small scale, for themselves or for the community, possibly selling a part of it. This also includes agricultural workers.

We support and encourage people to stay on the land and go back to the countryside. We promote food sovereignty (as defined in the Nyéléni declaration) and peasant agriculture, particularly among young people and urban dwellers, as well as alternative ways of life. In Europe, the concept ‘food sovereignty’ is not very common and could be clarified with ideas such as ‘food autonomy’ and control over food systems by inclusive communities, not only nations or states. We are determined to create alternatives to capitalism through cooperative, collective, autonomous, real-needs-oriented, small-scale production and initiatives. We are putting theory into practice and linking local practical action with global political struggles.

In order to achieve this, we participate in local actions through activist groups and cooperate with existing initiatives. This is why we choose not to be a homogeneous group, but to open up to the diversity of actors fighting the capitalist food production model. We address the issues of access to land, collective farming, seed rights and seed exchange. We strengthen the impact of our work through cooperation with activists who focus on different tasks but who share the same vision.

Nevertheless, our openness has some limits. We are determined to take back control over our lives and refuse any form of authoritarianism and hierarchy. We respect nature and living beings, but will neither accept nor tolerate any form of discrimination, be it based on race, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation or social status. We refuse and will actively oppose every form of exploitation of other people. With the same force and energy, we act with kindness and conviviality, making solidarity a concrete practice of our daily life.

We support the struggles and visions of la Via Campesina, and work to strengthen them. We wish to share the knowledge and the experience from years of struggle and peasant life and enrich it with the perspectives and strength of those of us who are not peasants, or not yet peasants. We all suffer the consequences of the same policies, and are all part of the same fight.

Read this in: French, German, Spanish

Activists Disrupt Hearing over Fast Track for Trans-Pacific Partnership

January 27th, 2015

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman was greeted with protest at Tuesday’s Senate and House Hearings on Capitol Hill, as people raised concerns about the President’s trade agenda and “Fast Track” Trade Promotion Authority. Activists with signs and banners chanting “No TPP!” and “No Fast Track!” were escorted from the Senate Finance Committee hearing room shortly after the U.S. Trade Representative took the microphone.

The legislation, which Obama requested from both parties during last week’s State of the Union address, would limit congressional oversight of the Administration’s free trade agreements and is widely opposed by hundreds of environmental, labor, public health, food safety, and faith groups nationwide.

Protesters wore shirts reading “No Fast Track” and held signs stating “Froman lies,” a response to the Ambassador’s recent claims that Fast Track is the “best tool to ensure that Congress and the public have ample time to give our trade agreements the public scrutiny and debate they deserve.” Past versions of Fast Track legislation, including one introduced with little support last January, limits the amount of time Congress has to consider agreements and suspends their ability to make amendments to the texts.

Dr. Margaret Flowers, co-director of PopularResistance.org, held a sign that said “Trading away our future” to highlight the devastating impact that the Trans-Pacific Partnership will have on many issues that people care about such as food safety, the cost of medicines, Internet freedom, environmental protection, financial regulation and democracy.

Richard Ochs, a retired steelworker from Baltimore, and Kevin Zeese, Esq also from PopularResistance.org, held a banner that read “TPP Fast Track: Job Killing Act,” which sought to draw attention to the devastating impact past free trade agreements have had on U.S. jobs. While Obama’s State of the Union claimed that the authority would “protect American workers,” unions including the AFL-CIO, Teamsters, CWA, and more have instead spoken out against it.

In fact, there is broad opposition to fast tracking the TPP across the political spectrum and across issues. “Fast Track is far from a ‘done deal’ in the United States and foreign negotiators ought to be cautious before accepting provisions that will harm their population.” said Kevin Zeese.

from Popular Resistance

Earth First! Winter Moot (Bristol): 20th-22nd February 2015 /full programme

A weekend gathering for people involved or wanting to know more about ecological direct action around the UK including fighting opencast coal, fracking, GM, nuclear power, new road building and quarries with discussions and campaign planning – emphasis on the tactics and strategies, community solidarity and sustainable activism.

Sharing stories, skills, tactics, updates & analyses of the radical ecological movement

Cost scale £20 to £30 . This includes full vegan meals and accommodation. Arrive Friday evening (programme starts at 7pm), leave Sunday (ends by 4pm). It will be an indoor floor sleeping space so bring a warm sleeping bag and mat to…

Kebele Community Centre 14 Robertson Road Easton Bristol BS5 6JY
Train—To Stapleton rd , two stops from Bristol TM then 7min walk —

Earth First! is a network of people and campaigns who fight ecological destruction and the forces driving it. We believe in non-hierarchical organising of Direct Action, to confront, stop and eventually reverse the forces that are responsible for the destruction of the Earth and its inhabitants. EF! is not a cohesive group or campaign, but a convenient banner for people who share similar philosophies to work under and doing it ourselves rather than relying on governments or industry.

For info or offers southwest.earthfirst@riseup.net www.earthfirst.org.uk

Download the (ready-to-print) flyer

Programme subject to change:

Starts 7pm Friday with dinner, followed by films & an intro to EF!

On Saturday, breakfast is before the 9:30am start with campaigns round-ups and legal & security workshops. After lunch we'll be looking at strategic thinking (see below) and at 5 exploring the relationship between Reclaim the Power and EF!

