Category: Action Reports

No TAV Resistance in the Susa Valley goes on, Italy

10.12.11

10.12.11

As I wrote a few days ago, the NO TAV move­ment was plan­ning a huge day of mobil­i­sa­tion on Decem­ber 8, for the anniver­sary of what has become known as “The Bat­tle of Venaus” in 2005, where activists man­aged to defeat police and secu­ri­ty forces and take back parts of the val­ley that had been evict­ed and cleared up in the pre­vi­ous days.

How the local author­i­ties per­ceived this call out is clear from their reac­tion: on Decem­ber 7 a tem­po­rary decree was issued, pro­hibit­ing the access and tran­sit of peo­ple and vehi­cles around the fenced areas of the val­ley for the fol­low­ing two days. New check points were estab­lished or rein­forced dur­ing the day. As on pre­vi­ous occa­sions, the only response was to try to com­plete­ly block  protests around the fenced areas by increas­ing mil­i­tary pres­ence local­ly and ban­ning all activ­i­ties in the sur­round­ings.

Sin­is­ter char­ac­ters already known to the NO TAV move­ment were invit­ed to take part in the “order main­te­nance”, such as one of the chief inspec­tors who autho­rised the vio­lent evic­tions in Venaus in 2005, and oth­er inspec­tors and Digos chiefs who organ­ised and man­aged the repres­sion of the protests last sum­mer.

The NO TAV had two main actions planned for the day: a “siege” of the fenced areas of the val­ley on one side, and a huge block of a local motor­way on the oth­er (which went on for more than 14 hours).

Once again, the police react­ed with extra­or­di­nary vio­lence, in par­tic­u­lar around the fenced areas. Dozens of peo­ple were injured, includ­ing a 16 year old young man who was hit in the head by a tear gas cylin­der while he was try­ing to put down a fire caused by the same tear gas car­tridges, and a 50 year old man, also hit in the face, who might loose his sight com­plete­ly. Many oth­ers were injured by rocks and stones thrown by the police;unlike last sumer, this time some RAI3 cam­era­men man­aged to film these events and broad­cast them.

After evict­ing the look­out post (which was suc­cess­ful­ly tak­en back the fol­low­ing day!), police forces entered the build­ing, dam­aged any­thing that was in it, and final­ly con­fis­cat­ed all the remain­ing equip­ment. Dur­ing the day at least 6 peo­ple were giv­en ban­ning orders that pro­hib­it them to vis­it the area for the next 3 years. Some of the “dan­ger­ous” equip­ment found in their vehi­cles includ­ed water­proof jack­ets. The fol­low­ing day, a work­er of a local gar­den­ing co-oper­a­tive was also stopped and searched, and his gar­den­ing tools con­fis­cat­ed while he was on his way to open up a local eco-cen­tre.

As usu­al, the media and the polit­i­cal clowns unit­ed in a joint crit­i­cism of the vio­lent pro­test­ers. Fassi­no, cur­rent May­or of Turin, stat­ed “There were only extrem­ists in the Susa Val­ley “. Oth­er com­ments were made about the neces­si­ty of defend­ing the val­ley from the NO TAV activists!, and about the use­less­ness of these protests in view of the fact that the high speed line project is going to go ahead any­way.

The “left-wing” news­pa­per La Rebub­bli­ca even tried to dimin­ish the grav­i­ty of the inci­dent involv­ing the 16 year old boy, say­ing that he is Dan­ish and was there by chance…he is actu­al­ly Dan­ish but grew up in the Susa Val­ley, but his nation­al­i­ty doesn’t change the fact that he’s in a hos­pi­tal with trau­mat­ic brain injury…

The NO TAV held a press con­fer­ence the day after, and their main points were:

1) The NO TAV move­ment is one and unit­ed. There are no bad nor good pro­test­ers, nor were chil­dren in the demo used as human shields (one of the accu­sa­tions made by some politi­cians). The NO TAV strug­gle belongs to every­one.

