Category: Nuclear

International Day of Direct Action Against Climate Change and the G8 — UK events: Haringey… (& Jeff Luers solidarity callout)

Fri­day 8th June 2007
Direct Action for Cli­mate Jus­tice – Resis­tance is Self Defense!

We all know the ter­ri­fy­ing sta­tis­tics: a mil­lion species extinct by 2050, 19 of the 20 hottest years on record since 1980, Green­land and Antarc­ti­ca melt­ing, droughts, floods, famines … the G8 have had over 30 years to address cli­mate change and only suc­ceed­ed in pro­vid­ing tril­lions in sub­si­dies to the very indus­tries that are destroy­ing our plan­et and our future. And while the G8 con­tin­ues to line their pock­ets, island states dis­ap­pear and hun­dreds of thou­sands die as a result of the freak weath­er con­di­tions caused by their irra­tional and uncon­trol­lable obses­sion with nev­er end­ing eco­nom­ic growth.

G8 2007 climate day flierFri­day 8th June 2007
Direct Action for Cli­mate Jus­tice – Resis­tance is Self Defense!

We all know the ter­ri­fy­ing sta­tis­tics: a mil­lion species extinct by 2050, 19 of the 20 hottest years on record since 1980, Green­land and Antarc­ti­ca melt­ing, droughts, floods, famines … the G8 have had over 30 years to address cli­mate change and only suc­ceed­ed in pro­vid­ing tril­lions in sub­si­dies to the very indus­tries that are destroy­ing our plan­et and our future. And while the G8 con­tin­ues to line their pock­ets, island states dis­ap­pear and hun­dreds of thou­sands die as a result of the freak weath­er con­di­tions caused by their irra­tional and uncon­trol­lable obses­sion with nev­er end­ing eco­nom­ic growth.

We have a ten-year win­dow to act. As the mega­lo­ma­ni­ac G8 lead­ers meet in Ger­many, masked behind a bar­ri­er of fences and sol­diers, intent on lead­ing us fur­ther towards cat­a­stroph­ic and irre­versible cli­mate chaos, we must shout, scream and roar ‘no more’. Now is the time to take direct action and shut them down, them and their cli­mate crim­i­nal indus­try friends!

The 8th of June Inter­na­tion­al Day of Action Against Cli­mate Change and the G8 has been called by the Inter­na­tion­al Ris­ing Tide Net­work. This is a call for autonomous, decen­tral­ized actions appro­pri­ate for your town, city, or local area. Use this inter­na­tion­al day of action to sup­port local strug­gles against oil refiner­ies, gas pipelines, strip mines and coal-fired pow­er plants. Dis­rupt the finan­cial back­ers of the fos­sil fuel indus­try. Organ­ise work­shops to spread sus­tain­able post-petro­le­um liv­ing skills. Find a weak point in the infra­struc­ture of resource exploita­tion and throw a lit­er­al or sym­bol­ic wrench in the works. It’s time to vis­it your local pol­luters and give ’em hell!

We already know of actions planned across the UK, North Amer­i­ca, Ger­many, Cana­da and Aus­tralia and that’s just the start! By 8th June actions will be planned around the world. Pass this call out on to all envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice, cli­mate action, rad­i­cal sus­tain­abil­i­ty and relat­ed move­ments in all the G8 coun­tries and the Glob­al South.

Ris­ing Tide will cre­ate a col­lec­tion of out­reach and agit-prop mate­ri­als (includ­ing this call out in five dif­fer­ent lan­guages) that can be used by groups around the world to organ­ise local­ly. These mate­ri­als will be down­load­able from www.risingtide.org.uk and http://risingtidenorthamerica.org.
Direct action and civ­il dis­obe­di­ence are the ratio­nal response in this time of cri­sis. Sup­port the 8th of June Inter­na­tion­al Day of Direct Action against Cli­mate Change and the G8! Tell us about planned actions for cli­mate jus­tice being planned in your com­mu­ni­ty. Con­tact us — info@risingtide.org.uk and contact@risingtidenorthamerica.org

In June 2007 the G8 will under­stand the mean­ing of rebel­lion, revolt and rev­o­lu­tion. Their recipe for cat­a­stro­phe will be met with our world­wide resis­tance!

*G8 Day of Action Resources — Down­load­able G8 day of Action fly­ers and posters.
*Organ­ise a Crit­i­cal Mass Bike Ride on the 8th of June — here are some leaflet ideas to help you.

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You could link your event in with Day of Sol­i­dar­i­ty with Jef­frey Free Luers, June 9, 2007:

June marks the sev­enth year that our friend and com­rade, Jef­frey “Free” Luers has been impris­oned and held cap­tive by the state. Sen­tenced to an out­ra­geous 22 years and 8 months for burn­ing three Sport Util­i­ty Vehi­cles (SUVs) at Roma­nia Chevro­let in Eugene, Jeff has con­tin­ued to be active in prison and fight back with his words and inspi­ra­tion. Although Jeff recent­ly won his appeal and is expect­ing a reduced sen­tence, this case is not over:

“I have spo­ken with my attor­ney and there are still many bat­tles ahead. Hard choic­es will have to be made. I am by no means close to walk­ing out of prison, just one step clos­er. This is a vic­to­ry, and while my own per­son­al strug­gle is mak­ing head­way oth­ers are just begin­ning.”

We encour­age peo­ple to orga­nize events for Jeff and oth­er polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, unit­ing strug­gles for human, earth, and ani­mal lib­er­a­tion. In Jef­f’s own words:

“This June, show your sol­i­dar­i­ty with me, and all those who have strug­gled, past and present, to make this world a bet­ter place. Strug­gle with us. Hold demon­stra­tions or gath­er­ings at fed­er­al build­ings or US embassies and demand change. It doesn’t mat­ter what cause or issue you fight for — we are all con­nect­ed. What does mat­ter is that we stand unit­ed and make our voic­es heard.”

More at http://freefreenow.org/june2007.html

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»>ANNOUNCED UK EVENTS»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»>

HARINGEY CRITICAL MASS BIKE RIDE 2007

Can’t make it to Ger­many? Sick of the all those cars get­ting in your way on the auto­bahn! Don’t despair…join us on Sat­ur­day 9th of June for the 2007 Haringey Crit­i­cal Mass. A leisure­ly ride down the Green Lanes to reclaim our streets and send a breath of fresh air to those meet­ing in Ger­many.

