Climate Chaos – Page 89

Climate Rush & Yes Men Barricade Mandy’s Home in Support of Vestas Protests

10.8.2009
Welcome home Mandy! At 6am this morning, two climate suffragettes and the Yes Men barricaded Peter Mandleson’s Regent’s Park home in support of the Vestas workers and wind power in the UK. The climate suffragettes, chained to his gate, unfurled a banner reading ‘Mandy, Put Some Wind in Vestas’ Sales’ while the Yes Men inflated their ‘survivor balls’ in preparation for the worst effects of climate change…

With the workers being evicted from the Vestas factory in Newport last Friday, the campaign to save Vestas and galvanise wind power in the UK continues. The protest called on Lord Mandleson, as Business Secretary and general governmental overseer, to ensure Vestas’ presence in the UK remained economically viable. The government has already shown they are willing to bail out the banks and stimulate the car industry (Mandleson returns from holiday today to try and secure 5000 jobs at Vauxhall’s Luton and Ellesmere Port plants), yet the wind power industry remains a sad indictment of years of government neglect.

Vestas’ UK chief, Rob Sauven, claimed that for the company to remain economically viable in the UK it would need to be receiving 1GW worth of order a year. With Vestas controlling a quarter if the UK market this would require the UK to be adding 4GW of wind power every year. Last year the UK added only 0.5GW.

With the government wanting to achieve 15% of total energy production from wind power by 2020, as part of its green economic recovery plan to create tens of thousands of green jobs, Sauven’s assessment illustrates a dire need to stimulate demand and ensure Britain’s already late transition to a low carbon economy does not fail.

info@climaterush.co.uk
http://www.climaterush.co.uk

News from climate action camps in Scotland, Belgium/Netherlands and France

Scottish camp starts – Scottish coal conveyor supplying Drax sabotaged – targets list –
Belgian/Dutch camp starts – Belgian coal terminal occupied – French camp & Nantes airport action

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Scottish camp starts – Scottish coal conveyor supplying Drax sabotaged – targets list –
Belgian/Dutch camp starts – Belgian coal terminal occupied – French camp & Nantes airport action

…

Local support for Climate Camp Scotland is made quite clear on the (longer than we expected) bus ride from Lanark through the winding country lanes to Mainshill solidarity camp that is also now Scotlands’ Climate Camp.

Spotting us with our tent and gear an older woman says she would’ve joined the camp if it wasn’t for her bad health and other women on the bus jeer and promise food donations. A bloke immediately struck up a conversation telling us he used to work on the opencast mine and that his brother still does. He said he couldn’t understand why they were so keen to reopen and restart work on the site. He’ll more than likely be visiting the camp this week too.

We arrived at the 6ft wooden fence fitted with a door that is the main gate of the camp about 2pm – the driver making an unscheduled stop to drop us off at the camp entrance so we didn’t have to walk back from the nearest stop – just as 2 local plod had managed to walk in wandering half way up the lane to the camp finding themselves quickly surrounded by climate campers convincing them to leave. Other than that, the lone cop with video cam at Lanark station and the chopper which hovered around for a few minutes a while ago, the authorities seem to be keeping a low profile. No FIT at the camp, in fact no police hanging around at all.

Although not very busy yet, the camp is looking solid: never mind the compost toilets, there’s a bike-powered cinema, big kitchen tent, and solar-powered (indy)media tent. And plenty of camping space, of course. From the other end of the field we can see the wind farms on hills to either side of the camp.

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Glentaggart Coalmine Sabotaged; Police leave cancelled across the region

The Camp for Climate Action Scotland has been informed that anonymous activists have successfully sabotaged the Glentaggart opencast coal mine in South Lanarkshire. The unknown individuals have disabled the conveyor belt that moves coal from the mine to Ravenstruther rail terminal where the coal is then sent to Drax power station in Yorkshire.

The sabotage has the potential to greatly disrupt the removal of coal. Insiders say that once it has been stopped it is difficult to restart the heavily laden conveyors which is several kilometers long and comes in quarter kilometer sections. Drax power station was the site of the first Camp for Climate Action 2006.

