Category: Climate Chaos

Earth First! Winter Moot, what to expect

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scaling tree cutters and trees to halt Corrib pipeline works

Shell today, 9th Jan­u­ary 2012, began to cut down a Coillte plan­ta­tion in the vil­lage of Leen­amore, Co. Mayo. This sur­prise move marks the begin­ning of their attempts to pre­pare the 4km stretch of land between the Augh­oose tun­nelling com­pound and the Bel­lan­aboy refin­ery. Despite a large Gar­da and pri­vate secu­ri­ty pres­ence, cam­paign­ers entered the tree felling area and halt­ed work.

Shell start­ing this sec­tion of the pipeline was com­plete­ly unan­tic­i­pat­ed both by local cam­paign­ers and those of us liv­ing at Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp. Rumour had it that the clear­ing of the plan­ta­tion might not hap­pen until lat­er in the year. As it hap­pened many of us had planned to take the day off actions today to tend the camp gar­dens, carve new wind tur­bine blades, bake bread and work on oth­er projects. The day turned out quite dif­fer­ent to how we planned…

When we arrived at Leen­amore at 11am we saw that they were cut­ting down trees at two dif­fer­ent sec­tions of the road and set­ting up a machin­ery stor­age com­pound. There was a heavy Gar­da pres­ence includ­ing mem­bers of the pub­lic order unit with no num­ber tags. There were twen­ty Gar­daí and at least fifty of Shell’s pri­vate secu­ri­ty IRMS attempt­ing to guard the tree line. There was sev­en of us, basi­cal­ly mean­ing we were out­num­bered by about 10 to 1.

A few of us tried to get over the fence or into the trees to pre­vent the tree cut­ting from hap­pen­ing. Five of us suc­ceed­ed in breach­ing lines of secu­ri­ty to impede work at dif­fer­ent times. Some of us were car­ried back over the barbed wire fence by secu­ri­ty guards. The secu­ri­ty guards had real dif­fi­cul­ty in remov­ing us from the area as the ground was extreme­ly uneven and bog­gy. They kept stum­bling as they car­ried us out and it was real­ly dan­ger­ous for the secu­ri­ty them­selves. The Gar­dai were stand­ing out on the road and wouldn’t let us stand on the road.

After try­ing to get in over the fence along the road a few times, sev­er­al cam­paign­ers broke away to try to enter from fur­ther away and dis­ap­peared in the woods.

To everyone’s delight, one cam­paign­er reap­peared about an hour lat­er, on top of a tree-cut­ting dig­ger. Anoth­er cam­paign­er, also reap­peared a hour lat­er, with­out his trousers! His expla­na­tion was that the ski-suit he had been wear­ing had been caus­ing rustling as he approached secu­ri­ty lines so even­tu­al­ly he had to resort to remov­ing them and run in his ther­mals to make it to climb a tree that was in the path of Shell’s destruc­tion. As a new­com­er to the camp, this is his expe­ri­ence of try­ing to stop Shell in his own words;

“I arrived at the camp a few days ago. It’s my first vis­it. I spent the first day help­ing to block lor­ries and got a good chance ot be active against Shell’s destruc­tion. This morn­ing every­one was sur­prised that Shell were start­ing work on the for­est. A few of us went away to come at the machin­ery from anoth­er angle. We crawled through the woods towards the area they were cut­ting slow­ly. As were crawl­ing towards the dig­ger I dart­ed off left. All the secu­ri­ty were shout­ing ‘hold the line’. I kept run­ning until a group of secu­ri­ty broke away from a group at the road and start­ed run­ning after me. I ran back into the woods with them run­ning behind me shout­ing, so I went to ground and hid for 20 min­utes. Then crawled down a bit and looked up to see where they were and they were all around me. I had to run accorss a big gap where they could all see me and into anoth­er patch of woods. With them all run­ning behind me I got into the trees again. I reached the first suit­able tree to climb just to the right of the tree-cut­ting-dig­ger. By the time I was up the secu­ri­ty guards had run past me but couldn’t see me. Fif­teen or twen­ty of them were below film­ing and wan­der­ing around. They shout­ing at me, things like ‘are you going to come down?’ and ‘Chop him down!’. I climbed right to the top to see where the dig­ger was. I swung to anoth­er tree and then to anoth­er to get a bit clos­er to the dig­ger as it moved. I stayed up for about 45 min­utes as the dig­ger broke up the trees beside me. The secu­ri­ty guards start­ed to get more and more angry with me. They start­ed shak­ing the tree and get­ting sticks. I said, ‘I’m real­ly going to want to come down with you doing that!’. I nego­ti­at­ed with them to let me come down safe­ly and agreed that one of them would escourt me out of the woods. I met up with the oth­er campers and camp back to get a cup of tea and some food. A few local peo­ple called in to catch up with us. I feel good to be here to so far. I’ve met some good peo­ple. I found it good to be doing actions with ener­getic peo­ple who have been fight­ing this cam­paign for a long time.”

The oth­er camper up on the tree-cut­ter stayed up to stop work until 6.30pm before com­ing down. This camper report­ed that one of the IRMS secu­ri­ty super­vi­sors that had been run­ning after him in the woods, as he got to the tree-cut­ter, had injured his ankle and had even­tu­al­ly been stretchered off the site. The cam­paign­ers were not arrest­ed as the cut­ting was hap­pen­ing on pri­vate land.

New camp mem­bers are always wel­come and even if you don’t feel like crawl­ing around in the woods in your first few days there is plen­ty of oth­er things to do…

Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp is call­ing for sup­port in advance of this com­ing Fri­day the 13th of Jan­u­ary. Fri­day is the first Day of Sol­i­dar­i­ty of the new year, when peo­ple from around Ire­land are invit­ed to join the protests for a day to show their sup­port for the ongo­ing resis­tance to the Cor­rib Gas Project.

http://www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org
 
—
 

Shell’s tree cutting disrupted for second day running

Dis­rup­tion to the felling of the Coillte wood­land for Shel­l’s planned onshore pipeline (along with the stop­ping of haulage trucks to the Augh­oose com­pound), con­tin­ued today as pro­tes­tors inter­cept­ed a spe­cial­ist 8‑track tree felling machine between the Augh­oose tun­nelling com­pound and Leen­amore for­est.

A Bar­ret­t’s truck trans­port­ing the machine was halt­ed as it made the 1km jour­ney at 7am this morn­ing by a small band of mer­ry pro­tes­tors, one of whom quick­ly ascend­ed the arm and set­tled into posi­tion as a lone Gar­da looked on. Sev­er­al more Gar­daí soon came to join her sup­port­ed by a large num­ber of IRMS staff who have been posi­tioned along the road by the for­est since yes­ter­day.

