Genetics – Page 10 – Earth First!

Animal Rights Case Concern to Environmentalists & call out for 19th January – updated with CW analysis

While the case of 4 animal rights campaigners found guilty on “conspiracy to blackmail” charges in relation to contract testing company Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) that tests on animals may seem unrelated to the environmental movement the case has direct relevance to all radical environmentalists. The activists were convicted for their part in the now famous SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) campaign that’s stated aim is to close down the company.

Following their convictions the media lambasted the activists for numerous unlawful and intimidating actions taken against Huntingdon and associated companies. Many of these actions will be distasteful to some and there are many differing views on animal research in the environmental movement however this case has wider implications for activists across the board.

After a recent national media article claiming a lone extremist might be planning an attack aimed at population reduction was published, which NETCU appear to have had a hand in, some feel that NETCU (National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit) could be turning their spotlight on the environmental movement. Additionally the policing tactics experienced at Climate Camp indicate that animal rights campaigners aren’t the sole focus of NETCU. If the environmental movement is the new target of NETCU this judgement should be taken seriously by all environmentalists.

This case seems to imply that the “organisers” of radical campaigns are fully responsible for everyone that targets the company that they are campaigning against. Indeed it is the case some campaigners acting against HLS and associated companies used direct action and it’s true that the defendants did not necessarily condemn this type of action either. However what is being said is there is no evidence that the defendants were involved in or even incited the actions listed in the media and which it seems they have been held liable for in court.

So what is to be understood by this case is that a radical campaign, such as SHAC, Earth First or Climate Camp is fully responsible for the actions of all its supporters. It seems that a campaign is expected to ‘control’ activists and speak out against every illegal action they make or be faced with responsibility for the other activist’s actions.

This will be a problem for networks and groups like Earth First and Climate Camp the police need only arrest the group organising the EF! gathering, the people who promote Climate Camp etc. and then hold them responsible for the actions of anyone campaigning on the same issue or using the campaign name, anyone taking action against GMOs or who attacked the power station during Climate Camp.

The police no longer need to find and arrest the person who committed the relevant action but can simply imply that the campaign is responsible especially if the campaign supports direct action or carries reports on such actions on their website.

On Monday 19th January there has been a call out for a National Anti-Vivisection Day of Action/Freedom to Protest Day of Action in support of the SHAC activists that are being sentenced on that day. Because of the direct relevance of this case to environmentalists I ask that regardless of your individual viewpoint on the SHAC campaign or animal testing you do something to support the freedom to campaign. This could be as simple as dedicating an already planned environmental action to the campaigners or holding a small protest.

FREEDOM TO PROTEST NOW!

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State repression of Anti-Corporate Dissent: Animal right activists convicted of ‘conspiracy to blackmail’

On December 23rd, 4 out of 5 activists on trial at Winchester Crown Court were found guilty of ‘Conspiracy to Blackmail’ at Winchester Crown Court after a 3 and a half month long show trial. The world’s media, prompted by police press officers, were quick to condemn activists by pointing to harassment against the employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) and their customers, shareholders and investors. Actions against HLS, not linked to those convicted, such as hoax bombs, letters alleging paedophilia, and threats were pointed to as evidence of the defendants’ extremism. Police spokesmen and the National Extremist Coordination Unit (NETCU), the branch of the police set up to deal with the AR movement and other expressions of the public’s dissent, hailed the convictions as a victory. (For more information on NETCU see here and here.

What was not examined in the media was the worrying development of the repressive use of the law which lead to the conviction of the four defendants.

Corporate Watch has followed the progress of the trial at Winchester since the beginning. The reason we were concerned about the trial is that we see it as part of a larger attack on the animal rights movement motivated by the state’s desire to protect private corporations against dissent. Since the animal rights movement began to effectively challenge the profits of those involved in vivisection and the pharmaceutical industry the state has repeatedly responded with new repressive measures. In May this year Sean Kirtley, an activist involved with Stop Sequani Animal Torture (SSAT), was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for updating a website with news about a legal, nonviolent campaign to close down Sequani laboratories in Ledbury. Kirtley was convicted of ‘Conspiracy to interfere with the contractual relations of an animal research facility under section 145 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act’ (SOCPA 145) . His only crime was to protest lawfully against the lab and to update a website.

NETCU, however, was not satisfied with seeing animal rights activists banged up for four and a half years and chose to charge campaigners associated with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) with ‘conspiracy to blackmail’, an offence carrying up to 14 years in prison. In May 2007, police arrested 32 people in raids dubbed ‘Operation Achilles’. Since then, 15 people have been charged with ‘conspiracy’ and are being tried in two separate trials, of which this was the first.

The charges relate to over four years of concerted campaigning against HLS, the largest contract testing laboratory in Europe. The defendants included people who had been involved in SHAC from the outset. However, two of the defendants, Gerrah Selby and Dan Wadham, had been in their early teens at the beginning of the period concerned and had only been involved for a short time. Wadham was only 17 when his part of the alleged conspiracy allegedly occurred.

SHAC, an international campaign group calling for the closure of HLS, has been painted by the police and the press as a ‘criminal organisation’ duping members of the public concerned with animal abuse into donating their money to further ‘a campaign of blackmail’. SHAC’s activities, however, have been overwhelmingly lawful: the campaign publishes information about animal abuse inside HLS labs, reports campaigning activities and issues action alerts calling on supporters to write polite letters to companies working with HLS and ask them to desist. If those companies continue to do business with HLS, protests would usually follow. All material on the SHAC website is checked by a barrister and police are given prior notice of their demonstrations.

Customers, suppliers and shareholders in HLS have also been the subject of some direct action. Slogans have been daubed at company premises and employees homes; cars have been painstrippered; hoax bombs have been sent and employees have been accused of being paedophiles. However, these actions are not directly linked to the SHAC campaign and have only tenuous links to the defendants, whose faces were spashed across many tabloid front pages after their convictions at Winchester.

