Billionaire’s for Coal strike in Bank of America’s home state, 4 protests in 3 days

July 11th 2008

Bank of America, Asheville protestJuly 11th 2008
Today Asheville Ris­ing Tide’s bil­lion­aire bloc descend­ed on Bank of America’s region­al head­quar­ters to demand that BoA con­tin­ue to invest their mon­ey in coal. The Bil­lion­aires for Coal car­ried signs read­ing “More Prof­it, Less Moun­tains” and sipped on dirty (coal) mar­ti­nis to applaud BoA for its fund­ing of moun­tain­top removal coal min­ing as well as the new gen­er­a­tion of dirty coal plants. The Asheville Police Depart­ment did an excel­lent job of block­ing access to the bank entrance and the ATM sure­ly scar­ing off a num­ber of bank cus­tomers.

Two days before, activists with Croatan Earth First! vis­it­ed three Bank of Amer­i­ca branch­es in Raleigh and Chapel Hill. The activist entered the banks rais­ing a ruckus and hand­ing out fliers to cus­tomers until being forced to leave. The mot­ley crew of bil­lion­aires then pro­ceed­ed to demon­strate out­side and inform­ing the pub­lic of BoA’s dirty deeds. A few weeks before sev­er­al activists were detained by police in Char­lotte, NC (BoA’s home­town) for hang­ing anti-coal poster’s in the neigh­bor­hoods of sev­er­al BoA exec­u­tives homes. After inten­sive inter­ro­ga­tion, they were let go with­out charge (remem­ber kids, nev­er talk to cops).

Bank of Amer­i­ca is guilty of fund­ing such noto­ri­ous human rights abusers and eco­log­i­cal destroy­ers as Massey Ener­gy, Arch Coal, and Peabody Ener­gy. They have recent­ly hand­ed over heaps of cash to com­pa­nies such as Duke Ener­gy that is cur­rent­ly build­ing the 800 MW Cliff­side coal plant in Cliff­side, NC.

Spirit of Freedom (July 2008)

Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“The whole expe­ri­ence has been tough, but all the kind and strength­en­ing words and wise thoughts from strangers made it much eas­i­er!” (For­mer Swedish Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Prisoner Solidarity 8Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“The whole expe­ri­ence has been tough, but all the kind and strength­en­ing words and wise thoughts from strangers made it much eas­i­er!” (For­mer Swedish Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Wel­come to the July 2008 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. As a num­ber of ELP sup­port­ers will be aware, ELP has tra­di­tion­al­ly ded­i­cat­ed our newslet­ters to fall­en friends, who have either been killed or seri­ous­ly injured as a result of their protest activ­i­ties. For the past few months ELP has­n’t car­ried any ded­i­ca­tion and we hoped that we would not have to ded­i­cate anoth­er newslet­ter to a fall­en friend again. How­ev­er last month, ELP received the heart­break­ing news about the death of Marie Vesco. Marie was a French activist liv­ing in Eng­land. She was involved with a num­ber of groups includ­ing ‘Food Not Bombs’. On Wednes­day the 4th of June 2008 Marie was cycling to the Car­ni­val Against the Arms Trade when a Four Wheel Dri­ve
vehi­cle (an SUV if your Amer­i­can) swerved across two lanes hit­ting Marie. A sec­ond vehi­cle then also hit Marie. Marie died instant­ly: she was just a few days away from her 20th birth­day. Marie is remem­bered as a warm, loud, fun, viva­cious fig­ure with an infec­tious laugh that was always ready to help oth­ers. ELP under­stands that at least two Crit­i­cal Mass cycle rides have already been ded­i­cat­ed to Marie. Like­wise in mem­o­ry of Marie ELP is ded­i­cat­ing this newslet­ter to her mem­o­ry. The loss of Marie is a blow for the move­ment and our thoughts are with her fam­i­ly and friends.

ECO-DEFENCE PRISONERS

Tre Arrow, SWIS #640393, Mult­nom­ah Coun­ty Deten­tion Cen­ter, 1120 S.W. 3rd Avenue, Port­land, Ore­gon 97206, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing of six and a half years impris­on­ment hav­ing reached a non-coop­er­a­tion plea-bar­gain with the author­i­ties who accuse him of involve­ment in two arsons. 1) an arson on log­ging trucks 2) an arson on vehi­cles owned by a sand & grav­el com­pa­ny. (Tre is a raw ener­gy veg­an — He has asked that his let­ters of sup­port are writ­ten on scrap paper or tree-free paper).

Grant Barnes #137563, San Car­los Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty, PO Box 3, Pueblo, CO 81002, USA. Serv­ing 12 years for set­ting fire to a num­ber of SUV vehi­cles. The let­ters ELF were spray paint­ed onto all of the vehi­cles. (Grant is a veg­an).

Nathan Block, #36359–086, FCI Lom­poc, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, 3600 Guard Road, Lom­poc, CA 93436, USA. Serv­ing 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Diet unknown).

