Capitalism / Globalisation – Page 26

Thousands Protest in Greece against Canadian goldmine project 15th April

Thousands of Greek protesters on Saturday rallied against a Canadian gold mining project under way in the northeastern region of Halkidiki, which locals say will cause irreversible damage to the environment.

About 2,000 people took part in the march in Athens and another 1,500 in Greece’s second-largest city Thessaloniki, according to AFP journalists.

Carrying banners against the project run by Hellenic Gold, a subsidiary of Canadian firm Eldorado Gold, the demonstrators chanted: “We want forests, land and water, not a grave made out of gold.”

“Fields full of cyanide and arsenic, that is what remains from gold” was another slogan.

They also called for the release of two people who were arrested earlier this week in connection with a sabotage attack carried out on the mining worksite two months ago.

Citizens’ groups have been trying to halt the project since 2011, when the Greek government gave Hellenic Gold permission to dig in the region.

While the investment is expected to create hundreds of jobs in the recession-hit country — where the unemployment rate has topped 27 percent — opponents say it will drain and contaminate local water reserves and fill the air with hazardous chemicals including lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury.

Frequent marches have taken place in recent months, with protesters enjoying the backing of main opposition radical leftist party Syriza, the second-largest in parliament.

In the February attack, dozens of hooded activists firebombed Hellenic Gold’s worksite, injuring a guard and damaging equipment.

Earlier this week, angry locals trashed the police station of the nearby Ierissos village over claims that officers had used excessive force in the pre-dawn arrest of the pair suspected to be linked to the sabotage attack.

Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias accused the local community of Ierissos of wanting “to impose its own law and operate like a Gaulish village,” in a reference to the Asterix comic books.

Despite the opposition, the Canadian firm announced earlier this month that it intends to remain in Greece and create thousands of jobs over the next two years.

Halkidiki, a picturesque and forested peninsula, is a popular destination for tourists, especially from Russia and the neighbouring Balkan states.

Newmont May Abandon Minas Conga Plans, Forbes Predicts 14th April

Forbes has published an analysis speculating that Newmont Mining Corporation may be preparing to cut its losses and abandon its much-embattled plans for the Minas Conga gold mine in Yanacocha, Peru:

According to the company’s 2012 annual report, while it remains committed to the $4.8 billion project for the time being, continued opposition may force it to divert investments elsewhere. This may be a sign that Newmont is looking for an exit strategy from the project.

The mine, which would be the largest gold mine in Peru, has suffered fierce opposition from local indigenous communities and from the regional government, in spite of its promotion by the federal government. Clashes over the mine in 2011 led to the deaths of five protesters. And just a few days ago, 400 protesters stormed the mine site and set fire to construction equipment.

That means anything to make Newmont’s investors more skittish about the Minas Conga project — such as protests or more bad publicity — could help tip the scales. So contact Newmont and tell them to abandon Minas Conga. Say no to destruction of indigenous communities and the murder of protesters!

Forbes also predicts that the company could suffer severe financial losses if forced to abandon the project:

We believe that if the Conga project gets cancelled, it will have serious ramifications for Newmont. The company will find it extremely difficult to meet its annual production target of 7 million ounces by 2017, up from the present production levels of 5 million ounces. The production shortfall has obvious implications for revenue as well.

In order to salvage its revenue growth and gold operating margins of $985 an ounce, the company would have to find another source of production quickly. The company has acknowledged in its 2012 annual report that any inability to continue to develop the Conga project could have an adverse impact on its growth if it is not able to replace the expected production.

Newmont pointed out in the annual report that the regional government remains stridently opposed to the viability of the project in contrast to the stand adopted by the central government. This it fears could make operating difficult. It could face more protests as well as new and tougher regulations and taxes. If unable to continue, the company will change priorities and reallocate capital to development alternatives in Nevada, Australia, Ghana and Indonesia.

This may mean that Newmont will fight as hard as possible to hold onto Minas Conga, although its skittishness suggests it may already be reaching its limit. In any case, if you live in one of the “alternative” areas listed above, get ready to fight Newmont on the ground at home.

Muskrat Falls Inuit Arrested Battling Churchill River Hydroelectric Project in Labrador 13th April

A 74-year old Inuit elder has ended a hunger strike and been released from jail after being arrested along with seven others protesting the controversial Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam on the Churchill River in Labrador.