During the summer, three defendants, committed campaigners against HLS, plead guilty to charges of ‘conspiracy to blackmail’. During the trial, evidence recovered from the campaign PCs and activists’ personal computers was presented. Police had found many documents believed to have been permanently deleted or shredded by their authors. This included a spreadsheet detailing names and addresses of people working for companies linked to HLS, details of direct actions carried out against them and a document containing a private chat between activists apparently talking about direct action. This evidence may suggest that some activists had decided to take direct action against companies linked to HLS, but the evidence linking the defendants found guilty on 23rd December to these documents was circumstantial and, in some cases, non-existent. Even if some activists linked to SHAC did decide to take direct action, this does not make everybody associated with the campaign guilty by association. The prosecution case was that that the entire SHAC campaign was aimed at closing down HLS, which is true, and that SHAC campaigners attempted to persuade companies not to work with HLS, which is also true. The prosecution argument, however, went on to imply that, when companies did not agree to cease trading with HLS, they were the subject of direct action. Often direct action did occur but this was not under the banner of SHAC. Moreover, SHAC did not publish any information about companies that was not already in the public domain. But because some activists, sometimes under the banner of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), did take direct action, the prosecution argued that the SHAC campaign was facilitating direct action and giving it its tacit appoval. The police went one step further and said SHAC and the ALF were one and the same thing!

Much of the evidence in the three-month trial was in relation to lawful demonstrations against companies linked to HLS. This was particularly important in the instances of defendants who could not be linked to the uncovered computer evidence. In several cases, the only evidence was what they had said at demonstrations. Comments made by defendants during protests in earshot of the police were portrayed as linking them to the ‘conspiracy’. Comments, such as “we know where you live”, were taken as proof that defendants were party to the conspiracy. In any other context, such spur-of-the-moment comments would have, at most, lead to minor charges in the Magistrate’s Court. Equally important was the fact that some of those convicted were linked personally to the defendants who pleaded guilty. Heather Nicholson and Gerrah Selby had both shared houses with them. This was obviously a factor in finding them guilty by association.

So what does this mean for free speech and anti-corporate dissent in the UK? By the same logic, an anti-war campaign that publishes information on the whereabouts of a military base or arms factory and calls for its closure could be put in the frame for the same crime if that base was then the subject of an arson attack. All it would take would be for the police to imply that the people running the public campaign are linked to those involved in direct action. Consequently, campaigners might feel compelled to publicly distance themselves from acts of direct action lest they find that, unbeknown to them, those responsible for the covert actions are involved in public action too and the whole movement is charged with ‘conspiracy’. In fact, the use of such charges is a classic police tactic aimed at spreading paranoia and convicting as many activists as possible for acts carried out by only a few. The aim is also to minimise public support for illegal actions by harrassing and criminalising those who speak up in solidarity.

NETCU have already intimated, for example in the recent Mark Townsend article on ‘eco-terrorists’, that environmental or anti-gm protesters might be their next target.

The convicted activists are now long periods in jail, they will be sentenced on January 19th. Heather Nicholson, who was remanded after her arrest in May 2007, has already spent over 19 months in jail, longer than some convicted of serious assaults or sex crimes would spend in prison. In May this year, Sean Kirtley, who was imprisoned for his role in another animal rights campaign, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on the same day that men who beat a man until he was blind received two years. Since ‘Operation Achilles’, the police have been patting themselves on the back for putting the animal rights movement into ‘disarray’. A NETCU source told the Observer in November 2008 that the animal rights movement’s ‘ringleaders’ had ‘either been prosecuted or were awaiting prosecution.’ One may suspect that comments like these are more to do with maintaining NETCU’s funding than reality (see this Corporate Watch commentary for more details).

In fact the attack on animal rights campaigners does not seem to have limited their capacity to take action. Regular demonstrations are still taking place against companies linked to HLS, with one planned for 29th December.The ALF, which does not seem to be in need of ‘leaders’, has recently freed 70 turkeys from a UK farm. If anything, the global animal rights movement seems to be growing steadily.

The decision to try these campaigners for ‘conspiracy to blackmail’ was evidently a political one. Huge amounts of police resources have been poured into this prosecution, and others like it, at the behest of the Labour government. This is due to the effectiveness of the animal rights movement in confronting and challenging the power of corporations involved in animal abuse. The demonisation of animal rights campaigners in the media, facilitated by NETCU press releases, only makes it easier for the state to repress them without public outcry. The conviction of the defendants at Winchester is yet another nail in the coffin of the public’s right to voice their anger and dissent against corporate crime.

For more info see Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty – www.shac.net

NETCU Watch – http://netcu.wordpress.com/

SCHnews – www.schnews.org.uk

Wee demo in Glasgow against Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant. He will be back in June 09. Will you also you here?

Monsanto Chief Exec Hugh Grant came to Glasgow today. He and Scottish Enterprises were not so happy to find out that a few concerned citizens were there and were leafleting the staff calling for his dismissal from his role on the international advisory board. see press release below for some details. He comes twice a year for these meetings. Probably the only time aside from Monsanto AGMs (in St Louis, US) that anyone who wants to have a word with him knows when and where he will be. The next mtg is in June 09. We will be there to greet the Monsanto CEO. Will you join us the next time? Contact details at end of the PR, Cheers!

Press release: Common Action Scotland: Tuesday 4 November 2008, Glasgow

Controversial Monsanto Chief Exec Hugh Grant in Glasgow this week

Controversial Monsanto Chief Exec Hugh Grant is expected to be in Glasgow this week in his role as an advisor to the Scottish Enterprise Agency. However civil society group Common Action Scotland are demanding that Scottish Enterprise bosses dismiss the Monsanto CEO from its advisory board and are challenging Mr Grant to attend a public meeting to answer for the damage caused by his company and its business practices.

Lindsay Keenan spokesperson for Common Action Scotland said today:
“It is not appropriate to have the Chief Executive of Monsanto as an advisor to Scottish Enterprise. Hugh Grant represents a company that has lied and cheated and that has caused cancers, birth-defects and deaths in order to save a dollar. Today Monsanto products contribute directly to inflated prices of food on the global market and to world hunger. Hugh Grant and Monsanto are an international disgrace not a role model for Scottish Enterprises. We have asked Jack Perry the head of Scottish Enterprise and Jim Mather MSP, the Scottish Enterprise Minister to immediately dismiss Hugh Grant from his advisory role”.

Mr Grant is due in Glasgow this week for a meeting of the Scottish Enterprise International Advisory Board. Despite a Freedom of Information request Scottish Enterprise have refused to confirm exactly which day the meeting will take place but did confirm it is expected to be in Glasgow in the first week of November. Mr Grants office confirmed that he is expected to attend. Hugh Grant was born in Larkhall Glasgow and graduated from Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. Since 2003 he has been the Chairman, President and CEO of the US based chemicals and genetic engineering company Monsanto. Based in St Louis, US he travels the world representing Monsanto and visits Glasgow twice a year for these meetings.