The Camp for Climate Action Scotland is taking place cross the valley from Glentaggart at the site of another proposed open cast mine at Mainshill woods near Douglas. A protest camp has already been in place for six weeks campaigning against the plans which have gone through despite strong local opposition. The area is already one of the most heavily mined areas in Europe with a number of other opencast mines already being worked.

Diarmaid Lynch, a spokesperson from the Camp said on hearing the news, “Fantastic. Congratulations to those who did this. Opencast mining is responsible for a spike in the number of lung related deaths in this small area. It is time that the likes of Scottish Coal and the planning authorities are held directly responsible for their role in these deaths. Climate change is a killer, both at home and in the Global South where those who have benefited the least from industrialisation are the first to pay the price.”

The World Health Organisation estimates that climate change kills 150,000 people a year and that figure is expected to grow as countries fail to take action. Cancer in the Douglas postcode area is 23% above the national average, and 28% above the regional average. In the four years that the existing three opencast mines have been operating in the area pulmonary issues have increased 60%.

In a separate development the Camp for Climate Action has also learned that police leave across the central belt of Scotland has been cancelled as the various forces move to a state of high alert. To date the policing at the Camp has been very low key, but campers remain alert.

Scotland’s Climate Criminals

The following is a list of the operations in Scotland which profit from the exploitation of fossil fuels. None of these operations are compatible with the vision for a zero-carbon Scotland as such they will be targetted with direct action in order to ensure we can make a just transition towards a sustainable future.

Longannet and Cockenzie Coal Power stations

Glasgow, Edinburgh, Preswick and Aberdeen Airports

Oil & Gas operations in Aberdeen-shire

Grangemouth Oil & Gas Refinery

Hunterston coal terminal

All open-cast coal mines

Coal distribution network including;
Ravenstruther coal terminal
Crowbandsgate Rail Facility
Glentaggart Conveyer belt

RBS HQ

Scottish Power HQ

Scottish and Southern Energy HQ

Motorway constructions such as M74

http://climatecampscotland.org.uk/

Video – http://www.envirospeak.tv/video/375

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Guide to dismantling the coal industry in Scotland, a 16-page information sheet released by Climate Camp Scotland and Coal Action Scotland [pdf 5.3M]

includes information on open cast coal mines and mine operators, coal-fired power stations, coal rail and port infrastructure, industry lobbyists, and a map of Scottish targets.

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Netherlands/Belgium camp – We’ve started – come join us!

More than 100 people entered and secured a field between Zandvliet and Berendrecht, in the heart of Antwerp’s industrial harbour, at 1am this morning. They have erected tripods, hung banners and are well underway in setting up camp.

Although the Climate Action Camp has been open about most aspects of the plan, the location of the camp had not been revealed until Saturday morning in order to prevent police from attempting to stop it from happening.

The official start date is Monday August 3rd! Take a look at the map below or google ‘Derdeweg Zandvliet Antwerp’ to see the exact location. You can also email info[at]klimaatactiekamp.org or contact the info line at+32 (0)485916863 (please text if possible).*

How to reach the camp site by bus from Antwerp:
From the Rooseveltplaats, close to Antwerp Central station, you can take buslines 770 or 771 direction ‘Zandvliet’. After appr. 40 min., you’ll get to the stop ‘Zoutestraat’ where you have to get off the bus. Follow the street in travel direction, after about 200 meter you will see a couple of tents on the left side. The street next to it is called ‘Derde Weg’, follow it and you’ll quickly reach the welcome tent!

http://www.climateactioncamp.org/

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Climate Action Camp occupies Belgian coal terminal

8.8.2009
The Climate Action Camp on the Belgian/Dutch border yesterday occupied the Antwerp Bulk Terminal (ABT) coal terminal in Antwerp Harbour, Belgium. This terminal; responsible where coal is imported to Europe from Africa and South America before distribution by train and boat to power stations around Europe was shut down for the day as activists blocked train lines and conveyor belts at the site.

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French camp

Camp Action Climat 2009 – Le teaser

climate action alert at Nantes airport, Saturday 8th August 2009 – people invade the terminal of the airport.

Climate Activists occupy roof of 2nd Vestas factory!

