Bath Party against Petrol report

Sat­ur­day 21st April. The Par­ty Against Petrol crowd gath­ered in Bath Abbey at mid­day to begin what would have been a colour­ful and noisy protest against car cul­ture and fos­sil fuels, intend­ing to occu­py Low­er Bris­tol Road and the Esso sta­tion fore­court there. Around 25–30 activists turned up, and the police, them­selves num­ber­ing 30 or more, with mount­ed police again, imposed con­di­tions on the pro­ces­sion: march round the Abbey for 30 mins, then dis­perse.

Sat­ur­day 21st April. The Par­ty Against Petrol crowd gath­ered in Bath Abbey at mid­day to begin what would have been a colour­ful and noisy protest against car cul­ture and fos­sil fuels, intend­ing to occu­py Low­er Bris­tol Road and the Esso sta­tion fore­court there. Around 25–30 activists turned up, and the police, them­selves num­ber­ing 30 or more, with mount­ed police again, imposed con­di­tions on the pro­ces­sion: march round the Abbey for 30 mins, then dis­perse.

Well, we did as were told, marched round the Abbey, drum­ming and danc­ing and play­ing foot­ball, returned and dis­persed… only to form up again and con­tin­ue the parade, flow­ing through the police lines eas­i­ly. Hand­ed out leaflets, spoke to passers­by, mean­while, the high­ly trained police were over­heard argu­ing with each oth­er, throw­ing out blame for their lack of con­trol, right in front of the shop­pers and tourists. The street par­ty parade came to a close at Vic­to­ria Park, amidst pic­nic and sun­bathing, under the police’s watch­ful eye.

This unsea­son­ably hot April, whilst good for sun­bathers, is prob­a­bly noth­ing to do with cli­mate change.

Despite the heavy hand­ed police har­rass­ment and intim­i­da­tion we’ve had so far, with var­i­ous peo­ple being repeat­ed­ly stopped and ques­tioned through­out the city, with A4 check­points and trains sta­tion search­es on the Thurs­day, tomor­row should see a free kitchen, freeshop stall, work­shop on recy­cling junk into use­ful stuff, and lit­ter­pick, meet­ing in Bath at mid­day. To find us, ring 07800 583011.

Party Against Petrol! — Saturday 21st April

As Part of Bath Cli­mate Camp, there will be a par­ty against petrol — a chance to protest against car cul­ture and fos­sil fuels. Meet at 12 at Bath Abbey or 11 at Bath Cli­mate Camp

The protest is going to be a colour­ful car­ni­val, so bring props, ban­ners and noise mak­ers. There will be free cake, kids bloc, music, a ‘balls to cli­mate change’ reclaim the streets footie game and more!

As Part of Bath Cli­mate Camp, there will be a par­ty against petrol — a chance to protest against car cul­ture and fos­sil fuels. Meet at 12 at Bath Abbey or 11 at Bath Cli­mate Camp

The protest is going to be a colour­ful car­ni­val, so bring props, ban­ners and noise mak­ers. There will be free cake, kids bloc, music, a ‘balls to cli­mate change’ reclaim the streets footie game and more!
The day will be a chance to take back the streets from cars and pol­lu­tion and use them for fun and friv­o­li­ty!

For more info, email bathclimatecamp@yahoo.co.uk

Bath Cli­mate Camp will be set up from Thurs­day the 19th April through to Sun­day 22nd, and will both serve as a demon­stra­tion of eco-liv­ing and ideals, and also serve as an edu­ca­tion anf focus point for eco-action. Set­ting up from mid after­noon on Thurs­day, there will be onsite eth­i­cal veg­an kitchen pro­vid­ing break­fast and din­ner, music/entertainment in the evenings, talks, per­ma­nent freeshop, and a kids‘ zone, attend­ed by pro­fes­sion­al car­ers. The camp can be locat­ed near where the Low­er Bris­tol Road meets the A4 out to Bris­tol. The camp num­ber is 07800 583011.

