Category: Action Reports

30 days of actions at Faslane

30 Days of Action at Faslane

30 Days of Action at Faslane

Faslane Peace Camp are announcing 30 days of non-violent direct action against the Faslane Naval Base to mark the 30th birthday of the Peace Camp. Over the last year, a small group of us have been endeavouring to make Peace Camp a healthy and happy place to facilitate direct action against Trident. We are ready for action! The birthday celebrations will commence on Saturday 9th of June 2012 and continue until the 9th of July.

This week the First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond announced that an independent Scotland would be a nuclear free Scotland. Whilst these are welcome words, the response is that the MOD are reportedly looking into new venues south of the border in the fear that Scotland will win independence. We need to give a clear and unmitigated message that simply moving them is not enough. We are in a unique position to make this potential removal from Scotland mean an ipso facto end to nuclear weapons in the UK but our message needs to be full volume!

We are inviting local, national and international groups to take responsibility for a day of anti-nuclear activities, this can be a march to the base,  a demo at the gates, a blockade, a mass trespass, a die-in… get creative! If you are a small group or an individual and want to team up with others, we can help choreograph partnerships. We can also facilitate workshops on direct action at Faslane so no activist experience is necessary. There will be lots to be done day to day and plenty of roles to fulfil during the 30 Days campaign and the time leading up to it so enthusiastic helpers (and donations) will be welcomed with open arms! Communal meals will be provided and there will be plenty of sleeping and camping spaces.

For more information, legal stuff and for details of our safer spaces, residency and alcohol agreements please contact Faslane30@riseup.net or write to us at: 30Days, Faslane Peace Camp, Shandon, Helensburgh, G84 8NN.

 

More nails in the GM coffin – bye bye BASF / amaranth fights back against GM menace / Take the Flour Back

18 January 2012

BASF, the last firm still developing genetically modified crops in Germany is stopping its work, admitting defeat in the face of widespread European opposition to to the idea.

18 January 2012

BASF, the last firm still developing genetically modified crops in Germany is stopping its work, admitting defeat in the face of widespread European opposition to to the idea.

This follows decisions by Bayer and Syngenta to stop their genetically modified (GM) crop work in Germany over the last few years.

German chemical giant BASF has announced that it will halt the development or commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) crops in Europe, and move its biotech R&D operations to the US. The firm cited consumer and political resistance to transgenic plants in Europe for its decision. 

BASF will now concentrate its plant biotechnology activities in North and South America, and the headquarters of BASF Plant Science will be moved from Limburgerhof, Germany, to Raleigh, North Carolina, US. BASF expects that this will result in the loss of 140 jobs in Europe.

'We are convinced that plant biotechnology is a key technology for the 21st century,' said Stefan Marcinowski, a member of BASF's executive board. 'However, there is still a lack of acceptance for this technology in many parts of Europe – from the majority of consumers, farmers and politicians. Therefore, it does not make business sense to continue investing in products exclusively for cultivation in this market.' 

BASF's decision was met with warnings from industry representatives and lobbyists, but celebration by others, including environmental advocates and at least one former industry insider. 

Presently, only two GM crops are authorised for cultivation in the EU: MON810 maize, made by US-based Monsanto, and BASF's Amflora potato. MON810 is only approved for sale as an animal feed and starch from Amflora is used in industrial processes.

Maurice Moloney, the chief executive of Rothamsted Research in the UK, which has been engaged in GM work, said that moving the focus of crop science even further away from Europe is 'deeply regrettable'. Such a move will 'make innovative new technologies, including but not limited to GM, less available to European producers and consumers and carries the risk of denying them access to crops and foods with health and environmental benefits,' he added. 

BASF's decision is likely to adversely affect Europe's economic growth and food supply, Moloney warned. 'It is ironic that much of the science that created modern biotechnology came from Europe and yet Europeans have been deprived of the environmental benefits such as the reduction of the use of pesticides and improved soil quality as well as the more obvious economic benefits of cheaper food and agricultural products,' he said. 