Mar­co Camenisch, Post­fach 3143, CH-8105 Regens­dorf, Switzer­land. Serv­ing 18 years. 1) Ten years for using explo­sives to destroy elec­tric­i­ty pylons lead­ing from nuclear pow­er sta­tions. 2) Eight years for the mur­der of a Swiss Board­er Guard whilst on the run. In ’02 Mar­co com­plet­ed a 12-year sen­tence in Italy for destroy­ing elec­tric­i­ty pylons in Italy. (Mar­co is a meat eater who encour­ages organ­ic liv­ing).

Daniele Casali­ni, Casa Cir­con­dar­i­ale, Via Burla 59, 43100 Par­ma, Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy. (Daniele is a veg­an).

Rod Coro­n­a­do — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Francesco Gioia, C.C. Sol­lic­ciano, Via Giro­lamo Min­ervi­ni 2/R, 50142 Firen­ze Sol­lic­ciano (FI), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy. (Francesco is a veg­e­tar­i­an and Straight Edge).

Pao­la Gori, Via delle Mac­chie 9, 57124 Livorno, Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of allow­ing her house to be used to plan ille­gal activ­i­ty. (Pao­la is a veg­an).

Jef­frey Luers, # 13797671, CRCI, 9111 NE Sun­der­land Ave, Port­land, OR 97211–1708, USA. Serv­ing 10 years for arson on a SUV deal­er­ship & the attempt­ed arson of an oil truck. The orig­i­nal sen­tence was 22 years & 8 months, but was reduced on appeal. (Diet unknown).

Eric McDavid, 16209–097. FCI Vic­torville Medi­um II, PO BOX 5700, Ade­lan­to, CA 92301, USA. Serv­ing 19 years & 7 months for plan­ning to destroy the prop­er­ty of the U.S. Forestry Ser­vice, mobile phone masts and pow­er plants. At the point of his arrest no crim­i­nal dam­age has actu­al­ly occurred. (Eric is a veg­an).

Daniel McGowan, Colum­bia Coun­ty Jail, 403 Jack­son Street, Portage, Wis­con­sin 53901, USA. Serv­ing 7 years for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an old growth log­ging cor­po­ra­tion. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Daniel is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

Jonathan Paul — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Bri­ana Waters, 36432–086, FDC — Seat­ac, Fed­er­al Deten­tion Cen­ter, P.O. Box 13900, Seat­tle, WA 98198, USA. Serv­ing six years for involve­ment in an ELF arson on a Uni­ver­si­ty. (Diet unknown).

Joy­an­na Zach­er, #36360–086, FCI Dublin, 5700 8th St.- Camp Parks- Unit F, Dublin, CA 94568, USA. Serv­ing 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted her role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Diet unknown).

ANIMAL LIBERATION PRISONERS
(All Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers fol­low a min­i­mum veg­e­tar­i­an diet and most are veg­an).

Jon Able­white TB4885, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA, Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion. (Jon is a veg­an).

Gregg Avery TA7450, HMP Win­ches­ter, Rom­sey Road, Win­ches­ter, SO22 5DF, Eng­land. On remand accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to his involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (Gregg is a veg­an).

Natasha Avery NR8987, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx. TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. Jailed for breach­ing her parole con­di­tions imposed on her for telling a fox hunt­ing mur­der­ing scum what she thought of them. Also await­ing tri­al accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to her involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (Nat is a veg­an).

Mel Broughton TN9138, HMP Wood­hill, Tat­ten­hoe Street, Mil­ton Keynes, Bucks MK4 4DA, Eng­land. On remand accused of involve­ment with an arson and black­mail cam­paign against an Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty vivi­sec­tion estab­lish­ment. (Mel is a veg­an).

Mar­tin Bal­luch, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Mar­tin is a veg­an)

Christoph, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Christo­pher does not wish to have his full name pub­lished.

Jacob Con­roy #93501–011, FCI Vic­torville Medi­um I Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, P.O. Box 5300, Ade­lan­to, CA 92301, USA. Serv­ing 48 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Jake is a veg­an).

Rod­ney Coro­n­a­do #03895–000, FCI El Reno, PO Box 1500, El Reno, OK 73036, USA. Serv­ing one-year impris­on­ment after he informed peo­ple how to make an incen­di­ary device dur­ing a speech at an ani­mal rights gath­er­ing. (Rod is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

Don­ald Cur­rie A3660AA, HMP Parkhurst, New­port, Isle of Wight, PO30 5NX, Eng­land. Serv­ing an Inde­ter­mi­nate Sen­tence, of not less than six actu­al years, for car­ry­ing out arsons against tar­gets asso­ci­at­ed the vivi­sec­tion indus­try includ­ing HLS. (Don is a veg­an).

Lau­ren Gaz­zo­la #93497–011, FCI Dan­bury, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, Route #37Danbury, CT 06811, USA. Serv­ing 54 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Lau­ren is a veg­an).

Sarah Gis­borne, LT5393, HMP Down­view, Sut­ton Lane, Sut­ton, Sur­rey, SM2 5PD, Eng­land. Serv­ing 5½ years for con­spir­a­cy to cause crim­i­nal dam­age fol­low­ing the dam­ag­ing of 8 vehi­cles owned by peo­ple linked to Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ence. Due for release at the end of July (Sarah is a veg­an).