But another of the arrestees says the protesters, who have been fighting for decades to gain full national recognition as Inuit descendants in Canada’s easternmost province, are undaunted.

“We’ve been pushed around for generations,” said Todd Russell, president of the NunatuKavut Community Council (formerly the Labrador Métis Association), who was taken into custody along with Elder James Learning for blocking roads to protest the controversial Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project. “We will defend ourselves in the court system, but we will continue to assert our aboriginal rights to our traditional territory, and we will continue to mount protest after protest if that’s what it takes to have our views known and our rights respected.”

At issue is the Muskrat Falls power project, a $7.7-billion plan to build a hydroelectric power station and a new dam on the Churchill River. The project would also see massive transmission lines installed to supply power to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

Several months after a judge issued an unusual permanent injunction against disruption of dam construction, members of the community blocked the Trans-Labrador Highway on April 5 in protest over what they see as being shut out of any negotiating processes, the community council said.

“It’s the area where we hunt, where we fish, where we have built homes, where our people have trapped,” said Russell, a former Liberal Member of Parliament. “There are areas of a sacred, and very special, nature there. The government will not recognize that there are overlapping and conflicting interests with this hydroelectric development.”

During his arrest Russell was dragged by members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) after he lay down alongside the other protesters, all arrested on obstruction charges. Though seven were released on bail the same day, Learning refused to sign a written promise to stay off the land on the grounds that doing so would extinguish his aboriginal title and rights to his people’s traditional territories.

Learning’s family released a statement expressing concerns over his incarceration, not only because he has been on a hunger strike since his arrest on April 5 but also because the Inuit elder has prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. Learning was imprisoned at Labrador Correctional Centre, in Goose Bay. He was released on April 9.

“It is tragic that our father has had to risk death through hunger to protest the destruction of his homeland and culture, of NCC territory and culture,” said Learning’s daughter, Carren Dujela, in a statement before his release. “How do you tell your children their grandfather is in jail and on a hunger strike? With tears in your eyes and pride in your heart!”

The community council has been locked in a battle for government recognition for years. Also known as Inuit-Métis or Labrador Métis, the community traces its lineage to Inuit people living along the Atlantic coast in Labrador who signed a treaty with Europeans in 1765. When research revealed in 2006 that the Labrador Métis, though mixed blood, are direct descendants of the Inuit, the Labrador Métis Association renamed itself the NunatuKavut Community Council, meaning “our ancient land.”

Now, the community council wants the government to enter talks over development on lands claimed as traditional territories. In Canada, though the courts have not granted Indigenous Peoples a veto over industrial projects, they have generally upheld the right to be consulted and accommodated. But the country is a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which guarantees aboriginal communities the right to “free, prior and informed consent” over development on their land.

“You can’t keep putting our people in jail, or keep arresting our people, or forcing our people to go on hunger strikes to have our rights recognized,” Russell added. “We know, and the government knows, that all of these things end in negotiations. It’s about time the government realized it’s better to do that now than put our people through these terrible experiences of being incarcerated.”

Protests, Lawsuits and Arson: South American Mine Resistance 12th April

• Four hundred protesters stormed the planned site of the Minas Conga mine in Yanacocha, Peru, and set fire to construction equipment yesterday. Minas Conga would be the biggest gold mine in Peru, and has been the target of sustained protests from local indigenous residents who say the mine would destroy their water supply. In July, police killed five protesters in anti-mine clashes; the deaths led to a pending complaint to the Inter-American Human Rights Court.

• On April 3, 30 protesters crashed the opening of the Expominas trade fair in Quito, Ecuador, where the government was seeking to coax new investments in mineral and oil mining. Protesters crashed the inaugural speech by singing a rewritten version of the popular hip-hop song “Latinoamérica” by Calle 13: “You cannot buy Intag, you cannot buy Mirador, you can’t buy Kimsacocha, you can’t buy my Ecuador.”

Ecuador is home to a powerful (largely indigenous) anti-mines movement. Leftist President Rafael Correa’s support for big mining has been a major factor costing him support from much of his former base.

• A Chilean court has suspended construction of Barrick Gold’s long- embattled Pascua Lama mine, based on complaints from local indigenous communities that the mine will destroy their water supply. Unfortunately, the injunction does not affect construction in the Argentinean portion of the project, including the process plant and tailings storage facility.