Sat­ur­day 9th June • Assem­ble 12 Noon @ Manor House
• Fin­ish­ing at Chest­nuts Park for a pic­nic •

All Wel­come: espe­cial­ly cycles, scoot­ers, wheel­chairs, skate­boards, rollerblades, pedes­tri­ans…
Sup­port­ed by Haringey Sol­i­dar­i­ty Group www.haringey.org.uk

FOR CLEAN AIR AND A GREEN G8

WHY HAVE A CRITICAL MASS BIKE RIDE IN HARINGEY?
We are join­ing togeth­er on a Crit­i­cal Mass Bike Ride through Haringey as a colour­ful and fun way of high­light­ing envi­ron­men­tal and trans­port issues in the bor­ough. In the week when the G8 are gath­er­ing in Ger­many and the day
after the Inter­na­tion­al Day of Direct Action Against Cli­mate Change we should also be focus­ing on the glob­al cri­sis of cli­mate change and the envi­ron­men­tal impacts of oil depen­den­cy.

• It’s time we reclaimed our streets from the traf­fic and con­ges­tion that caus­es tox­ic lev­els of pol­lu­tion and injury and death.
• We want cycle lanes on Green Lanes and all over Haringey to make cycling a safer, more viable form of trans­port.
• We want mea­sures in place to reduce traf­fic speeds on all roads in Haringey, where dan­ger­ous dri­ving reg­u­lar­ly puts cyclists, chil­dren and pedes­tri­ans at risk.

WHAT’S THE G8 GOT TO DO WITH THIS?

• The G8 (Group of eight, most indus­tri­al­ized nations) Sum­mits are host­ed, on rota­tion, by the group’s mem­ber states. In 2007 the sum­mit is to be held on 6–8 June in Ros­tock, Ger­many.
• While it seems to be in the news a lot, Cli­mate Change is per­haps the issue that has received least atten­tion com­pared to the scale of destruc­tion that life on earth is fac­ing. It is the most seri­ous prob­lem fac­ing the world, more seri­ous than inter­na­tion­al ter­ror­ism, accord­ing to the UK Government’s chief sci­en­tif­ic advi­sor.
• Cli­mate change needs to be high­er on the G8 agen­da. How­ev­er, we can­not leave it just to the sci­en­tists and politi­cians to dis­man­tle the car­bon machine.
• This bike ride aims to high­light this issue through action and the pro­mo­tion of cycling.

Let’s cel­e­brate the free­dom and plea­sure of trav­el­ling by bike – it’s much more fun and much health­i­er than being stuck in a car in a traf­fic jam. This will be a fun day out for every­one in a safe, sup­port­ive, pos­i­tive atmos­phere, show­ing how much safer and more pleas­ant our streets can be.

COME AND JOIN US!

If you feel it’s time to pro­mote cycling and encour­age a more sus­tain­able Haringey, or if you would like to get involved, vis­it the Haringey Sol­i­dar­i­ty Group web­site: www.haringey.org.uk

Earth First! summer gathering — Wednesday 18th July until Sunday 22nd July 2007 — location & programme announced

What is the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing?

* Are you fed up with bare-faced lies from politi­cians, big busi­ness and the media?
* Have you had enough of a world where cor­po­rate prof­it comes before life and dig­ni­ty?
* Do you want to see an end to mind­less con­sump­tion>
* Then this Gath­er­ing is for you! Read on…

EF! gathering '07 logo (rabbit/fence)What is the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing?

* Are you fed up with bare-faced lies from politi­cians, big busi­ness and the media?
* Have you had enough of a world where cor­po­rate prof­it comes before life and dig­ni­ty?
* Do you want to see an end to mind­less con­sump­tion>
* Then this Gath­er­ing is for you! Read on…

Explor­ing alter­na­tives to the cor­po­rate world of greed, lies & exploita­tion -

The Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing is the place where peo­ple involved in rad­i­cal eco­log­i­cal direct action — or those who want to be involved — get togeth­er for five days of time and space to talk, walk, share skills, learn, play, rant, find out what’s going on, find out what’s next, live out­side, strate­gise, hang out, incite, laugh and con­spire.

The gath­er­ing is also a prac­ti­cal exam­ple of non-hier­ar­chi­cal low-impact liv­ing in action.

We are a diverse com­mu­ni­ty with a wide range of approach­es to our action, so there should be plen­ty to inter­est and inspire every­one whether you have been active for years or are com­plete­ly new to it all.

More info at earthfirstgathering.org.uk

Autonomous Environmentalists Bockade RNAD Coulport

On Thurs­day, 26th April, a group of autonomous envi­ron­men­tal­ists shut down RNAD Coul­port, the MOD muni­tions depot where Britain’s nuclear weapons are stored, for a two hour peri­od. The activists used two 15 ft tripods each with a con­crete lock-on round one of the tri­pod legs, to block­ade the two roads lead­ing to the main gate of the base. The action was part of the Faslane 365 Envi­ron­men­tal­ists Block, com­mem­o­rat­ing the 21st anniver­sary of the Cher­nobyl dis­as­ter, and in protest at the upgrad­ing of Britain’s Tri­dent nuclear sys­tem.

Coulport eco blockade 1Coulport eco blockade 2On Thurs­day, 26th April, a group of autonomous envi­ron­men­tal­ists shut down RNAD Coul­port, the MOD muni­tions depot where Britain’s nuclear weapons are stored, for a two hour peri­od. The activists used two 15 ft tripods each with a con­crete lock-on round one of the tri­pod legs, to block­ade the two roads lead­ing to the main gate of the base. The action was part of the Faslane 365 Envi­ron­men­tal­ists Block, com­mem­o­rat­ing the 21st anniver­sary of the Cher­nobyl dis­as­ter, and in protest at the upgrad­ing of Britain’s Tri­dent nuclear sys­tem.

The two activists on the tri­pod blockad­ing the north­ern access road were even­tu­al­ly arrest­ed after the cut­ting team had removed the lock-on, and the climb­ing team had removed the activist at the top of the tri­pod, and charged with obstruc­tion of the high­way, part of the Roads Scot­land Act 1984. They were held in the Faslane police cells for a three hour peri­od before being released out­side on the North Gate on cau­tion and pend­ing court dates.