As a win­tery dawn broke over the beseiged bog the Gar­daí “removal” team arrived along with their “trans­porter”, dri­ven by Sgt Aidan Gill, who then pro­ceed­ed to ini­ti­ate Gar­da attacks on the gath­er­ing sup­port­ers, in the name of health and safe­ty.

Fol­low­ing some hasty posi­tion­ing of ‘crash-mat­tress­es’ and blan­kets (!!) on and around the machine an attempt was made to remove the pro­tes­tors, only for the Gar­daí to dis­cov­er that the pro­tes­tor had D‑locked her neck to the machine.

In an extra­or­di­nar­i­ly reck­less move, the Gar­daí then decid­ed to use an angle grinder just mil­lime­ters away from the pro­tes­tors’ head, all to enable the con­tin­u­a­tion of Shel­l’s work for the day.

How­ev­er the delay of 3 & 1/2 hours to the tree felling had also thwart­ed all deliv­er­ies of stone and removals of peat at the Augh­oose com­pound as the dri­ver of the truck car­ry­ing the machine had been swerv­ing so much, as to end up pre­vent­ing the pas­sage of any oth­er trucks on the road.
After being tak­en down the pro­tes­tor was arrest­ed and charged and is due to appear in Bel­mul­let court along with 4 oth­er cam­paign­ers.

Lat­er on in the evening anoth­er protest was called for out­side Bel­lan­aboy, how­ev­er it seems the lat­est activ­i­ty has result­ed in a fur­ther increase in the amount of Gar­daí loi­ter­ing in the area. About 15 Gar­daí were imme­di­ate­ly on hand and so not too many trucks were stopped in the evening.

Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp is call­ing for sup­port in advance of this com­ing Fri­day the 13th of Jan­u­ary. Fri­day is the first Day of Sol­i­dar­i­ty of the new year, when peo­ple from around Ire­land are invit­ed to join the protests for a day to show their sup­port for the ongo­ing resis­tance to the Cor­rib Gas Project.

 

 

Anti-Coal Plant Protesters Storm Buildings, Evict Officials, Block Roads in South China

21.12.11

21.12.11

CHINESE pro­test­ers against a coal-pow­ered pow­er sta­tion have blocked a main road and defied riot police.

Reuters reports that the sit­u­a­tion seems to have esca­lat­ed, with res­i­dents smash­ing cars and hurl­ing bricks even though offi­cials sought to calm tem­pers by sus­pend­ing the unpop­u­lar plan.

Angry crowds smashed and over­turned police cars and riot police fired tear­gas in Haimen town in Shan­tou city on Wednes­day, the sec­ond day of the unrest, Hong Kong news­pa­pers report­ed.

Res­i­dents of Haimen, furi­ous with plans to build a coal-fired pow­er plant, took to the streets , sur­round­ing a gov­ern­ment build­ing and block­ing an express­way.

Offi­cials agreed to sus­pend the project this week, but res­i­dents refused to back down, demand­ing the plan be scrapped.

Out­side a large and closed petrol sta­tion near a high­way into Haimen, about 100 men on motor­bikes watched a wall of riot police armed with batons and shields, block­ing the high­way.

“What place in the world builds two pow­er plants with­in one kilo­me­tre?” said one of the Haimen res­i­dents, who was sur­named Cai, as he watched the riot police.

“The fac­to­ries are haz­ardous to our health. Our fish are dying and there are so many peo­ple who’ve got can­cer , ” he added.

“We thought of protest­ing out­side the gov­ern­ment office but we know none of them has lis­tened to us. So we had no choice but to block the high­way. The police beat up so many of the pro­test­ers in the past two days.”

At one point, Haimen res­i­dents screamed and surged for­ward when a riot police­man, wav­ing his baton in the air, charged towards a man on a motor­cy­cle who had been rid­ing towards the police block­ade on the high­way.

State news agency Xin­hua said sev­er­al hun­dred peo­ple had protest­ed on a high­way on Wednes­day. Accord­ing to Hong Kong’s Ming Pao news­pa­per, more than 1,000 res­i­dents gath­ered at a toll gate to con­front hun­dreds of riot police.

Wit­ness­es said police fired four rounds of tear­gas and beat up pro­test­ers, who do not want anoth­er pow­er plant when exist­ing pow­er facil­i­ties there were already pol­lut­ing air and sea­wa­ter and had great­ly reduced their catch at sea, the report added.

At least three pro­test­ers were hit and arrest­ed.

Adds Reuters: “Peo­ple in Chi­na are increas­ing­ly unwill­ing to accept the relent­less speed of urban­i­sa­tion and indus­tri­al­i­sa­tion and the impact on the envi­ron­ment and health.

“Protests are also often held over cor­rup­tion, wages and land seizures, that offi­cials jus­ti­fy in the name of devel­op­ment.

“Res­i­dents of Wukan vil­lage, also in Guang­dong, agreed to end a 10-day stand­off with author­i­ties over a land dis­pute on Wednes­day.”

Video

Sec­ond report here

Activists protest against Devada power plant in India

13.12.11

13.12.11

The 1,040 MW Hin­du­ja Ther­mal Pow­er Plant com­ing up at Deva­da vil­lage in the coastal dis­trict of Visakha­p­at­nam has run into trou­ble again, with locals and activists stag­ing mass protests against the mega project on grounds of envi­ron­men­tal pol­lu­tion and large-scale dis­place­ment of farm­ers.

A large group of res­i­dents and anti-project activists, sup­port­ed by oppo­si­tion par­ties and envi­ron­men­tal groups, staged a demon­stra­tion near the plant site on Mon­day, demand­ing imme­di­ate halt to the works and effec­tive reha­bil­i­ta­tion pack­age for the dis­placed fam­i­lies. As the protests led to ten­sion in the area, police swung into action and dis­persed the demon­stra­tors.

The coal-based pow­er project, being devel­oped by the Hin­du­ja Group, has run into rough weath­er with local farm­ers, oppo­si­tion groups, ener­gy experts and envi­ron­men­tal activists putting up a stiff resis­tance.

Stop New Nuclear newsletter no 10, 3 December 2011

Dear all,

Dear all,

this is our first newslet­ter since the Stop New Nuclear gath­er­ing in Bris­tol on 5/6 Novem­ber, where we decid­ed on our next major action. We are all excit­ed about our new plan, and with this newslet­ter we send you some infor­ma­tion about the planned action to sur­round Hink­ley Point on 10 March 2011, fol­lowed by a 24 hour block­ade until 11 March 2011. All this to mark one year since the begin­ning of the cat­a­stro­phe of Fukushi­ma, which is far from over.