In addition, Alan Dewar, an independent entomologist who directs Dewar Crop Protection and used to be head of entomology at a division of Rothamsted Research, called BASF's decision to quit Europe 'indicative of the ever increasing isolation that European scientists find themselves in'. Dewar highlighted 'inadequate sentences' handed down by judges in several European countries to protestors who have been 'caught red-handed' destroying GM field trials, saying it is not surprising that biotech crop research has stalled in Europe. 

But Ignacio Chapela, a microbial ecology professor at the University of California, Berkeley and senior researcher with the Centre for Biosafety in Norway, says that genetically modified organisms have been overhyped and that the industry needs to be significantly trimmed down. 

'The size of the GMO market should be much smaller, but it is being promoted very strongly with the full force of the US government,' Chapela says, who formerly worked for Swiss firm Sandoz, Sygenta's predecessor, developing new agrichemicals. He says much publicised claims that GM crops would cut levels of herbicides and insecticides in the food chain have failed to materialise and, in fact, many of these products have led to more of both. 

The environmental group Friends of the Earth (FoE) Europe also celebrated BASF's announcement. 'This is another nail in the coffin for genetically modified foods in Europe,' said Adrian Bebb, agrofuels campaign coordinator for FoE Europe. 'This is a good day for consumers and farmers and opens the door for the European Union to shift Europe to greener and more publicly acceptable farming.'

However, is this a real victory or a sleight of hand?  Read more

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Amaranth, the Inca sacred plant, attacks GM soya crop

5,000 hectares trashed, 50,000 threatened! 

It first happened in 2004, when a farmer in Atlanta in the US found amaranth that had spread to his fields was resistant to Roundup – the herbicide much GM was bred to resist.  But since then, the 'weed' has spread widely, and according to the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology there has been gene transfer. 

[note: this is an old article, excerpt taken from here.  There have been a rash recently of articles about GM reposted from the last years, that purport to be from 2012; this article about amaranth was not previously covered on this site, hence it's brief reposting]

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Past action against BASF's UK HQ

Future action this May against GM wheat trial

Regional Strike Paralyzes Hydroelectric Project in Colombia

19 January 2012

19 January 2012

The Regional Movement for the Defense of the Territory launched a regional strike in Huila, Colombia on Jan. 3 to protest the destructive impacts of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project and the entering of UK-based petroleum company Emerald Energy into the biodiverse mountaintop moor ecosystem of the Páramo of Miraflores. The movement, compromised of the Association of Affected by the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project (ASOQUIMBO), the Civic Committee of Western Huila, communities from the Páramo of Miraflores and the Regional Indigenous Council of Huila (CRIHU), has blocked the highway and bridge known as Paso del Colegio and has paralyzed the construction of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project, courageously pushing the diverting of the Magdalena River behind schedule while facing violent evcitions by riot police and the military and a media blackout.

The three main demands of the strike are that the environmental licenses for the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project and Emerald Energy be immediately suspended, public environmental hearings be held for the project in affected communities and for multinational corporation Emgesa to immediately repair the Paso del Colegio Bridge and other highways that have been damaged while working on the Quimbo project. Last week Colombia's Comptroller´s Office responded by opening a “preliminary investigations” against the Ministry of Environment, the Regional Environmental Autonomous Corporation (CAM) and INVIAS- Highway Transportation Authority for violations of the environmental license of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project. In addition, Govenor Cielo Gonalez of Huila, House Representative Consuelo Gonzalez de Perdomo and Senate Vice President Alexander Lopez have all come out in support of the regional strike and the demands of the movement.