*Fri­day 20th April — All day — Shut down Land And Marine! — Land and Marine are the main con­struc­tion com­pa­ny respon­si­ble for the gas pipeline smash­ing through the Welsh coun­try­side, includ­ing the Bre­con Bea­cons. We have the com­pa­ny’s offices in Bath, and resis­tance to the pipe has been strong in Wales, it’s time to take the fight to their doorstep! We are ask­ing peo­ple to block­ade, make music, wave ban­ners, leaflet or what­ev­er else springs to mind! For more info on the pipeline, vis­it www.risingtide.org.uk/bristol/pipeline

*Sat­ur­day 21st April — 11 @ Bath Cli­mate Camp or 12 @ Bath Abbey — PARTY AGAINST PETROL! — Colour­ful car­ni­val against car cul­ture and fos­sil fuels! Bring noise mak­ers, props, bright things and ban­ners. The demo will have a kids’ bloc.

*Sun­day 22nd April (though there will be work­shops on the oth­er days as well!) — All day — Work­shops

There will be work­shops on direct action against the pipeline in Wales, Poi mak­ing and danc­ing ses­sions, solu­tions to cli­mate change, set­ting up inde­pen­dent media, diet and the envi­ron­ment, ‘we wont buy your crap, but we will use your scrap’ DIY ses­sion, mak­ing hand­i­crafts from ‘junk’ and loads more.

bathclimatecamp@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/bathclimatecamp

Disrupt Shell’s Annual General Meeting!

Notice is here­by giv­en that the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing of Roy­al Dutch Shell plc will be held at Cir­custhe­ater, Cir­cusstraat, The Hague, The Nether­lands at 11.00 am (Dutch time) on Tues­day May 15, 2007, with an audio-visu­al link to a satel­lite meet­ing place at Novo­tel Lon­don-West Hotel and Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, 1 Short­lands, Ham­mer­smith, Lon­don, Unit­ed King­dom at 10.00 am (UK time).

Notice is here­by giv­en that the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing of Roy­al Dutch Shell plc will be held at Cir­custhe­ater, Cir­cusstraat, The Hague, The Nether­lands at 11.00 am (Dutch time) on Tues­day May 15, 2007, with an audio-visu­al link to a satel­lite meet­ing place at Novo­tel Lon­don-West Hotel and Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, 1 Short­lands, Ham­mer­smith, Lon­don, Unit­ed King­dom at 10.00 am (UK time).

Dear All,

The date for the Shell AGM has been recent­ly announced. It is the 15th of May. As with last year the AGM will be held in the Hague with a video link up in Lon­don. The link up in Lon­don will be at the Novo­tel Lon­don West Hotel and Con­fer­ence Cen­tre, 1 Short­lands, Ham­mer­smith, at 10 am UK time.

Shell to Sea is call­ing for Sol­i­dar­i­ty protests at the AGM. On the ground in Erris resis­tance con­tin­ues to Shel­l’s pro­posed refin­ery. Peat removal began at the start of April and since then there have been five group tres­pass­es onto the site shut­ting down work tem­porar­i­ly. We are cur­rent­ly in the midst of the EPA oral hear­ing for the IPPC (inte­great­ed pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion and con­trol) license which is to grant Shell a license to pol­lute. Num­bers of Gar­dai in the area remain high.

Now more than ever we need to send Shell a mes­sage that this project is not accept­able and that 100 years is enough! We are hop­ing to send a del­e­ga­tion from Ire­land to the Hague to protest direct­ly. All protests at the Lon­don video link up would be warm­ly appre­ci­at­ed.

Sol­i­dar­i­ty

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.