No more Fukushimas

Fukushi­ma is the biggest indus­tri­al dis­as­ter in his­to­ry, and has brought Japan to its knees. The reac­tors that went into melt­down in March have now melt­ed through the foun­da­tions and 40 years of accu­mu­lat­ed nuclear waste is emit­ting vast amounts of radi­a­tion, con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing the land, sea and air. In des­per­a­tion, the Japan­ese gov­ern­ment is trans­port­ing and burn­ing radioac­tive rub­ble all over Japan and export­ing high­ly con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed food as “aid” to devel­op­ing coun­tries. Men, women and chil­dren are liv­ing in high­ly radioac­tive areas but they are not being evac­u­at­ed as they should be. This intense radi­a­tion expo­sure has very seri­ous health con­se­quences for these peo­ple.

How has Japan end­ed up in this dread­ful sit­u­a­tion? Their gov­ern­ment always said “It can’t hap­pen here.” Sound famil­iar? Pow­er­ful polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic inter­est groups are gag­ging the world’s media on this unfold­ing tragedy. Ordi­nary peo­ple the world over will pay the price.
Since the first civil­ian reac­tor start­ed gen­er­at­ing in 1954, there has been, on aver­age, a major acci­dent every 14–18 years: Wind­scale 1957, Three Mile Island1979, Cher­nobyl 1986, Fukushi­ma 2011.

Stop New Nuclear’s answer to the cri­sis of Fukushi­ma is clear: now new nuclear in Britain and any­where else! There­fore, our action on “Fukushi­ma day” will be to

Surround and blockade Hinkley Point, Somerset

Hink­ley Point is the first of eight pro­posed sites for nuclear new build to go ahead. We stopped them here before in 1987, and we can do it again in 2012. If they fail at Hink­ley, it is unlike­ly the “nuclear renais­sance” will have the momen­tum to con­tin­ue.
On the 10th ‑11th March 2012, one year since the Fukushi­ma nuclear dis­as­ter began, we will return to Hink­ley to form a human chain around the sta­tion to show our deter­mined oppo­si­tion to new nuclear.
In 2010, dozens of us block­ad­ed the gates at Hink­ley. In 2011 hun­dreds of us block­ad­ed the entrance again. In 2012, thou­sands of us will sur­round the pow­er sta­tion to say No to new nuclear! Not here, not any­where!
In Octo­ber 2011, peo­ple pledged to block­ade. This time, pledge to bring 5 friends and tell them to do the same. Thou­sands are need­ed to sur­round the sta­tion!
Pledge to sur­round Hink­ley Point, to bring five friends, or to block­ade Hink­ley Point

Help us mobilise

To ‘Sur­round Hink­ley’ is to demand to have a voice in deci­sions about our ener­gy future. Help to make this a fes­ti­val of cre­ative resis­tance with music, art, the­atre, ban­ners, and what­ev­er takes your fan­cy! To mark the end of the ‘Sur­round’, there will be a gath­er­ing at the main gate of Hink­ley for a ral­ly and music. You may want to return on the coach­es after the action or stay to block­ade the gates for 24 hours. With tents and tubes we will remain at the gates to show our sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of Japan.

The time to act is now! Join your local anti nuclear cam­paign, form affin­i­ty groups. The Stop New Nuclear Alliance can help by giv­ing train­ing in non-vio­lent direct action, con­sen­sus deci­sion- mak­ing, spokes coun­cils and advice on trans­port etc….

In our hun­dreds, in our thou­sands we will come togeth­er to stop nuclear pow­er at Hink­ley Point and dis­man­tle the whole new nuclear agen­da! This is the chance to be part of sme­thing mas­sive. JOIN US!

Please help to spread the mes­sage by either down­load­ing the fli­er, or ask us to send you a pack. We wel­come some dona­tion to cov­er postage, but even if you can’t — we need to get the mes­sage out!

Get in touch with us if you want to organ­ise a minibus or put on a coach.

News from nuclear new build

Hinkley Point

There was some news at the end of Octo­ber that EDF is delay­ing its final invest­ment deci­sion about Hink­ley C (and its oth­er planned new nuclear pow­er sta­tions in the UK: Sizewell, Heysham, etc) until the end of 2012. How­ev­er, EDF still insists that it will sub­mit its appli­ca­tion to the Infra­struc­ture Plan­ning Com­mis­sion soon, and also declared that it wants to start prepar­ing the site for Hink­ley C from spring 2012 on. For us, this means two things:

  • The next year will be cru­cial to push EDF to aban­don its plans for Hink­ley C. We need to step our cam­paign­ing to show EDF that it is not a good idea to invest in Hink­ley C, and that they should invest in renew­able ener­gy instead.
  • EDF still wants to pre­pare the site, which means it wants to destroy the land from spring 2012 on, even though there is not even a final deci­sion whether they will real­ly go ahead with Hink­ley C. This shows that a legal chal­lenge to the pre­lim­i­nary works per­mis­sion is even more impor­tant. Stop Hink­ley is rais­ing funds for a legal chal­lenge to West Som­er­set Coun­cil’s deci­sion to grant EDF per­mis­sion to car­ry out prepara­to­ry work on the site, even though EDF is still far from a per­mis­sion to con­struct the pow­er sta­tion itself (and has­n’t even made a final deci­sion). Stop Hink­ley needs to raise about £15,000 for this legal chal­lenge, to please sup­port Stop Hink­ley. More infor­ma­tion at http://stophinkley.org/LegChallAppeal.htm.

Nev­er­the­less, EDF went ahead with its appli­ca­tion to the Infra­struc­ture Plan­ning Com­mis­sion (IPC). The IPC has accept­ed the appli­ca­tion, and from Fri­day, 2 Decem­ber, there are 28 days for every­one to reg­is­ter that they want to com­ment on the appli­ca­tion. This is only a first reg­is­tra­tion, and does not need to be accom­pa­nied by the detailed objec­tions, but with­out this reg­is­tra­tion, you will not be able to object lat­er.

The Infra­struc­ture Plan­ning Com­mis­sion is also organ­is­ing events local­ly near Hink­ley Point to explain the process, when to reg­is­ter and how to make a rep­re­sen­ta­tion to the IPC. They will be held between 10am – 9pm at the fol­low­ing loca­tions:
- Stogursey — Mon­day 5 Decem­ber, The Vic­to­ry Hall, Tow­er Hill, Stogursey, TA5 1PR
- Can­ning­ton — Thurs­day 8 Decem­ber, Can­ning­ton Vil­lage Hall, 2 Brook Street, Can­ning­ton, TA5 2HP
- Willi­ton — Fri­day 9 Decem­ber, West Som­er­set House, Kil­lick Way, Willi­ton, TA4 4QA
- North Pether­ton — Mon­day 12 Decem­ber, The Wal­nut Tree Hotel, North Pether­ton, TA6 6QA
- Comb­wich — Tues­day 13 Decem­ber, Otter­hamp­ton Vil­lage Hall, River­side, Comb­wich, TA5 2QZ
- Bridg­wa­ter — Wednes­day 14 Decem­ber, Town Hall, High Street, Bridg­wa­ter, TA6 3BL.
More infor­ma­tion on the plan­ning process is avail­able on the web­site of the IPC at http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/projects/south-west/hinkley-point-c-new-nuclear-power-station/.