Chile suspends Barrick Gold mine on indigenous fears of pollution 11th April

A Chilean court on Wednesday suspended Barrick Gold Corp.’s Pascua-Lama mine after indigenous communities complained that the project is threatening their water supply and polluting glaciers.

The appeals court in the northern city of Copiapo charged the Toronto-based gold miner with “environmental irregularities” during construction of the world’s highest-altitude gold and silver mine.

Interior Minister Andres Chadwick welcomed the mine’s suspension and said he hopes the world’s top gold mining company can now fix problems at Pascua-Lama.

“We’re not surprised at all and we think it is good that through a legal organism, construction work is suspended while Pascua effectively attends to the charges already made by the environmental regulator,” Chadwick told local Radio Cooperativa.

Barrick (TSX:ABX) said Wednesday it was still awaiting formal notification of the injunction halting construction on the Chilean side of the Pascua-Lama mining project and would assess the potential implications when it came.

However, it said construction activities in Argentina, where the majority of the project’s critical infrastructure is located, including the process plant and tailings storage facility, are not affected.

Meanwhile, the start date for the mine straddling the Andean border with Argentina has already been delayed by more than six months to the second half of 2014. Cost overruns have seen the price tag rise from $3 billion to more than $8 billion.

The injunction stems from a constitutional rights protection petition filed with the court on Oct. 22 by a representative of a Diaguita indigenous community and other individuals against Barrick’s Chilean subsidiary and the regional Environmental Evaluation Commission.

That move followed a similar petition filed in late September by representatives of four Diaguita indigenous communities against the Barrick subsidiary, Compania Minera Nevada, with the EEC.

The plaintiffs allege non-compliance with aspects of the project’s environmental approval in Chile that have resulted in negative impacts on water sources and contamination, or at least the risk of contamination, of the Estrecho and Huasco rivers, according to information supplied by Barrick.

Daniel McGowan Forbidden From Publishing Articles Without Permission April 10th

After more than seven years, the stack of dehumanizing and seemingly unconstitutional interactions between Daniel McGowan and the American prison system is now piled so high it is teetering over into a recursive mess of bleak and Kafkaesque absurdity.

Last Monday, McGowan published a piece on the Huffington Post that laid out much of his situation to date. After years in prison for his role in environmentally motivated property destruction that was prosecuted as acts of terrorism, he wrote, he was finishing up the remaining months of his sentence in a halfway house in Brooklyn.

The various perversions of the case that sent McGowan away are well documented in the documentary If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front. But, as McGowan wrote, less publicized is what happened to him a year into his prison term: Despite a flawless disciplinary record, McGowan was transferred to an experimental new Communications Management Unit, a supermax-like extreme-isolation facility some have dubbed a “Little Guantanamo.”

Why was McGowan transferred to a CMU? He never got a good answer to that question, even after a Freedom of Information Act request, so, along with other CMU inmates, he filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the CMUs and alleging that they are effectively political prisons designed to silence the voices of people whose message the government doesn’t like. As it turned out, McGowan was right: Bureau of Prisons memos discovered through the lawsuit appear to link his transfer to the CMU to the fact that he continued to write things the government found politically objectionable.

“While incarcerated and through social correspondence and articles written for radical publications, inmate McGowan has attempted to unite the radical environmental and animal liberation movements,” one memo states, before dilating on other political statements McGowan made in interviews and his own writing.

McGowan wrote about all of this in his Huffington Post piece last Monday. Two days later, the staff at the halfway house to which he had been assigned told him that his work permit had been revoked on order of the Bureau of Prisons. The next morning, federal marshals arrived and brought him to the Metropolitan Detention Center. Once there, he was presented with a document explaining that he had violated the terms of his release to the halfway house. Specifically, the incident report stated that McGowan had violated a prison regulation that stated “an inmate currently confined in an institution may not … act as a reporter or publish under a byline.”

That’s right: McGowan was sent back to jail for writing about how he’d been imprisoned in a CMU for writing things.

There’s more: The regulation that the Bureau of Prisons cited to justify returning him to jail had actually been declared unconstitutional by a federal court in 2007, and the Bureau of Prisons had finally taken it off the books in 2010. McGowan’s lawyers mentioned this to the bureau and to the lawyers representing the government in his lawsuit, and he was re-released to the halfway house on Friday.