Climate Change: Corporate Criminals ExxonMobil (Esso) Targeted in Surrey

Around 100 peo­ple turned up on a glo­ri­ous­ly sun­ny Good Fri­day at Exxon­Mo­bil (Esso)‘s UK head­quar­ters in Leather­head, Sur­rey for an East­er action organ­ised by Cam­paign Against Cli­mate Change. The vig­il and protest ran for 24 hours, start­ing from Thurs­day ear­ly evening. There was a chilled-out fes­ti­val vibe on Fri­day, with colour­ful cos­tumes and ban­ners, live acoustic music, speak­ers, poet­ry, food stalls and face-paint­ing.

Esso HQ protest 1Around 100 peo­ple turned up on a glo­ri­ous­ly sun­ny Good Fri­day at Exxon­Mo­bil (Esso)‘s UK head­quar­ters in Leather­head, Sur­rey for an East­er action organ­ised by Cam­paign Against Cli­mate Change. The vig­il and protest ran for 24 hours, start­ing from Thurs­day ear­ly evening. There was a chilled-out fes­ti­val vibe on Fri­day, with colour­ful cos­tumes and ban­ners, live acoustic music, speak­ers, poet­ry, food stalls and face-paint­ing.

Exxon­Mo­bil (Esso) has for years been using its vast wealth to run a cyn­i­cal glob­al cam­paign of fund­ing junk sci­ence to spread dis­in­for­ma­tion and delib­er­ate­ly mud­dy the waters on our under­stand­ing of cli­mate change, and using its clout with the Bush admin­is­tra­tion to block recog­ni­tion of cli­mate change and glob­al action to reduce emis­sions.

See Cam­paign Against Cli­mate Change web­site for more details:

www.campaigncc.org

For more on evil Exxon:

www.exxonsecrets.org
www.exxposeexxon.com
www.campaigncc.org/stopexxon.html

Shell Poisoning Erris Water Supply: Don’t Mention The Water

A two part short film (from an in-progress fea­ture movie called Polic­ing The Pol­lu­tion) inves­ti­gat­ing the pol­lu­tion of Car­row­more Lake, the water sup­ply for over 10,000 Erris peo­ple in Coun­ty Mayo. The pol­luter – Shell. Local res­i­dent John Mon­aghan and myself look over the water tests and con­front Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil.

A two part short film (from an in-progress fea­ture movie called Polic­ing The Pol­lu­tion) inves­ti­gat­ing the pol­lu­tion of Car­row­more Lake, the water sup­ply for over 10,000 Erris peo­ple in Coun­ty Mayo. The pol­luter – Shell. Local res­i­dent John Mon­aghan and myself look over the water tests and con­front Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil.

Don’t_mention_the_water_01 — video/x‑ms-wmv 19M

Don’t_mention_the_water_02 — video/x‑ms-wmv 17M

When I first met with John Mon­aghan dur­ing my time in Ire­land, the first thing he men­tioned was the pol­lu­tion of the local water sup­ply which was com­ing direct­ly from the Shell/Statoil Cor­rib Gas Project at Bel­lan­aboy Bridge.

This has been report­ed before on Indymedia.ie. Now their lat­est reports are start­ing to point to what we uncov­ered whilst out there.

In order to con­struct the refin­ery foun­da­tions 500,000 tons of wet Atlantic peat must be removed. Shell start­ed this but halt­ed oper­a­tions when high-alu­mini­um con­tent “doib” soil was exposed. The alu­mini­um made con­tact with on-site sur­face water and pro­ceed­ed to con­t­a­m­i­nate sur­round­ing streams and rivers, all of which lead to Car­row­more Lake, the drink­ing water sup­ply for over 10,000 res­i­dents in the Erris com­mu­ni­ty.

Act­ing after the ini­tial prob­lem arose, on 8 Sep­tem­ber 2005, Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil (MCC) issued Shell E & P Ire­land (SEPIL) an offi­cial warn­ing: “Fail­ure to take imme­di­ate action to avoid pol­lu­tion of the water­ways will result in MCC issu­ing a notice under Sec­tion 12 of the Local Gov­ern­ment (Water Pol­lu­tion) Act 1977.”