On Sunday we'll continue those explorations from 10am. After lunch, there'll be a workshop on sustainable activism, and a chance to get involved in organising the EF! Summer Gathering. Please stay for that if you can and get involved.

Workshops include:

“Intelligent Resistance: strategy and its implementation in the modern world”

Summary: Strong strategy has always been a key element of successful resistance movements. Whether it be the anarchist movements of revolutionary Spain, or the contemporary fight against fracking, a solid strategy is proven to be indispensable.‘Intelligent Resistance’ is a basic introduction to strategic thought and action and looks to provide those in attendance with a practical set of theoretical tools to take away and apply to their own movements and practice.

“Sustaining Resistance: avoiding ‘Burn out”

This is a taster workshop from a much longer ten day workshop and offers a range of tools, collective and personal, which can make our activism more effective and help us avoid burn out staying in for the long haul.

Reclaim the Power meets Earth First!”

How can Earth First! and Reclaim the power coexist in the future struggles and is there a need for collaboration between other camps or a consolidation of resources?

Legal Defence Monitoring:

A taster session in how to be an effective LDM on actions and demos.

Campaigns go-round:

Dates for your diary and what resistance is going on around the world and your back yard..

Direct actions against open cast mines in germany 2014 – mobilisation for a big blockade/action simultaneous to the COPs in Paris in 2015

On the 1st of August this year several actions took place against brown coal mining in the rhineland in germany.

One of the biggest open cast mines of europe are located in the midwest of germany. Near to Cologne RWE, the biggest energy provider of germany runs three open cast mines with an area of 160 km². With an emission of ca. 100 million CO2 per year RWE is the biggest emittent of CO2 in whole Europe. Enough Profit for the highly indepted enterprise, the loss of natural resources for millions of people of the global south

The local consequences of the brown-coal-minig are desastrous. Highly fertile soil gets digged away. Tens of thousands of people get resettled. Important ecosystems like the hambach forest get cut down. To prevent the mines from flooding the groundwater gets pumped down. The negative effects for the agriculture and wetlands can be located even in the netherlands which are ca. 60 km away. The grit and fine dust which are produced by the biggest diggers of the world, which work 24/7 includes even radioactive particles.

There was Resistance against the gigantic project for the whole time of RWEs economic activity since the beginning of 1900. Sometimes bigger sometimes smaller the resistance moreover collapses because of the power RWE develops with lobbyism, corruption and the undercutting of administrations, courts and local social communities.

For about 4 years a constantly growing grassrootsmovement tries to power up the resistance against the power generation of coal on a local and nationwide scale. With constant crystallisation points like the hambach forest occupation and a house project in the area, with climate camps and helping to empower the local resistance movement with supporting citizen initiatives.

Embedded in the climate camp this year a powerful action day took place.

The coal train which transports the coal from the hambach open cast mine to the power plant was blocked two times. On the the first blockade chained themselves to the rails of the coal train which transports the coal of the mine called hambach to the power plant and the second time two people roped down from a bridge above the rails.

Nearly at the same time about 80 people moved the other big mine Garzweiler to block the infrastructure. 2 Diggers were blocked 3 times with lock-on-actions and squattings.From 8 o'clock in the morning to 10 in the evening the drivers of the diggers and the other personal in the mine had no calm minute.

It seems that more and more people want to take responsibility for themselves to protect ecosystems and natural resources and begin to stop the worst effects of climate change with direct actions against fossil infrastructure.

Photos of the action day:

Lock-on-action and climbing action (with other photos of the hambach forest occupation)

https://secure.flickr.com/photos/hambacherforst/with/14797606761/

Blockade of diggers:

https://secure.flickr.com/photos/100963658@N02/sets/72157645681194248/

Mobilisation for a big infrastructure blockade simultaneously to the COP21

According to the next COP-meeting in Paris 2015 we want to invite people from all over europe to think about what to do. As we don't want to have such a big depression after the COPs 2009 in Copenhagen again there is a tendency to organise a big blockade of infrastructure of fossil fuel energy production simultaneously somewhere centrally located in Europe. If you have ideas and want to distribute them you can come to Cologne/Germany from the 3rd to the 5th of octobre. There will be accomodation and board.

English callout for the action plenary:

http://ekib.blogsport.eu/2014/08/23/invitation-action-plenary-meeting-3-5-oct-2014-in-cologne/

Earth First!

An activist from ausgeco2hlt

Unfortunately the websites are not in english or the english blogs are not well operated

www.ausgeco2hlt.de

www.hambacherforst.blogsport.de / http://hambachforest.blogsport.de/

http://ekib.blogsport.eu/

www.klimacamp-im-rheinland.de

Week of Action against the NATO Summit in Newport

The world's leading warmongers will meet this summer in Wales. A week of action is planned to oppose and stop them, from August 30th to September the 5th.

Two organisations are planning actions against the summit, inclusing mass demonstrations and days of action on different aspects of militarism. This promises to be a massive focal point for the movement against miliarism this summer. Details of can be found here:

https://network23.org/stopnatocymru/

http://www.nonatonewport.org/

Please get involved and spread the word! Help raise our profile by linking to stopNATOCymru on blogs etc., and more importantly, come along to the events and show your support.