Keenan cont’d, “Mr Grants company, Monsanto, has in the past been responsible for producing some of the worlds most toxic chemicals including PCBs and Agent Orange. Amongst other serious crimes it has previously been caught falsifying scientific reports and bribing government officials. Today Monsanto is the worlds largest chemical company and is responsible for more than 90% of the genetically modified seeds sold in the world. Monsanto products and Monsanto’s way of doing business destroy soil health, destroy food security and contribute substantially to world hunger and environmental damage”.

Hugh Grant uses his role with Scottish Enterprise as part of his CV presumably because it opens doors for him and helps to give Monsanto what it most craves, the public acceptance that despite its great wealth and power it is otherwise denied. Mr Grants position with Scottish Enterprise gives the impression that Monsanto is supported in Scotland when in fact the evidence of public, farmer, food industry, political and scientific opinion over the last ten years makes it absolutely clear that there is no place for Monsanto or its products in Scotland (or indeed in Europe).

Keenan cont’d, “Hugh Grant is the smooth talking face of a very ugly corporation. His smooth talking style and his Glasgow/Edinburgh/transatlantic brogue has charmed the US stock markets and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. Mr Grant has helped pushed up profits for Monsanto and for himself but at what price to real peoples lives and to the environment?

Common Action Scotland has tried on a number of occasions to get Mr Grant to agree to attend a public meeting in Glasgow/Scotland. However he shows no signs of being willing to be held publicly accountable. We note that if he is not willing to attend a public discussion despite the global importance of his company to the health and food security of so many people then this should provide further evidence of his unsuitability to be an advisor to a Scottish tax payer funded public body. “What does Hugh Grant/Monsanto have to hide?”

There is an overwhelming body of evidence available to support the case that Monsanto and its CEO are not good role models for Scottish business. Amongst a wealth of other publicly available factual information the recently released documentary called the World According To Monsanto by director Marie Monique Robin sums up the reality behind Monsanto.

The crimes Monsanto has committed, the lives it has damaged, the lies its spokespeople and executives have told and the massive influence that it has are laid out clearly. And it is perhaps the first documentary that really gets behind the approval process for GM foods in the US and reveals the manipulating hand of Monsanto at all levels. A copy can be obtained from French filmmakers ARTE www.arteboutique.com
It can also be found in 10 parts on Utube at
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CMleWZXhi6s

We would recommend that Jack Perry and Jim Mather view this documentary to get some understanding of Monsanto. We further recommend that it be screened at the Scottish Parliament and on Scottish TV so that we all may judge. Monsanto refused to be interviewed for the documentary but the director Marie Monique Robin has indicated to Common Action Scotland that she would be willing to attend a public meeting in Scotland to discuss her findings with Mr Grant, if he is willing.

For more information please contact:

Lindsay Keenan (Director)
Common Action Scotland
1 Cunninghame Road, Kilbarchan, Scotland, PA10 2EE
Office: 0141 577 0057 Mobile: 0750 392 0125
Email: commonactionscotland@yahoo.co.uk

Paraguan resistance to GM soya plantings – evictions & violence

28 October 2008
Peasant organisations are resisting against the beginning of the GM soya season all over the country of Paraguay. They demand access to land, land reform and the stop of the pesticide spraying which impacts on their communities. Despite the new government, many camps have been evicted and violence has taken place: 2 leaders have been murdered and hundreds of peasants have been arrested. Please sign the letter below to put pressure on the government and put a stop to violence!

San Marco eviction & videoclip showing what happened when a large group of campesinos halted fumigation tractors of Brazilian soy producers. Paraguay, community of Yvypé all at http://www.lasojamata.org/en/node/230

In Paraguay, GM soya monocultures are today the main cause of deforestation, the destruction and pollution of other ecosystems, of violence and the eviction of small farmers and indigenous peoples. Paraguay has nearly 2,6 million hectares of soy plantations for animal feed exports and, more recently, for agrofuel. A journalist who visited the country in 2007 described the impact of soya monocultures as follows:
“Rural eastern Paraguay used to be full of jungle, small farms, schools and wildlife. Now it is a green sea of soybeans. The families, trees and birds are gone. The schools are empty. The air is filled with the toxic stench of the pesticides like paraquat and 2,4-D used to protect the soy crops” [http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3093].

The remnants of Paraguay’s Atlantic Forest and of the Alto Parana forest, as well as wetlands, grasslands and rivers are being destroyed and polluted by the expansion of immense RR soya fields. Deforestation is worsening global warming and also causing severe regional warming and droughts. It has contributed to the worst fire season ever recorded in Paraguay last year, and probably to the severe drought which is currently affecting the south of the country. More than 100,000 small peasant families have been evicted for soya plantations and over 100 peasant leaders have been murdered since the late 1990s in conflicts over access to land. Agro-chemical (glyphosate, 2,4D, and others) spraying of soya plantations severely affects the health of people living in soy region, in some cases leading even to deaths, and also destroys people´s food crops. Hunger and malnutrition are increasing as less and less land is available to farmers for growing food.

In August this year, a new government took office and the new president, Fernando Lugo, promised to support small farmers against pesticide poisoning and soya expansion. However, the government has given conflicting signals by also supporting increased soya exports at the same time. Also, the police and juridical forces have been supporting soya businesses in suppressing the peasant movement in their fight against pesticide spraying and the expansion of soy monocultures.

This month, at the start of the new soya planting season, small farmers’ organisations have mobilised to stop pesticide spraying and to protect peasant agriculture and the environment against further destruction. They have set up around 130 lawful camps at the margins of soya ‘latifundios’ (large estates). In recent weeks, they have been increasingly subjected to violence, with two murders of peasant leaders, unlawful arrests and detentions. Also, various camps have been violently evicted, with use of increasing numbers of paramilitaries. Many peasant leaders are receiving death threats. The civil security guards that former government organised ‘Comision Garrote’ are the main actors behind this threats.

The tendency seems to be that the violence and repression against the peasant movement will intensify. For many in the movement, this year is their last chance to stop soya expansion and to protect what remains of Paraguays’ forests and wetlands, sustainable peasant agriculture, and small farmers and indigenous people?s future.

Please write to the authorities in Paraguay and urge them to fully support small farmers and their demands for protection from pesticide spraying, from evictions, environmental destruction and pollution, for food sovereignty and land reform.

