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Spir­it of Free­dom
(Feb­ru­ary 2008)
Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

Earth Liberation Prisoners logoSpir­it of Free­dom
(Feb­ru­ary 2008)
Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

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

Wel­come to the Feb­ru­ary 2008 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. As we enter Feb­ru­ary so we await three major events. First off, Jeff ‘Free’ Luers is due to be re-sen­tenced. We hope its good news. Sec­ond­ly, Eric McDavid is also due to be sen­tenced. As soon as Eric has been sen­tenced we urge every­one to send him let­ters of sup­port. And third­ly, the police infor­mant Jacob Fer­gu­son is also due to be sen­tenced. His cow­ard­ly deals and treach­ery means he won’t be sent to prison. But we await with inter­est to see what sen­tence this piece of scum does receive. If any­one hears, please do let ELP know. But whilst we await those three sen­tenc­ings, please don’t for­get all the oth­er eco-pris­on­ers. Remem­ber, 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, CS# 05850722, Van­cou­ver Island Region­al Cor­rec­tion Cen­ter, 4216 Wilkin­son Rd., Vic­to­ria, BC, V8Z 5B2, Cana­da. On remand accused of involve­ment with an arson on log­ging trucks and an arson on vehi­cles owned by a sand & grav­el com­pa­ny. Both arsons occurred in the USA. Tre is fight­ing his extra­di­tion to the USA.

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. On one of the vehi­cles the let­ters ELF was spray-paint­ed.

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.

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

Rod Coro­n­a­do — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Ibai Eder­ra, Car­cel de Pam­plona, C/San Roque. Apdo. 250, 31080 — Iruñez — Pam­plona, Navar­ra (España), Spain. Serv­ing just under 5 years for sab­o­tag­ing machin­ery at the con­tro­ver­sial Itoiz dam con­struc­tion site.

Jef­frey Luers, #1306729, Lane Coun­ty Adult Cor­rec­tions, 101 West 5th Ave, Eugene, OR 97401–2695, USA. Await­ing resen­tenc­ing. Orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to 22 years & 8 months for arson on a SUV deal­er­ship & the attempt­ed arson of an oil truck.

Eric McDavid X‑2972521 4E 231A, Sacra­men­to Coun­ty Main Jail, 651 “I” Street, Sacra­men­to, CA 95814, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing hav­ing been found guilty of plan­ning to destroy the prop­er­ty of the U.S. Forestry Ser­vice, mobile phone masts and pow­er plants.

Daniel McGowan #63794–053, Unit I, FCI Sand­stone, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, PO Box 1000, Sand­stone, MN 55072, 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.

Christo­pher McIn­tosh #30512–013, FCI Fair­ton, PO Box 420, Fair­ton, NJ 08320, USA. Serv­ing 8 years for set­ting fire to a McDon­ald’s restau­rant.

Jonathan Paul — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Costan­ti­no Ragusa, Casa Cir­con­dar­i­ale, Via Prati Nuovi 7, 27058 Voghera (PV), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist serv­ing 2½ years. 1) 18-months for bur­gling and fire­bomb­ing a multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny. 2) 12-months for organ­is­ing an anti-GM protest. Costani­no is also await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy.

Julio Vil­lanue­va, C.P. Pri­sion De Pam­plona, 31080, Iruna (Navar­ra), Spain.
Serv­ing just under 5 years for sab­o­tag­ing machin­ery at the con­tro­ver­sial Itoiz dam con­struc­tion site.

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.

ANIMAL LIBERATION PRISONERS

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.

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

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

Nathan Block — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

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.

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.

Rod Coro­n­a­do, Voice of the Earth, PO Box 732, Tuc­son, AZ 85702, USA. Due to be sen­tenced to one-year impris­on­ment after Rod informed peo­ple how to make an incen­di­ary device dur­ing a speech at an ani­mal rights gath­er­ing.

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.

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.

Sarah Gis­borne, LT5393, HMP Down­view, Sut­ton Lane, Sut­ton, Sur­rey, SM2 5PD, Eng­land. Serv­ing 5½ years for con­spir­a­cy to cause crim­i­nal dam­age fol­low­ing the dam­ag­ing of 8 vehi­cles owned by peo­ple linked to Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ence.

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.

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

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.

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.

John Smith TB4887, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA, Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

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

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.

Joy­an­na Zach­er — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

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.