Joshua Harp­er #29429–086, FCI Sheri­dan Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, P.O. Box 5000, Sheri­dan, OR 97378 USA. Serv­ing 36 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Josh is a veg­an).

Jan, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an ‘s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Jan does not wish to have his full name pub­lished.

Kevin Kroem­mer, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Kevin is a veg­an)

Leo, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Leo does not wish to have his full name pub­lished.

Sabine, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Sabine does not wish to have their full name pub­lished.

Sean Kirt­ley WC 6977, HM Prison Blak­en­hurst, Hewell Lane, Red­ditch, B97 6QS, Eng­land. Serv­ing four and a half years for run­ning an anti-vivi­sec­tion cam­paign web­site. (Sean is a veg­an).

Kevin Kjon­aas #93502–011, FCI Sand­stone, PO Box 1000, Sand­stone, MN 55072 USA. Serv­ing 72 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Kevin is a veg­an).

Daniel McGowan — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

Heather Nichol­son VM4859, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx. TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. On remand accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to her involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (Heather is a veg­an).

Jonathan Paul, #07167–085, FCI Phoenix, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, 37910 N 45th Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85086, USA. Sen­tenced to 51 months for an ALF arson on a horse meat plant. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Jonathan is a veg­an).

Andrew Stepan­ian #26399–050, FCI But­ner Medi­um II Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, PO Box 1500, But­ner, NC 27509 USA. Serv­ing 36 months for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Andrew is a veg­an).

Ker­ry Whit­burn TB4886, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA, Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion. (Ker­ry is a veg­an).

Sarah White­head, VM7684, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx, TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. Serv­ing two years for: 1) res­cu­ing a pup­py from hor­rif­ic con­di­tions. 2) res­cu­ing over 100 ani­mals from a pet breed­er who was lat­er pros­e­cut­ed for ani­mal abuse. Also await­ing tri­al for SHAC activ­i­ty. (Sarah is a veg­an)

PLOUGHSHARES PRISONERS

Helen Wood­son, 03231–045, FMC Car­swell — Admin. Max. Unit, POB 27137, Ft. Worth, TX 76127, USA. Serv­ing 8 years 10 months for actions that focused on the inter­re­la­tion­ship of war & the destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al world. The actions includ­ed pour­ing red paint over the secu­ri­ty desk of a fed­er­al court and mak­ing threat­en­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions. Pre­vi­ous­ly Helen had served 20½ years for: 1) Using a ham­mer to dis­arm a nuclear mis­sile silo. 2) Burn­ing $25,000 on the floor of a bank whilst denounc­ing war, envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion & eco­nom­ic injus­tice. 3) Mail­ing warn­ing let­ters with bul­lets attached to Gov­ern­ment & cor­po­rate offi­cials. (Diet unknown).

THE LECCE FIVE
The Lec­ce Five have been charged with “sub­ver­sive asso­ci­a­tion” accused of dam­ag­ing Esso petrol pumps to oppose the War on Iraq; sab­o­tag­ing the cash machines of a bank which funds an immi­gra­tion cen­tre; and tar­get­ing the multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny Benet­ton in sup­port of Mapuche land rights activists in Chile. All of the defen­dants are cur­rent­ly either under house arrest or released on bail.

ANTIFA PRISONERS

Vah­tang Devitlidze, ul. Libbedo­va 42, UO 68/2, otryad 14, briga­da 142, g. Hagyshen­sk, Krasnodarskiy Kray, 352680 Rus­sia. Serv­ing 2½ years for stab­bing a neo-nazi in the leg whilst defend­ing him­self from attack. (Diet unknown).

Augustin Kraus, Vazeb­ni veznice, PP‑1, Lit­o­merice, 41 201, Czech Repub­lic. Serv­ing 14 months for his par­tic­i­pa­tion in attacks against local neo-nazis. His charge was “bod­i­ly harm”. He speaks Czech, Slo­vak and Pol­ish. You can
also write him short post­cards in Eng­lish. (Diet unknown).

Fabio Milan, C.C. via Pianez­za 300, 10151 Tori­no, Italy. On remand accused of fight­ing with the police after an anti-fas­cist protest. (Diet unknown).

Andrea Neff, Bnr: 746/07/2, Jus­tizvol­lzugsanstalt fur Frauen in Berlin, Arkonas­trasse 56, 13189 Berlin, Ger­many. Serv­ing 14 months for anti-fas­cist activ­i­ty. (Diet unknown).

Chris­t­ian Süm­mer­mann, Bnr: 441/08/5, JVA Plötzensee, Lehrter­str. 61, 10557 Berlin, Ger­many. Serv­ing 40 months for breach­ing the peace whilst serv­ing a sus­pend­ed sen­tence issued for anti-fas­cist activ­i­ties. (Diet unknown).

Tomasz Wiloszews­ki, Zak­lad Karny, Orze­chowa 5, 98–200 Sier­adz, Poland. Serv­ing 15 years for acci­den­tal­ly killing a neo-nazi whilst defend­ing him­self. (Tomasz is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

OTHER PRISONERS

Olga Alek­san­drov­na Nevskaya, UU163/5, 7 Otryad, pos. Dzerzhin­skiy, Mozhaysk 140090 Moskovskaya oblast, Rus­sia. Eco-activist serv­ing 6 years for arson, crim­i­nal dam­age and caus­ing explo­sions in protest at the war in Chech­nya. Due for release in 2009. (Diet unknown).