Alu­mini­um in drink­ing water has been linked to demen­tia and Alzheimer-type dis­eases, and bone dis­or­ders. Although the World Health Organ­i­sa­tion (WHO) will not admit or deny this, stat­ing the link between alu­mini­um and such dis­eases “can­not be ruled out”, in 1993 they set a max­i­mum lim­it of 200 ug/l (micro­grams per litre).

The lev­els set on the Cor­rib Gas Project and issued direct­ly to SEPIL are an “action lim­it” of 135 ug/l and an “max­i­mum lim­it” of 200 ug/l.

It took Shell till Feb­ru­ary 2006 to act. They installed an Axon­ics Elec­tro-Chem­i­cal Water Treat­ment Plant to strain out alu­mini­um using elec­tri­cal cur­rents that passed through the water and col­lect­ed the alu­mini­um on con­duct­ing plates. But the alu­mini­um lev­els kept ris­ing and the Axon­ics plant con­tin­u­al­ly broke down.

When asked by this jour­nal­ist to dis­cuss the lev­els of alu­mini­um that the plant could safe­ly deal with, no one at the Axon­ics com­pa­ny in Swansea would give a reply. The sec­re­tary said she was told to explain to me they were in a legal­ly bind­ing con­tract and were allowed not to make any com­ment with­out pri­or con­sent from the cus­tomer.

When the lev­els in the riv­er, lake and water con­tin­ued a steady rise the local com­mu­ni­ty com­plained again. MCC act­ed again. This time it cut near­ly all drink­ing water tests, reduced Car­row­more Lake tests dra­mat­i­cal­ly and Shell began doing their own on-site test­ing.

By the end of 2006 the water com­ing off-site was reg­u­lar­ly over the max­i­mum lim­its, often two or three times and peak­ing at lev­els of over 2000 and 3000 ug/l.

Dis­crep­an­cies were also found when records released from MCC were com­pared to the tests by Shell on-site.

On 13/12/06 Shell’s on-site test­ing show­ing an “indica­tive lev­el” of 666 ug/l, still over three times the max­i­mum lim­it. MCC Fig­ures released in Feb­ru­ary showed the same date, same source of test­ing (SP1) and record­ed 3271 ug/l.

On 20/12/06 Shell’s fig­ures showed 180 ug/l. MCC record­ed 1928 ug/l.

The knock-on effect has seen high­er lev­els of alu­mini­um appear in the lake and the drink­ing water itself. 03/01/07 it test­ed 521 ug/l. By 14/02/07 it had risen to 658 ug/l. The drink­ing water, test­ed twice from a source in Bel­mul­let at the end of Jan­u­ary 2007 first reg­is­tered 1714 ug/l, then dropped sev­er­al days lat­er to 406 ug/l.

Shell denied they were any­thing to do with the ris­ing lev­els, claim­ing it was because of riv­er bank ero­sion in the area.

The pol­lu­tion of Car­row­more Lake has more recent­ly took cen­tre-stage of the protest, lead­ing to a site inva­sion by 60 locals and an occu­pa­tion of coun­cil offices in recent weeks, who res­i­dents accused of fail­ing to act on the issue (see Indymedia.ie/mayo).

On 2 April 2007, I was informed by local peo­ple in the area Shell had recom­menced the removal of the rest of the peat, which will expose more of the doib soil. Only one-third was orig­i­nal­ly removed in pre­vi­ous oper­a­tions.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion:

http://www.corribsos.com/

http://www.indymedia.ie/mayo

Bath Climate Camp — info and wish list

Between late after­noon on thurs­day 19th of April and sun­day 22nd April, there is going to be a cli­mate camp just out­side of Bath focus­ing on Land and Marines offices (the com­pa­ny build­ing the gas pipeline smash­ing through Wales).

Between late after­noon on thurs­day 19th of April and sun­day 22nd April, there is going to be a cli­mate camp just out­side of Bath focus­ing on Land and Marines offices (the com­pa­ny build­ing the gas pipeline smash­ing through Wales).