See last action report – farms occupied – at http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/21753/

See also:
Video about the 2 evictions in Alto Parana:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYEBsk0jtG4
Video about the camp against the pesticide spraying in Caaguazú
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4xnXaZGjS8
Peasant community in San Pedro against the pesticide spraying
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfLEXvipkJw

Articles about the current situation in Paraguay:
http://www.lasojamata.org/

LETTER (send the Spanish version that is below)

Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: Please protect Paraguay’s communities and environment against soya
monocultures

I was very pleased to hear about President’s Lugo’s stated commitment to
protect small farmers against soya plantations, including against
pesticide spraying and to stop deforestation. However, I am deeply
concerned to hear about the increasing violence against peasant
organisations that are mobilising against pesticide spraying in the soya
monocultures, while arguing for a new agricultural policy that protects
small farmers and food sovereignty as well as the environment.

Two peasant leaders ? SindulfoMartínez member of the organisation MCP and
Bienvenido Melgarejo of the organisation ASAGRAPA have recently been
murdered. There are reports of a ‘hit list’ with the names of fifty
peasant leaders who fear that they could be murdered next. In the past
weeks, the courts and the police have been involved in the eviction of
peasant camps which have been lawfully set up on the margins of, not on,
soya plantations, resorting to laws which exist to prevent criminal
offences. People have been unlawfully evicted, detained, criminalised and
tortured.

With this letter, I want to show my strong support to the main demands of
peasant movements and civil society organisations in Paraguay: that
pesticide spraying of soy monocultures must be banned and effectively
stopped. The lands illegally sold to agribusiness companies must be
returned to the landless Paraguayan peasants.

I urge you to stop the eviction orders and repression against peasant
mobilisation. The two recent murders and all reports of police violence
and torture must be fully investigated and those responsible must be held
to account. The families of those who have been murdered must receive
financial compensation.

The government must take immediate action and investigate the death
threats against peasant leaders. The first step for this is to dissolve
the so called ?Citizen Security Commissions?, commonly called ?Garrote
Commissions?. These groups are the main actors of the para-police violence
against social organisations in the rural areas.

In front of the urgent situation of poverty and environmental devastation
in Paraguay, the government must initiate a programme to support peasant
farming and food sovereignty, rather than further sacrificing Paraguay’s
communities and environment to produce animal feed and agrofuels for
export.

Please let me know what your plans are for addressing this urgent
situation, in order to avoid more violence and human rights violations,
including more killings of peasants, and to protect communities and the
environment from soya monocultures.

Thank you,

Yours faithfully,
Asunto: Por favor, proteja a las comunidades paraguayas y al medio
ambiente de los monocultivos de soja

Estimada Sra., Estimado Sr.,

Ha sido muy satisfactorio para mí, saber acerca del compromiso del
Presidente Lugo para proteger a los pequeños campesinos en contra de las
plantaciones de soja, así como de las fumigaciones con pesticidas y la
deforestación. Sin embargo, me preocupa seriamente cuando escucho acerca
de la escalada de violencia dirigida hacia las organizaciones campesinas
que se movilizan en contra de las fumigaciones de pesticidas sobre las
poblaciones y a favor de una nueva política agraria que proteja a los
pequeños campesinos, la soberanía alimentaria y el medio ambiente.

Dos líderes campesinos -SindulfoMartínez de la organización, Movimiento
Campesino Paraguayo- MCP (Vía Campesina-PY) y Bienvenido Melgarejo de la
organización Asociación de Agricultores de Alto Paraná- ASAGRAPA han
sido recientemente asesinados. Hemos tenido noticias acerca de una ?lista
negra? con nombres de unos cincuenta líderes campesinos que temen ser los
próximos asesinados. Jueces y la policía han estado en estas últimas
semanas implicados en el desmantelamiento de campamentos campesinos
establecidos legalmente en las márgenes, y no dentro, de las plantaciones
de soja, amparándose en leyes de prevención del crimen. Los campesinos han
sido ilegalmente expulsados, detenidos, criminalizados y torturados.

Con esta carta quiero demostrar mi enérgico apoyo a las dos principales
demandas de los campesinos y las organizaciones de la sociedad civil de
Paraguay: Las fumigaciones con agrotóxicos de los monocultivos de soja
deben ser prohibidas y detenidas de manera efectiva. Las tierras vendidas
irregularmente a los agroempresarios deben ser devueltas a los campesinos
sintierras paraguayos.

Exijo frenar la actual ola de desalojos y represión a las movilizaciones
campesinas. El desalojo por recursos de amparo preventivo es una medida
jurídica irregular. Los dos recientes asesinatos y todos los reportes de
violencia policial y tortura deben ser investigados a fondo, y sus
responsables deben ser penalizados. Las familias de los asesinados deben
ser compensadas económicamente.

Así también el gobierno debe actuar de forma inmediata y frenar las
amenazas de muerte que penden sobre los dirigentes campesinos. El primer
paso para ello es atender a las demandas de las organizaciones de
desarticulación de las ?Comisiones de Seguridad Ciudadana?, comúnmente
denominadas ?Comisión garrote?. Estos grupos son los principales
protagonistas de violencia parapolicial contra las organizaciones sociales
en el campo.

Frente la urgente situación de pobreza y devastación ambiental del campo
paraguayo, el gobierno debe iniciar inmediatamente un programa de apoyo a
la agricultura campesina y la soberanía alimentaria. Basta ya del
sacrificio de las comunidades campesinas e indígenas del Paraguay y del
medio ambiente para mantener un modelo agroexportador sojero que sólo
produce alimento para animales y agrocombustibles.

Por favor, deme a conocer sus planes para contener esta urgente situación
y para evitar más violencia y violaciones de derechos humanos, incluyendo
más asesinatos de campesinos en su país, y para proteger a las comunidades
y al medio ambiente de los monocultivos de la soja.

Muchas gracias por adelantado y un atento saludo.