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

ANTIFA PRISONERS

Lasan­dra Bur­well W063658, Ohio Refor­ma­to­ry for Women, 1479 Collins Ave. Marysville, OH 43040, USA. Serv­ing 5 years for tak­ing part in an anti-fas­cist demon­stra­tion that turned into a riot.

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.

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

Gub­s­ki Max­im, VK‑2 — 21, Batowa str. 4, Bobruisk, 213800 Belarus. Serv­ing 3 years for fight­ing with neo-nazis.

Vladislav Vladimirovich Plyashke­vich, IK-10 otryad 4, Novopoltsk‑5 Viteb­skaya oblast, 211440 Belarus. Serv­ing 3 years for fight­ing with neo-nazis.

Chris­t­ian Süm­mer­mann, BNR: 727/07/7, JVA Tegel, Sei­del­str. 39, 13507 Berlin, Ger­many. Serv­ing 40 months for breach­ing the peace whilst serv­ing a sus­pend­ed sen­tence issued for anti-fas­cist activ­i­ties.

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

OTHER PRISONERS

Oscar San­ta Maria Caro, CERESO, Miahu­at­lan de Por­firio Diaz, Oax­a­ca en Hall B, Cell 5., Mex­i­co. On remand. The exact charges against Oscar are unknown but Oscar is a mem­ber of RATA, a known ani­mal rights group.

Sacra­men­to Delfi­no Cano Her­nan­dez, CERESO, Miahu­at­lan de Por­firio Diaz, Oax­a­ca en Hall B, Cell 5., Mex­i­co. On remand. Co-defen­dant of Oscar San­ta Maria Caro.

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.

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.

MOVE
MOVE is an eco-rev­o­lu­tion­ary group who car­ried out protests in defence of all life. 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

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

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.

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

Spring into action (though storms may be at the door) — the latest issue of the EF! Action Update has burst forth

Read all about occu­pa­tions & lock-ons of big indus­tri­al places around the world, cor­po­rate & gov­ern­ment block­ades, squat­ting, air­port inva­sions, sub­ver­tis­ing, cli­mate crim­i­nals locked & glued shut, trees climbed and chopped down, GM maize fields trashed, hunger strikes, bur­row­ing under fences, jump­ing on w

Rabbit under fenceRead all about occu­pa­tions & lock-ons of big indus­tri­al places around the world, cor­po­rate & gov­ern­ment block­ades, squat­ting, air­port inva­sions, sub­ver­tis­ing, cli­mate crim­i­nals locked & glued shut, trees climbed and chopped down, GM maize fields trashed, hunger strikes, bur­row­ing under fences, jump­ing on whal­ing boats, Buy­ing Noth­ing, Reclaim­ing the Streets and the unstop­pable singing of Christ­mas songs, not to men­tion skat­ing pen­guins. Even some upcom­ing dates to get stuck in or to meet oth­er direct action cra­zies. We could­n’t make it up even if we tried.

Anoth­er bumper issue, with a spe­cial insert on Agro­fu­els includ­ing a list of refiner­ies ‘in the pipeline’ or already on the ground, plus a legal update about the recent changes to your access to solic­i­tors in police sta­tions.

The lat­est issue of the Earth First! Action Update burst forth at the lat­est nation­al meet­ing of the Camp for Cli­mate Action (see climatecamp.org.uk for how the camp idea is auda­cious­ly mor­ph­ing this year).

Down­load it to print out and share here. Do get in touch with the edi­to­r­i­al col­lec­tive to let them know if you’re dish­ing it up round your way, or need paper copies, or want to give them one of the rar­er ingre­di­ents, dosh (to send it to pris­on­ers, protest camps and far beyond) — their con­tact details and more are here.

GM Trees Chopped Down in New Zealand

19.1.2008

Anti-GM pro­test­ers have cut down 19 genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied pine trees at a research site near Rotorua. The attack hap­pened at some stage over the week­end.


19.1.2008

Anti-GM pro­test­ers have cut down 19 genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied pine trees at a research site near Rotorua. The attack hap­pened at some stage over the week­end.

A 1.5 metre hole was found along the fence­line, made of 3.5 metre high elec­tri­fied wire. The crop destroy­ers are assumed to have bur­rowed through that hole before chop­ping down the trees, almost 1/4 of the 80 trees on the site.

Police found a spade with a “GE Free New Zealand” stick­er on it lean­ing up against the fence. No group has yet claimed respon­si­bil­i­ty for the attack.