The camp is shap­ing up to be a real­ly good event. We have most things up togeth­er such as bands, a veg­an field kitchen, a com­post toi­let, mar­quees etc, but there are a few things we could do with more of includ­ing

- Mate­ri­als for ban­ner mak­ing, car­ni­val props etc
— vegetables/spices/pulses — we have got food sort­ed out, but could always do with some more
— reclaimed wood for fires and con­struc­tion

Most impor­tant­ly, we need peo­ple to attend the camp, as this is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to take the fight over the pipeline to the front door of those build­ing it.

as well as bands, food, work­shops, DIY ses­sions and kids activ­i­ties, we have two demos planned -

*fri­day 20th of April — All day — Shut down Land and Marine — a day of autonomous actions against Land and Marines offices. Wether you want to block­ade, make music, ban­ner drop, leaflet, or any­thing else you can think of, all non vio­lent actions and all non-vio­lent peo­ple are very wel­come!

*Sat­ur­day 21st April — Par­ty against Petrol — Meet at 11 at Bath Cli­mate Camp or 12 at Bath Abbey — A col­or­ful, noisy car­ni­val against car cul­ture and fos­sil fuels, roam­ing around Bath and stop­ping to par­ty and high­light some local cli­mate crim­i­nals!

we hold week­ly plan­ning meet­ings on Thurs­days in the hob­gob­lin (47 st. James Parade) at 7.30 in the down­stairs room, all are wel­come.

For more info, to request posters/booklets etc or to ask any ques­tions, please e‑mail bathclimatecamp@yahoo.co.uk or check out www.myspace.com/bathclimatecamp

See you in the fields!

bathclimatecamp@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/bathclimatecamp

EXPOSE EXXON DAY 5–6th April

24 hours of protest at Exxon (Esso) HQ,
5.00 pm Thurs­day 5th April to 5.00 pm Good Fri­day, April 6th.

Mass Action 2.00 pm Fri­day

esso logo 1 subvert24 hours of protest at Exxon (Esso) HQ,
5.00 pm Thurs­day 5th April to 5.00 pm Good Fri­day, April 6th.

Mass Action 2.00 pm Fri­day

FAT CAT’S PARTY
CLIMATE VICTIMS’ VIGIL

Music, Street The­atre, Work­shops, Speak­ers

Come and tar­get the ulti­mate Glob­al Warm­ing Vil­lain More info on Exxon here.

Exxon HQ is South of Lon­don on the North­ern out­skirts of Leather­head, about 20 min­utes walk from Leather­head Rail­way Sta­tion (45 min­utes by train from Water­loo). See map here or close-up here

Floor­space avail­able overnight (details here): if you would like acco­mo­da­tion overnight for the 5th-6th, it will help to email us at info@campaigncc.org with “OVERNIGHT EXXON” in the sub­ject line. Please indi­cate, also, whether you would like to vol­un­teer for a shift at the overnight vig­il out­side Exxon HQ. A minibus will pick peo­ple up from Exxon HQ on Thurs­day evening and take them to the acco­mo­da­tion (and back in the morn­ing).

Cycle against Exxon : a cycle protest will leave from under Water­loo bridge on the South Bank at 100.am, Fri­day (from there it is 20 miles to join the protest at Exxon­Mo­bil HQ).

»> Draft Sched­ule with more details here.

Niger Delta Women shut down Agip Oil Facility

March 23, 2007

A group of women from the Idheze com­mu­ni­ty in Isokoland have once again shut down oil facil­i­ties of the Nige­ria Agip Oil Com­pa­ny (NAOC) because have failed to pay promised com­pen­sa­tion for dam­ages caused by chemical/waste flu­id of the firm flushed into the com­mu­ni­ty. The peo­ple of Isokoland have expe­ri­enced con­tin­ued series of cri­sis over the past 15 years. (There are about 27 oil wells in the area). Many inci­dents have been a result of divide and rule tac­tics by the Niger­ian gov­ern­ment between and with­in eth­nic minori­ties in Delta State and oth­er states in the region. When there have been clash­es the gov­ern­ment has sent in mobile police result­ing in death, injury and destruc­tion of people’s prop­er­ties. The last time I vist­ed Oleh Town (the head­quar­ters of Isoko South Local Gov­ern­ment Area in 2000 women spoke of the bru­tal­li­ty of the mobile poli­cie (MOPO) and how many of them lost their homes. I saw homes burnt down to the ground by the MOPO. Each time they come into the area peo­ple are afraid and run away and then their homes are loot­ed and often burned to the ground.