But that’s not the end of it. Back at the halfway house, staff presented McGowan with a document and directed him to sign it. The document stated that “he is not permitted to have any contact with the media without approval from the BOP’s Residential Reentry Manager. Accordingly, Resident McGowan was advised that writing articles, appearing in any type of television or media outlets, news reports and or documentaries without prior BOP approval is strictly prohibited.”

It’s worth noting that McGowan hadn’t been asked to sign this document when he first arrived at the halfway house, nor, as far as his lawyers can tell, has anyone there been asked to sign it. In fact, there’s nothing in the Bureau of Prison’s published media policy that requires pre-approval before publishing anything.

“There is no national prohibition on publishing,” Chris Burke, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons, confirmed this afternoon.

“I thought I had lost my ability to be surprised by what the Bureau of Prisons does years ago,” said Rachel Meeropol, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights who’s representing McGowan. “But restricting an individual’s freedom of speech in this manner is truly surprising. It’s beyond ironic that Daniel was retaliated against and returned to prison for publishing a blog about being retaliated against for speaking out in prison.”

Here’s the incident report explaining McGowan’s return to prison:

Daniel McGowan Incident Report

Oklahoma Grandmother Locks Herself to KXL Heavy Machinery 9th April

ALLEN, OK – Tuesday, April 9, 2013, 9:00 AM – Oklahoma grandmother Nancy Zorn, 79, from Warr Acres, has locked herself to a piece of heavy machinery effectively halting construction on TransCanada’s Keystone XL toxic tar sands pipeline. This action comes in the wake of the disastrous tar sands pipeline spill in Mayflower Arkansas, where an estimated 80,000 gallons of tar sands spilled into a residential neighborhood and local waterways.

Using a bike-lock Zorn has attached her neck directly to a massive earth-mover, known as an excavator, which has brought construction of Keystone XL to a stop. Zorn is the second Oklahoma grandmother this year risking arrest to stop construction of the pipeline, and her protest is the third in a series of ongoing civil disobedience actions led by the Oklahoma-based coalition of organizations, Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance.

“Right now our neighbors in Arkansas are feeling the toxic affect of tar sands on their community. Will Oklahoma neighborhoods be next?” asked Zorn before taking action today. “I can no longer sit by idly while toxic tar sands are pumped down from Canada and into our communities. It is time to rise up and defend our home. It is my hope that this one small action today will inspire many to protect this land and our water.”

Exxon Mobil’s recent Pegasus pipeline spill has forced local residents to evacuate their homes due to life-threatening toxins released into their neighborhood. Local families have experienced episodes of nausea, headaches, and respiratory problems due to acute exposure to deadly chemicals, like benzene, that are mixed in with the raw tar sands. Pegasus was carrying up to 90,000 barrels of tar sands a day before it ruptured and spilled. The Keystone XL pipeline is slated to carry over 800,000 barrels a day; an alarming 10 times the amount of tar sands.

“In the last two weeks alone there have been at least six different inland oil spills across the country,” said Eric Wheeler, an Oklahoma native and spokesperson for Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance. “It’s time to stop referring to pipeline spills as accidents, it’s now abundantly clear that leaks are just part of business as usual. Tar sands hurt everyone they touch, from the indigenous communities in Alberta whose water is being poisoned, to the Gulf Coast communities that are forced to breathe toxic refinery emissions. We’re not going to allow this toxic stuff in our beautiful state.”

UPDATE 10:30AM: Nancy Zorn has been extracted by local law enforcement and taken into custody. Please consider contributing to Nancy’s bail fund

Earth First! Summer Gathering: 7th-11th August 2013

This year's the Summer Gathering will be in the Hastings area near the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road campaign. It will run from the evening of Wednesday 7th August and finish on Sunday 11th 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. Anyone who is interested in ecological direct action will have a valuable part to play and is welcome to come to this family friendly gathering. If you've not been to an Earth First! Gathering before and are thinking about it, please do come, we are a very friendly, welcoming bunch and would love to have you get involved

Programme: Workshops, skill sharing and planning action, plus low-impact living without leaders. Meet people, learn skills.

Transport/location: exact location will be announced 2 weeks before gathering on website.