ADDRESSES / DIRECCIONES

1. Presidencia de la República del Paraguay
Excelentísimo Don Fernando Lugo Méndez, Presidente de la República del
Paraguay
Palacio de Gobierno
El Paraguayo Independiente e/Ayolas y O´leary
Central telefónica 4140000 (RA)
website: www.presidencia.gov.py
e-mail: presidente@presidencia.gov.py
webmaster@presidencia.gov.py

Secretaria General
S. E. Miguel Angel López Perito
Ministro, Secretario General y Jefe del Gabinete Civil de la Presidencia
de la República
Tel 4140288, fax 4140310

2. Secretaria del Ambiente (SEAM)
S. E. José Luís Casaccia , Ministro, Secretario Ejecutivo
Avda. Madan Lynch 3500 y Reservista de la Guerra del Chaco.
Tel + 595 21 615803/4, fax + 595 21 615807
casaccia jcasaccia@hotmail.com

3. SENAVE, Servicio Nacional de Calidad y Sanidad Vegetal y de Semillas
Ing. Agr. Luis Llano Imas , presidente
Oficina central del SENAVE: Edif. PLANETA I. Humaitá Nº 145 c/ Ntra. Sra.
de la Asunción. Telefax: + 595 21 445 769 /+ 595 21 441 549, Asunción –
Paraguay
presidencia@senave.gov.py
secretaria_general@senave.gov.py

S. E. Rafael Filizzola, Ministro
Chile y Manduvirá
Tel + 595 21 493 661, fax: + 595 21 450.027
ministro@mdi.gov.py
vmseguridad@mdi.gov.py
sgeneral@mdi.gov.py
5. Ministerio de Justicia y Trabajo
S. E. Blas Llano, Ministro
Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia y Estados Unidos
Tel + 595 21 447010, + 595 21 493209, fax + 595 21 208469
mjt@mjt.gov.py

6. Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganaderia
S. E. Candido Vera Bejarano, Ministro
Presidente Franco 479
Tel + 595 21 441036, central + 595 21 451316/ 447304
Viceministerio de Agricultura: vagricultura@mag.gov.py
Secretaría General: secretariagral@mag.gov.py

7. Fiscalía Gral. del Estado
Dr. Rubén Candia Amarilla
fiscaliageneral@ministeriopublico.gov.py

Spirit of Freedom (October 2008) – support the eco-prisoners

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)

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)

Welcome to the October 2008 edition of Spirit of Freedom. The last month has been a month of mixed emotions for ELP. On the one hand we heard the brilliant news that the Dutch animal rights activist, Gerben Jan, was found not guilty of assaulting a police officer, causing the officer to break his leg, during an animal rights demo in Sweden. Instead Gerban was found guilty of resisting arrest for which he was fined and deported. Also in an unexpected move, all the Austrian Animal Rights prisoners were released from prison pending their trial! Plus, the American vegan, Nathan Knoerl, was granted bail in his case where he is accused of involvement in an anti-vivisection protest. Following Nathans release a support campaign has been set up to try and help raise money for Nathan’s forthcoming legal case. For more info please e-mail supportnathan@gmail.com. However, just as ELP started to think our prisoner lists might start to go down, we received news of further police raids in Austria. ELP also learnt that, due to Frank Ambrose, grassing everyone up, the American’s Marie Mason, Stephanie Lynne Fultz, and Aren Burthwick, have all had to enter Plea Bargains and admit some of the charges set against them. In Marie’s case she has admitted her direct role in an ELF arson on a University building involved with GM crop tests, whilst Stephanie and Aren have admitted not reporting a fire (Stephanie has admitted cutting Marie’s hair which was burnt following the arson). We don’t know what sentences Stephanie and Aren are likely to receive, but Marie is looking at 15 to 20 years and has been remanded into custody. This is really bad news, especially as it was hoped Marie might remain free until her sentencing early next year. Around the world, people are being imprisoned for standing up for what they believe in and trying to
help the animals and the earth. So please, no matter where you are in the world, support the eco-prisoners. And no compromise in defence of Mother Earth.

ECO-DEFENCE PRISONERS

Tre Arrow, #70936-065, (in transit), USA. Serving 78 months for his involvement in two ELF 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 Border 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).

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. (Meat eater).

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).

Bryan Lefey #38664-086, FDC SeaTac, Federal Detention Center, P.O. Box 13900, Seattle, WA 98198, USA. On remand accused of an ELF action that saw the damaging of GM trees and the damaging of US Forestry Service vehicles. (Diet unknown).

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).

Marie Jeanette Mason, Newaygo County Jail, PO Box 845, White Cloud, MI 49349, USA. Awaiting sentencing having pleaded guilty to involvement in ELF arson against a University building carrying out Genetically Modified crop tests. Marie also pleaded guilty to conspiring to carry out ELF actions and also admitted involvement in 12 other ELF actions. Marie is expected to receive a sentence of between 15-20 years. (Marie is a vegan).

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, #63794-053, USP Marion, US Penitentiary, PO Box 1000, Marion, IL 62959, 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, FCI Danbury, Federal Correctional Institution, Route 37, Danbury, CT 06811, 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).

Dan Amos VN7818, HMP Winchester, Romsey Road, Winchester SO22 5DF, England.
On remand having pleaded guilty to conspiracy to blackmail Huntingdon Life Sciences. (Dan is a vegan)

Gregg Avery TA7450, HMP Winchester, Romsey Road, Winchester, SO22 5DF, England. On remand having pleaded guilty to conspiracy to blackmail Huntingdon Life Sciences. (Gregg is a vegan).

Natasha Avery NR8987, HMP Bronzefield, Woodthorpe Road, Ashford, Middx. TW15 3JZ, England. On remand having pleaded guilty to conspiracy to blackmail Huntingdon Life Sciences. (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).

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).

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).

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).

Sean Kirtley WC 6977, HMP Stafford, 54 Gaol Road, Stafford, ST16 3AW, 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).

John Smith, TB4887, HMP Lindholme, Bawtry Road, Hatfield Woodhouse, Doncaster, DN7 6EE, England. Serving 12 years for attempting to blackmail a farmer who supplied guinea pigs for vivisection. (John is a vegan).

Andrew Stepanian #26399-050, USP Marion, P.O. Box 1000 Marion, IL 62959, 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 DEFENDANTS
The Lecce Defendants 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).

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).

Yuri Yurevich Milevskiy, SIZO #7 kamera 38, g. Brest, ul. Karla Marksa 86, 224000 Belarus. On remand for fighting with neo-nazis. (Diet unknown).

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).

Richard Sills (Address Unknown, USA). Serving 15 months for bomb hoaxing a University saying they would be targeted by the ALF if they didn’t stop their animal experiments. (Diet unknown).

Michael W. Sykes, 696693, 3855 Cooper St, Jackson, MI 49201, 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

Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
elp4321@hotmail.com
http://spiritoffreedom.org.uk

CAMPESINOS FIGHT AGAINST GM SOY – PARAGUAY

9.10.2008
Farmers occupy large Brazilian-owned farms to block the entry of genetically-modified soy.

Campesinos in the department of San Pedro occupied Brazilian-owned farms on Oct. 1 to block the entry of transgenic soy, and began planting other crops such as sesame and yucca on the plots.

9.10.2008
Farmers occupy large Brazilian-owned farms to block the entry of genetically-modified soy.

Campesinos in the department of San Pedro occupied Brazilian-owned farms on Oct. 1 to block the entry of transgenic soy, and began planting other crops such as sesame and yucca on the plots.