Vagge­lis Botzatzis, Komo­ti­ni Juridi­cal Prison (“Dikastikes Fylakes Komo­ti­nis”), T.K. 69100, Greece. On remand accused of set­ting fire to two com­pa­ny cars owned by a energy/power com­pa­ny. It is believed that the per­son or per­sons unknown who car­ried out the arson did so in protest at the destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment and in sup­port of two work­ers who
died at the pow­er plant. Vagge­lis is also accused of set­ting fire to a bank and start­ing a fire inside a car yard. (Meat Eater).

Michael W. Sykes, 100 East 2nd St, Mon­roe, Michi­gan 48161, USA. Youth held on remand accused of anti-sprawl arsons, crim­i­nal dam­age, spray-paint­ing an anar­chist sign and burn­ing the Amer­i­can flag. (Diet unknown)

Fran Thomp­son, #1090915 HU 1C, WERDCC, PO Box 300, Van­dalia, MO 63382, USA. Serv­ing Life for killing, in self-defence, a stalk­er who had bro­ken into her home. Before her impris­on­ment Fran was an eco, ani­mal & anti-nuke cam­paign­er. (Fran is a veg­an).

MOVE
MOVE is an eco-rev­o­lu­tion­ary group who car­ried out protests in defence of all life. All move pris­on­ers describe them­selves as veg­e­tar­i­ans. There are cur­rent­ly eight MOVE activists in prison each serv­ing 100 years after been framed for the mur­der of a cop in 1979. 9th defen­dant, Mer­le Africa, died in prison in 1998.

Deb­bie Simms Africa (006307), Janet Hol­loway Africa (006308) and Janine Philips Africa (006309) all at: SCI Cam­bridge Springs, 451 Fuller­ton Ave, Cam­bridge Springs, PA 16403–1238, USA.

Michael Davis Africa (AM4973) and Charles Simms Africa (AM4975) both at SCI Grater­ford, PO Box 244, Grater­ford, PA 19426–0244, USA.

Edward Good­man Africa (AM4974), SCI Mahanoy, 301 Morea Rd, Frackville, PA 17932, USA.

William Philips Africa (AM4984) and Del­bert Orr Africa (AM4985) both at SCI Dal­las Draw­er K, Dal­las, PA 18612, USA.

Mumia Abu Jamal, (AM8335), SCI Greene, 175 Progress Dri­ve, Way­nes­burg PA 15370, USA. In 1981 Mumia, for­mer Black Pan­ther and vocal sup­port­er of MOVE, was framed for the mur­der of a cop. He was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death but is cur­rent­ly await­ing re-sen­tenc­ing fol­low­ing a court hear­ing in 2001.

STATEMENT ON VIOLENCE
Some peo­ple list­ed in this newslet­ter have car­ried out vio­lent actions. ‘Spir­it of Free­dom’ does not con­done vio­lence. But we are also against cen­sor­ship & believe peo­ple can decide for them­selves who they wish to sup­port.

ABOUT E.L.P. SUPPORT NETWORK
ELP is an inter­na­tion­al eco-pris­on­er sup­port net­work found­ed, in Britain, in 1993 to sup­port jailed eco-activists. We sup­port the pris­on­ers by pro­duc­ing var­i­ous reg­u­lar pris­on­er lists:

Spir­it of Free­dom is ELP’s inter­na­tion­al month­ly pris­on­er list­ing which is cir­cu­lat­ed by e‑mail.

Urgent ELP! Bul­letin is an e‑mail ser­vice that dis­trib­utes the names of any new eco-pris­on­er as soon as ELP gets their details. For more info e‑mail ELP4321@hotmail.com

On-Line Newslet­ters — ELP has a num­ber of web­sites that pro­vide news, pris­on­er lists and addi­tion­al info about ELP & the pris­on­ers.

Eng­lish lan­guage ELP Web­site
www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk

Greek lan­guage ELP Web­site
http://greekelp.blogspot.com

North Amer­i­can ELP Web­site
www.ecoprisoners.org

Turk­ish lan­guage ELP Web­site
www.geocities.com/yesilanarsi/elp.htm

ELP Extra is an e‑mail group that cir­cu­lates the details of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, ELP learns about, who do not fall with­in the remit for sup­port by ELP. To sub­scribe to the list e‑mail ELP4321@Hotmail.com

Aus­tralian ELP.SN is our Aus­tralian con­tact. For more info e‑mail elp4321@hotmail.com

Bel­gium ELP.SN is our Bel­gium con­tact. For more info e‑mail elp_bel@hotmail.com

Ger­man ELP.SN is a pris­on­er led ini­tia­tive run by eco-pris­on­er Mar­co Camenisch. For more info con­tact Mar­co Camenisch, Post­fach 3143, CH-8105 Regens­dorf, Switzer­land.