Stop Hink­ley will be pre­sent­ing more than 12,000 peti­tions against Hink­ley Point C at Down­ing Street on Tues­day, 6 Decem­ber, at at 1.30pm and at the Depart­ment of Ener­gy and Cli­mate Change in Lon­don on 6th Decem­ber at 2.00 pm. Mem­bers of Stop Hink­ley will be accom­pa­nied by Wells MP Tes­sa Munt and Green Par­ty leader and MP Car­o­line Lucas. The Depart­ment of Ener­gy is at 3 White­hall Place, Lon­don SW1A 2AW. More infor­ma­tion in the Stop Hink­ley press release at http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net/content/stop-hinkley-campaign-presents-petition-government-against-edf%E2%80%99s-nuclear-plans.

Wylfa

Things are also hot­ting up at Wyl­fa, where Hori­zon, a joint ven­ture of Ger­man util­i­ty com­pa­nies RWE and E.on, is plan­ning to build two to three new nuclear reac­tors. Hori­zon con­tin­ue to bul­ly the Jones fam­i­ly of Caerde­gog and have applied for com­pul­so­ry pow­ers to ascer­tain the suit­abil­i­ty of their land for con­struc­tion. Hori­zon Nuclear Pow­er (HNP) recent­ly applied to Ofgem for Sec­tion D of their Elec­tric­i­ty Gen­er­a­tion Licence to be “switched on”. Imme­di­ate­ly upon approval, HNP applied to Ofgem for con­sent to exer­cise their new explorato­ry rights under the Elec­tric­i­ty Act 1989. This would allow a gen­er­a­tion licence hold­er to enter and sur­vey any land to estab­lish whether it would be suit­able for the con­struc­tion of an elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion sta­tion. It would also give them the pow­er to exe­cute their author­i­ty to make com­pul­so­ry land pur­chase. On Thurs­day after­noon 17th Novem­ber, Richard Jones and his fam­i­ly received a let­ter in Eng­lish only from Ofgem inform­ing them of the rights recent­ly grant­ed to HNP to gain access to their land at Caerde­gog. Ofgem have failed in their duty under the Welsh Lan­guage Act to pro­vide the Jones fam­i­ly with the doc­u­ments in their own lan­guage. Fur­ther­more it is con­sid­ered unrea­son­able for any objec­tions to be lodged with­in a time lim­it of five work­ing days espe­cial­ly in view of the legal con­tent of the cor­re­spon­dence (see the offi­cial con­sul­ta­tion at http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Pages/MoreInformation.aspx?file=Consultation%20on%20Horizon%20Application%20for%20Consent%20to%20use%20Exploratory%20Rights.pdf&refer=Licensing/Work).
Hori­zon have con­tin­ued to say that they would only use com­pul­so­ry pow­ers as a last resort yet they exe­cut­ed their new­ly acquired author­i­ty with­in days of it being grant­ed.
On behalf of the fam­i­ly, Richard Jones said: “We as a fam­i­ly will resist Horizon’s bul­ly­ing tac­tics in the attempt­ed destruc­tion of our her­itage, our liveli­hood and our future.”
See the press release of Peo­ple Against Wyl­fa B at http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net/content/nuclear-monster-continues-torment-local-family.

Donate

The new action to sur­round Hink­ley, and the 24 hour block­ade, will need a lot of mon­ey to make them hap­pen. While we don’t start with noth­ing, we are nowhere near what we will need. We are present­ly work­ing on a bud­get, but one thing is clear: Please give gen­er­ous­ly. You can donate online at http://stopnewnuclear.org.uk/donate, or you can send a cheque made payable to Stop New Nuclear to:
Stop New Nuclear
c/o 5 Cale­don­ian Road
Lon­don N1 9DX
Thank you!

Stop New Nuclear newslet­ter

 

Three days of action against Shell

Decem­ber 13, 2011

Pro­test­ers give Shell an ear­ly Christ­mas present

Decem­ber 13, 2011

Pro­test­ers give Shell an ear­ly Christ­mas present

The Shell to Sea cam­paign is still run­ning strong 11 years after the incep­tion of the Cor­rib gas project. Every­day peo­ple are becom­ing aware of the peo­ple’s strug­gle against Shell, but still more are need­ed to come and see for them­selves and save our coun­try from the glob­al cor­po­rate takeover.

On Fri­day 9th of Decem­ber, Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Cam­paign [http://www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org/] con­tin­ued with the locals’ protest slow­ing down Shel­l’s work, spir­its were high and peo­ple were pleased with the action despite the Chief’s legal judge­ment [http://www.indymedia.ie/article/101060] peo­ple still braced the cold con­di­tions to con­tin­ue the protest.

On Sat­ur­day the 10th a Day Of Action com­menced with groups of peo­ple from all over the coun­try com­ing out to sup­port the Shell to Sea cam­paign. Peo­ple from the Occu­py camps [http://www.indymedia.ie/article/100863] in Gal­way, Dublin and Cork came to protest Shel­l’s occu­pa­tion of Erris. Pro­test­ers stood out­side the com­pound at Aghoos for 2 hours pre­vent­ing any work from start­ing. The action was a suc­cess and no Gar­da pres­ence was noticed.

On Mon­day 12th a spon­ta­neous action hap­pened at the refin­ery site at Bal­linaboy with 15 pro­test­ers from var­i­ous parts of the coun­try man­ag­ing to stop up to 12 trucks simul­ta­ne­ous­ly for an hour, no arrests were made, the small Gar­da pres­ence were no match for the swift­ness and brav­ery of the pro­test­ers. The only casu­al­ty was a bike unlaw­ful­ly con­fis­cat­ed by the Gar­da.

On Tues­day 13th the reg­u­lar protest took place at the Bal­linaboy com­pound. Around 15 pro­test­ers were met with an equal num­ber of Gar­dai who pre­vent­ed peo­ple walk­ing on the road. The right to peace­ful protest was met with the threat of arrest. Peo­ple still man­aged to stop 7 trucks for 40 min­utes. Strong cold winds and hail, com­bined with the pro­test­ers, stopped Shell doing any work on the Tues­day.