Agip logo subvertMarch 23, 2007

A group of women from the Idheze com­mu­ni­ty in Isokoland have once again shut down oil facil­i­ties of the Nige­ria Agip Oil Com­pa­ny (NAOC) because have failed to pay promised com­pen­sa­tion for dam­ages caused by chemical/waste flu­id of the firm flushed into the com­mu­ni­ty. The peo­ple of Isokoland have expe­ri­enced con­tin­ued series of cri­sis over the past 15 years. (There are about 27 oil wells in the area). Many inci­dents have been a result of divide and rule tac­tics by the Niger­ian gov­ern­ment between and with­in eth­nic minori­ties in Delta State and oth­er states in the region. When there have been clash­es the gov­ern­ment has sent in mobile police result­ing in death, injury and destruc­tion of people’s prop­er­ties. The last time I vist­ed Oleh Town (the head­quar­ters of Isoko South Local Gov­ern­ment Area in 2000 women spoke of the bru­tal­li­ty of the mobile poli­cie (MOPO) and how many of them lost their homes. I saw homes burnt down to the ground by the MOPO. Each time they come into the area peo­ple are afraid and run away and then their homes are loot­ed and often burned to the ground.

“Many hous­es were burned down, many things destroyed, we loose all our prop­er­ty. Some peo­ple loose their mon­ey, every­thing con­cern­ing trad­ing mate­r­i­al many things lost. Some peo­ple now are not even stay­ing in this town because all their house all their prop­er­ty has burned down. There is a lot of suf­fer­ing. Both men and women they are suf­fer­ing in this town. Up till now there are some­thing chil­dren who are lost (miss­ing) up till now we have nev­er seen any cer­tifi­cate of chil­dren born.”

Now we have to wait and see how the gov­ern­ment will respond to the women’s protest and hope that this time Obasan­jo does not send in his army to pro­tect the oil com­pa­ny and attack Niger­ian women who are protest­ing against the envi­ron­men­tal dam­age to their com­mu­ni­ty by Agip which is is nor­mal reac­tion to any protests against oil com­pa­nies and facil­i­ties.

Recent­ly, chemical/waste from the rig site was dis­charged into the swamp of Idheze lead­ing to the death and destruc­tion of aquat­ic life. Many dead aquat­ic ani­mals were still afloat in the ponds yes­ter­day. The women had ear­ly in Decem­ber 2006 seized oil facil­i­ties belong­ing to Agip, owing to the fail­ure of the com­pa­ny to imple­ment an ear­li­er agree­ment signed with the com­mu­ni­ty on their entrance into their land. They revealed that a spill led to the death of sev­en adults and three chil­dren and also destroyed eco­nom­ic trees and crops in 1982.

The women car­ried plac­ards, bar­ri­cad­ed the main entrance of the company’s facil­i­ties and turned back all work­ers. Some of the plac­ards bore inscrip­tions such as: “We are tired of the inhu­man treat­ment of NAOC”, “We will con­tin­ue to dis­rupt your activ­i­ties until you meet our demands”, “Pay com­pen­sa­tion for the chemical/waste flu­id you have used to pol­lute our land.”