The two activists on the sec­ond tri­pod blockad­ing the shore road even­tu­al­ly unlocked after the north­ern access road had been cleared, although the activist locked on around one of the tri­pod legs had time to cre­ate addi­tion­al dis­rup­tion by unlock­ing only to super glue their hand to the tri­pod leg. Cir­cu­lar saws and pneu­mat­ic drills were replaced with a bowl of warm, soapy water.

In response to requests from local res­i­dents and school chil­dren prepar­ing to sit exams, and a local MSP Jack­ie Bail­lie, Coul­port was cho­sen as the tar­get of the block­ade instead of Faslane to max­imise dis­rup­tion to Britain’s nuclear pro­gramme and min­imise dis­rup­tion to local peo­ple. It is the opin­ion of the activists that the polic­ing is respon­si­ble for long traf­fic delays and that police tac­tics are exac­er­bat­ing and even cap­i­tal­is­ing on the dis­rup­tion caused by the ongo­ing block­ades.

The activists encour­age oth­er autonomous groups to take decen­tralised direct action against Tri­dent and all mil­i­tary oper­a­tions through­out the UK in order to hold back the grow­ing tide of mil­i­tarism and the envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion that goes with it.

removing a lock-on (at Faslane)

Inter­est­ing pho­tos for all you bud­ding arm-tube con­struc­tion artists. Look how tricky it is to remove a mul­ti- and dif­fer­ent-lay­ered one, even when you’ve got all the best kit:

Inter­est­ing pho­tos for all you bud­ding arm-tube con­struc­tion artists. Look how tricky it is to remove a mul­ti- and dif­fer­ent-lay­ered one, even when you’ve got all the best kit:
Removing arm-tube 1Removing arm-tube 2Removing arm-tube 3Removing arm-tube 4

Aldermaston blockade in progress

23.04.2007 A group of activists from Scot­land have shut 3 gates at Alder­mas­ton this morn­ing since 6.05am. At Home Office gate two peo­ple have been arrest­ed for obstruc­tion of the high­way, with one per­son sit­ting on top of the gate keep­ing it shut. At Tadley gate six peo­ple have been arrest­ed and are locked-on in the road­way pre­vent­ing vehi­cles from leav­ing or arriv­ing. A third (Con­struc­tion) gate was also locked shut with a D‑lock.

Aldermaston April blockade 1
Aldermaston April blockade 223.04.2007 A group of activists from Scot­land have shut 3 gates at Alder­mas­ton this morn­ing since 6.05am. At Home Office gate two peo­ple have been arrest­ed for obstruc­tion of the high­way, with one per­son sit­ting on top of the gate keep­ing it shut. At Tadley gate six peo­ple have been arrest­ed and are locked-on in the road­way pre­vent­ing vehi­cles from leav­ing or arriv­ing. A third (Con­struc­tion) gate was also locked shut with a D‑lock.

The group were act­ing peace­ful­ly to dis­rupt the mul­ti­mil­lion pound devel­op­ment of a replace­ment for Britain’s Tri­dent Nuclear Weapons.

“With the Scot­tish elec­tions loom­ing and the real pos­si­bil­i­ty of a Nuclear-Weapons Free Scot­land, we felt we had to come and make the strength of feel­ing up here clear to AWE”, Dave, one of the activists
from South Lanark­shire, said. “It is clear from the devel­op­ments at the site that the deci­sion to renew Britain’s nuclear weapons long pre-dates the par­lia­men­tary vote last month.”

The Atom­ic Weapons Estab­lish­ment, Alder­mas­ton, is cur­rent­ly under­go­ing mas­sive new devel­op­ments sim­i­lar in scale to the Heathrow Ter­mi­nal 5 project. The devel­op­ments include new com­put­ing and laser facil­i­ties
which will enable sci­en­tists to sim­u­late nuclear explo­sions to improve the design of nuclear war­heads with­out actu­al­ly explod­ing a weapon which would be banned under the Com­pre­hen­sive Test Ban Treaty. The site was giv­en a £5 bil­lion refit after the renew­al of the Mutu­al Defence Agree­ment with the USA in 2005 which allows the shar­ing of nuclear infor­ma­tion between the USA and Britain.

One of the group, Danya from Argyll and Bute, Scot­land, said “The devel­op­ment of yet more Weapons of Mass Destruc­tion at this site is in total breach of the nuclear Non Pro­lif­er­a­tion Treaty. The vote last
month to com­mit the UK to keep­ing nuclear weapons until 2050 was a fore­gone con­clu­sion and does noth­ing to tack­le the real enor­mous issues that the UK and the world faces, such as cli­mate change and nuclear
pro­lif­er­a­tion.”

“Instead, the par­lia­men­tary deci­sion and devel­op­ments at this site will height­en glob­al insta­bil­i­ty, con­flict and nuclear pro­lif­er­a­tion.” The group which includ­ed activists from Faslane Peace Camp, a protest site oppo­site HMNB Clyde where the UK’s Tri­dent sub­marines are based, say they were act­ing in sol­i­dar­i­ty with “Block the Builders”, a cam­paign tak­ing peace­ful actions against the new devel­op­ments at the site. http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk/

/////////////////////////////////
Update on action as off 10.45am

At 10.30 the police removed the pro­tes­tor from the top of the gate using a scaf­fold­ing tow­er, he has been arrest­ed.

Ear­ly at the oth­er gate one per­son was arrest­ed and removed from a lock but some­one else took their place.
The police cut­ting team got there at about ten and are cut­ting through two of the lock­ons. The gate is still blocked.
One of the peo­ple arrest­ed ear­ly has now been released after being giv­en bailed.