Greek ELP.SN is our Greek con­tact. For more info e‑mail greekelp@yahoo.gr

North Amer­i­can ELP is our North Amer­i­can con­tact. For more infor­ma­tion e‑mail naelpsn@mutualaid.org

Turkey ELP.SN is our Turk­ish con­tact. For more info e‑mail yesilanarsi@yahoo.com

AMP-Ohio Utility Headquarters Overtaken by Earth First! — No More Business as Usual for Environmentally Destructive Profiteers

Earth First! activists demand can­cel­la­tion of pro­posed coal-fired pow­er plant in Meigs Coun­ty, Ohio

AMP-Ohio occupation

Earth First! activists demand can­cel­la­tion of pro­posed coal-fired pow­er plant in Meigs Coun­ty, Ohio

Colum­bus, OH — At 11:30am Mon­day morn­ing (8/7/2008), about 100 Earth First! activists occu­pied the head­quar­ters of Amer­i­can Munic­i­pal Pow­er, an elec­tric util­i­ty that pro­vides statewide ser­vice to mem­ber com­mu­ni­ties.

As part of an ongo­ing series of direct actions, activists con­front­ed CEO Marc Gerken and demand­ed that AMP-Ohio can­cel its plans for con­struc­tion of a new and wide­ly opposed coal-fired pow­er plant in south­east Ohio.

Dozens of activists charged the build­ing and occu­pied the lob­by, dis­abled video cam­eras with sil­ly string, danced on fur­ni­ture, banged on pots and pans, and deliv­ered anti-coal mes­sages to employ­ees with chants and songs. Five activists locked them­selves down in the lob­by and two activists climbed the flag­poles in front of the build­ing, hoist­ing signs that read “no new coal!” and “we won’t stop until you do.”

Busi­ness as usu­al was dis­rupt­ed for sev­er­al hours while police forcibly removed demon­stra­tors from the prop­er­ty, arrest­ing eight. Bail mon­ey is still need­ed for sev­er­al activists. Please help out by donat­ing to the legal fund at http://earthfirstjournal.org/

Mor­gan Kipler, an Earth First!er from Colum­bus, said that the pro­posed plant “is cur­rent­ly the great­est threat to Ohio’s health, safe­ty, and wel­fare, and must be can­celled imme­di­ate­ly.”

Earth First! oppos­es the pow­er plant for a num­ber of rea­sons. The pro­posed plant would be a major cli­mate change con­trib­u­tor, emit­ting 7.3 mil­lion tons of CO2 into the air every year. The local impact is just as dra­mat­ic: Meigs Coun­ty ranks num­ber one in the state for lung can­cer inci­dence, and num­ber two for relat­ed mor­tal­i­ties.

A study released by the Clean Air Task Force shows Meigs Coun­ty to be in the cen­ter of a tri-state hot zone for pre­ma­ture death rates direct­ly attrib­ut­able to PM 2.5 expo­sures. PM 2.5 is the par­tic­u­late mat­ter released by pow­er plants respon­si­ble for a mul­ti­plic­i­ty of life-short­en­ing ill­ness­es includ­ing can­cer and car­dio­vas­cu­lar and res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­eases.

If the pro­posed AMP-OH plant is built, it will become one of five coal plants with­in a ten-mile radius to the south­ern tip of Meigs Coun­ty. Addi­tion­al­ly, four more coal-fired plants have been pro­posed for con­struc­tion in the area by oth­er elec­tric util­i­ty providers. This is an obvi­ous injus­tice as it forms the back­bone of the high­est con­cen­tra­tion of coal-fired pow­er plants in the coun­try.

The pow­er plant is also a bad deal for elec­tric cus­tomers. Costs of con­struc­tion have esca­lat­ed from $1.2 to $2.9 bil­lion since Octo­ber of 2005, an increase of about $1.7 mil­lion per day over the last 3 years! At a time of cost hikes, nation­wide pow­er plant can­cel­la­tions and rejec­tions, and pend­ing fed­er­al leg­is­la­tion on glob­al warm­ing emis­sions, AMP-Ohio is mak­ing a bad deci­sion for its mem­ber com­mu­ni­ties, the peo­ple of Meigs Coun­ty, and future gen­er­a­tions in Ohio and beyond.

Earth First! said it will con­tin­ue to resist the con­struc­tion of the AMP-Ohio plant with a diver­si­ty of tac­tics.

—–

Earth First! is an inter­na­tion­al move­ment root­ed in bio-cen­trism and direct action. This action con­cludes the Earth First! 2008 nation­al gath­er­ing, which took place in South­ern Ohio from June 30-July 7.

I was for­tu­nate enough to be at the AMP-Ohio head­quar­ters in March, when activists occu­pied AMP’s lob­by and demand­ed that AMP CEO Marc Gerken sched­ule a meet­ing with impact­ed com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to dis­cuss their con­cerns about the Meigs Coun­ty coal plant. Gerken promised to sched­ule the meet­ing, then broke his promise sev­er­al months lat­er.

AMP-Ohio are part of a small army of coal indus­try envi­ron­men­tal crim­i­nals, who are try­ing their hard­est to pol­lute our com­mu­ni­ties and cause cli­mate chaos in order to increase their prof­its. But in order to do that, they’re going to have to get past a small army of envi­ron­men­tal war­riors — like the activists who shut down AMP’s head­quar­ters on Mon­day — who are will­ing to put their per­son­al safe­ty on the line in order to con­front and shut down these cli­mate crim­i­nals.