Some 120 campesinos occupied two 600-hectare (1,480 acre) farms, according to local media reports.

Cristino Peralta, the San Pedro correspondent of the daily ABC Color, said that the farmers immediately began planting the sesame and yucca after occupying the plantations.

”There was no law enforcement intervention,” he said. ”The group´s leader Florencio Martínez said that the occupation marked the start of the recovery of Paraguayan territorial sovereignty.”

San Pedro is considered Paraguay´s best farmland, but it is also the country´s poorest department. President Fernando Lugo worked as a bishop there for a decade.

Land is concentrated in the fewest hands in Paraguay than in any other Latin American country. Only 351 landowners hold 9.7 million hectares (24 million acres), while, according to civil society organizations, there are more than 350,000 families with insufficient quantities of land or no land at all.

The demonstrators said that they took over the Brazilian-owned plantations in protest of what they called the government´s failure to implement land reform. Paraguay has also seen other campesino protests against transgenic soy plantations and the indiscriminate use of farming chemicals.

Lugo had requested that the campesinos give his government 100 days starting Aug. 15 to seek financing for land reform. The period ends on Nov. 22.

According to campesino leader Elvio Benítez, the government ”continues without finding a solution to the lack of land of thousands of our compatriots, while the Brazilians´ presence is getting bigger and bigger. We can´t do anything else but occupy the Brazilian-owned haciendas because the soy crops are causing deforestation, eliminating natural forests and contaminating people with its pesticides.”

Earth First! Winter Moot – last update

Brighton, February 6-7-8th 2009

The Earth First! Winter moot is an opportunity for people who feel affiliation with the ideas behind Earth First! to network, discuss and reflect on the ecological direct action movement and to plan for the future. In contrast with the yearly EF! Summer Gathering, which is held outside for around five days, the winter moot is a shorter weekend meeting, inside, less aimed at skill sharing and more at looking where we are at as movement and where we want to be going.

Brighton, February 6-7-8th 2009

Earth First! is not an organisation, but a banner for non-hierarchical organising and the use of direct action to confront, stop and eventually reverse the forces that are responsible for the destruction of the Earth and its inhabitants.

Topics that have been raised include (Updated):
– the Copenhagen climate summit with a number of people from Denmark coming over to talk about logistics, tactics and mobilisation
– the G20 summit in London
– Leave it in the ground / coal
– GM
– Rossport
– Strengthening the EF network: communication and security, actionupdate and gatherings
– Implications of the crisis
– Climate and migration / eco-activism and Noborder networks
– Heathrow expansion
– UK Biofuels
– Nanotechnology
– Water-based actions

There will not be workshops on any of these topics – please inform yourself on topics of your interest before the moot. We will be focusing on discussing strategy and action planning.

There will be a Saving Iceland meeting on the Friday afternoon before the gathering.

Please contact the organizing collective (moot2009@earthfirst.org.uk) know if you want to add anything, want to help with facilitation or have any other queries. You are welcome to use our PGP key below.
Suggestion: read the activist security guide on http://www.activistsecurity.org/

There will be sleeping places arranged and food available at cost price from Friday evening. The program will start on Saturday at 10 AM. Please be on time.

Venue: Cowley Club, 12 London Road.
http://www.cowleyclub.org.uk/
(Please do not contact the Cowley Club phone nr. with information requests).
Click for directions

Please note:
– No dogs please
– The weekend is not open to journalists

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So, here’s the lowdown on what the Danish people coming over for the EF! Winter Moot will be talking about.

*Copenhagen Climate Summit*
Do we cheer them on, block them in, or close them down?

*When?*
*Where?*
*What?* Danish Klimax activists will kick off a discussion about the movement to stop climate change.
*Why?* The UN talks in Copenhagen this December are supposed to be the place where world leaders agree a new international deal to stop climate change.
But progress so far has been undermined by corporate lobbying and false, market-based solutions. When activists from across Europe hit the streets of Copenhagen, should we be calling on governments to do better, blockading them in until they come up with a good deal, or be saying they are so flawed we should try to close them down?

Most people now agree that we need to do something about climate change. But there isn’t agreement on what. For corporations and most governments its a form of green (or maybe greenwashed) capitalism and before we even get there it will probably be too late. In opposition to this corporate agenda, social movements in the South have proposed ‘climate justice’, a transition to a sustainable world which sees the rich minority who caused climate change pay to put it right, not try and push the costs onto the poor majority.

Within this more progressive agenda proposals range from a ‘green new deal’ of state-led investment for social and environmental goals, to those who argue that only a grassroots anti-capitalism can get us out of this mess. This is the political background to the mobilisation around the Copenhagen climate talks and the strategic and tactical decisions activists are trying to make about it.

This is a chance for activists who are less and more involved in climate campaigning to come together and discuss all these issues. We can also talk about how we mobilise for what may be one of the most important events since the ‘battle’ of Seattle exactly 10 years previously.

Support Portuguese anti-GM activists.

All over Europe, citizens engage into civil disobedience and direct action in resistance against cultivation of genetically modified crops. Only in Portugal, people that have applied this strategy are officially labeled as terrorists. Please help pulling the Portuguese activists out of their isolated position and express your solidarity by signing the petition!

SIGN PETITION

SIGN PETITION
———————
http://gopetition.com/online/21252.html

ON WEBSITE
——————–
http://solimove.liveinfo.nl/
On our website you find articles examining closer the action of Movimento Verde Eufemia and the results it produced. We also elaborate on the question of civil disobedience and terrorism, and provide information about the shape of resistance against GM in Europe. We invite everyone, both portuguese citizens and members of the international community to participate in our discussion. Our website has portuguese and english translation.

CONTACT US
——————–
solimove@googlemail.com
If you have ideas for support or have questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

BACKGROUND
———————–
One year ago, the Portuguese Movimento Verde Eufemia (MVE) went into an action of civil disobedience. In a symbolic but determined act they destroyed less than 1 hectare of the first field of genetically modified corn in the region of the Algarve, previously declared GMO Free Zone by local authorities.

In the days following the action, the wide media attention MVE received instigated a large polemic, resonating into layers of the general public, the environmental movement itself, academics and even the government. Never did any environmental action achieve so much attention in the recent history of Portugal.

The initial media highlights were not so much on the subject of the action, the presence of GMO in Portugal, but rather on the spectacular nature and the illegal aspect of it. However in a second phase attention shifted as well to the debate on GMO, and its dangers. For that reason alone, the action of MVE was considered by many people with environmental concerns as a great success.