After two weeks of paralyzing construction of the dam, constant confrontations with security from the construction site in blocking the entry of workers from both land and the river, the Minister of Environment finally agreed to meet for an hour and a half with the communities in a meeting mediated by the governor. January 25 through the 31 there will be public assemblies throughout the region where fisherpeople, agricultural workers, cattle ranchers, loggers, pick-up truck drivers, sand diggers and construction workers affected by the Quimbo will be able to present their grievances to representatives from the Comptroller’s Office and the Ombudsmen Offices followed by a day of presenting the environmental and archaeological impacts and the very serious tectonic risk in the area of the dam. Other presentations for the Paso de Colegio Bridge, the Paramo of Miraflores and other regions affected the bridge damage will be held. Furthermore, on Jan. 18 there was a Judicial Review of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project as a result of Vice President of the Senate Alexander Lopez’s motion to the Ministry of Environment to suspend the diverting of the Magdalena River to prevent an “irreversible catastrophy” until the Ministry of Environment present its review and response to all the cases presented on February 3. If the Quimbo Dam is not suspended, ASOQUIMBO is prepared to risk lives to occupy the Dam Construction site and stop it indefinitely.

The region of the Quimbo is rich in biodiversity, including over 900 ha of Riparian forest ecosystem along the river´s edge, as well as extensive fertile agricultural lands. During the last four years the project has caused ecological destruction, increased cost of living, psychological traumas, and abuses against local communities. Over 2,000 people live in the region that would be covered by the 9,500 ha reservoir, though more than 15,000 people in central Huila depend on this region for employment and food production.

One of the sectors most affected by the Dam is the fishing industry. “The Quimbo construction site dumps a variety of liquid and other pollution into the river, before the Quimbo a family could catch up to 40lb. of fish a day now a family is lucky if they can catch 8 lb. ad there is no way to live with that” described Miriam Restrepo, a local fisherwoman from Hobo at the strike. “The fish we catch can only live and feed in running water and we fisherman do not own land, we live along the sand banks where we fish. Emgesa does not want to compensate us because they say we won´t be affected by the Quimbo.”

The movement against the Quimbo dates back to 2007 when the first environmental license for the project was given to the Spanish multinational energy company Emgesa (now a subsidiary of Italian Energy giant Enel) under questionable circumstances. At th time, then-President Alvaro Uribe made business deals with Emgesa and did not include any local government or the legislature from any say in the decision making process. It was then that the Magdalena River was handed over to company as a Public Utility indefinitely by the former president Uribe. Since then, the environmental license for the project has been changed multiple times in negotiations between Emgesa and the Ministry of Environment, always to cater to the demands of the company. When issues such as the numerous sensitive tectonic faults within the region noted by INGEOMINAS (the State Geological Institute) or the unique archeological findsthat were discovered by the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (ICANH), this caused the environmental license to be suspended until an accurate archeological survey of the area was completed. Those decisions were subsequently revoked by the President or the Ministry of Environment. In addition,Environmental Laws were changed by former President Uribe with less than 72 hours before his term ended to favor the company over the impacted communities in August 2010.

On November 29, 2011 the Ministry of Environment and Territorial Development through Resolution 123 revoked its prior suspending of the license through Resolution 1096 of June 14 which had been suspended for not appropriately compensating landowners and for displacing workers from productive farms. The new license was granted stating that prior violations had been rectified without the Ministry of Environment visiting the region to verify what actions Emgesa reported to the Ministry. The License states that Emgesa cannot buy out farms that are currently in production, though “numerous farms that we worked on such as La Virgina, La Güipa and others are abandoned in disarray when they previously employed up to 30 workers each,” explained farmworker Harold Segura, a resident from La Jagua.

During the last four years the farmers who grow tobacco, coffee, cacao, day laborers, fishermen, artisans, loggers, and other inhabitants of the region have grown and unified into ASOQUIMBO, recognized both regionally and nationally as a determined, effective and coherent social movement and as an example of community resistance against a hydroelectric dam project whom many believe will set precedents for other anti-dam struggles in Colombia and elsewhere. As part of National Movement for the Defense of Territories of theMovement Rios Vivos, ASOQUIMBO has grown to build ties with other communities affected by dams, such as Urra I & II en Cordoba, Hidrosogamoso in Santander and Hidroituango in Antioquia.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has placed mining and energy production as a vital “locomotive” of development for the country that seeks to be pivotal in the region´s infrastructure creation and resource extraction. Caught in the path of this locomotive are hundreds of indigenous, Afro-descendent and peasant communities whose territories rich in gold and other metals, coal, oil, hydrological resources and rich soils for agro-fuel production are caught in the middle of a battle between the State resource extraction policies and their human right to self-determination. In Colombia, the struggle against the Quimbo is the struggle against gold in Suarez, Cauca, which is also the struggle against oil Palm in the Montes de Maria, as it is the struggle against the Cerrejon Coal Mine in la Guajira.