2) The pro­test­ers didn’t attack the police forces, but only tried, as they’ve done in the past, to cut down the fences, which in their eyes are ille­gal and ille­git­ti­mate. The police imme­di­ate­ly react­ed with tear gas and water jets.

3) All the injured are among the pro­test­ers; there were no injured among the police forces (as was stat­ed by the media).

4) The look­out post in La Mad­dale­na was sub­ject­ed to dam­age, loot­ing and dev­as­ta­tion per­pe­trat­ed by the police forces. The tools con­fis­cat­ed by the police (e.g. axes) are not weapons, but nec­es­sary tools to cut down wood.

5) The move­ment will go back to the post and clean it up, and will vis­it the fenced area again. The police bru­tal­i­ty and the accu­sa­tions made by politi­cians will not stop the move­ment.

Faith­ful to their words, hun­dreds of NO TAV activist have gone back to the fenced area this morn­ing. They had lunch togeth­er, with hun­dreds of police look­ing at them from the oth­er side of the fences. Then they start­ed walk­ing along the fences and cut­ting them down. The police act­ed imme­di­ate­ly and fired the water jet, but mirac­u­lous­ly mis­aimed, hit­ting instead a group of Digos offi­cers. Well done, for once! Watch the video here:

Thanks to notav.info for the orig­i­nal arti­cles, pics and videos.

Translated by Italy Calling

Relentless Blockading of $hell’s Work

Novem­ber 29, 2011

In Erris, Co. Mayo the Tues­day morn­ing tra­di­tion­al gath­er­ing out­side the $hell refin­ery con­tin­ues despite increas­ing pres­ence of Gar­dai and rain.

Novem­ber 29, 2011

In Erris, Co. Mayo the Tues­day morn­ing tra­di­tion­al gath­er­ing out­side the $hell refin­ery con­tin­ues despite increas­ing pres­ence of Gar­dai and rain.

$hell use the refin­ery as a hold­ing area for mate­ri­als, and it is also set on the haulage route between local quar­ries, the peat depo­si­tion site, and the com­pound at Augh­oose.

This morn­ing local res­i­dents and sup­port­ers from Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp were out in good num­bers, block­ing deliv­er­ies of stone and truck­loads of extract­ed peat through­out the morn­ing and giv­ing the Gar­dai a run for their dirty mon­ey. Regard­less of the odds one per­son rose to the chal­lenge, occu­py­ing a truck from Bar­ret­t’s quar­ry for two hours — all work at the com­pound then came to a halt.

The Gar­dai even­tu­al­ly brought in the ‘trans­porter’ to remove them, dur­ing which they also attempt­ed to pre­vent peo­ple film­ing the arrest.

In the face of the enor­mi­ty of $hel­l’s plans for Erris, the strug­gle con­tin­ues!
If you would like to join us for any amount of time see
www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org / www.shelltosea.com

——

Gardai and IRMS rendered powerless as campaigners blockade Shell’s compound

Decem­ber 2, 2011

Work was com­plete­ly halt­ed at Shell’s com­pound yes­ter­day for over five hours in a great show of resiliance by local cam­paign­ers and their sup­port­ers. For the past two weeks now, Shell have been attempt­ing to remove mass­es of peat from the com­pound in prepa­ra­tion for the tun­nel bor­ing machine which is expect­ed to arrive ear­ly next year. Progress has been con­tin­u­ous­ly dis­rupt­ed as pro­test­ers brave the win­ter weath­er to stop trucks and a deter­mined resis­tance is build­ing momen­tum.