Support the Eco-Prisoners, Easter 2007

Spir­it of Free­dom (East­er 2007)
Pro­duced by EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“I thank you all dear­ly for writ­ing” (Jon Able­white, Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Spir­it of Free­dom (East­er 2007)
Pro­duced by EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“I thank you all dear­ly for writ­ing” (Jon Able­white, Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Wel­come to the East­er 2007 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. First off I’d like to apol­o­gise in the delay in pub­lish­ing this edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom.
A lot of things have been hap­pen­ing recent­ly for ELP’s vol­un­teers and a delay was inevitable. How­ev­er, despite the delay in pub­li­ca­tion ELP has some fan­tas­tic news. For the first time in ages ELP is able to bring some good news! A lot of the ‘Il Sil­vestre’ pris­on­ers have been released! Mar­co Camenisch has had his sen­tence reduced at appeal! Jeff Luers may have his sen­tenced reduced! Rod Coro­n­a­do has been released! Garfield Gab­bard has been released! And long-term pris­on­er Dave Blenk­in­sop has been released!!!
This is all bril­liant news. How­ev­er despite our cel­e­bra­tions, ELP has also seen a num­ber of new pris­on­ers added to our list. So lets cel­e­brate the good news of our friends and then lets sup­port the news pris­on­ers. Also before we end this edi­to­r­i­al we’ve been asked by Joy­an­na Zach­er to remind every­one on ELP’s pol­i­cy towards police infor­mants. We do not sup­port them! Regard­less of how long they are jailed for, we do not sup­port them. Regard­less of who they are, we do not sup­port them. A police infor­mant relin­quish­es their right to be regard­ed as an eco-pris­on­er as soon as they inform. ELP sup­ports eco-pris­on­ers, not police infor­mants. But remem­ber, no mat­ter where you are in the world, sup­port the real eco-pris­on­ers and no com­pro­mise in defence of Moth­er Earth!

COURT REPORTS & LEGAL UPDATES

MARCO CAMENISCH APPEAL NEWS
In mid March 2007 ELP received some news from Switzer­land that at his appeal, Mar­co Camenisch, has had his 17-year prison sen­tence, for alleged­ly killing a Swiss board­er guard, reduced to 8 years. The Appeal Court ruled that the orig­i­nal Judge had not tak­en into account Mar­co’s time spent in prison in Italy for destroy­ing elec­tric­i­ty pylons, nor had the Judge ful­ly con­sid­ered the out­stand­ing prison sen­tence Mar­co had to serve for destroy­ing elec­tric­i­ty pylons in Switzer­land. Added alto­geth­er (39 years), the prison sen­tence was exces­sive­ly long and so was reduced so now Mar­co is serv­ing an 18-year sen­tence.

JEFF LUERS APPEAL UPDATE
On Valen­tines Day (Feb 14th) the Amer­i­can media announced that the Court of Appeal has declared Jeff ‘Free’ Luers, 22+ years prison sen­tence is too long and sug­gest­ed it should be reduced to between 11+ to 13+ years. ELP will bring you more news as we get it.

ARRESTS IN MEXICO
On the 30th of Novem­ber 2006 two Mex­i­can anar­chists, Oscar San­ta Maria Caro and Sacra­men­to Delfi­no Cano Her­nan­dez, were arrest­ed for as yet unknown rea­sons. Oscar is a well known ani­mal rights activist who is involved with RATA (Resis­tance Against Ani­mal Tor­ture). Reports are com­ing out of Mex­i­co alleg­ing that both Oscar and Sacra­men­to have been tor­tured whilst inside. There are also reports alleg­ing that their inter­roga­tors have threat­ened to rape female polit­i­cal pris­on­ers if the two men do not con­fess to their alleged crimes. ELP is try­ing to obtain more infor­ma­tion about these arrests and will bring you more news as we get it.

ROD CORONADO UPDATE
In late March, Amer­i­can Earth First! activist, Rod Coro­n­a­do, was released from prison hav­ing served his sen­tence for sab­o­tag­ing a moun­tain lion hunt. ELP has learnt that Rod’s tri­al for “demon­strat­ing the use of a destruc­tive device,” relat­ing to a speech he gave in San Diego in 2003, is sched­uled to begin in June.

FINNISH ‘GREEN SCARE’
ELP has learnt that the author­i­ties in Fin­land appear to be copy­ing Amer­i­can tac­tics and are tar­get­ing known ani­mal rights and envi­ron­men­tal activists. No mat­ter how minor the ‘offence’ the Finnish police seem deter­mined to pros­e­cute. One per­son end­ed up in court for ring­ing the door­bell of an ani­mal abuser whilst on a demo. The activist was fined for “dis­turb­ing home peace”. Anoth­er activist was ques­tioned for ‘crim­i­nal dam­age’ after they alleged­ly spat on a fur shop win­dow! Two more activists were raid­ed and ques­tioned for alleged­ly putting a leaflet through a post box and putting a stick­er on the win­dow of a fur shop. The police accused them of ‘crim­i­nal dam­age’.
ELP’s Finnish friends, who wish to remain anony­mous for obvi­ous rea­sons, say these are just a few exam­ples of the types of police activ­i­ty hap­pen­ing in Fin­land at the moment.
ELP is informed that the police have set up a spe­cial unit to inves­ti­gate ani­mal rights activists and the unit has said intend to get activists involved in the ear­ly stages of activism ‘before it gets more seri­ous’. Trans­la­tion, the police want to intim­i­date peo­ple away from activism.

SERIOUS ORGANISED CRIME!
Every so often ELP brings you sto­ries of ridicu­lous pros­e­cu­tions of non-vio­lent activists under Britain’s new ‘Seri­ous Organ­ised Crime’ leg­is­la­tion. Who can for­get the fines imposed on two peace activists for read­ing out the names of the British war dead, killed in Iraq, whilst stand­ing next to Britain’s main war memo­r­i­al! Sad­ly the courts have now moved beyond just fin­ing peo­ple and have start­ed to hand out prison sen­tences to activists under this new law. In ear­ly March three British ani­mal rights activists were jailed for between 15 months to 4 years for their part in a non-vio­lent cam­paign against Huntin­don Life Sci­ences.
Accord­ing to the BBC, the three were accused of being key fig­ures in a cam­paign against com­pa­nies with links to HLS. They were accused of enter­ing the offices of the com­pa­nies and demand­ing that those com­pa­nies cut their links to HLS. They were also accused of organ­is­ing loud demon­stra­tions against the com­pa­nies build­ings. Plus they were accused of tak­ing pho­tos of the peo­ple who worked for the com­pa­nies.