Please Support the Regional Movement for the Defense of the Territory by contacting Colombian Minister of the Environment Dr. Frank Pearl of the Republic of Colombia and inform him that you support the Regional Strike and call for:

Minister Frank Pearl
fpearl@minambiente.gov.co
011 57 332 3400

-Immediate suspension of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project´s Environmental License. Yes to Agro Ecological Food Security Campesino Reserve!
– Immediate suspension of the Emerald Energy´s Environmental License in the Cerro Paramo de Miraflores.
– Emgesa immediately repair of the Paso del Colegio Bridge and the highways connecting La Plata-Garzón, La Plata-Tesalia-Íquira and La Plata-Leticia.

For more information about the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project:
Damming Magdalena: Emgesa Threatens Colombian Communities
The History of the Quimbo in Colombia: Dammed or Damned?
Protests against the Quimbo Dam
Polinizaciones Blog

Three Sea Shepherd Crew Injured in Skirmish with Japanese Harpoon Vessel

January 18th, 2012

The Japanese whalers have escalated their aggression by throwing iron grappling hooks at Sea Shepherd boats.

Two Steve Irwin crew were struck in the shoulder with iron grappling hooks and one crewmember was struck twice in the face with a long bamboo pole.

January 18th, 2012

The Japanese whalers have escalated their aggression by throwing iron grappling hooks at Sea Shepherd boats.

Two Steve Irwin crew were struck in the shoulder with iron grappling hooks and one crewmember was struck twice in the face with a long bamboo pole.

The Yushin Maru No. 2 continues to tail the Steve Irwin. The incident occurred at 0400 Hours AEST at 64 degrees 17 minutes South and 155 degrees 41 minutes East. This is about 300 miles north of Mawson Peninsula off the George V Land coast of Antarctica.

“Our small boats were attempting to slow down the Japanese harpoon vessel Yushin Maru No. 2, which is aggressively tailing the Steve Irwin,” said Captain Paul Watson.

Yushin Maru sprays Delta boat with water cannonYushin Maru sprays Delta boat with water cannonAmerican crewmember Brian Race, (25) from New York, was jabbed twice in the face with a bamboo pole receiving lacerations above his right eye and on his nose.

Russell Bergh of South Africa, (35) a cameraman for Animal Planet, was struck in the right arm and shoulder with an iron grappling hook thrown from the harpoon vessel resulting in deep bruising.

Photographer Guillaume Collet of France, (27) was also struck in the right arm and shoulder by an iron grappling hook resulting in deep bruising.

There were no injuries incurred by any of the crew on the Japanese vessel.

Two of the three harpoon vessels have been assigned to tail Sea Shepherd ships, effectively knocking out two of the three killing boats.

“We are almost at the limit of the eastern boundary of their self assigned hunting area,” said Captain Watson. “We should be getting close.”

Whale Wars Victory – Activists to be Released

10.1.12

An unscheduled meeting between Japan’s whalers and environmental activists on the high seas seems an unlikely backdrop to an outbreak of détente.

10.1.12

An unscheduled meeting between Japan’s whalers and environmental activists on the high seas seems an unlikely backdrop to an outbreak of détente.

But Australia was quietly celebrating a minor victory for diplomacy on Tuesday after Japan agreed to release three anti-whaling activists who illegally boarded one of its whaling ships over the weekend. 

The trio, all Australian citizens, have been detained on the Shonan Maru 2, which is providing security to the fleet, after clambering aboard early Sunday morning to protest Japan’s annual hunts in the Antarctic. The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986 but allows Japan to hunt a limited number of whales for “scientific research.” The fleet left port last month with plans to kill some 900 whales this season.