A local cam­paign­er yes­ter­day wait­ed patient­ly out­side the main gate of Shell’s com­pound in his car and request­ed to see some­one in charge. For weeks now he has been try­ing to lodge com­plaints about pub­lic safe­ty and traf­fic issues gen­er­at­ed from the Augh­oose com­pound. His con­cerns have been to date ignored. Hav­ing con­tact­ed the Shell offices in Bel­mul­let and the refin­ery he was fur­ther direct­ed by staff to go and try lodge his com­plaints at the com­pound in Augh­oose where fol­low­ing a long wait his request remained unan­swered. Once again the seri­ous con­cerns of local peo­ple were ignored.

In the mean­time, pro­test­ers arrived to slow work down and were met with six gar­da vehi­cles and a dozen or more Gar­dai along with just as many IRMS secu­ri­ty. A trac­tor was pre­vent­ed from enter­ing the com­pound with equip­ment despite gar­dai push­ing and shov­ing pro­test­ers around the road. Once the cam­paign­ers asked the Gar­dai to full­fil their duty and arrest them for block­ing Shell vehi­cles the Gar­dai stepped back. It is obvi­ous that the state’s police force here in Mayo pre­fer to employ vio­lence against pro­test­ers where pos­si­ble. Civ­il dis­obe­di­ence in num­bers made them think again.

For the fol­low­ing 4 hours the gates remained shut, a long line of trucks and trac­tors turned off their engines and work ground to a halt as cam­paign­ers con­tin­ued to peace­ful­ly demon­strate. One local per­son was assault­ed by IRMS and after many requests the Gar­dai even­tu­al­ly took his com­plaint. No arrests were made in a high­ly spir­it­ed day. An Gar­da Siochana, who are sup­pos­ed­ly the guardians of the peace, can bla­tant­ly be seen to be guardians of cor­po­ra­tions and cor­rup­tion up here in Erris.

The strug­gle con­tin­ues. Be part of the resis­tance. All are wel­come to stay at our win­ter camp or come join us dur­ing our day of sol­i­dar­i­ty on Sat­ur­day, 10th of Decem­ber.

Indigenous Elders & Supporters Occupy ALEC Member Salt River Project Headquarters

2.12.11

Indige­nous Dine’ (Nava­jo) and O’odham elders and sup­port­ers are tak­ing direct action by occu­py­ing Salt Riv­er Project (SRP) head­quar­ters today at 10am. This action is occur­ring while the Amer­i­can Leg­isla­tive Exchange Coun­cil (ALEC) holds their “States & Nation Pol­i­cy Sum­mit” in Scotts­dale, AZ. SRP is on ALEC’s cor­po­rate board.

2.12.11

Indige­nous Dine’ (Nava­jo) and O’odham elders and sup­port­ers are tak­ing direct action by occu­py­ing Salt Riv­er Project (SRP) head­quar­ters today at 10am. This action is occur­ring while the Amer­i­can Leg­isla­tive Exchange Coun­cil (ALEC) holds their “States & Nation Pol­i­cy Sum­mit” in Scotts­dale, AZ. SRP is on ALEC’s cor­po­rate board.

Louise Benal­ly, a res­i­dent of Black Mesa impact­ed by SRP’s oper­a­tions, is deliv­er­ing a let­ter to SRP that out­lines crit­i­cal con­cerns of her com­mu­ni­ty. She expressed that “My com­mu­ni­ty is heav­i­ly impact­ed by Salt Riv­er Project’s coal and water extrac­tion activ­i­ties. SRP has exten­sive ties to Peabody Energy’s mas­sive min­ing oper­a­tions and the Nava­jo Gen­er­at­ing Sta­tion which they co-own. Coal min­ing has destroyed thou­sands of arche­o­log­i­cal sites and our only water source has been seri­ous­ly com­pro­mised. Their oper­a­tions are caus­ing wide­spread res­pi­ra­to­ry prob­lems, lung dis­eases, and oth­er health impacts on humans, the envi­ron­ment, and all liv­ing things.”

“…We demand that SRP & Peabody mean­ing­ful­ly involve the indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties they are impact­ing, and that they con­vert to non-fos­sil fuel based ener­gy sources and address the health impacts on our com­mu­ni­ties.”