Through the inter­net and Occu­py groups in var­i­ous Irish cities there is an out­let for infor­ma­tion of upcom­ing actions and events. Jan­u­ary 13th is the next Day Of Action; all are wel­come to come and change our nation’s his­to­ry.

Relentless Blockading of $hell’s Work

Novem­ber 29, 2011

In Erris, Co. Mayo the Tues­day morn­ing tra­di­tion­al gath­er­ing out­side the $hell refin­ery con­tin­ues despite increas­ing pres­ence of Gar­dai and rain.

Novem­ber 29, 2011

In Erris, Co. Mayo the Tues­day morn­ing tra­di­tion­al gath­er­ing out­side the $hell refin­ery con­tin­ues despite increas­ing pres­ence of Gar­dai and rain.

$hell use the refin­ery as a hold­ing area for mate­ri­als, and it is also set on the haulage route between local quar­ries, the peat depo­si­tion site, and the com­pound at Augh­oose.

This morn­ing local res­i­dents and sup­port­ers from Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp were out in good num­bers, block­ing deliv­er­ies of stone and truck­loads of extract­ed peat through­out the morn­ing and giv­ing the Gar­dai a run for their dirty mon­ey. Regard­less of the odds one per­son rose to the chal­lenge, occu­py­ing a truck from Bar­ret­t’s quar­ry for two hours — all work at the com­pound then came to a halt.

The Gar­dai even­tu­al­ly brought in the ‘trans­porter’ to remove them, dur­ing which they also attempt­ed to pre­vent peo­ple film­ing the arrest.

In the face of the enor­mi­ty of $hel­l’s plans for Erris, the strug­gle con­tin­ues!
If you would like to join us for any amount of time see
www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org / www.shelltosea.com

——

Gardai and IRMS rendered powerless as campaigners blockade Shell’s compound

Decem­ber 2, 2011

Work was com­plete­ly halt­ed at Shell’s com­pound yes­ter­day for over five hours in a great show of resiliance by local cam­paign­ers and their sup­port­ers. For the past two weeks now, Shell have been attempt­ing to remove mass­es of peat from the com­pound in prepa­ra­tion for the tun­nel bor­ing machine which is expect­ed to arrive ear­ly next year. Progress has been con­tin­u­ous­ly dis­rupt­ed as pro­test­ers brave the win­ter weath­er to stop trucks and a deter­mined resis­tance is build­ing momen­tum.

A local cam­paign­er yes­ter­day wait­ed patient­ly out­side the main gate of Shell’s com­pound in his car and request­ed to see some­one in charge. For weeks now he has been try­ing to lodge com­plaints about pub­lic safe­ty and traf­fic issues gen­er­at­ed from the Augh­oose com­pound. His con­cerns have been to date ignored. Hav­ing con­tact­ed the Shell offices in Bel­mul­let and the refin­ery he was fur­ther direct­ed by staff to go and try lodge his com­plaints at the com­pound in Augh­oose where fol­low­ing a long wait his request remained unan­swered. Once again the seri­ous con­cerns of local peo­ple were ignored.

In the mean­time, pro­test­ers arrived to slow work down and were met with six gar­da vehi­cles and a dozen or more Gar­dai along with just as many IRMS secu­ri­ty. A trac­tor was pre­vent­ed from enter­ing the com­pound with equip­ment despite gar­dai push­ing and shov­ing pro­test­ers around the road. Once the cam­paign­ers asked the Gar­dai to full­fil their duty and arrest them for block­ing Shell vehi­cles the Gar­dai stepped back. It is obvi­ous that the state’s police force here in Mayo pre­fer to employ vio­lence against pro­test­ers where pos­si­ble. Civ­il dis­obe­di­ence in num­bers made them think again.

For the fol­low­ing 4 hours the gates remained shut, a long line of trucks and trac­tors turned off their engines and work ground to a halt as cam­paign­ers con­tin­ued to peace­ful­ly demon­strate. One local per­son was assault­ed by IRMS and after many requests the Gar­dai even­tu­al­ly took his com­plaint. No arrests were made in a high­ly spir­it­ed day. An Gar­da Siochana, who are sup­pos­ed­ly the guardians of the peace, can bla­tant­ly be seen to be guardians of cor­po­ra­tions and cor­rup­tion up here in Erris.

The strug­gle con­tin­ues. Be part of the resis­tance. All are wel­come to stay at our win­ter camp or come join us dur­ing our day of sol­i­dar­i­ty on Sat­ur­day, 10th of Decem­ber.

Indigenous Elders & Supporters Occupy ALEC Member Salt River Project Headquarters

2.12.11

Indige­nous Dine’ (Nava­jo) and O’odham elders and sup­port­ers are tak­ing direct action by occu­py­ing Salt Riv­er Project (SRP) head­quar­ters today at 10am. This action is occur­ring while the Amer­i­can Leg­isla­tive Exchange Coun­cil (ALEC) holds their “States & Nation Pol­i­cy Sum­mit” in Scotts­dale, AZ. SRP is on ALEC’s cor­po­rate board.

2.12.11

Indige­nous Dine’ (Nava­jo) and O’odham elders and sup­port­ers are tak­ing direct action by occu­py­ing Salt Riv­er Project (SRP) head­quar­ters today at 10am. This action is occur­ring while the Amer­i­can Leg­isla­tive Exchange Coun­cil (ALEC) holds their “States & Nation Pol­i­cy Sum­mit” in Scotts­dale, AZ. SRP is on ALEC’s cor­po­rate board.

Louise Benal­ly, a res­i­dent of Black Mesa impact­ed by SRP’s oper­a­tions, is deliv­er­ing a let­ter to SRP that out­lines crit­i­cal con­cerns of her com­mu­ni­ty. She expressed that “My com­mu­ni­ty is heav­i­ly impact­ed by Salt Riv­er Project’s coal and water extrac­tion activ­i­ties. SRP has exten­sive ties to Peabody Energy’s mas­sive min­ing oper­a­tions and the Nava­jo Gen­er­at­ing Sta­tion which they co-own. Coal min­ing has destroyed thou­sands of arche­o­log­i­cal sites and our only water source has been seri­ous­ly com­pro­mised. Their oper­a­tions are caus­ing wide­spread res­pi­ra­to­ry prob­lems, lung dis­eases, and oth­er health impacts on humans, the envi­ron­ment, and all liv­ing things.”

“…We demand that SRP & Peabody mean­ing­ful­ly involve the indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties they are impact­ing, and that they con­vert to non-fos­sil fuel based ener­gy sources and address the health impacts on our com­mu­ni­ties.”