The incident threatened to cause tension between Australia and Japan, close trade and security partners. Soon after the men were detained it seemed likely that they would be kept aboard the Shonan Maru 2 and taken to Japan, where they faced a trial and possible imprisonment for trespassing.

By late Monday evening, however, Japan had agreed to release the trio, a move welcomed by Australia’s prime minister, Julia Gillard.

Prime Minister Gillard, who came under immediate pressure at home to secure the activists’ release, thanked Japan for its cooperation, but sounded a warning to campaigners thinking of employing similar forms of direct action.

“No one should assume that because an agreement has been reached with the Japanese government in this instance that individuals will not be charged and convicted in the future,” she said in a statement. “The best way to stop whaling once and for all is through our court action.

Australia has lodged a legal challenge to the annual whale hunts with the international court of justice in the Hague but a decision is not expected until 2013 at the earliest.

Canberra’s delicate task was to balance an election pledge to end the whale hunts with a public show of respect for maritime law.

The release, which won’t happen until an Australian coastguard boat rendezvouses with the Shona Maru 2 in several days’ time, was welcomed by Sea Shepherd’s founder, Paul Watson.

But in an interview with Macquarie Radio, Mr. Watson said: “If the Australian government would do their job and fulfill their election promises, these things wouldn’t be happening.”

Japan, meanwhile, insisted the decision to release the men did not mean it had gone soft on Sea Shepherd.

The trio are not members of the group – they belong to another organization called Forest Rescue – and had not injured any members of the Shonan Maru 2’s crew when they boarded, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Osamu Fujimura, told reporters.

“The three activists were not violent during or after they boarded the whaling vessel,” he said. “There was no evidence that they were part of Sea Shepherd, which has been engaged in obstructing the fleet.”

Japan may have also had in mind the negative international publicity it attracted in 2010, when it prosecuted former Sea Shepherd member Pete Bethune, who had boarded the Shonan Maru 2 to protest the sinking of the group’s high-tech speedboat. Mr. Bethune, who had been carrying a knife, was given a suspended sentence and deported.

Official support for the whaling program was also put under the spotlight last month when it was revealed that the government had used 2.28 billion yen ($30 million) of taxpayer money intended for the tsunami recovery effort to fund this year’s hunt, on top an existing $6 million annual subsidy. The fisheries agency said the use of the fund was justified because one of the towns destroyed in the disaster was a whaling port.

ANOTHER EXCAVATOR MADE HARMLESS

January 12, 2012 – Sweden
reported to Örebro's ALF/DBF Press Office (after photo from svt.se):

"We just ended a death machine, a so called excavator, in the wood side of Örebro.. You should do so to if you care at all about the earthlings around you, and all of our home, planet earth.

-Against the true ECO FASCISM: the fascism committed against all wild life, and against all other oppression.
FUCK ALL NATIONAL STATES, FUCK PATRIOTISM! Love this planets life instead!
GO OUT!!!

EARTH LIBERATION FRONT
JORDENS BEFRIELSEFRONT"

Video

Sea Shepherd Dancing Dangerously With the Outlaw Whaling Fleet in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary

11 January 2012

The nautical chess pieces continue to move and the board keeps changing in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

11 January 2012

The nautical chess pieces continue to move and the board keeps changing in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

The Shonan Maru #2 is no longer chasing the Steve Irwin. The security vessel has been replaced by the harpoon vessel Yushin Maru #2. It is assumed that the Shonan Maru #2 will now head west towards the Australian customs vessel Ocean Protector to turn over the three Australian prisoners onboard. With the Yushin Maru #2 now following the Steve Irwin, and the Yushin Maru #3 still at Macquarie Island, the Nisshin Maru now has only one harpoon vessel left – the Yushin Maru.