The women came to the premis­es with their uten­sils and food items, includ­ing bags of rice, yams, gar­ri as well as canopies with which they erect­ed makeshift tents. They vowed not to vacate the yard until their demands were met. Accord­ing to them, after all that the com­mu­ni­ty suf­fered as a result of the spill, Agip has refused to heed the advice of the inspec­torate body of the Nige­ria Nation­al Petro­le­um Com­pa­ny (NNPC) which ordered Agip to com­pen­sate the com­mu­ni­ty.

Leader of the pro­test­ers, Mrs. Mer­cy Okun­wa, who spoke on behalf of the community’s Pres­i­dent-Gen­er­al, Joel Ogbru, accused the com­pa­ny of insen­si­tiv­i­ty to the plight of the locals as well as reneg­ing on agree­ment reached with the com­mu­ni­ty in Port Har­court last Decem­ber.

She said the non-chal­lant atti­tude of NAOC to the issues of their com­mu­ni­ty, led to a protest by the com­mu­ni­ty on the Decem­ber 19, 2006 to reg­is­ter their “vex­a­tion but until now none of the promis­es made by NAOC when they invit­ed the com­mu­ni­ty peo­ple has been imple­ment­ed”.

She dis­closed that many of the ser­vic­ing com­pa­nies oper­at­ing in the rigs were “car­ry­ing out the job with the knowl­edge of Agip but detri­men­tal to the com­mu­ni­ty because none of them pays roy­al­ty to the com­mu­ni­ty.”

They accused ser­vic­ing firms such as SERIC, IMPEANTI, and KCA Deu­tage for flout­ing out­right­ly, agree­ments reached with the com­mu­ni­ty, say­ing that Agip con­spired with some of the ser­vic­ing firms to rob the com­mu­ni­ty of their enti­tle­ments. She lament­ed that con­tracts that should have been giv­en to the indi­genes were exe­cut­ed by out­siders.

“We are peace-lov­ing peo­ple and know­ing that Agip has been deceiv­ing us, we wouldn’t want any­thing that will be detri­men­tal this time to our peo­ple and so until the company’s man­age­ment responds to our demand, we will not vacate the premis­es,” the aggriev­ed women declared.

Sol­diers barred jour­nal­ists from reach­ing the Com­mu­ni­ty Rela­tions Offi­cer in charge of the Kwale Gas Plant of Agip, Prince Obi, who was at the premis­es address­ing the pro­test­ers.

Climate Camp Meeting this weekend in Bristol, and Film

Last year saw 600 peo­ple gath­er in the shad­ow of Drax Pow­er Sta­tion for the ten day Camp For Cli­mate Action. This week­end in Bris­tol is the next nation­al plan­ning meet­ing, Sat­ur­day 17th and Sun­day 18th March. The venue is Bar­ton Hill Set­tle­ment which is 5 min from Lawrence Hill Sta­tion.

Last year saw 600 peo­ple gath­er in the shad­ow of Drax Pow­er Sta­tion for the ten day Camp For Cli­mate Action. This week­end in Bris­tol is the next nation­al plan­ning meet­ing, Sat­ur­day 17th and Sun­day 18th March. The venue is Bar­ton Hill Set­tle­ment which is 5 min from Lawrence Hill Sta­tion.

Any ques­tions, sug­ges­tions or pro­pos­als for the meet­ing can be sent to gath­er­ings [at] climatecamp.org.uk.

Last years camp was cap­tured on video and turned into a doc­u­men­tary by Cine Rebalde called Reclaim Pow­er. Copies are now avail­able on DVD in this coun­try from Ris­ing Tide and local groups work­ing towards this years cli­mate camp.

Those in Lon­don can check out the cli­mate camp film as part of two evenings of cli­mate chaos relat­ed films at the ram­pART social cen­tre (see http://rampart.co.nr for details). Also show­ing is the epic doc­u­men­tary The Plan­et, plus Glob­al Dim­ming and The Denial Machine. Addi­tion­al­ly there will be speak­ers and info.

More info on film at http://www.cinerebelde.org/site.php3?id_rubrique=22&lang=en
More info on camp for cli­mate action at http://climatecamp.org.uk