MAN ARRESTED IN AMERICA
At the end of March the Amer­i­can media report­ed that a 24-year old man, Grant Barnes, had been arrest­ed accused of set­ting fire to SUVs in Den­ver, CO. The media quot­ed the cops as say­ing incen­di­ary devices were used to dam­age the vehi­cles and one of the vehi­cles had ELF spray paint­ed on it. The police also stat­ed they did not believe that Grant Barnes was a mem­ber of the ELF.

IL SILVESTRE UPDATE
At the end of Feb­ru­ary 2007 the Ital­ian courts ruled that Sil­via Gueri­ni and Fed­eri­co Bonam­i­ci should be released under house arrest. This means that only three Il Sil­vestre mem­bers are cur­rent­ly impris­oned. They are Benedet­ta Galante, Francesco Gioia and Costan­ti­no Ragusa.

ECO-DEFENCE PRISONERS

Fadal­la Idris Ala­jaimy (address unknown). Sudan anti-dam pro­test­er on remand accused of Wag­ing War against the State for protest­ing against the con­struc­tion of a dam.

Mohamed Ahmed Ala­jaimy (address unknown). Sudan anti-dam pro­test­er on remand accused of Wag­ing War against the State for protest­ing against the con­struc­tion of a dam.

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 #1533241, PO Box 1108, Den­ver, CO 80201, USA. On remand accused of set­ting fire to a num­ber of SUV vehi­cles. On one of the vehi­cles the let­ters ELF was spray-paint­ed.

Nathan Block, #1663667, Lane Coun­ty Jail, 101 W 5th Ave., Eugene, OR 97401, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing hav­ing admit­ted involve­ment in an arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted involve­ment in a con­spir­a­cy to car­ry out direct action in Ore­gon.

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.

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.

Benedet­ta Galante, Casa Cir­con­dar­i­ale, Con­tra­da Capo di Monte, 82100 — Ben­even­to (BN), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist sen­tenced to 3 years 6 months for pro­mot­ing & par­tic­i­pat­ing in COR direct action. Also await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy.

Francesco Gioia, Via Maiano, 10, 06049 Spo­le­to, Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist sen­tenced to 5 years 2 months for pro­mot­ing & par­tic­i­pat­ing in COR direct action. Also await­ing tri­al for escap­ing from house arrest.

Jef­frey Luers, #13797671, OSP, 2605 State St. Salem, OR 97310, USA. Serv­ing 22 years & 8 months for arson on a SUV deal­er­ship & the attempt­ed arson of an oil truck.

Ali Mohamed Alhas­sen Mas­sad (address unknown). Sudan anti-dam pro­test­er on remand accused of Wag­ing War against the State for protest­ing against the con­struc­tion of a dam.

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

Costan­ti­no Ragusa, Casa Cir­con­dar­i­ale, Via Prati Nuovi 7, 27058 Voghera (PV), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist serv­ing 7½ years. 1) Five years for pro­mot­ing & par­tic­i­pat­ing in COR direct action. 2) 18-months for bur­gling and fire­bomb­ing a multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny. 3) 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.

John Wade #38548–083, FCI Peters­burg Low, Satel­lite Camp, PO Box 90027, Peters­burg, VA 23804, USA. Serv­ing 37 months for a series of ELF actions against a num­ber of tar­gets includ­ing McDon­alds & Burg­er King; urban sprawl; the con­struc­tion indus­try; and an SUV deal­er­ship.

Joy­an­na Zach­er #1662550, Lane Coun­ty Jail, 101 W 5th Ave, Eugene, OR 97401, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing hav­ing admit­ted involve­ment in an arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted involve­ment in a con­spir­a­cy to car­ry out direct action in Ore­gon.

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.

Made­line Buck­ler PR7492, HMP Mor­ton Hall, Swinder­by, Lin­coln, LN6 9PT, Eng­land. Serv­ing 2 years for send­ing hate mail to a fam­i­ly who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

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.

Don­ald Cur­rie TN4593, HMP White­moor, Longhill Road, March, Cambs, PE15 OPR, Eng­land. Serv­ing an Inde­ter­mi­nate Sen­tence, of not less than six actu­al years, for car­ry­ing out arsons against tar­gets asso­ci­at­ed the vivi­sec­tion indus­try includ­ing HLS.

Josh Dem­mitt 12314–081, FCI Saf­ford, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, P.O. Box 9000, Saf­ford, AZ 85548, USA. Serv­ing 30 months for an ALF arson on a Uni­ver­si­ty ani­mal test­ing facil­i­ty.

Dar­ius Fullmer #26397–050, FCI Fort Dix Satel­lite Camp, P.O. Box 1000, Fort Dix, NJ 08640 USA. Serv­ing 12 months for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Lau­ren Gaz­zo­la #93497–011, FCI Dan­bury Route #37, 33 1/2 Pem­broke Road, Dan­bury, CT 06811 USA. Serv­ing 54 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Sarah Gis­borne, LT5393, HMP Cookham Wood, Rochester, Kent, ME1 3LU, 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.

Joseph Har­ris TN5728, HMP Bulling­don, Patrick Haugh Road, Arn­cott, Nr. Bices­ter, Oxon, OX25 1WD, Eng­land. Serv­ing 2 years for dam­ag­ing the prop­er­ty of peo­ple asso­ci­at­ed with Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences. (His orig­i­nal sen­tence was reduced on appeal).

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

Josephine Mayo PR6508, HMP Drake Hall, Eccle­shall, Stafford­shire, ST21 6LQ, Eng­land. Serv­ing 4 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

Trish Portwine, TM7153, HMP Cookham Wood, Rochester, Kent, ME1 3LU, Eng­land. Serv­ing fif­teen months for her role in loud demon­stra­tions out­side the offices of com­pa­nies with links to HLS.

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.

Mark Tay­lor TT6636, HMP Bel­marsh, West­ern Way, Thames­mead, Lon­don, SE28 0UB, Eng­land. Serv­ing four years for organ­is­ing loud demon­stra­tions out­side the offices of com­pa­nies with links to HLS.

Suzanne Tay­lor, TM7154, HMP Cookham Wood, Rochester, Kent, ME1 3LU, Eng­land. Serv­ing two and a half years for help­ing organ­ise loud demon­stra­tions out­side the offices of com­pa­nies with links to HLS.