The Rotorua site was the same one protest­ed against in 2005, where four peo­ple were arrest­ed, one of whom was also pep­per sprayed by Police. That protest was organ­ised by the Peo­ple’s Mora­to­ri­um Enforce­ment Agency, who have cel­e­brat­ed the week­end’s action.

“The destruc­tion of the GE trees in Rotorua high­lights the resis­tance to genet­ic engi­neer­ing in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Because ERMA is not stop­ping GE mate­r­i­al from being released into the envi­ron­ment, the peo­ple of Aotearoa have to inter­vene,” said PMEA spokesper­son Felic­i­ty Per­ry.

=====

On Mon­day, envi­ron­men­tal sabo­teurs cir­cum­vent­ed an elec­tri­fied secu­ri­ty fence by tun­nel­ing under­neath it, and chopped down 20 genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered trees.

Rotorua, New Zealand — Envi­ron­men­tal sabo­teurs appear to be respon­si­ble for the destruc­tion of field tri­al crop of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied radi­a­ta pine and Nor­way spruce trees at the Crown Research Insti­tute Scion’s base. On Mon­day, van­dals cir­cum­vent­ed an elec­tri­fied secu­ri­ty fence by tun­nel­ing under­neath it, and chopped down 20 genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered trees.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10487121

A spade with a “GE Free New Zealand” stick­er was left behind, appar­ent­ly to make sure author­i­ties new why the night­time raid was car­ried out. Researchers will like­ly be forced to aban­don this par­tic­u­lar exper­i­ment since a full 20% of their trees were destroyed.

http://gefree.org.nz

French Farmer Calls Off Hunger Strike

PARIS (AP) — Mil­i­tant French farmer Jose Bove and about 15 sup­port­ers called off their hunger strike in its eighth day after the gov­ern­ment ordered the sus­pen­sion of the use of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied corn Fri­day.

PARIS (AP) — Mil­i­tant French farmer Jose Bove and about 15 sup­port­ers called off their hunger strike in its eighth day after the gov­ern­ment ordered the sus­pen­sion of the use of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied corn Fri­day.

France will sus­pend cul­ti­va­tion of MON810, the seed for the only type of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied corn now allowed in the coun­try, until a Euro­pean Union review is con­duct­ed, Prime Min­is­ter Fran­cois Fil­lon’s office said.

The move was based on a rec­om­men­da­tion this week by a gov­ern­ment-appoint­ed pan­el call­ing for ‘the need for addi­tion­al analy­ses on the health and envi­ron­men­tal effects of the genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied prod­uct MON810 in the long term,’ Fil­lon’s office said in a state­ment.

Bove and his sup­port­ers began the hunger strike Jan. 3, say­ing they hoped to pres­sure the gov­ern­ment to make good on a promise in Novem­ber to sus­pend cul­ti­va­tion of MON810. He said they only drank water or unsweet­ened tea dur­ing the protest.

The seed, which resists some types of insects, was autho­rized before a gov­ern­ment-ordered mora­to­ri­um on genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied prod­ucts took effect in 1999. Last year, it was plant­ed in about 54,000 acres in France — main­ly in south­ern farm­land.

Bove rose to fame in August 1999 when he and sup­port­ers used farm equip­ment to dis­man­tle a McDon­ald’s branch under con­struc­tion in Mil­lau, in the foothills of France’s Mas­sif Cen­tral moun­tains.

He has faced repeat­ed tri­als and served jail time for destroy­ing genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied crops.

The Asso­ci­at­ed Press, 11 Jan­u­ary 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hq-PHd96BpmEGZYsFUZ4_KEto5zAD8U3VO802

Hunger strike in France to protest gene-altered crops

PARIS: The mil­i­tant French sheep farmer Jose Bove and as many as 15 of his sup­port­ers were expect­ed to begin a hunger strike Thurs­day aimed at rais­ing pres­sure on the French gov­ern­ment to impose a long-term ban on grow­ing genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied crops.

PARIS: The mil­i­tant French sheep farmer Jose Bove and as many as 15 of his sup­port­ers were expect­ed to begin a hunger strike Thurs­day aimed at rais­ing pres­sure on the French gov­ern­ment to impose a long-term ban on grow­ing genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied crops.

In a news­pa­per inter­view pub­lished Wednes­day, the anti-glob­al­iza­tion activist vowed not to eat again until a ban was in place.