“…ALEC, act­ing in the cor­po­rate inter­ests of SRP & Peabody Ener­gy, con­tin­ues poli­cies & oper­a­tions that are not only dev­as­tat­ing whole com­mu­ni­ties and ecosys­tems, but great­ly de-sta­bi­liz­ing our planet’s cli­mate for the prof­it of a few, the so-called 1%.” stat­ed Benal­ly.

Ofe­lia Rivas, an elder and activist of the O’odham, Indige­nous Peo­ples on the bor­der of Ari­zona and Mex­i­co, states “As indige­nous peo­ple we under­stand that the bal­ance of the land is actu­al­ly the bal­ance of our peo­ple and any dis­tur­bance of that is very dev­as­tat­ing not only to our spir­i­tu­al health but our over­all phys­i­cal health, as well as all liv­ing things. As indige­nous peo­ple we are not sep­a­rat­ed from our envi­ron­ment. We’re deeply con­nect­ed to every­thing in the uni­verse: the land, the moun­tains, water, air, and all plant and ani­mal life.”

“…The pro­posed loop 202 free­way exten­sion that threat­ens South Moun­tain and the con­tin­u­ing con­struc­tion of the US and Mex­i­co bor­der and it’s mil­i­ta­riza­tion. Trade poli­cies such as NAFTA and CANAMEX alter our way of life and threat­ens our Him’dag. We will no longer accept the vio­lence the state attempts to enforce on us along their bor­der. Espe­cial­ly the aggres­sive leg­is­la­tion of ALEC. We demand you rec­og­nize the dec­la­ra­tion of uni­ver­sal indige­nous rights as well as the rights of our moth­er earth. Enough is enough, it ends now!”

The mas­sive canals con­struct­ed before colo­nial inva­sion of O’odham lands are now being uti­lized by Salt Riv­er Project. O’odham cul­ture is deeply root­ed through­out this area, which is as far north as the Phoenix Val­ley, as far west as the coast of Mex­i­co in what is now Rocky Point, east as the San Pedro riv­er and as far south as Her­mosil­lo and the Sier­ra Madres Moun­tains.

Ray Aguilar stat­ed that “the air con­di­tion­ing and pow­er we enjoy and water we drink comes at the suf­fer­ing caused by SRP and Peabody’s exploita­tion of the land and peo­ple. When will we real­ize that our priv­i­leges our based on this? We must take fur­ther action. I just spent one week doing direct, on-land sup­port with Black Mesa res­i­dents assist­ing with basic essen­tial human needs.  That’s why I’m here today. This crit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion would not exist if not for these greedy cor­po­ra­tions.”

Peabody Ener­gy, also an ALEC mem­ber, is the world’s largest pri­vate-sec­tor coal com­pa­ny. With 2010 sales of 246 mil­lion tons and near­ly $7 bil­lion in rev­enues, Peabody cre­ates 10 per­cent of U.S. pow­er and 2 per­cent of world­wide elec­tric­i­ty.

Since 1974 more than 14,000 Dine’ fam­i­lies have been forcibly removed from their ances­tral home­lands due in large part due to U.S.-backed trib­al coun­cils and cola min­ing.

Pho­tos, videos and what hap­pened next at http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/

———

ALEC Back­ground, call-out etc

The convergence to expose and shut down the American Legislative
Exchange Council's policy meeting has begun in Scottsdale, AZ. ALEC's
tentacles reach into almost every one of the environmental and social
justice struggles we work on. Exposing ALEC is difficult because of the
massive amount of information we have about them and the broad range of
issues they effect. As wikileaks has been the platform for a vast amount
of information bringing light to corruption, Alecexposed.org is a treasure trove information exposing
ALEC.  I'm looking for help posting to independent media websites and
blogs about the ALEC protest in AZ, and links to ALECs regional impacts.
We need a few people around the country posting to both english and
spanish language indymedia sites.