“…ALEC, act­ing in the cor­po­rate inter­ests of SRP & Peabody Ener­gy, con­tin­ues poli­cies & oper­a­tions that are not only dev­as­tat­ing whole com­mu­ni­ties and ecosys­tems, but great­ly de-sta­bi­liz­ing our planet’s cli­mate for the prof­it of a few, the so-called 1%.” stat­ed Benal­ly.

Ofe­lia Rivas, an elder and activist of the O’odham, Indige­nous Peo­ples on the bor­der of Ari­zona and Mex­i­co, states “As indige­nous peo­ple we under­stand that the bal­ance of the land is actu­al­ly the bal­ance of our peo­ple and any dis­tur­bance of that is very dev­as­tat­ing not only to our spir­i­tu­al health but our over­all phys­i­cal health, as well as all liv­ing things. As indige­nous peo­ple we are not sep­a­rat­ed from our envi­ron­ment. We’re deeply con­nect­ed to every­thing in the uni­verse: the land, the moun­tains, water, air, and all plant and ani­mal life.”

“…The pro­posed loop 202 free­way exten­sion that threat­ens South Moun­tain and the con­tin­u­ing con­struc­tion of the US and Mex­i­co bor­der and it’s mil­i­ta­riza­tion. Trade poli­cies such as NAFTA and CANAMEX alter our way of life and threat­ens our Him’dag. We will no longer accept the vio­lence the state attempts to enforce on us along their bor­der. Espe­cial­ly the aggres­sive leg­is­la­tion of ALEC. We demand you rec­og­nize the dec­la­ra­tion of uni­ver­sal indige­nous rights as well as the rights of our moth­er earth. Enough is enough, it ends now!”

The mas­sive canals con­struct­ed before colo­nial inva­sion of O’odham lands are now being uti­lized by Salt Riv­er Project. O’odham cul­ture is deeply root­ed through­out this area, which is as far north as the Phoenix Val­ley, as far west as the coast of Mex­i­co in what is now Rocky Point, east as the San Pedro riv­er and as far south as Her­mosil­lo and the Sier­ra Madres Moun­tains.

Ray Aguilar stat­ed that “the air con­di­tion­ing and pow­er we enjoy and water we drink comes at the suf­fer­ing caused by SRP and Peabody’s exploita­tion of the land and peo­ple. When will we real­ize that our priv­i­leges our based on this? We must take fur­ther action. I just spent one week doing direct, on-land sup­port with Black Mesa res­i­dents assist­ing with basic essen­tial human needs.  That’s why I’m here today. This crit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion would not exist if not for these greedy cor­po­ra­tions.”

Peabody Ener­gy, also an ALEC mem­ber, is the world’s largest pri­vate-sec­tor coal com­pa­ny. With 2010 sales of 246 mil­lion tons and near­ly $7 bil­lion in rev­enues, Peabody cre­ates 10 per­cent of U.S. pow­er and 2 per­cent of world­wide elec­tric­i­ty.

Since 1974 more than 14,000 Dine’ fam­i­lies have been forcibly removed from their ances­tral home­lands due in large part due to U.S.-backed trib­al coun­cils and cola min­ing.

Pho­tos, videos and what hap­pened next at http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/

———

ALEC Back­ground, call-out etc

The convergence to expose and shut down the American Legislative
Exchange Council's policy meeting has begun in Scottsdale, AZ. ALEC's
tentacles reach into almost every one of the environmental and social
justice struggles we work on. Exposing ALEC is difficult because of the
massive amount of information we have about them and the broad range of
issues they effect. As wikileaks has been the platform for a vast amount
of information bringing light to corruption, Alecexposed.org is a treasure trove information exposing
ALEC.  I'm looking for help posting to independent media websites and
blogs about the ALEC protest in AZ, and links to ALECs regional impacts.
We need a few people around the country posting to both english and
spanish language indymedia sites.


There are press releases in english and spanish and a call to action
(including information about the action to "Occupy the Phones")  see
attachment and azresistsalec.wordpress.com




websites:
azresistsalec.wordpress.com - for
general information about the convergence to shut down alec
Shutdownalec.org - We are posting media (foto/video) directly by tagging
flickr photos and video with the hashtags: #occupyALEC, #shutdownALEC
and/or #ALECexposed



The AZ Resists media team is posting video on youtube.com
<http://youtube.com> on channel: shutdownalec. Crowd sourced video on
shutdownalec.org



Please pass on this email to anyone you think might be interested in
supporting!



In Solidarity



AZ Resists ALEC Media Team
azresistsmedia@gmail.com 
530-598-1670 <tel:530-598-1670>







SHUT DOWN THE AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL



This document includes informations about:



-OCCUPY THE PHONES ! IMMEDIATE CALL TO ACTION



-Call for National Solidarity



-Suggested Actions to help expose ALEC!



1. Call the WESTIN KIERLAND RESORT & SPA.



2. Tell them you do not approve of their decision to host the American
Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC’s) States and Policy summit.



3. Be friendly, don't take your anger out on the hotel workers who are
not responsible, but make sure your message gets across.



4. Hang up, and call again.



Use these numbers to occupy their lines!



general contact: 480.624.1000 <tel:480.624.1000>



resort reservations: 480.624.1202 <tel:480.624.1202>, 800.354.5892
<tel:800.354.5892>



dining reservations: 480.624.1202 <tel:480.624.1202>



spa reservations: 480.624.1202 <tel:480.624.1202>



tee time reservations: 480.624.1202 <tel:480.624.1202>



resort activities: 480.624.1268 <tel:480.624.1268>



media contact: 480.624.1315 <tel:480.624.1315>



special events: 480.624.1332 <tel:480.624.1332>



meetings and events: 480.624.1220 <tel:480.624.1220>



Background info:



The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa is built to host conventions. Tucked
away in Scottsdale, and less than one mile from Scottsdale Executive
Airport, well-funded organizations can meet in a comfortable, secretive
environment without setting foot outside the luxurious hotel grounds.
This is where ALEC has chosen to bring together legislators and
corporations to draft model legislation that exempts corporations from
environmental and labor laws, pushes for Three Strikes and mandatory
minimum sentencing, and targets, criminalizes and incarcerates
communities of color, among other profit-driven laws (more info:
alecexposed.org.



Call the Westin Kierland today to shame them for their part in allowing
the sale of local and national legislation to the highest bidder.



More info: azresistsalec.wordpress.com
.