Bove cap­tured world­wide atten­tion for help­ing to orga­nize the ran­sack­ing of a McDon­ald’s restau­rant nine years ago to protest the influ­ence of multi­na­tion­al cor­po­ra­tions. Since then he has served time in a French prison for dam­ag­ing gene-altered crops.

While his cam­paigns have struck a sym­pa­thet­ic chord in many parts of France and Europe where gene-altered foods are wide­ly mis­trust­ed — and where Bove is some­thing of a folk hero — the lat­est protest against altered crops comes as divi­sions over the poten­tial ben­e­fits of the tech­nol­o­gy appear to be deep­en­ing across the region.

Some Euro­pean Union offi­cials remain wary of using prod­ucts that could endan­ger insects and fish and dis­turb ecosys­tems, but oth­ers have redou­bled calls to ease restric­tions on altered seeds as a way of keep­ing farm­ing glob­al­ly com­pet­i­tive at a time of sky­rock­et­ing food prices.

The Euro­pean agri­cul­ture com­mis­sion­er, Mar­i­ann Fis­ch­er Boel, warned farm min­is­ters in Novem­ber that Europe’s resis­tance to import­ing genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied prod­ucts like live­stock feed was con­tribut­ing to the ris­ing cost of rais­ing pigs and chick­ens and could pose a threat to the meat indus­try.

In Octo­ber, the French pres­i­dent, Nico­las Sarkozy, dis­ap­point­ed sup­port­ers of a long-term ban by announc­ing a tem­po­rary freeze on genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied seeds pend­ing the out­come of a review of the tech­nol­o­gy that is expect­ed ear­ly this year.

Bove has said he is under­tak­ing his hunger strike to push the French gov­ern­ment into mak­ing a much longer-term com­mit­ment to end seed cul­ti­va­tion.

Genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied corn is already import­ed into sev­er­al EU coun­tries, includ­ing France and Ger­many, where it is used to feed ani­mals like cows and chick­ens. But only one genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied crop is cur­rent­ly grown in Europe, a form of corn pro­duced by Mon­san­to and nine oth­er com­pa­nies called Mon 810 that is the main tar­get of Bové’s protest.

Aus­tria, Hun­gary and Poland are among coun­tries that already have banned the Mon­san­to corn.

A long-term ban ‘is the only thing that will put an end to this hunger strike,’ Bove told the French dai­ly Sud Ouest in an inter­view pub­lished Wednes­day. ‘Promis­es won’t be sat­is­fac­to­ry.’

Bove told Sud Ouest that he would con­duct the hunger strike in a well-known pub­lic loca­tion in Paris where he would not cause any secu­ri­ty prob­lems. He declined to reveal the where­abouts of the loca­tion before Thurs­day.

Bove began reduc­ing his intake of alco­hol, meat, eggs and cheese at the end of Decem­ber to start accus­tom­ing his body to the fast, dur­ing which he said he expect­ed to lose half-a-kilo­gram, or about one pound, of weight each day, he told anoth­er French news­pa­per, Midi Libre.

‘This hunger-strike is a well-con­sid­ered com­mit­ment, not a sui­ci­dal act,’ Bove told Midi Libre.

By James Kan­ter Inter­na­tion­al Her­ald Tri­bune, Jan­u­ary 2 2008 http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/02/europe/gmo.php

French activist Bove to go on anti-GMO hunger strike

REUTERS, Dec 10 2007

TOULOUSE (Reuters) — French rad­i­cal farmer Jose Bove, who became a world­wide celebri­ty for his fight against junk food, said on Mon­day he would go on a hunger strike to win a one-year ban on genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied (GMO) crops.

REUTERS, Dec 10 2007

TOULOUSE (Reuters) — French rad­i­cal farmer Jose Bove, who became a world­wide celebri­ty for his fight against junk food, said on Mon­day he would go on a hunger strike to win a one-year ban on genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied (GMO) crops.

Speak­ing at the Mil­lau Court of Jus­tice in south­ern France, where his four-month jail sen­tence for trash­ing a GMO field in 2004 was com­mut­ed to a fine, Bove said he would start his unlim­it­ed strike on Jan­u­ary 3, along with 10 to 15 oth­er activists.

The wal­rus-mus­ta­chioed, pipe-smok­ing Bove, some­times dubbed France’s Robin Hood, spent six weeks in jail in 2003 for smash­ing up a McDon­ald’s restau­rant in protest at tar­iffs imposed by the Unit­ed States in retal­i­a­tion for a Euro­pean Union ban on imports of North Amer­i­can hor­mone-treat­ed beef.