4.8.2009

4.8.2009
Climate activists have occupied the roof of the Vestas turbine factory at Venture Quays, East Cowes, Isle Of Wight, in solidarity with workers occupying a factory in Newport. The protestors have hung a banner above the Ferry Port saying: “Vestas Workers – Solidarity in Occupation. Save Green Jobs,” and issued the following statement:

This Cowes Week, tens of thousands of people have come to the island to use and celebrate the free, abundant, and natural power of the wind. At the same time, workers at Vestas are struggling to keep Britain’s only wind-turbine blade manufacturer open. Factories in East Cowes, Newport and Southampton are being closed with the loss of over 600 jobs, and hundreds more in support industries like Gurit, devastating not only green promises but the Isle of Wight local communities.

Now the people are saying enough is enough. At Newport dozens of workers are in the second week of their factory occupation with messages of support coming in from around the world. These courageous people are showing more vision and commitment to the future of jobs, communities and our planet than all the do-nothing business and political leaders put together.

In the face of man-made climate-change, keeping these workers with their unique specialist skills is as urgent for powering a sustainable future as it is for the for the island communities. But the government which was so quick to nationalise Northern Rock and pour billions into the ailing banks has so far done NOTHING to protect the future of Britain’s wind-power generation, despite their recent pledge to invest in “Green Jobs”.

Vestas meanwhile are leaving their workforce high and dry, with peanuts in redundancy pay and little hope of work, while they make off with the £76 million profits they made in the first quarter of 2009 out of their non-unionised workforce.

The Venture Quays roof occupation is in support of Vestas workers demands. We say,

– Take Vestas factories into public ownership, under workers management
Re-instate all workers, including those sacked while in dispute
Invest in developing wind-power in Britain
Retool the Vestas plant to produce for Off-Shore Wind Generation

This dispute comes in a period of crisis, both economic and ecological. The economic crisis has already seen a million people losing their jobs while banks ask for hand-outs, with massive cuts and tax rises on the horizon. On top of that, unless we act quickly, the ecological crisis of climate-change will threaten the very future of human life. Motivated by greed and paralysed by fear, our rulers seem incapable of responding. Instead, the lead is coming from below.

Working people are increasingly standing up and staying put. Occupation by not only workers but local residents is becoming a default option. This year we have seen occupations at the Visteon factories in Enfield and Belfast, schools occupied against closure in Glasgow and Lewisham, a London care-home, Thomas Cook in Dublin and now Vestas. People have been dis-empowered for too long!

Listen to the Vesta workers song “Boys on the Balcony” at http://www.seizetheday.org

http://savevestas.wordpress.com

Scottish Camp for Climate Action builds support

The Scottish Camp for Climate Action has been building defences supporting the Mainshill open cast protest site this week. The camp is building action affinity groups and through direct action training enabling activists to take action on high carbon producing industries around the country. The camp focuses on alternative solutions to a damaging system where power is in the hands of powerful but damaging industries. Direct action is providing the means for people and groups to readdress that power imbalance and actions will take place during and after the camp. High emission industries across the country are to be targeted in the coming weeks; polluting energy intensive corporations will be brought into the spotlight and brought to a standstill.

London Rally Supports Vestas Workers – 6 Aug

The Campaign Against Climate change held a rally in London on Thursday 6 August in support of the 600 Vestas workers whose jobs making wind turbine blades are to be lost as the company moves production to the USA.

The rally outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change in Whitehall on Thursday evening started in light rain, but it was pouring by the time it finished. Despite the weather, the 80 or so present listened intently to speeches from a Vestas worker, trade union speakers from the RMT, PCW and Billy Hayes of the Communications Workers Union, as well as former Labour Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Meacher MP and Green Party GLA member Jenny Jones, who arrived at the event by bicycle.

Despite the government having spent thousands of billions propping up the banks it is unwilling to put up the much smaller amounts needed to support green industries. The problems of Vestas are indeed very much of the Government’s making, with its failure to put it’s money where its mouth is on green energy policies, relying on hot air rather than support for wind power and other alternative energies.

Making wind turbines is a profitable business, and will become even more so, but unless action is taken – such as nationalising Vestas, at least (as with the banks) on a temporary basis, the UK will be buying them from abroad rather than making money selling them to the rest of the world.