Cost: £20-£30 from each person to cover all costs except food. (If you really can't afford this, please come anyway and give what you can).

Food: Delicious vegan food will be available, and meal tickets will be on sale at the gathering.

What to bring: Everyone will be camping so bring a tent, sleeping bag etc.

If you have any particular accommodation, access or dietary needs please tell us asap but at least two weeks in advance so we can plan suitable facilities. There will be a small amount of living vehicular space if booked in advance, on a first come first served basis.

Contact: summergathering-at-earthfirst.org.uk

http://efgathering.weebly.com

Daniel McGowan Released After Lawyers Confirm He Was Jailed For HuffPost Blog 5th April

Lawyers for environmental activist Daniel McGowan said in a statement Friday afternoon that he had been returned to his halfway house in Brooklyn.

Lawyers for environmental activist Daniel McGowan said in a statement Friday afternoon that he had been returned to his halfway house in Brooklyn. They added that they had confirmed McGowan was jailed by federal marshals on Thursday for his Huffington Post blog post — on the basis of a prison regulation that was declared unconstitutional by a judge in 2007.

Their statement read:

Daniel McGowan has been released from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where he was taken into custody yesterday and is back at the halfway house where he has been residing since his release from prison in December. Yesterday, Daniel was given an “incident report” indicating that his Huffington Post blog post, “Court Documents Prove I Was Sent to Communication Management Units (CMU) for My Political Speech,” violated a BOP regulation prohibiting inmates from “publishing under a byline.” The BOP regulation in question was declared unconstitutional by a federal court in 2007, and eliminated by the BOP in 2010. After we brought this to the BOP’s attention, the incident report was expunged.

The Bureau of Prisons did not immediately return a request for comment.

The earlier story …

NEW YORK — The jailing of environmental activist Daniel McGowan is under review, a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) official said Friday morning.

McGowan, who pleaded guilty to arson linked to the Earth Liberation Front in 2006, was serving out the final months of his seven-year sentence in a Brooklyn halfway house when he was jailed by federal marshals Thursday morning, allegedly for writing a commentary on The Huffington Post critical of a harshly restricted federal prison unit in which he had spent time.

Tracy Rivers, a residential reentry manager for the BOP in New York, told HuffPost Friday morning, “We are reviewing this case to determine if the actions that were taken were appropriate.”

Rivers declined to say more about why McGowan was moved to the Metropolitan Detention Center, citing privacy issues. But she noted that a determination would be made in McGowan’s case by the end of Friday.

In general, Rivers said, prisoners can be punished for violating a BOP rule thatprohibits giving interviews to the news media without official approval. But that rule says nothing about prisoners writing blog posts.

McGowan’s wife, Jenny Synan, told HuffPost that neither he, his lawyers nor a BOP official she talked to about the case had heard of a regulation prohibiting prisoners from writing blog posts.

In a statement Thursday, McGowan’s lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights said, “If this is indeed a case of retaliation for writing an article about the BOP retaliating against his free speech while he was in prison, it is more than ironic, it is an outrage.”

UPDATE: 1:25 p.m. — Daniel McGowan may soon leave jail. His attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Rachel Meeropol, told HuffPost Friday afternoon, “We have been told by the BOP that he will be sent back to the halfway house today.”

Daniel McGowan Sent Back to Prison April 4th

Less than a week after Daniel’s article regarding being held in a CMU for his political speech was published by the Huffington Post, he has been sent back into custody. The following message is from a support site for Daniel McGowan:

“Just when we thought it was over…. We have some bad news to report. This morning Daniel was taken into custody by federal marshals and is now at the federal detention center in Brooklyn getting processed.

We are still waiting to hear why this has occurred. Considering his exemplary behavior at the halfway house, approved weekend passes and the full-time job he started as soon as he was released back to the city this is all pretty insane. The Bureau of Prisons has proven to be cruel and vindictive time and time again.

Anyway, what YOU can do right now is write to Daniel and send your love! We don’t know how long he will be here, but there is a good chance it will be until his sentence officially ends on June 5.

Please write to:
DANIEL McGOWAN
#63794-053
MDC BROOKLYN
METROPOLITAN DETENTION CENTER
P.O. BOX 329002
BROOKLYN, NY 11232

Thanks for your continued support!”

There is also an article posted by NYC ABC, which you can read here.