While GMO crops are com­mon in the Unit­ed States, France — Europe’s biggest grain pro­duc­er — along with oth­er Euro­pean nations remain high­ly sus­pi­cious of them.

Sup­port­ers say it could lead to hardy strains to help feed the world’s poor. Oppo­nents, which polls say include a major­i­ty of French peo­ple, fear they could harm humans and wildlife by trig­ger­ing an uncon­trolled spread of mod­i­fied genes.

In an attempt to calm these con­cerns, France last week for­mal­ly sus­pend­ed the com­mer­cial use of GMO seeds until Feb­ru­ary 9 and ordered a biotech safe­ty study.

It also set up a com­mit­tee charged with assess­ing the health and envi­ron­men­tal impli­ca­tions of using the only GMO seeds used in Europe, which are reliant on the MON 810 tech­nol­o­gy devel­oped by U.S. biotech giant Mon­san­to.

‘This decree is ridicu­lous. It is a scare­crow,’ Bove said.

‘Every­one knows that there are no sow­ings dur­ing win­ter. We demand a real pause in GMO use in 2008. It must be a year with­out GMOs and we are stat­ing this hunger strike to show our deter­mi­na­tion,’ he added.

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1011368420071210

Activist killed on GM action in Brazil — call to action for 8th November

Call for day of action on 8th Novem­ber in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Brazil­ian GM activists after shoot­ings on anti-GM land squat in Brazil

On Octo­ber 21 at 1:30 p.m., gun­men attacked a Via Campesina encamp­ment locat­ed at Syngenta’s 127-hectare farm used for field tri­als of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied crops in San­ta Tereza do Oeste, in Paraná, Brazil. Dur­ing the attack, Valmir Mota de Oliveira, 42 years old (known as “Keno,”) activist and leader of the of the Movi­men­to Sem Ter­ra (the Brazil­ian Land­less Rur­al Work­ers Move­ment), was killed at point-blank range by two shots to the chest. Two oth­er MST lead­ers, Cel­so Bar­bosa and Célia Apare­ci­da Lourenço, were pur­sued by the gun­men but man­aged to escape. Work­ers Gen­til Couto Viera, Jonas Gomes de Queiroz, Domin­gos Bar­retos, Izabel Nasci­men­to de Souza, and Hud­son Cardin were seri­ous­ly injured.

Call for day of action on 8th Novem­ber in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Brazil­ian GM activists after shoot­ings on anti-GM land squat in Brazil

On Octo­ber 21 at 1:30 p.m., gun­men attacked a Via Campesina encamp­ment locat­ed at Syngenta’s 127-hectare farm used for field tri­als of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied crops in San­ta Tereza do Oeste, in Paraná, Brazil. Dur­ing the attack, Valmir Mota de Oliveira, 42 years old (known as “Keno,”) activist and leader of the of the Movi­men­to Sem Ter­ra (the Brazil­ian Land­less Rur­al Work­ers Move­ment), was killed at point-blank range by two shots to the chest. Two oth­er MST lead­ers, Cel­so Bar­bosa and Célia Apare­ci­da Lourenço, were pur­sued by the gun­men but man­aged to escape. Work­ers Gen­til Couto Viera, Jonas Gomes de Queiroz, Domin­gos Bar­retos, Izabel Nasci­men­to de Souza, and Hud­son Cardin were seri­ous­ly injured.

To any­one who has been part of the fight against GM crops and cor­po­rate con­trol of our lives in the UK, from stick­ing “GM” labels on a pack­et of bean feast to sneak­ing through the fields at the dead of night to destroy the crops and sab­o­tage the test-sites: Keno and his com­pan­ions are us. It is an acci­dent of class pol­i­tics and geog­ra­phy we are not (yet) receiv­ing death threats.

Via Campesina had pre­vi­ous­ly occu­pied the site in Brazil because of Syn­gen­ta’s ille­gal devel­op­ment of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied (GM) seeds. Syn­gen­ta is the world’s largest pro­duc­er of agro­chem­i­cals and the third largest com­mer­cial seed pro­duc­er. They pulled out of the GM in the UK after their last attempt at a field tri­al was destroyed.