Because of that success, the current Portuguese government responsible for a policy in favour of GMO has responded strongly in an attempt to isolate the activists of MVE and other environmental organizations struggling against GMO, through a strategy of criminalization. This strategy came to the point of even labeling the action as a terrorist act (Europol EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2008). Some people that have been brought in relation to the case by the police are therefore facing the risk of being prosecuted within this context of terrorism. In general, it became harder to act against GMO in Portugal. Individuals or organizations who attempt, run a high risk of being under suspicion and surveillance by authorities.

One year later, the opportunity of the anniversary of this controversial but influential action is used to launch SoliMoVE, Grupo de Solidariedad com o Movimento Verde Eufemia. The objectives of Solimove are:

* To show all actors involved in the debate that the action of MVE is not an isolated case in the Portuguese historical context, and certainly not in the current international context, where these types of actions are common, particularly against the cultivation of GMOs.
* To build understanding of the term civil disobedience, its value as an active and engaged form of civil society participation, and its necessity in safeguarding the people and the environment from the threat of genetic contamination.
* To provide an international platform for any individual or organization, wishing to express its moral support towards MVE and its action.
* To defend the freedom of expression of all citizens against GMOs.

solimove@googlemail.com
http://solimove.liveinfo.nl/

ELF vandalises Seminis Office in Melbourne, Australia

The Melbourne office of Seminis, a company which sells GM fruit and vegetable seeds, and is owned by Monsanto, was vandalised on the morning of the 27th of August by the ELF.
The ELF covered the building in slogans declaring Seminis as ‘scum’ and Earth rapists.

A week of free workshops, discussions & skill-sharing in London

The planning for the London FreeSchool week is going well with confirmed workshops and the such like starting to appear on the website. Bowl Court Social Centre, the original location for the weeks event, was sadly evicted a couple of weeks ago. However, the event lives on and has moved to the rampART ( http://www.rampart.co.nr) and LARC ( http://www.londonarc.org.) After all a free school should not be limited and contained by concrete walls!

The deadline for workshops is soon approaching so if you are up for facilitating something over the week drop us a line ( deschooling_society@lists.riseup.net) with a brief description of the event, how long you will need, your availability between the 1st and 7th September and if you have any special requirements (e.g. Tools / equipment). If you do this by monday then we can include it in the timetable.

If you want to know what is happening over the week and when, you are unfortunately going to have to wait until the full timetable has been released next Wednesday. But here’s a little taster…

MONDAY 1st SEPTEMBER 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Welcome to London FreeSchool!
Come along, have some lunch, meet each other and find out about the week ahead.

GENDER & AUTONOMOUS SPACES
Autonomous spaces are not immune from the kind of casual sexism that is still common in the wider culture but the problem is rarely discussed. One solution has been to set up women only spaces but many people feel that these avoid the problem rather than addressing it. This workshop will be about exploring how people feel about questions of gender and sexuality in the context of radical activism and how we can find ways to address the issues.

SAFER SPACES
Its about acknowledging that oppressive behaviours and ideas are still with in our ‘radical’ activist communities, no matter how ‘radical’ we think we are. The point of the workshop is to get people to think and talk about this, find ways to deal with this in their communities and work to stop their own oppressive behaviours.

GETTING RID OF EDUCATION: COMMUNITIES FOR LEARNING
No ones needs to be educated. We all learn all the time. What people need are resourses and support to help them get where they want to go. What does this sort of an organisation look like and how can you start one? Come and find out!
Leslie Barson (Safran) home educated her two children and founded and runs The Otherwise Club, a community centre for families choosing not to send their children to school, in NW London since 1993.

SCHOOL PRIVATISATION
A discussion on school privatisation in the UK and the Wembley Tent City Occupation ( http://www.tentcityoccupation.co.uk/) with Hank Roberts.

A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION TO FOOD BUYING GROUPS
Have you ever thought of getting together with a group of people to buy food in bulk? Come and meet other folks who’d like to do the same, to find out more and start planning your food-buying group. Cheaper food, autonomous organising, stronger links within our communities, and no more
supermarkets: let’s make the best of the recession!
Please bring pens and paper, especially markers and flipchart-like paper, to share if you have any

FOOD NOT BOMBS…
is a network of independent direct action groups. They all use food that is being thrown away, cook delicious vegan meals and serve it for free to any hungry person! Come with us for a bit of skipping (getting food from the bins!), vegan cooking, serving and cleaning! It’s political, fun and empowering!

BASICS OF GENETICS
what’s a cell? what’s a chromosome? what’s the DNA? what’s a gene? what’s a genome? what’s a genetically modified organism? what’s cloning? etc.
Have you ever asked yourself these questions?
We’ll try to talk about all that together!

INTERNET ARCHITECTURE / PHILOSOPHY
The idea for the discussion is to look at the way the technical aspects of the internet have political and philosophical implications. Some of these are well known, others not so well known. Starting
from a few technical points I hope the group can discuss general ideas around the hacker culture that has shaped the internet, as it applies to social networks and political engagement. Some sample principles from internet engineering culture:
“Be conservative in what you do; be liberal in what you accept from others.” (Jon Postel)
“We reject: kings, presidents and voting. We believe in: rough consensus and running code.” (David D. Clarke)

deschooling_society@lists.riseup.net
http://londonfreeschool.wordpress.com

Earth First! gathering – programme and travel directions

Earth First! Summer Gathering
Ecological Direct Action without Compromise
27 Aug – 1 Sept 2008, Norfolk
Join us for 5 days of workshops and planning actions

Travel directions:

Earth First! Summer Gathering
Ecological Direct Action without Compromise
27 Aug – 1 Sept 2008, Norfolk
Join us for 5 days of workshops and planning actions

Travel directions:
The gathering this year will be held at Woolseybridge Farm – a lovely site in Norfolk with lots of trees and a little stream. It’s approximately 1.5 miles NNE of Diss. Diss has regular train services and a wholefood shop. The Grid Reference of the site is TM130819. The post code is IP22 5SY.