This story is also on Demotix, and I’ll put more pictures on My London Diary next week:
http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2009/08/aug.htm

Bristol Solidarity With Vesta Occupation

A wide selection of people: Bristol Rising Tide, Respect Party, Bristol Anarchist Bookfair, FBU, UNITE, Decommissioners and Bristol Co-Mutiny took part in a Solidarity Demo Outside the Environment Agency, today, Tuesday 4th August.

On Tuesday 4th August, protesters descended on the Bristol Headquarters of the Environment Agency in Aztec West carrying windmills and banners to support the action of Vestas workers who have occupied the St Cross wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight for the last two weeks because of plans to close the site with the immediate loss of 600 jobs

The workers are asking that the government – who have pledged £100bn towards renewable energy – nationalise the factory to save it from shutting. On the 4th August the Vestas company are going to court to evict the workers.

Around 20 people turned out to support the protest and they handed out flyers to staff and chatted to them about the Vesta Occupation. Many of the Environmental Agency staff supported the protest and understood the concerns of the protestors and the reasoning for the Vesta occupation.

August 2, 2009: ELF Sabotages Telmex Cable Line in SW Mexico City

SABOTAGE OF EARTH-DESTROYING COMPANY, MEXICO

August 2, 2009: ELF Sabotages Telmex Cable Line in SW Mexico City

SABOTAGE OF EARTH-DESTROYING COMPANY, MEXICO

Once again, the earth-destroying Telmex company was sabotaged in the southwest of Mexico City around 2:30 in the morning on Sunday, August 2 by the Frente de Liberación de la Tierra. The idea was to cut the cables of the posts and then to cut the same post with a saw. It did not matter that it was slow and arduous work. The cable went through the branches of a tree obstructing its free growth. We climbed the tree and with cutters cut the cable, then we took a saw and began to cut the pole halfway through and with a cord tied to the pole we pulled, but unfortunately we could not move it since the movement of the cable that was connected to the next post was very noticeable, which caused nearby neighbors to call the police. This prevented us from continuing to pull the pole at the risk of running into the police; finally we left a mark on the post with spraypaint: ELF and Earth First.

For every tree that is ripped from the earth to serve Telmex there will be thousands of sabotages; we will not stop until we see disgusting civilization, progress and all those who spread it destroyed!

The darkness did not allow us to record the action but there is no excuse for not sharing the pleasure and the courage so we returned at dawn to take pictures of the action.

Earth Liberation Front and Eco-pirómanos por la Liberación de la Tierra [Eco-arsonists for the Liberation of Earth] are fighting!

Latest EF! Action Update bursts forth

Car tyres deflate in the night, diggers halted in their tracks, buildings and MPs covered in slime…airports plagued by crazy golf, picnics, city gents and hostage-taking…eco-villages and other autonomous spaces sprout, as others are under threat…tree-sits, banks evicted, fake phone-masts and whaling ships sunk….it must be time for another Earth First! Action Update, bringing you a concentrated quarterly blast of inspiration and contacts to get out there and take direct action against the bastards threatening this planet and its inhabitants.

News from the front-lines – permanent protest camps old and new, and temporary gatherings in a field near you, all the dates and info you need for a summer of blistering action and torrential outpourings!

Successes here, across the pond and round the very other side of the world.

Successes here, across the pond and round the very other side of the world.

A report back from the Coal Caravan, plus info about the communities along its route.

Court news – what happened after protesters planned to shut a coal-fired power plant, and climbed atop a train, plus handy Security Tips for Going on Actions.

Leaving it All in the Ground – news of global fights against the mining of gold, copper, bauxite and aluminium – blockading, torching and night-time pixieing.

A View from the Trees – a story from our eco-centric cousins. And indigenous Peruvians fight on against the wholesale onslaught on our world.

And a round-up of your favourite public order situations – G20, SmashEDO and Athenian rubbish dumps!

Read, download and print it here, subscribe so you get it direct to your door, or look out for it at a climate camp near you.

If you want to be listed or get a bunch of them to distribute, please get in touch.

Share your inspirational news at EF! Action Reports, and it’ll find it’s way into your very own printed EF!AU, in good old black and white print.