At dawn on Octo­ber 21st, about 150 mem­bers of Via Campesina reoc­cu­pied Syn­gen­ta’s site, where they encoun­tered four armed secu­ri­ty guards, who were dis­armed and left the site. At about 1 in the after­noon, Via Campesina reports, “a bus stopped in front of the entry gate and about forty armed gun­men got out, fir­ing machine guns at the peo­ple that they saw in the encamp­ment. They broke down the gate, then shot [Mota].

Mota, Lourenço and Bar­bosa had been receiv­ing death threats and intim­i­da­tion since the begin­ning of the year. They still con­tin­ued to take action.

We need to act in sol­i­dar­i­ty, because this is the panora­ma, and it is only going to get worse. Sick though it is, respons­es from ‘con­cerned cit­i­zens’ in coun­tries like ours can help pro­tect activists like Keno and have an impact on com­pa­nies like Syn­gen­ta.

La Via Campesina are call­ing on all orga­ni­za­tions and move­ments to orga­nize protest actions at Syn­gen­ta offices on the 8th Novem­ber in the coun­tries where they are based, and to hand deliv­er let­ters to the Brazil­ian and Swiss embassies, with the fol­low­ing demands:

1. The pun­ish­ment of the mate­r­i­al per­pe­tra­tors and intel­lec­tu­al authors of this crime.
2. Expro­pri­a­tion of Syn­gen­ta lands, to be used for the pro­duc­tion of native seeds, and that these lands be admin­is­tered by rur­al peas­ants and farm work­ers.
3. The expul­sion of Syn­gen­ta from Brazil.
4. That the Brazil­ian gov­ern­ment head­ed by Pres­i­dent Luis Igna­cio Lula da Sil­va adopt mea­sures to ensure the phys­i­cal integri­ty of the rur­al farm work­ers who are threat­ened by the armed men con­tract­ed by Syn­gen­ta.
5. That all organ­i­sa­tions back up the ini­tia­tives of Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al in their call to repu­di­ate and con­demn the actions of Syn­gen­ta.
6. That all organ­i­sa­tions of Via Campesina in all coun­tries orga­nize days of action and protest in the Swiss and Brazil­ian Embassies, as well as at the offices of Syn­gen­ta this Thurs­day 8th Novem­ber and on the 10th of Decem­ber con­demn­ing this crim­i­nal act.
7. To send let­ters of protest to the fol­low­ing address­es:

Gov­er­nador do Esta­do do Paraná
Exmo Gov­er­nador do Esta­do do Paraná
Sr. Rober­to Requião de Mel­lo e Sil­va
Palá­cio Iguaçu
Praça Nos­sa Sen­ho­ra de Salete, s/nº, 3º andar
Cen­tro Cívi­co 80.530–909
Curitiba/PR — Brasil
Fax: + 55 41 3350 2935
Saudação: Vos­sa Excelência/ Your Excel­len­cy

Min­istro da Justiça
Exmo Min­istro da Justiça
Sr. Tar­so Gen­ro
Esplana­da dos Min­istérios, Blo­co “T”
70712–902 — Brasília/DF — Brasil
Fax: + 55 61 3322–6817
Saudação: Vos­sa Excelência/ Your Excel­len­cy

Cópias para:
Sec­re­taria Espe­cial de Dire­itos Humanos
Exmo. Secretário Espe­cial
Sr. Paulo de Tar­so Van­nuchi
Esplana­da dos Min­istérios — Blo­co “T” — 4º andar
70.064–900 — Brasília/DF — Brasil
Fax: + 55 61 3226 7980
Saudação: Vos­sa Excelência/ Your Excel­len­cy

Copia al MST Brasil y Via Campesina : mst­pr [NOSPAM] mst.org.br
via­cam­pesina [NOSPAM] viacampesina.org
Send us a short report and pho­tos of the actions orga­nized to:
via­cam­pesina [NOSPAM} viacampesina.org