Sea Shepherd has temporarily lost drone contact with the Nisshin Maru and cannot guarantee that whaling has not begun. If so, it will proceed with two of the three harpoon vessels not involved in killing operations. “If we had one more ship, there would be no possibility of any whales dying,” said Captain Paul Watson. “In July I met with Greenpeace representatives at the IWC and requested of them that they send one ship to support us. I told them that one more ship would shut down this entire fleet. They refused, and that is deeply disappointing, and as a result whales may die.”

Sea Shepherd is working to secure a third large, fast, ice-strengthened vessel to return next season. The Sea Shepherd fast scout vessel Brigitte Bardot remains in Fremantle undergoing repairs from damage caused by the extreme weather conditions of the Southern Ocean.

“We have demonstrated that we can shut these poachers down and every year we become more effective than the year before. One more ship will give us the ability to throw a blanket of intervention over them that will completely extinguish their illegal operations,” said Captain Paul Watson.

The dropping away of the Shonan Maru #2 removes the possibility of the transfer of the three Forest Rescue men to the Steve Irwin. The transfer of the men to the Steve Irwin would have saved the Australian government hundreds of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile despite being ordered out of the territorial waters of Australia’s MacQuarie Island, the Yushin Maru #3 continues to illegally remain inside the twelve mile territorial limit.

“The Japanese whalers act like they own the entire Southern Ocean,” said Bob Barker Captain Alex Cornelissen of the Netherlands. “They go where they want, when they want, and do what they want, with complete contempt for Australian sovereignty.”

 

Scaling tree cutters and trees to halt Corrib pipeline works

Shell today, 9th January 2012, began to cut down a Coillte plantation in the village of Leenamore, Co. Mayo. This surprise move marks the beginning of their attempts to prepare the 4km stretch of land between the Aughoose tunnelling compound and the Bellanaboy refinery. Despite a large Garda and private security presence, campaigners entered the tree felling area and halted work.

Shell starting this section of the pipeline was completely unanticipated both by local campaigners and those of us living at Rossport Solidarity Camp. Rumour had it that the clearing of the plantation might not happen until later in the year. As it happened many of us had planned to take the day off actions today to tend the camp gardens, carve new wind turbine blades, bake bread and work on other projects. The day turned out quite different to how we planned…

When we arrived at Leenamore at 11am we saw that they were cutting down trees at two different sections of the road and setting up a machinery storage compound. There was a heavy Garda presence including members of the public order unit with no number tags. There were twenty Gardaí and at least fifty of Shell’s private security IRMS attempting to guard the tree line. There was seven of us, basically meaning we were outnumbered by about 10 to 1.

A few of us tried to get over the fence or into the trees to prevent the tree cutting from happening. Five of us succeeded in breaching lines of security to impede work at different times. Some of us were carried back over the barbed wire fence by security guards. The security guards had real difficulty in removing us from the area as the ground was extremely uneven and boggy. They kept stumbling as they carried us out and it was really dangerous for the security themselves. The Gardai were standing out on the road and wouldn’t let us stand on the road.

After trying to get in over the fence along the road a few times, several campaigners broke away to try to enter from further away and disappeared in the woods.

To everyone’s delight, one campaigner reappeared about an hour later, on top of a tree-cutting digger. Another campaigner, also reappeared a hour later, without his trousers! His explanation was that the ski-suit he had been wearing had been causing rustling as he approached security lines so eventually he had to resort to removing them and run in his thermals to make it to climb a tree that was in the path of Shell’s destruction. As a newcomer to the camp, this is his experience of trying to stop Shell in his own words;