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.

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.

OTHER ANTI-WAR PRISONERS

Bren­dan Walsh, 12473–052, FCI Allen­wood Low, PO Box 1000, White Deer, PA 17887, USA. Serv­ing 5 years for an arson on an army recruit­ment office in protest at the War on Iraq.

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 which 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.

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

PARTY & PROTEST
Around the world there have been sev­er­al mas­sive protests against glob­al cap­i­tal­ism and its envi­ron­men­tal impact. The fol­low­ing have all been jailed in con­nec­tion with the protests.

Jonathan Philip Robert, Crisp Coun­ty Deten­tion Cen­ter, 197 Ga. Hwy. 300 South, Cordele, GA 31015, USA (12 months)

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 Grate­ford, PO Box 244, Grate­ford, PA 19426–0244, USA.

Edward Good­man Africa (AM4974), 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.

MAPUCHE PRISONERS & OTHER LAND RIGHTS PRISONERS
Due to space lim­i­ta­tion we can­not pub­lish the names & address­es of the Mapuche & Land Rights pris­on­ers in this edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom, how­ev­er if you would like a list please con­tact Spir­it of Free­dom.

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 bimonth­ly pub­li­ca­tion (avail­able via e‑mail or in a paper ver­sion). If you would like to receive a copy con­tact Spir­it of Free­dom, BM Box 2407, Lon­don, WC1N 3XX, Eng­land. Or e‑mail ELP4321@hotmail.com

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

North Amer­i­can ELP Pris­on­er Fund. The North Amer­i­can ELP group has set up a fund where peo­ple can pay mon­ey, for North Amer­i­can Eco-Defence and Ani­mal Rights pris­on­ers, which will then be dis­trib­uted to the North Amer­i­can pris­on­ers. For infor­ma­tion about the Fund and how to make a dona­tion please con­tact naelpsn@mutualaid.org

DEDICATION
This Edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom is ded­i­cat­ed to Russ­ian antifa activist, Stanislav Korepanov, who died in hos­pi­tal on the 31st of March 2007, hav­ing been attacked a few days ear­li­er by an armed gang of neo-nazis. Stanislav is the sec­ond Russ­ian antifa activist to have been bru­tal­ly attacked in recent months. On the 14th of Jan­u­ary 2007 veg­an ani­mal rights activist, Ivan Elin, was sur­round­ed and attacked by ten neo-nazis in St. Peters­burg after he had tak­en part in a week­ly “Food not bombs” peace ral­ly. Ivan suf­fered 21 stab wounds and was rushed to hos­pi­tal where he is mak­ing his recov­ery. Fol­low­ing on from the knife attack on Ivan, on the 4th of Feb­ru­ary, with a small bomb explod­ed in Vladimirskaya Square of St. Peters­burg, near to where Food Not Bombs organ­ise their week­ly protests. The bomb was hid­den in a kiosk sell­ing flow­ers. Luck­i­ly the bomb only dam­aged the kiosk and did not injure any­one.
This is not the first time neo-nazis have used knives or explo­sives to tar­get Russ­ian activists. On the 22nd of Decem­ber 2006 a num­ber of police were injured whilst try­ing to defuse a device, which set to mur­der antifa activists in Moscow. In August 2006 eleven peo­ple were killed in Moscow when a neo-nazi bomb explod­ed in Cherk­isovs­ki mar­ket­place. The bru­tal mur­der of Stanislav Korepanov and the attack against Ivan are a remind­ed of why fas­cism must nev­er be allowed to go unchal­lenged. ELP wish­es Ivan Elin a speedy recov­ery from his injuries and we con­grat­u­late the Russ­ian ‘Food Not Bombs’ move­ment for not giv­ing into this neo-nazi intim­i­da­tion.
Our thoughts and sor­row are with the fam­i­ly and friends of Stanislav Korepanov who was only 18 years old when he died.

Aldermaston Blockade

10.04.2007
At least 5 peo­ple were arrest­ed while are attempt­ing to block access to the Alder­mas­ton Atom­ic Weapons Estab­lish­ment in Berk­shire this morn­ing in order to dis­rupt a mul­ti­mil­lion pound devel­op­ment project at the site.

Aldermaston Blockade april 0710.04.2007
At least 5 peo­ple were arrest­ed while are attempt­ing to block access to the Alder­mas­ton Atom­ic Weapons Estab­lish­ment in Berk­shire this morn­ing in order to dis­rupt a mul­ti­mil­lion pound devel­op­ment project at the site.

Oth­er pro­test­ers are still in the road which has been blocked for about an hour. The pro­test­ers claim that this devel­op­ment is to devel­op new nuclear weapons and shows that the deci­sion to renew Britain’s nuclear weapons was made years before the par­lia­men­tary vote last month.
The pro­test­ers are from the anti-Tri­dent group Tri­dent Ploughshares and the group Block the Builders which oppos­es the devel­op­ment at Alder­mas­ton. They have chained them­selves togeth­er and block­ing the boil­er­house gate at Alder­mas­ton. The Atom­ic Weapons Estab­lish­ment is cur­rent­ly under­go­ing mas­sive renew­al includ­ing new com­put­ing and laser facil­i­ties which will enable to sci­en­tists to sim­u­late nuclear explo­sions to improve the design of nuclear war­heads with­out actu­al­ly explod­ing a weapon which would be banned under the Com­pre­hen­sive Test Ban Treaty. The site was giv­en a £5 bil­lion refit after the sign­ing of the Mutu­al Defence Agree­ment with the USA in 2005 which allows the shar­ing of nuclear infor­ma­tion between the USA and Britain.
Web­sites:
Tri­dent Ploughshares http://www.tridentploughshares.org/aldermaston
Block the Builders http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk
Alder­mas­ton Women’s Camp: http://www.aldermaston.net

Robin Hood blockades the Base

On Sun­day April the 1st, a team of out­laws from Not­ting­ham block­ad­ed the main gate of Faslane Nuclear Sub­ma­rine Base for 4 hours.