SAMPLE LETTER –
Dear Sir:
I, [YOUR NAME / NAME OF ORGANIZATION] am writ­ing to express my grave con­cern with regard to the Octo­ber 21 mur­der of Valmir Mota de Oliveira, also known as Keno, of the Move­ment of Land­less Work­ers (MST) and Via Campesina, in the Brazil­ian state of Paraná, who was shot twice and killed by armed gun­men on an exper­i­men­tal GMO farm of Syn­gen­ta Seeds in San­ta Tereza do Oeste Paraná, Brazil. Keno’s death is a tremen­dous loss for his fam­i­ly, for those strug­gling for social jus­tice and human rights in Brazil, and for the inter­na­tion­al net­work of friends and allies who con­tin­ue to be shocked by the bru­tal­i­ty of agribusi­ness expan­sion in Brazil.
It has been doc­u­ment­ed that at 1:30 p.m. of the day of the attack, a bus stopped in front of the entrance gate to the farm and an armed mili­tia of approx­i­mate­ly 40 heav­i­ly armed gun­men got out, fir­ing at the peo­ple in the encamp­ment. They broke down the gate, pur­sued and killed activist Keno with two shots to the chest, attempt­ed to kill two oth­er lead­ers, shot five oth­er land­less work­ers, and severe­ly beat Isabel do Nasci­men­to de Souza, who remains in seri­ous con­di­tion at the hos­pi­tal.
In addi­tion, it has been not­ed that Syn­gen­ta was using the ser­vices of an armed mili­tia which was act­ing through a front com­pa­ny, NF Secu­ri­ty, in con­junc­tion with the Rur­al Soci­ety of the West­ern Region (SRO) and the Move­ment of Rur­al Pro­duc­ers (MPR), which are tied to agribusi­ness.
While an inquiry has been opened in order to inves­ti­gate these denun­ci­a­tions against your com­pa­ny and NF Secu­ri­ty, we insist that you imme­di­ate­ly sus­pend all con­tract­ing of pri­vate mili­tias in Brazil to avoid any fur­ther vio­la­tions of human rights.
Please see to it that the indi­vid­u­als involved in this attack, who are inti­mate­ly linked to and paid by your com­pa­ny, are brought to jus­tice. Also, please ensure that your com­pa­ny avoids fur­ther alter­ca­tions with Brazil’s human rights and social jus­tice move­ments, and that the right of Brazil’s peo­ple to peace­ful­ly orga­nize be respect­ed by your Brazil-based employ­ees and func­tionar­ies.
Respect­ful­ly,
[YOUR NAME / NAME OF ORGANIZATION]
[LOCATION]

Autumn EF! Action Update out — and advance notice of the Winter Moot, 22–24 February (gathering of eco-activists), Nottingham

The lat­est issue of the quar­ter­ly EF!AU was dished up at the Anar­chist Book­fair — burst­ing at the seams, it had to be turned into a bumper issue, with a round-up of the actions around the time of the Camp for Cli­mate Action, plus loads of action reports from around the world since then — from pieing oil exec­u­tives, blockad­ing garages & air­ports, polar bears lock­ing-on, sab­o­tage, pris­on­ers, occu­pied spaces, dig­ger-div­ing, GM crop-trash­ing, to cake and the cun­ning use of mung beans (oh, and of course, much much more).

The lat­est issue of the quar­ter­ly EF!AU was dished up at the Anar­chist Book­fair — burst­ing at the seams, it had to be turned into a bumper issue, with a round-up of the actions around the time of the Camp for Cli­mate Action, plus loads of action reports from around the world since then — from pieing oil exec­u­tives, blockad­ing garages & air­ports, polar bears lock­ing-on, sab­o­tage, pris­on­ers, occu­pied spaces, dig­ger-div­ing, GM crop-trash­ing, to cake and the cun­ning use of mung beans (oh, and of course, much much more).

Down­load it to print out and share here. Do get in touch with the edi­to­r­i­al col­lec­tive to let them know if you’re dish­ing it up round your way, or need paper copies, or want to give them one of the rar­er ingre­di­ents, dosh (to send it to pris­on­ers, protest camps and far beyond) — their con­tact details and more are here

########################

The EF! Win­ter Moot will hap­pen from 22nd — 24th Feb­ru­ary 2008, in Not­ting­ham — more details near­er the time, as this is just advance notice.

It’s a gath­er­ing for envi­ron­men­tal activists — in the past, it’s been a chance for peo­ple involved in all kinds of eco­log­i­cal direct action to get togeth­er for a week­end indoors to chat about where things are at in the UK, and so improve all aspects of how we work togeth­er, in order to take direct action in defence of the earth.

Con­tact 0845–0223 5254 for more info

Three arrested in GM crop protest

ABC News, Oct 23 2007

Three Green­peace activists have been arrest­ed dur­ing a protest at Mur­ray Goul­burn’s Mel­bourne head­quar­ters.

Pro­test­ers went into the build­ing demand­ing the co-oper­a­tive sup­port bans on genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered food crops.