Be the media! www.shutdownalec.org



Here are a few suggestions for actions, share your creative ideas with
us and keep in touch on N30.



azresistsmedia@gmail.com 



http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/



#occupyALEC, #shutdownALEC and/or #ALECexposed



-Hold a Teach-In or other educational outreach event (an informative
power point and other resources are available:
http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/more-info-on-alec/)



-Shut down the 1% ! Occupy an ALEC corporation near you…too many to
choose from? Focus on the board of directors
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Boards_and_Task_Forces)



-Bring your message to an ALEC legislative member near you. What’s your
local connection to ALEC? – In AZ we are focusing on the ongoing
colonization and exploitation of Native land and ALEC’s connection to
immigration and the private prison industry.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Politicians



-Street theater exposing corruption – Remember Billionaires for Bush? -
Form a “business suit bloc” and March!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAv8Mv9tzoA)



-Literally “Expose” ALEC – two letters per butt cheek...just sayin’...
Or get a trench coat and hide ALEC’s sample bills inside…show people
what’s under your coat…



Go to the website and see “Find ‘Find Model Bills’ here”
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed



-Twitter and Blog about ALEC on N30- get the word out far and wide!



-So many issues! Can’t decide? Focus on how private prisons affect your
community.



http://www.thenation.com/article/162478/hidden-history-alec-and-prison-labor



-Got a projector? Have a guerilla movie night to expose ALECs major
funder the Koch brothers.



http://kochbrothersexposed.com/thepress/2011/05/13/guerrilla-drive-in-at-lincoln-center-shames-koch-brother/



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vykr06dMwY&feature=player_embedded



Lots more information can be found at:



http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Corporations



http://www.alecexposed.org/



______________________________________________________________________




Take Action on N30!SHUT ALEC DOWN!



  From November 30 to December 3rd, 2011,some of the most powerful
corporations and thousands of state legislators will be bringing Wall
Street politics and greed to Scottsdale, AZ.  The American Legislative
Exchange Council (ALEC), will be having their States and Nations Policy
Summit where they can continue their drive for profits, and to control
and destroy our communities and the earth.



Most of us learned about ALEC, a secretive nation-wide
organization, when they were exposed for their relationship with private
prisons and their role in SB1070 and its copy cat laws, although they've
been involved in various efforts to criminalize people through such
things as the mandatory minimum sentencing and three strikes laws.  They
were also involved in the creation of the animal enterprise terrorism
act (AETA), they support companies (including BP) involved with energy
extraction across the world (including Tar Sands), as well big
pharmaceutical companies.



We are calling for a *national day of action*on November 30 to
demonstrate against ALEC during their conference.



Join us in Scottsdale, AZ on occupied Onk Akimel O’odham lands, to
expose, confront, and resist ALEC and what they represent.



ALEC is everywhere. If you can't make it, find one or more
representatives of ALEC (corporate, government, or non-profit org) in
your area to expose, confront, and resist!



Please spread the word!



http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com 



http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Corporations



http://www.alecexposed.org/



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Some Messaging:



“We want ALEC to be so transparent they don’t exist anymore”



“ALEC is the 1% ”



“Corporations write legislation?!? This is corrupt and should stop!”



“People over Profits! No more profiting of the misery of others”

 

anti- Fracking protesters shut down the country’s only hydrolic fracturing rig — again!

1.12.11

1.12.11

Activists set­tle in for long-term occu­pa­tion of tox­ic new indus­try which threat­ens the West Coun­try

The con­tro­ver­sial pro­posed Frack­ing site in Hes­keth Bank, Lan­cashire was shut down this morn­ing as 8 Bris­tol cyclists stormed the drilling rig. Three of the cli­mate jus­tice cam­paign­ers from Bris­tol Ris­ing Tide scaled the Cuadrilla Resources equip­ment with sup­plies and have declared their inten­tion to stop work for sev­er­al days.

The drilling rig is the only oper­a­tion of it’s kind work­ing in the coun­try, after a sim­i­lar explorato­ry site in Black­pool was shut down in the spring because it induced two earth­quakes in the area. [1]

Liz Sparks, a spokesper­son for Bris­tol Ris­ing Tide, explained the poten­tial dan­gers of frack­ing in the South West:

“Large parts of Wales, Devon, Som­er­set and Dor­est are poten­tial­ly under threat from this des­per­ate new tech­nol­o­gy, which involves extract­ing the gas in shale rock through Hydraulic Frac­tur­ing, (or frack­ing) [2]. Huge amounts of water mixed with tox­ic chem­i­cals are forced into the ground at high pres­sure, a large pro­por­tion of which are nev­er recov­ered. This flu­id also leach­es arsenic out of rocks, cre­at­ing a dan­ger­ous cock­tail that’s dif­fi­cult to dis­pose of. In the Unit­ed states numer­ous spills of these flu­ids have con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed irri­ga­tion water, effect­ing food sup­plies, and the health of sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties.” [3]

The same site was occu­pied last month by anoth­er group- “Frack Off”, and local com­mu­ni­ty resis­tance across the coun­try is gain­ing ground. [4]

Paul Williams, who works in a Bris­tol Library, was among the pro­tes­tors. He com­ment­ed:

“Peo­ple sim­ply aren’t going to stand by and let this crazy extreme sneak into our land­scape. We’ve been inspired by the remark­able work of our neigh­bours in Wales. Glam­or­gan coun­ty coun­cil recent­ly vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly against an appli­ca­tion to Frack the area.[5] This deci­sion was influ­enced by Welsh Water’s sub­mis­sion that reserve ground­wa­ter sites are at risk of con­t­a­m­i­na­tion. We can stop this before it starts if we act now. If you want earth­quakes, run­away cli­mate change, con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed water, and a threat to agri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion then Frack­ing’s the way for­ward. If you want ener­gy secu­ri­ty and more jobs per kilo­watt hour, go with renew­ables [6]. It’s a no brain­er.”

The indus­try is quick to point to the US expe­ri­ence of frack­ing, but their safe­ty record there is on increas­ing­ly shaky ground. New York State has just insti­tut­ed a mora­to­ri­um against frack­ing, as has Que­bec, Cana­da. France has banned it out­right, as has New Jer­sey in the US. [7]

Twit­ter: Fol­low the action on twit­ter: https://twitter.com/#!/BrisRisingTide (Bris­Ris­ingTide)

Pho­tos and videos updat­ed in real-time on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/71113300@N08/ (Bris­tol Ris­ing Tide)

For more info see: www.frack-off.org
And www.risingtide.org.uk/bristol

Xstrata mining stormed by Occupy London protestors + global anti-Xstrata protests

30.11.11

30.11.11

An action took place in Lon­don against a union-bust­ing earth-trash­ing Swiss/British coal and met­al min­ing com­pa­ny — for a selec­tion of the glob­al protests against them, see below the main arti­cle.  There’s var­i­ous footage: 1 | 2 | 3  | 4 | 5. Part of the N30 mass strike (time­line). 