This was just one day of the 365 day block­ade of Faslane that was start­ed in Octo­ber in response to our gov­ern­ments plan to replace Tri­dent despite agree­ments signed in inter­na­tion­al law in the Nuclear Non-pro­lif­er­a­tion Treaty.

On Sun­day April the 1st, a team of out­laws from Not­ting­ham block­ad­ed the main gate of Faslane Nuclear Sub­ma­rine Base for 4 hours.

This was just one day of the 365 day block­ade of Faslane that was start­ed in Octo­ber in response to our gov­ern­ments plan to replace Tri­dent despite agree­ments signed in inter­na­tion­al law in the Nuclear Non-pro­lif­er­a­tion Treaty.

After months in the plan­ning, over 50 peo­ple from Not­ting­ham and Der­by head­ed up to Scot­land over the week­end. It was an incred­i­bly mixed bunch of peo­ple, aged from 14 to 76, and includ­ing sea­soned peace cam­paign­ers as well as peo­ple com­plete­ly new to protest­ing who felt impas­sioned into act­ing by the threat of new nuclear weapons.

After a day spent march­ing around the nuclear base on the Sat­ur­day, final plans for the block­ade were put into place that evening. It was a daunt­ing task. The main gate was expect­ed to be com­plete­ly held by police, and we need­ed to be there by 6.30am! Nev­er­the­less, despite a tyre blow­ing out just a few miles from the base, block­aders took the police by sur­prise and man­aged a full take-over of the space in front of the main gate sec­onds after arriv­ing. A mix­ture of tried and test­ed con­crete lock-ons, and inno­v­a­tive new meth­ods (plas­ter­cast­ing our­selves to each oth­er) were used by the 15 peo­ple who locked down in front of the gate.

The suc­cess of the oper­a­tion was amaz­ing, and the sup­port from rest of the 50 or so peo­ple was bril­liant – from a con­stant bar­rage of noise and chants, to bis­cuits and cig­a­rettes being lobbed over police lines and screens to the block­aders. The last peo­ple were car­ried off by police at around 11am. Every­one was jubi­lant with suc­cess!

But it wasn’t over yet! The Rebel Clown Army was arriv­ing and mak­ing a real nui­sance of them­selves… one was arrest­ed when found in a vehi­cle he shouldn’t have been in, and oth­ers lat­er locked the police in their own com­pound, mak­ing them look even more like fools than they nor­mal­ly do, when after 20 min­utes of head scratch­ing and call­ing the cut­ting team they found the key just near by!

More mem­bers of the Robin Hood team then stood in front of the gates and sang Palm Sun­day hymns. When threat­ened with arrest, one woman refused to move to allow access to the gates. She was quick­ly joined by a man inspired by her actions who stood with her in sol­i­dar­i­ty and they were both arrest­ed.

So, out of the 50 strong Robin Hood team, 17 were arrest­ed. They were all held for over 24 hours. Yet spir­its were still high when they were all released with only a writ­ten warn­ing. On a per­son­al note, I found this event real­ly inspir­ing. Lots of peo­ple who have nev­er done any­thing like this before came togeth­er to pull off a real­ly suc­cess­ful block­ade. Hope­ful­ly it won’t stop there, and we will con­tin­ue to work togeth­er.

Nottingham folk succesfully blockade nuclear submarine base in Scotland

1.04.2007

Over 50 peo­ple from Not­ting­ham and Der­by suc­cess­ful­ly block­ad­ed the Faslane Nuclear Naval Base In Scot­land today. Var­i­ous block­ade groups in intrigu­ing lock-on devices and some plas­tered togeth­er blocked the main entrance to the site. Police start­ed remov­ing peo­ple from 8.30 onwards but had prob­lems with remov­ing peo­ple from a 6 way lock-on device, which held strong for anoth­er 2 hours. The police had to draft in spe­cial­ist equip­ment from oth­er forces to deal with the device. 18 peo­ple were arrest­ed and have been moved to Pais­ley. The block­ade last­ed for over 4 hours. Whilst on the phone to some­one at the scene, one could hear a lot of chant­i­ng and cheer­ing as one pro­test­er man­aged to shout ‘no to nuclear weapons’ just before being put in a police van.

1.04.2007

Over 50 peo­ple from Not­ting­ham and Der­by suc­cess­ful­ly block­ad­ed the Faslane Nuclear Naval Base In Scot­land today. Var­i­ous block­ade groups in intrigu­ing lock-on devices and some plas­tered togeth­er blocked the main entrance to the site. Police start­ed remov­ing peo­ple from 8.30 onwards but had prob­lems with remov­ing peo­ple from a 6 way lock-on device, which held strong for anoth­er 2 hours. The police had to draft in spe­cial­ist equip­ment from oth­er forces to deal with the device. 18 peo­ple were arrest­ed and have been moved to Pais­ley. The block­ade last­ed for over 4 hours. Whilst on the phone to some­one at the scene, one could hear a lot of chant­i­ng and cheer­ing as one pro­test­er man­aged to shout ‘no to nuclear weapons’ just before being put in a police van.

The action is part of an inter­na­tion­al cam­paign to block­ade the navel base through­out the year in a bid to stop the replace­ment of the con­tro­ver­sial Tri­dent Mis­sile Sytem. Block­ades have been tak­ing place for the last few months by groups from around the coun­try.

Time­line: (updat­ed when new info comes in)

6.45 — Groups arrive and block­ades in place at the Main Gate. 1 group with oil­bar­rel lock­on device, 1 group with 6 way lock on device, 2 groups of 3 with plas­ter attach­ments (low­er arms plas­tered togeth­er).
8.30 — Police start remov­ing peo­ple.
9.00 — Police have suc­ces­ful­ly removed the oil­bar­rel lock on block­ade. Up to 6 arrests by this time.
9.15 — The group is joined by mem­bers of CIRCO, the cor­po­rate arm of the Rebel Clown Army. See web­site. They will auc­tion off the Tri­dent Mis­sile Sys­tem tomor­row.
9.45 — The block­ade has been in place for 3 hours now. The police announce that they are unable to remove peo­ple from the 6 way lock on device. They are draft­ing in offi­cers with spe­cial­ist equip­ment from anoth­er force.
10.51 — Oth­er offi­cers have arrived and with the new equip­ment peo­ple were removed from the 6 way lock-on device pret­ty quick. The block­ade has been cleared now. 14 peo­ple detained in total.
11.00 — 40 peo­ple strong demon­stra­tion in front of the main entrance. Clowns enter­tain the crowds and have changed the HM Naval Base sign so it now reads ‘Under New Man­age­ment’.
12.05 — A woman and a man are arrest­ed for ‘breach of the peace’ offences. Apper­ent­ly they came too close to the gate. The woman was part of a small group hold­ing a palm sun­day protest.
14.29 — The demon­stra­tion in front of the gates is still hap­pen­ing. Spir­its are high and the clowns pro­vid­ing a load of enter­tain­ment. One clown arrest­ed for apper­ent­ly try­ing to enter a police vehi­cle. Pro­test­ers decide to stay until at least 4 o’clock when a shift change inside the base will take place.