“I arrived at the camp a few days ago. It’s my first visit. I spent the first day helping to block lorries and got a good chance ot be active against Shell’s destruction. This morning everyone was surprised that Shell were starting work on the forest. A few of us went away to come at the machinery from another angle. We crawled through the woods towards the area they were cutting slowly. As were crawling towards the digger I darted off left. All the security were shouting ‘hold the line’. I kept running until a group of security broke away from a group at the road and started running after me. I ran back into the woods with them running behind me shouting, so I went to ground and hid for 20 minutes. Then crawled down a bit and looked up to see where they were and they were all around me. I had to run accorss a big gap where they could all see me and into another patch of woods. With them all running behind me I got into the trees again. I reached the first suitable tree to climb just to the right of the tree-cutting-digger. By the time I was up the security guards had run past me but couldn’t see me. Fifteen or twenty of them were below filming and wandering around. They shouting at me, things like ‘are you going to come down?’ and ‘Chop him down!’. I climbed right to the top to see where the digger was. I swung to another tree and then to another to get a bit closer to the digger as it moved. I stayed up for about 45 minutes as the digger broke up the trees beside me. The security guards started to get more and more angry with me. They started shaking the tree and getting sticks. I said, ‘I’m really going to want to come down with you doing that!’. I negotiated with them to let me come down safely and agreed that one of them would escourt me out of the woods. I met up with the other campers and camp back to get a cup of tea and some food. A few local people called in to catch up with us. I feel good to be here to so far. I’ve met some good people. I found it good to be doing actions with energetic people who have been fighting this campaign for a long time.”

The other camper up on the tree-cutter stayed up to stop work until 6.30pm before coming down. This camper reported that one of the IRMS security supervisors that had been running after him in the woods, as he got to the tree-cutter, had injured his ankle and had eventually been stretchered off the site. The campaigners were not arrested as the cutting was happening on private land.

New camp members are always welcome and even if you don’t feel like crawling around in the woods in your first few days there is plenty of other things to do…

Rossport Solidarity Camp is calling for support in advance of this coming Friday the 13th of January. Friday is the first Day of Solidarity of the new year, when people from around Ireland are invited to join the protests for a day to show their support for the ongoing resistance to the Corrib Gas Project.

http://www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org
 
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Shell's tree cutting disrupted for second day running

Disruption to the felling of the Coillte woodland for Shell's planned onshore pipeline (along with the stopping of haulage trucks to the Aughoose compound), continued today as protestors intercepted a specialist 8-track tree felling machine between the Aughoose tunnelling compound and Leenamore forest.

A Barrett's truck transporting the machine was halted as it made the 1km journey at 7am this morning by a small band of merry protestors, one of whom quickly ascended the arm and settled into position as a lone Garda looked on. Several more Gardaí soon came to join her supported by a large number of IRMS staff who have been positioned along the road by the forest since yesterday.

As a wintery dawn broke over the beseiged bog the Gardaí “removal” team arrived along with their “transporter”, driven by Sgt Aidan Gill, who then proceeded to initiate Garda attacks on the gathering supporters, in the name of health and safety.

Following some hasty positioning of 'crash-mattresses' and blankets (!!) on and around the machine an attempt was made to remove the protestors, only for the Gardaí to discover that the protestor had D-locked her neck to the machine.

In an extraordinarily reckless move, the Gardaí then decided to use an angle grinder just millimeters away from the protestors' head, all to enable the continuation of Shell's work for the day.

However the delay of 3 & 1/2 hours to the tree felling had also thwarted all deliveries of stone and removals of peat at the Aughoose compound as the driver of the truck carrying the machine had been swerving so much, as to end up preventing the passage of any other trucks on the road.
After being taken down the protestor was arrested and charged and is due to appear in Belmullet court along with 4 other campaigners.

Later on in the evening another protest was called for outside Bellanaboy, however it seems the latest activity has resulted in a further increase in the amount of Gardaí loitering in the area. About 15 Gardaí were immediately on hand and so not too many trucks were stopped in the evening.

Rossport Solidarity Camp is calling for support in advance of this coming Friday the 13th of January. Friday is the first Day of Solidarity of the new year, when people from around Ireland are invited to join the protests for a day to show their support for the ongoing resistance to the Corrib Gas Project.

 

 

report from tonight’s ‘bikes alive’ protest

9.1.12: 'bikes alive' is a new direct action campaigning group to counter the lethargy of transport for london, and its prioritising of london traffic flow over the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.