Camp for Climate Action: Great Rebel Raft Regatta update & newspaper launched

THE GREAT REBEL RAFT REGATTA UPDATE

RaftsTHE GREAT REBEL RAFT REGATTA UPDATE

Fol­low­ing a pro­fes­sion­al recon­nais­sance and Health and Safe­ty test trip by boat last Wednes­day, rebel rafters and expe­ri­enced sailors gave the thumbs up for the water borne dis­obe­di­ence on the Mass Day of Action, August 9th. Launch­ing with the tides and if the weath­er is not blow­ing a gale, the action was deemed total­ly do able and has the poten­tial to be a spec­tac­u­lar suc­cess. The key will be in the num­ber of rafts, the more rafts ( or any­thing that floats !) there are the more impos­si­ble it will be for the forces of dark­ness to stop the arma­da reach­ing it’s tar­get. So start pack­ing pad­dles, canoes,inflatables, rafts, dinghies, amphibi­ous vehi­cles etc.. with your tent. Try to encour­age any yacht or boat peo­ple, pirates or sailors you know to join in. All rebel rafters will be requit­ed to attend a water safe­ty work­shop that will be run dai­ly for the three
days lead­ing up to the day of action, and will have to wear life jack­ets ( if you don’t have your own, these will be pro­vid­ed by the camp). A write up is avail­able on the GRRR web­site.

Mean­while many groups across the coun­try are get­ting excit­ed by the GRRR bug and plan­ning to build rafts and get teams togeth­er. If your group has any news, pic­tures of rafts or ideas to share, then send it to the con­stant­ly updat­ed news feed on www.thegrrr.net . For any fur­ther enquiries email: pirates@thegrrr.net

CLIMATE CAMP NEWSPAPER HITS THE STREETS AND FESTIVALS

Last week 30,000 news­pa­pers, beau­ti­ful­ly designed in black and bright cyan and not look­ing any­thing like a bor­ing polit­i­cal paper, came off the print­ing press and began their jour­ney around the coun­try.

Pub­lished to inspire peo­ple to come to the camp it is filled with full pages images of last years events, por­traits of hot cli­mate campers, a stun­ning map of this years camp and texts that describe the pol­i­tics of rad­i­cal cli­mate activism. If you would like copies to hand out in the street, fes­ti­vals, drop off in cafe’s etc. con­tact distribution@climatecamp.org.uk with your address and how many you want, they will be sent out asap or ring Isa 07984158 108 to find out where you can pick some up. The pdf’s is now online here: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/node/23

Arsonist hit car dealership (Athens, 5/7/2008)

A fire erupt­ed at 03:22, inside a car deal­er­ship, on Kala­makiou street, 97, at Alimos, wreck­ing 5 cars and dam­ag­ing 14 oth­ers and also the build­ing.

Source: http://www.naftemporiki.gr/news/static/08/07/05/1535490.htm

A fire erupt­ed at 03:22, inside a car deal­er­ship, on Kala­makiou street, 97, at Alimos, wreck­ing 5 cars and dam­ag­ing 14 oth­ers and also the build­ing.

Source: http://www.naftemporiki.gr/news/static/08/07/05/1535490.htm

coal power station actions in Australia

Yes­ter­day (Fri­day June 27) CIA (Con­cerned, Inde­pen­dent Activists) locked on to and shut down a con­vey­or trans­port­ing coal into Muja pow­er sta­tion in Col­lie. Two activists were arrest­ed.

Muja power station actionYes­ter­day (Fri­day June 27) CIA (Con­cerned, Inde­pen­dent Activists) locked on to and shut down a con­vey­or trans­port­ing coal into Muja pow­er sta­tion in Col­lie. Two activists were arrest­ed.

In the ear­ly hours of this morn­ing a group of cli­mate cam­paign­ers entered the perime­ter of the Muja coal-fired pow­er sta­tion near Col­lie. West­ern Aus­tralia and shut down the con­vey­or belt sup­ply­ing coal into the sta­tion. This is a peace­ful protest against the con­tin­ued use and expan­sion of pol­lut­ing and unsus­tain­able pow­er gen­er­a­tion in West­ern Aus­tralia. One per­son has locked onto the con­vey­or belt used to trans­port coal into the pow­er sta­tion, pre­vent­ing its oper­a­tion and stop­ping the con­vey­or belt sup­ply of coal into the plant. Ben­jamin Cody, a thir­ty year old father of four from Bun­bury said that he was shut­ting down the plant to high­light and protest against gov­ern­ment approval of two new coal-fired pow­er sta­tions and plans for the con­struc­tion of two more. “Each of these will have a life­time of at least thir­ty years, com­mit­ting our­selves and future gen­er­a­tions of West Aus­tralians to dirty, pol­lut­ing and unre­li­able ener­gy until around 2040. The Car­pen­ter and Rudd Gov­ern­ments need to be held account­able, and the tran­si­tion to WA’s dean ener­gy future has to start now,” Mr Cody said. “Gen­er­at­ing elec­tric­i­ty from coal-fired pow­er sta­tions is the dirt­i­est way to pro­duce pow­er on the plan­et Col­lie could be the ‘Sil­i­con Val­ley’ of renew­able ener­gies if the gov­ern­ment were to direct invest­ment into renew­able tech­nol­o­gy. Instead this mon­ey is all being direct­ed towards the coal indus­try”.