Environmentalist bloc at Faslane 365 — 26.04.07

CHERNOBYL DAY AT FASLANE 26th April 2007

Can you see the con­nec­tion between more nuclear weapons, more nuclear pow­er sta­tions, war for oil and cli­mate change?
— Or that replac­ing Tri­dent will mean more dan­ger­ous nuclear pow­ered sub­marines based on the Clyde and more nuclear waste…
— And that nuclear weapons are an envi­ron­men­tal dis­as­ter and radioac­tive pol­lu­tion is caused by their use, test­ing, waste, acci­dents or by ter­ror­ist attack.
— Or that envi­ron­men­tal dev­as­ta­tion caused by nuclear weapon­ry affects peo­ple and their envi­ron­ments across bound­aries and down the gen­er­a­tions…

Then join the envi­ron­men­tal­ist block at Faslane on Cher­nobyl Day!

CHERNOBYL DAY AT FASLANE 26th April 2007

Can you see the con­nec­tion between more nuclear weapons, more nuclear pow­er sta­tions, war for oil and cli­mate change?
— Or that replac­ing Tri­dent will mean more dan­ger­ous nuclear pow­ered sub­marines based on the Clyde and more nuclear waste…
— And that nuclear weapons are an envi­ron­men­tal dis­as­ter and radioac­tive pol­lu­tion is caused by their use, test­ing, waste, acci­dents or by ter­ror­ist attack.
— Or that envi­ron­men­tal dev­as­ta­tion caused by nuclear weapon­ry affects peo­ple and their envi­ron­ments across bound­aries and down the gen­er­a­tions…

Then join the envi­ron­men­tal­ist block at Faslane on Cher­nobyl Day!

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April 26th 2007 will be the 21st anniver­sary of the Cher­nobyl Dis­as­ter. At least 9,000 peo­ple are expect­ed to die in Belarus, Ukraine and Rus­sia from the nuclear fall-out from the acci­dent, whilst across Europe the num­ber of deaths from can­cers caused by radi­a­tion from the acci­dent could be as high as 60,000. Amongst peo­ple who were chil­dren at the time of the acci­dent there has been a sig­nif­i­cant increase in thy­roid can­cers – over 4,000 cas­es were diag­nosed in the Ukraine between 1992 – 2002.

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On the 21st anniver­sary of the Cher­nobyl Dis­as­ter, activists and sup­port­ers from Scot­tish envi­ron­men­tal groups and net­works will be hold­ing a series of events out­side the Faslane nuclear sub­ma­rine base to protest against the gov­ern­men­t’s plans to build more nuclear pow­er sta­tions and Tri­dent replace­ment.

Among the dif­fer­ent events planned for the day Friends of the Earth Scot­land will be ral­ly­ing from 8am to mid­day at the main gate with their huge inflat­able white ele­phant to high­light that new nuclear pow­er sta­tions are unsafe, unwant­ed and unnec­es­sary.

Plans also include a die-in and block­ade of the gates lat­er in the day.

Groups involved include: Friends of the Earth Scot­land, Scot­tish local Green­peace groups, Scot­tish Peo­ple and Plan­et net­work, Ris­ing Tide Scot­land.

GET INVOLVED!
Non­vi­o­lent action train­ing day: Sat­ur­day 31st March, 10.30am-4pm, Lam­b’s House, Burgess Street, Edin­burgh, EH6 6RD_map and direc­tions:
http://www.foe-scotland.org.uk/about/getting_to_FoE_office.html

Prop and ban­ner mak­ing day — all day from 10.30am Wednes­day 25th April, Lambs House, Burgess Street, Edin­burgh, EH6 6RD. Bring card­board, paint, mate­ri­als, fall-out suits and cos­tumes to dec­o­rate!

Trans­port:
There will be a 50 seater coach eav­ing Water­loo Place, Edin­burgh at
4am — Yes! Four in the morn­ing! (Map here:
www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=55.9538&lon=-3.186&scale=10000&icon=x

Price £10 waged or £6 unwaged.
Please book your seat first by call­ing 0131 554 9977 or email­ing
environmentalists@faslane365.org
Return time: Leav­ing Faslane around 5.30pm and arriv­ing Edin­burgh at
about 8pm.

Pos­si­ble pick ups also in Glas­gow — con­tact us for more infor­ma­tion

There are also good pub­lic trans­port links to Faslane from Glas­gow using the Low Lev­el trains from Glas­gow Queen Street and Partick sta­tions every half hour to Helens­burgh Cen­tral and then the Coul­port or Gare­lochhead bus­es to Faslane Peace Camp or the Faslane Ceme­tery (oppo­site the North Gate.) There is also a train ser­vice from Queen Street (main lev­el: des­ti­na­tion Mallaig/Oban) which stops at Gare­lochhead (about a mile walk from Faslane north gate)

A cycle path runs all the way from Helens­burgh to Faslane along the A814.
There is lim­it­ed park­ing close to the Faslane North Gate in the Faslane ceme­tery car-park just past the North Gate on the right. Lim­it­ed car park­ing is also avail­able at Faslane Peace Camp at the south of the base.

Lim­it­ed accom­mo­da­tion the night is avail­able in Edin­burgh — please bring a sleep­ing bag. We can also help you find accom­mo­da­tion in Glas­gow the night before.

For more infor­ma­tion or to book places please con­tact
envi­ron­men­tal­ists [at] faslane365.org or phone 0131 554 9977

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