9.1.12: 'bikes alive' is a new direct action campaigning group to counter the lethargy of transport for london, and its prioritising of london traffic flow over the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. tonight saw the first of a series of direct action traffic calming gatherings at king's cross designed to pressure TfL into more urgent action over the deadly junction.

at the 6pm start numbers looked a little thin, with no more than a few dozen cyclists gathered on the corner of euston road and york way in front of king's cross station. they were observed by several police cyclists and a few others on foot.

numbers did gradually build up, and by about twenty past, the action began with probably a little over a hundred cyclists making their way up york way at a snail's pace, forming an effective blockade against the rush hour traffic.

they looped round and back via the scala before completely blocking the busy junction between euston and pentonville roads with york way.

here – next to the white ghost bicycle left as a memorial to 'deep' lee, the young cyclist who was the 16th cycle fatality of 2011 – they chanted slogans against boris, and reclaimed the streets. police began re-directing traffic up york way and round, and traffic tailed back along euston road a long way.

for the next half an hour, the cycle blockade, accompanied by quite a few people on foot, made slow progress back and forth along both sides of euston road outside the station. near the front of the procession were des kay, the bicycle activist who won landmark court battles against police attempts to restrict the monthly critical mass rides, and jenny jones, the green campaigner on the london assembly and the metropolitan police authority.

police response remained (i suspect partly because of jenny jones' presence) reasonably low key, although inspector mcdonald kept asking people to 'keep moving' and he was accompanied by an over-eager community support officer who liked shouting at and grabbing people in an offensive manner.

finally at just after 7pm, after holding the start of pentonville road for several minutes while traffic was once again directed up york way, cyclists agreed to leave en masse rather than dwindle in numbers, des kay recited one of his infamous cycle activist poems, and the cyclists went off into the night.

the plan is to hold regular, possibly weekly, blockades until TfL promise to act. check the www.bikesalive.wordpress.com site for details of next week's ride at king's cross.

Earth First! Winter Moot 2012 – 24-26th February 2012. Updated: location & what to expect

A weekend of discussion and networking for those taking direct action against ecological destruction.

Please note date & location change (due to date clash & venue problems):

24-26th February 2012, near Glasgow

Nearest train station: Lanark.

See earthfirstgathering.org.uk for further information about location,  programme and contact details

Update:

Where – this years Earth First Winter Moot will take place in Glespin Village Hall, South Lanarkshire. Glespin is a small village about 14 miles south of Lanark, and 35 miles south of Glasgow. South Lanarkshire also has many beautiful areas with rivers, hills, forests and peat bogs.  Full directions

What to expect – this years Earth First! Winter Moot takes place in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. In a months time environmentalists from across the UK and beyond will converge to discuss and debate. Below is an update from the organising collective who are working on the program.

The Moot 2012 collective has felt that at previous EF! Gatherings groups have primarily attended to recruit for their respective campaigns. Yet those who attend EF! Gatherings are predominantly already active, making them good places for networking, but not necessarily for outright recruitment. We recognise the effort gathering organisers put into planning agendas but often the more discursive aspects of the gatherings focus on larger,  abstract questions and debates have often been framed by self-appointed experts. We feel that these discussions ineffectively attempt to find answers or reach consensus where this is inappropriate.

For example at the first EF! Gathering 20 years ago the question was asked: ‘What is EF!?’ 20 years later in 2011 at the last Moot the same question was still being asked . . .

The answer is EF! is what we make it, and this year we are going to make it a space in which we can approach our campaigns both critically and analytically by asking more specific and practical questions. Our activism should be constantly evolving not stuck in a rut asking the same questions again and again.

The agenda will be designed to ask questions around four key issues: the tactics we use; the strategies that we employ in our campaigns; community solidarity; and sustainable activism. There will be no attempt to reach conclusions or consensus especially about what EF! is. Instead we want to have discussions that lead to new ideas that could evolve ongoing campaigns or give creative inspiration to ones that are just getting started.

A free space will be provided in which campaigns will be able to hold meetings and have further discussions if they wish, and there will also be some space given for campaign updates with an emphasis on honest analysis rather than promotion.

For updates and more info check the website or email us.

efwintermoot@noflag.org.uk