Two Irish Anti-Shell Campaigners Jailed for Civil Disobedience

31.7.2009

— Eight and four month sentences show dramatic increase in repression —

31.7.2009

— Eight and four month sentences show dramatic increase in repression —

Shell to Sea campaigners Maura Harrington and Niall Harnett were sentenced to four and eight months in jail respectively at Bellmulet district court today. Both protesters have been convicted for taking action as part of a campaign of peaceful civil disobedience against the ill-fated Corrib Gas Project. Maura was given her four month sentence under Section 8 of the Public Order Act; ‘failing to comply with the directions of a Garda’. The sentence was handed down in relation to an incident that occurred duing a protest at Shell’s ‘landfall’ compound gate on 30th August 2008. Niall was sentenced to eight months in relation to two separate incidents. He was given a four month sentence under Section 8 of the Public order act, and another four months under Section 2, for the supposed assault of a Garda.

Maura had driven her car to the gate of the compound which is the site where the high pressure gas pipeline is to come ashore. She then refused to move her car in one of several acts of peaceful civil disobedience that Maura has engaged in. This is the third time this year that Maura Harrington, retired local school principal, has been jailed for peacefully protesting against the Corrib Gas project.

The alleged assault for which Niall was convicted occured at the compound fence and eye witness acounts and video footage shows Niall attempting to aid another protester garda who is being violently assaulted by a Garda. Niall, who is on his way to Castlerea Prison (Co. Roscommon.) after sentencing this afternoon said:

“I have been jailed for my opposition and civil disobedience to Shell and their facilitators in the Irish State, and for my part in a brilliant protest which will continue and will grow. They will not get away with the destruction of the community, the environment and the giveaway of Irish natural resources. My motives are pure, and this sentence will have served a purpose if it exposes the lengths the State will go in their complicity in the rip-off of Ireland’s natural resources”.

Both defendents were forced to choose between signing restrictive bonds to keep the peace or lengthy jail terms. The bonds would have placed limits on and prevented each of them from exercising their democratic rights to freedom to protest and freedom of movement. Under such bonds they would have been forbidden from attending any protest and excluded from the areas around any Shell sites.

Shell to Sea spokesperson Terence Conway said: “Certain prominent protesters appear to have been targeted in an attempt to crush resistance in the area. These jail sentences represent the lastest examples of a sustained campaign by the state, in conjunction with Shell, to criminalise and intimidate the local community and their supporters in order to implement their project at any cost. Maura and Niall are courageous campaigners against the destruction of the environment, the threat to health and safety and the giveaway of Ireland’s natural resources. ”

A protest was organised by Dublin Shell to Sea group for Thursday 30th July outside Mountjoy prison where Maura was taken after sentencing on Thursday morning.

Daring Action Gets Supplies To Vestas Workers Occupation

30.7.2009
A group of twenty people successfully brought vital supplies into the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight this afternoon, to the whoops and cheers of the occupying workers.

The group including workers, local supporters, and campaigners from the Climate Camp, Workers Climate Action, the Anarchist Federation and Workers Liberty split into two teams. At around 2pm, one team approached the main entrance of the factory, carrying decoy bags of food, to draw off police and security guards. While this first team was being escorted and carried bodily from the site, a second team ran through a hedge and were able to pass a large sack of supplies up to the occupying Vestas workers. The supplies were based on a wishlist provided by the occupiers, and included food, drink, and crucially a kettle with tea and coffee.

Jim Spencer, a member of the Climate Camp who took part in the action, said the Vestas management have been attempting to starve the occupiers out. After much protest, they are currently providing them with one insubstantial meal per day such as a single slice of pizza or a lone sandwich per worker. This is an utter disgrace, and so many of us camped outside have been thinking about how to get supplies in to them. It turned out that some of the factory workers and their local supporters were thinking the same way, so we all decided to work together.

Mr Spencer went on: The fact that workers, locals, environmentalists and labour campaigners are all working together reflects how important this occupation is. It’s vital to the factory workers and their families, it’s vital to the local economy, and it’s vital in the fight to avert climate disaster. The Vestas wind turbine factory must be saved.

ENDS

For interviews with someone onsite, call 07932 096677
To contact the Climate Camp media team:
phone: 07040 900 905 (or 07772 861 099 or 07932 096 677)
email: press@climatecamp.org.uk