#Occu­pyL­SX had announced an action at 3pm at Pic­cadil­ly Cir­cus. They set off with the sam­ba band and min­utes lat­er a flare was set off inside Pan­ton House, Hay­mar­ket, whilst a ban­ner was hung from the roof. Out­side pro­tes­tors chal­lenged some plain­clothes cops in the crowd, after which a ‘bub­ble’ or ket­tle was set up, appar­ent­ly with more plain clothes cops trapped inside it.

Occu­py Lon­don – part of the glob­al move­ment for social and eco­nom­ic jus­tice – today high­light­ed the cor­po­rate greed endem­ic in the UK and called for a change with­in soci­ety.

About 60 pro­tes­tors gained entry into the offices of min­ing com­pa­ny Xstra­ta, a ‘lead­ing light’ of the FTSE 100 and British indus­try to high­light the fact that CEO Mick Davies was the high­est com­pen­sat­ed CEO of all the FTSE 100 com­pa­nies in the last year, when his com­pa­nies had loss­es and the econ­o­my col­lapsed. He received £18,426,105 for his efforts. [1]

This comes in a year when the aver­age pay rise of exec­u­tives across FTSE 100 com­pa­nies was 43%, with ‘top’ direc­tors at 49%. [2]

Led by a sam­ba band to the build­ing from Pic­cadil­ly Cir­cus, the pro­test­ers entered the HQ at 25–7 Hay­mar­ket, Lon­don, with the pro­test­ers chant­i­ng against the cor­po­rate greed of Mick and oth­er exec­u­tives, in sup­port of all those strik­ing for fair pen­sions for all today. The pro­tes­tors also unfurled a ban­ner say­ing “All pow­er to the 99%” from the roof top.

There are cur­rent­ly about 20 pro­test­ers inside – being held down on knees, of which many are women. There are a few hun­dred peo­ple ket­tled out­side.

The pro­test­ers today are mak­ing the con­nec­tion between the slash­ing of pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tor pen­sions, while sup­posed ‘top’ exec­u­tives cash in by increas­ing their own pay lev­els, leav­ing many with­out pen­sions. These CEOs like Mick Davies lav­ish­ly secure their own futures while ignor­ing the secu­ri­ty and well­be­ing of their own work­ers.

Mines have closed in Aus­tralia, South Africa and Spain with­in the last decade result­ing in hun­dreds of work­ers in the last decade being laid off.

Karen Lin­coln, sup­port­er of Occu­py Lon­don said: “Mick Davies is a prime exam­ple of the greedy 1 per cent, lin­ing their own pock­ets while deny­ing work­ers pen­sions. In this time when the gov­ern­ment enforces aus­ter­i­ty on the 99 per cent, these exec­u­tives are prof­it­ing. The rest of us are hav­ing our pen­sions cuts, health ser­vice torn apart and youth cen­tres shut down.

“We refuse to stand by and let this hap­pen. We call on oth­ers to join us in the fight for a more just soci­ety. Today we have tak­en this to one of the offices of the 1 per cent. This is only the begin­ning. Come and join us on 15th Decem­ber for Occu­py Every­where.”

Occu­py Lon­don will unveil details of Occu­py Every­where soon. Be ready.

Notes

[1] Accord­ing to the Income Data Ser­vices, Mick Davies from Xstra­ta (min­ing com­pa­ny) was the high­est paid exec­u­tive in the FTSE 100. His com­pa­ny has recent­ly tak­en severe hits as FTSE 100 com­pa­nies face drop in val­ue (£104 bil­lion off FTSE 100 com­pa­nies). He was paid £18,426,105. LONDON OFFICE: Reg­is­tered Office, 4th Floor 25/27 Hay­mar­ket, Lon­don SW1Y 4EN

High­est paid exec­u­tives in the FTSE 100:

1. Mick Davies, Xstra­ta, £18,426,105

2. Bart Becht, Reckitt Benkiser, £17,879,000

3. Michael Spencer, ICAP £13,419,619

4. Sir Ter­ry Leahy, Tesco £12,038,303

5. Tom Albanese, Rio Tin­to £11,623,162

6. Sir Mar­tin Sor­rell, WPP Group £8,949,985

7. Todd Kozel, Gulf Key­stone Petro­le­um £8,913,223

8. Don Robert, Exper­ian £8,601,984

9. Edward Bon­ham Carter, Jupiter Fund Man­age­ment £8,003,641

10. Dame Mar­jorie Scardi­no, Pear­son £8,003,641

[2]  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/business-as-usual-top-directors-get-49-per-cent-pay-rise-2376929.html

[3] Face­book page for Occu­py London’s Stock Exchange site just by St Paul’s (Occu­pyL­SX) is  https://www.facebook.com/occupylondon. Over­all Occu­py Lon­don twit­ter Occu­py Lon­don­hastag is #occu­py­lon­don. Occu­pyL­SX Twit­ter is  https://twitter.com/#!/OccupyLSX ; hashtag#occupylsx. Twit­ter for the new Fins­bury Square site is  https://twitter.com/#!/OccupyFS; hastag #occu­pyfs. Twit­ter for Bank of Ideas is  http://twitter.com/bankofideas and face­book is  http://facebook.com/bankofideaslondon

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What hap­pened next (& pho­tos) — ejec­tion, ket­tling (with new added ‘info screens’), arrests and arrestee-coach block­ing. 

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Oct.’07: Xstra­ta, crit­i­cized heav­i­ly by a grow­ing num­ber of Chileans oppos­ing the Swiss min­ing company’s plan to build a large hydro­elec­tric dam in north­ern Patag­o­nia (Region XI), is no stranger to con­tro­ver­sy – espe­cial­ly when it comes to rivers.  More

Oct.’06: THE tra­di­tion­al Abo­rig­i­nal own­ers of land near the Gulf of Car­pen­taria are trav­el­ling to Dar­win to protest against the min­ing com­pa­ny Xstrata’s deci­sion to expand a zinc and lead mine by divert­ing the McArthur Riv­er. More

Jan.’08: Com­mu­nist rebels have attacked a $2 bil­lion cop­per and gold mine owned by Xstra­ta in the Philip­pines. More

May ’11: Peru — Xstra­ta halts activ­i­ties at Las Bam­bas due to protests  More

Nov.’11: Work­ers of the min­ing group Xstra­ta are to demon­strate in Johan­nes­burg on Tues­day to demand the right to take part in indus­tri­al action.…“This march will be tak­ing place amid the impromp­tu arrest of Num­sa mem­bers by [the] SA Police Ser­vice under the instruc­tion of one of Xstrata’s key exec­u­tives.” More

Nov.’11: Vehi­cles torched in job protest at Xstra­ta mine More