ABC News, Oct 23 2007

Three Green­peace activists have been arrest­ed dur­ing a protest at Mur­ray Goul­burn’s Mel­bourne head­quar­ters.

Pro­test­ers went into the build­ing demand­ing the co-oper­a­tive sup­port bans on genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered food crops.

Police had to forcibly remove three cam­paign­ers from the premis­es, but sev­er­al pro­test­ers remain out­side.

Cam­paign­er, Louise Sales, says the dairy giant sup­ports the rein­tro­duc­tion of GE crops for use in stock feed.

‘Mur­ray Goul­burn play a piv­otal role in the dairy indus­try not only in Vic­to­ria but also in all of Aus­tralia,’ she said.

‘We think its impor­tant that they sup­port clean healthy food for con­sumers and stand up for farm­ers and pro­tect our GE free sta­tus,’ she said.

‘So I had a brief inter­change with the man­ag­ing direc­tor but he was fair­ly hos­tile and was­n’t real­ly ready to engage,’ Ms Sales said.

‘So we will con­tin­ue to pur­sue a meet­ing with Mur­ray Goul­burn to talk about their pol­i­cy,’ she said.

http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/23/2067318.htm?section=justin

Green­peace tar­gets dairy giant over GM

Green­peace activists are tar­get­ting a major milk proces­sor in Mel­bourne, try­ing to halt the dairy indus­try’s sup­port of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied crops.

Mur­ray Goul­burn, pro­duces milk, but­ter and cheese, and is one of the largest proces­sors in the coun­try.

Ear­li­er this year the dairy indus­try reversed its posi­tion on the intro­duc­tion of GM crops.

Louise Sales from Green­peace says today’s protest at Mur­ray Goul­burn’s head­quar­ters is an attempt to secure a meet­ing with man­age­ment.

‘We believe they should be rep­re­sent­ing con­sumers, and con­sumers have made it clear they don’t want to eat GE food,’ she says.

‘Opin­ion polls con­sis­tent­ly show that and Mur­ray Goul­burn should be respect­ing the wish­es of its con­sumers and keep­ing its Devon­dale prod­ucts GE free, and sup­port­ing the exten­sion of the food crop bans.’

No-one from Mur­ray Goul­burn has been avail­able for com­ment.

ABC Rur­al, 23/10/2007 http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/2007/s2067586.htm

French GM maize decontamination action

Mon­san­to files suit against French GMO activists

Oct 19 (Reuters) — The French unit of U.S. Biotech giant Mon­san­to has filed a law­suit fol­low­ing the lat­est destruc­tion of some of its test fields for genet­i­cal­ly-mod­i­fied maize. In a state­ment issued on Fri­day, Mon­san­to said that uniden­ti­fied activists had ran­sacked three test fields in Val­divi­enne in cen­tral France after dark on Thurs­day.

Mon­san­to files suit against French GMO activists

Oct 19 (Reuters) — The French unit of U.S. Biotech giant Mon­san­to has filed a law­suit fol­low­ing the lat­est destruc­tion of some of its test fields for genet­i­cal­ly-mod­i­fied maize. In a state­ment issued on Fri­day, Mon­san­to said that uniden­ti­fied activists had ran­sacked three test fields in Val­divi­enne in cen­tral France after dark on Thurs­day.

‘This sense­less new act of vio­lence penalis­es French research into biotech crops yet again and has no sci­en­tif­ic basis,’ Mon­san­to said.

It used a pro­ce­dure in French law allow­ing legal action to be brought against unknown defen­dants.

Activists have ruined oth­er Mon­san­to GMO test fields this year, prompt­ing a series of offi­cial com­plaints which the com­pa­ny has said typ­i­cal­ly leads to court action.

Indus­try groups have denounced such attacks as dis­as­trous for the coun­try’s agri­cul­tur­al research work.

Some farm­ers sup­port­ive of GMO crops have called on the gov­ern­ment dur­ing gov­ern­ment-led meet­ings on the envi­ron­ment to pass a GMO law as soon as pos­si­ble, in part to stress the ille­gal nature of such activ­i­ties.

Heat­ed debate has sur­round­ed the use of GMO prod­ucts across Europe and in France, where many con­sumers and green groups doubt the safe­ty of GMO prod­ucts and fear that they will reduce bio­di­ver­si­ty.

REUTERS, Octo­ber 19 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSL1944836620071019