The site is easily accessible by public transport, you can get the train either to Diss or Norwich and then catch the bus route no 1 (Simmonds) from Diss to Norwich or vice versa – this route goes right past the site and we’ll be asking the local bus company if they will stop right outside the site on request. Or you could walk or cycle – it’s only 1.5miles away from Diss train station. Please come by public transport if at all possible! .
We will run pick-ups from the train station for anybody who can’t use the bus service or for larger groups of people. If you need a lift please let us know well in advance (and not in the middle of the night, when you’re at a train station somewhere!). Ring the Gathering mobile on 07789 331857

For a map and further details on travel including bus times and directions for drivers check out http://earthfirstgathering.org.uk/2008/where.html

Programme
This year’s programme focusses on info and planning for actions, direct action skills as well as spaces to discuss how we can respond to and deal with the widening ecological, economic and societal crises. We hope there’s something for everyone.
We recommend that you arrive Tue evening, as workshops will start on Wednesday morning and run until Sunday evening

For more info about the gathering check out our website or email us (though we won’t be able to answer email after 21 Aug, as we’ll be on site setting up)

http://www.earthfirst.org.uk, summergathering _ AT _ earthfirst.org.uk

The workshops

Wednesday

12:00
Introduction to Earth First! and the gathering
Dealing with the mainstream media – how to get your message across
Basic electrics – for squats and homes.
Capitalism and climate change – how to make the links visible in actions
Queer networking session

2:30
Self-defence – mixed practise session
Squatting FAQ – sharing tips and tricks
Action Reconnaissance for beginners
Introduction to the root causes of ecological destruction and an exploration of alternatives
Advanced Navigation

4:30
Saving Iceland – Introduction to the campaign
Nuclear waste and nuclear weapons
Consensus Decision-making
Introduction to Ecology
Confronting Abusive Behaviours within our Communities – without the police/prison.

6:00
Library Space: Negotiating Safer Sex: tips on putting the theory into practice, and making your sex life more fun as well as safer!

8:00
Cinema: Talk with video on resisting rainforest destruction in Tasmania

Thursday

10:30
Dealing with Public Order situations – understanding police tactics and how we can deal with to them/turn them to our advantage (runs until lunch)
State and corporate oppression of the Australian Aborigines
Action reconnaissance – advanced skillshare, share your most clever tips and tricks for getting info for actions
Practical plant identification (beginners)
Activist trauma and recovery

12:00
Saving Iceland – an evaluation of the camp this summer
Security for Activists Part I: Do’s and don’ts of organising action, from arranging to meet, planning and what happens after
Arrest support for actions – how to provide support for your affinity group, medium sized actions or mega camps and gatherings.
Introduction to Earth First! and the summer gathering

2:30
Women’s self-defence – introductory session
Food and Climate Action: info for action
How to plan an action
Police liaison for actions – what it is, its uses and limitations and how to make it work.
Changing light bulbs or smashing the system. Sharing +/- experiences of working within/outside the system

4:30
Opposing nuclear expansion: planning for action
How to plan and run a successful medium to long-term campaign
Night time skills Part I: introduction (followed by practise session at 8.30pm)
Legal and arrest workshop
Introduction to anarchist history/potted anarchist histories

6:00
Library space: open discussion ?Direct action or publicity stunt??
8:00

Cinema: Seashepherd film and talk
8:30

Night time skills Part II – practice your skills in the field.

Friday

10:30
Blockading tactics
Climate Camp debrief: a critical look at the climate camp, its achievements and politics
Introduction to Earth First! And the summer gathering
Computer Security for the non-technical
Prison Abolition: what’s wrong with prison? what do we mean by abolition and how can we make it happen?

12:00
Food and climate change: action and campaign planning
Self-defence mixed practise session
Squatting to resist – occupations to resist the powers of darkness
History of Earth First!

2:30
The Earth First! Action Update and website: feedback and getting involved
Resisting agrofuels – update on the situation and action planning
Sea Shepherd – an intro to its campaigns and how to support/get involved.
Grow your own food – share you skills and experience
Queer Activist Forum: Radical queers organise for the future!

4:30
Queer Self-Defence: an intro to basic self-defence skills (verbal and physical)
Setting up new direct action groups
Saving Iceland ? planning actions for the coming year
Techno-fixes and climate change ? report by Corporate Watch
Urban self-reliance and self-sufficiency

7:30
Library: Prisoner Support – An informal get together to discuss the state of prisoner support in our movements, find out news and get advice on writing to prisoners, as well as making and writing cards to send to prisoners.

8:00
Cinema: A talk and film by a tribal activist from Orissa opposing mining

Saturday

10:30
Campaigns and Actions Round-up: UK and international news (no other workshops)

12:00
Women’s self-defence practise session plus running alongside – introduction to women’s self-defence
Stopping GM test fields – discussion on future campaign/actions
Research and destroy – how to research corporations
Future models of society – finding a path to sustainable living
Introduction to Earth First! and the summer gathering
Using tripods for blockading

2:30
Leave it in the ground – building resistance to new coal mining and power stations
Facilitation of meetings
Activist Security Part III: doing actions without leaving traces
Restoration Ecology
Creating safer spaces
Visit to Burston Strike School

4:30
Regional meetings and action planning (no other workshops)

6:00
Library Space: Working without leaders – discussion about core values of anarchism

8:00
Cinema: Smash Edo film and talk

Sunday
11:00
Self defence mixed practice session
Sorting out ways of communication within EF!
Using radios on actions
Introduction to Earth First! And the summer gathering
Fences: getting over them/taking them down

12:15
The summer gathering: feedback on this year’s and getting involved in organising the next one

2:30
Condoms, capitalism and climate change
Smash Edo
Introduction to navigation
What’s new in the world of law?
Feminist Health
Climbing trees, lamp posts and anything else

4:30
Radical politics in the age of collapse
The Royal Bank of Scotland and Fossil Fuel Financing
Getting your electricity from solar power and wind
Radical Parenting
Looking after our mental health – sharing ideas and experiences

8:00
Cinema: films – climate camp footage, ready steady skip etc

Monday
Take-down: please stay for a day or two to help take down the site. If you’ve got access to a vehicle/van, it’d be great if you could help transporting marquees, recycling etc to the places they need to go. Cheers!

More info about the Earth First! Summer Gathering
EF! is about direct action to halt the destruction of the Earth. It’s about doing it yourself rather than relying on leaders, governments or industry.
Direct action is at the heart of it, whether you’re standing in front of a bulldozer, shutting down an open-cast mine or ripping up a field of GM crops.
We’re a loose network of people, groups and campaigns coming together for ecological direct action.
Join us for 5 days of workshops, networking and planning actions, run without leaders by everyone who comes along. The gathering is also a practical example of low-impact eco-living and non-hierarchical organising.

http://www.earthfirst.org.uk, summergathering _ AT _ earthfirst.org.uk