Con­cerned Inde­pen­dent Activists (CIA) spokesper­son, Nicholas Mor­gan said, “It is dis­ap­point­ing and frus­trat­ing that short sight­ed politi­cians and vest­ed inter­ests are pre­vent­ing WA from mov­ing for­ward into the renew­able ener­gy indus­try. This is not about tak­ing away jobs, it’s about cre­at­ing more jobs in ener­gy indus­tries that are sus­tain­able and reli­able, such as wind, solar, wave, and geot­her­mal. Cur­rent­ly in Ger­many, there are rough­ly 250,000 jobs in the renew­able ener­gy indus­try which is grow­ing every year,” Mr Mor­gan said,“The world­wide renew­able indus­try is worth over $100 bil­lion and is dou­bling in size every 20 months. Aus­tralia has real inno­v­a­tive strength and could play a big part, with envi­ron­men­tal, employ­ment and oth­er eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits to fol­low. Aus­tralia risks being left behind in the dark ages”.

The action is also tak­ing place in the shad­ow of WA’s gas and ener­gy cri­sis. “It is absolute­ly unac­cept­able that in this day and age the West Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment is still rely­ing on fos­sil fuels for the state’s ener­gy needs” said Mr Mor­gan. “West­ern Aus­trali­a’s ener­gy emer­gency high­lights the need to invest in a range of clean and reli­able resources such as solar and wind. It is a sad joke that the gov­ern­ment is respond­ing to the lack of gas by reopen­ing the states dirt­i­est pow­er sta­tion which was decom­mis­sioned because it used old, pol­lut­ing tech­nol­o­gy”.

This action is part of a grow­ing trend around Aus­tralia of com­mu­ni­ties who are frus­trat­ed with the lack of action being tak­en by gov­ern­ments on cli­mate change. “All over the world peo­ple are reclaim­ing their pow­er and assert­ed their right to live in a world free from dan­ger­ous cli­mate change”.

———-

3rd July 2008 — Cli­mate Camp hails Green­peace action: promis­es more to come…

Organ­is­ers of the Camp for Cli­mate Action have applaud­ed Green­peace for this morn­ing shut­ting down the coun­try’s biggest sin­gle source of car­bon diox­ide, Erar­ing Pow­er Sta­tion, south of New­cas­tle…

Erar­ing pow­er sta­tion is equal first in the dubi­ous hon­our of biggest CO2 emit­ter in Aus­tralia with anoth­er Hunter pow­er sta­tion, Bayswa­ter in Muswell­brook.

Camp spokesper­son, Hol­ly Creenaune, said that direct action against the caus­es of cli­mate change was a rea­son­able response to the inac­tion of Gov­ern­ment on reduc­ing coal depen­dence.

“The longer the Gov­ern­ment pre­var­i­cates on this issue, the more peo­ple will take action them­selves against coal pow­er and exports.”

“Green­peace have tak­en action that any rea­son­able per­son would take in the face of the urgent need to stop emit­ting green­house gas­es and the hes­i­tan­cy of Gov­ern­ment to take lead­er­ship.

“Next week hun­dreds of peo­ple will fol­low their bold lead and take part in the largest sin­gle direct action against the caus­es of cli­mate change that Aus­tralia has ever seen.”

The Camp for Cli­mate Action will cul­mi­nate in a peace­ful direct action on 13th July at the Car­ring­ton coal ter­mi­nal, where hun­dreds of peo­ple will walk onto the coal rail line and stop coal exports in their tracks.

“This is the real­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion: hav­ing wast­ed the last decade doing noth­ing about cli­mate change but car­ry­ing on increas­ing our green­house pol­lu­tion, we are now faced with the need to begin decom­mis­sion­ing pow­er sta­tions and wind­ing back coal exports.”

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion

Hol­ly Creenaune 0417 682 541
Georgina Woods 0438 223 771

Issue Two of the ‘Roadblock Report’ Now Out!

3/7/2008
Issue two of the inde­pen­dent newslet­ter of the I‑69 cam­paign is now out for your down­load­ing, print­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing plea­sure.
You can find both the first and the sec­ond issue on the web­site of Road­block Earth First! http://stopi69.wordpress.com/resources or on the media archive sec­tion of the I‑69 Media Office’s web­site http://i69mediaoffice.wordpress.com/media-archive

3/7/2008
Issue two of the inde­pen­dent newslet­ter of the I‑69 cam­paign is now out for your down­load­ing, print­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing plea­sure.
You can find both the first and the sec­ond issue on the web­site of Road­block Earth First! http://stopi69.wordpress.com/resources or on the media archive sec­tion of the I‑69 Media Office’s web­site http://i69mediaoffice.wordpress.com/media-archive
In this issue:

- let­ter from the edi­tors about media/independent media
‑break­ing news sto­ries about
• the tree sit evic­tion,
• Bloom­ing­ton torch march,
• retal­ia­to­ry actions across Indi­ana,
‑action reports on:
• home demos,
• sol­i­dar­i­ty demos,
‑updates on
• the nature walks on the route,
• the com­mu­ni­ty bar­bq,
‑opin­ion pieces about
• the flood­ing in Indi­ana,
• a response to alle­ga­tions of vio­lence in office demos.
‑I-69 Lis­ten­ing project inter­view
‑Crit­i­cal thought piece on the future of the ‘anti-glob­al­iza­tion move­ment.

The sec­ond issue is for­mat­ted in 8.5”X11”, to be dou­ble sided. Email road­block­re­port (at) yahoo.com if you would like a dif­fer­ent for­mat.

As well, the I‑69 Media Office is announc­ing the launch of its new web­site, i69mediaoffice.wordpress.com . The I‑69 Media Office is an inde­pen­dent clear­ing­house for anti-I-69 infor­ma­tion and action report­ing. Please explore our ‘under con­struc­tion’ web­site for more infor­ma­tion on what we do.

Climate Camp Bike Ride

Peo­ple will be rid­ing to the cli­mate camp, start­ing from Glas­gow, descend­ing souther­ly pick­ing up thou­sands en route.

The final leg, Lon­don to Kingsnorth is on sun­day 3 August meet­ing under Water­loo bridge (south­side) at 9am
For more info on the route and how to get involved e‑mail climatecampbikeride@lists.riseup.net
Up the the veloru­tion.

Peo­ple will be rid­ing to the cli­mate camp, start­ing from Glas­gow, descend­ing souther­ly pick­ing up thou­sands en route.

The final leg, Lon­don to Kingsnorth is on sun­day 3 August meet­ing under Water­loo bridge (south­side) at 9am
For more info on the route and how to get involved e‑mail climatecampbikeride@lists.riseup.net
Up the the veloru­tion.

Coal Gets Left In The Ground A Bit Longer

Activists occu­py­ing Bodge House / Lodge House / Prospect Farm (all the same place) to obstruct its destruc­tion for open­cast coal extrac­tion had a court vic­to­ry on Mon­day.

Activists occu­py­ing Bodge House / Lodge House / Prospect Farm (all the same place) to obstruct its destruc­tion for open­cast coal extrac­tion had a court vic­to­ry on Mon­day.

Har­worth Estates (Agri­cul­tur­al Land) Lim­it­ed, the new green­wash name for the out­fit for­mer­ly known as Har­worth Min­ing Inter­na­tion­al Lim­it­ed were sent pack­ing by the judge with a flea in their ear. They could­n’t prove they actu­al­ly owned the place or had prop­er­ly end­ed the farmer’s ten­an­cy. If they do the all home­work set by the judge prop­er­ly, they’ll be allowed to try again on 18th July.

Mean­time, the occu­pa­tion goes on.

pre-Climate Camp street medic training — Leeds- 18–20th July 2008

The UK Action Medics are run­ning a 2 1/2 day street medic train­ing in Leeds dur­ing the run-up to Cli­mate Camp. It will be a 20 hour course that will teach you the basics of gen­er­al First Aid, as well as skills to deal with med­ical sit­u­a­tions spe­cif­ic to direct action, such as deal­ing with chem­i­cal weapons and the police.

The UK Action Medics are run­ning a 2 1/2 day street medic train­ing in Leeds dur­ing the run-up to Cli­mate Camp. It will be a 20 hour course that will teach you the basics of gen­er­al First Aid, as well as skills to deal with med­ical sit­u­a­tions spe­cif­ic to direct action, such as deal­ing with chem­i­cal weapons and the police. We will also be offer­ing sec­tions specif­i­cal­ly tai­lored to sit­u­a­tions like­ly to arise at this year’s Cli­mate Camp, such as water safe­ty and pub­lic health. The course will involve sce­nar­ios and hands-on prac­tice and, although we can­not offer you any offi­cial accred­i­ta­tion, the 2 1/2 day train­ing is the min­i­mum stan­dard for mem­ber­ship of the Action Medics, and will equip you for a wide range of sit­u­a­tions, from hypother­mia to baton wounds.

The train­ing will be on the 18th-20th of July, which is Fri­day to Sat­ur­day. There will be 3 or 4 hours on Fri­day evening and two full days on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day. Veg­an food will be pro­vid­ed, as well as accom­mo­da­tion if need­ed — we ask for a dona­tion of £30 to cov­er costs, although this will be less if we can find a venue for free.

The venue is as yet uncon­firmed, but the train­ing will take place in cen­tral Leeds, and we can give you direc­tions from the train/bus sta­tion. It is essen­tial to book a place so we know how many peo­ple are com­ing — please email medics@climatecamp.org.uk to do this, or with any ques­tions.

The Action Medics will be run­ning a medic space at this year’s Cli­mate Camp. Your help would be wel­come – we require that vol­un­teers have either tak­en:

a) our week­end Action Medics train­ing & CPR train­ing
OR
b) First Aid At Work, with expe­ri­ence of sce­nar­ios and CPR train­ing

If you’d like to be involved, please email us at medics@climatecamp.org.uk

www.actionmedics.org.uk