There are press releases in english and spanish and a call to action
(including information about the action to "Occupy the Phones")  see
attachment and azresistsalec.wordpress.com




websites:
azresistsalec.wordpress.com - for
general information about the convergence to shut down alec
Shutdownalec.org - We are posting media (foto/video) directly by tagging
flickr photos and video with the hashtags: #occupyALEC, #shutdownALEC
and/or #ALECexposed



The AZ Resists media team is posting video on youtube.com
<http://youtube.com> on channel: shutdownalec. Crowd sourced video on
shutdownalec.org



Please pass on this email to anyone you think might be interested in
supporting!



In Solidarity



AZ Resists ALEC Media Team
azresistsmedia@gmail.com 
530-598-1670 <tel:530-598-1670>







SHUT DOWN THE AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL



This document includes informations about:



-OCCUPY THE PHONES ! IMMEDIATE CALL TO ACTION



-Call for National Solidarity



-Suggested Actions to help expose ALEC!



1. Call the WESTIN KIERLAND RESORT & SPA.



2. Tell them you do not approve of their decision to host the American
Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC’s) States and Policy summit.



3. Be friendly, don't take your anger out on the hotel workers who are
not responsible, but make sure your message gets across.



4. Hang up, and call again.



Use these numbers to occupy their lines!



general contact: 480.624.1000 <tel:480.624.1000>



resort reservations: 480.624.1202 <tel:480.624.1202>, 800.354.5892
<tel:800.354.5892>



dining reservations: 480.624.1202 <tel:480.624.1202>



spa reservations: 480.624.1202 <tel:480.624.1202>



tee time reservations: 480.624.1202 <tel:480.624.1202>



resort activities: 480.624.1268 <tel:480.624.1268>



media contact: 480.624.1315 <tel:480.624.1315>



special events: 480.624.1332 <tel:480.624.1332>



meetings and events: 480.624.1220 <tel:480.624.1220>



Background info:



The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa is built to host conventions. Tucked
away in Scottsdale, and less than one mile from Scottsdale Executive
Airport, well-funded organizations can meet in a comfortable, secretive
environment without setting foot outside the luxurious hotel grounds.
This is where ALEC has chosen to bring together legislators and
corporations to draft model legislation that exempts corporations from
environmental and labor laws, pushes for Three Strikes and mandatory
minimum sentencing, and targets, criminalizes and incarcerates
communities of color, among other profit-driven laws (more info:
alecexposed.org.



Call the Westin Kierland today to shame them for their part in allowing
the sale of local and national legislation to the highest bidder.



More info: azresistsalec.wordpress.com
.



Be the media! www.shutdownalec.org



Here are a few suggestions for actions, share your creative ideas with
us and keep in touch on N30.



azresistsmedia@gmail.com 



http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/



#occupyALEC, #shutdownALEC and/or #ALECexposed



-Hold a Teach-In or other educational outreach event (an informative
power point and other resources are available:
http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/more-info-on-alec/)



-Shut down the 1% ! Occupy an ALEC corporation near you…too many to
choose from? Focus on the board of directors
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Boards_and_Task_Forces)



-Bring your message to an ALEC legislative member near you. What’s your
local connection to ALEC? – In AZ we are focusing on the ongoing
colonization and exploitation of Native land and ALEC’s connection to
immigration and the private prison industry.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Politicians



-Street theater exposing corruption – Remember Billionaires for Bush? -
Form a “business suit bloc” and March!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAv8Mv9tzoA)



-Literally “Expose” ALEC – two letters per butt cheek...just sayin’...
Or get a trench coat and hide ALEC’s sample bills inside…show people
what’s under your coat…



Go to the website and see “Find ‘Find Model Bills’ here”
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed



-Twitter and Blog about ALEC on N30- get the word out far and wide!



-So many issues! Can’t decide? Focus on how private prisons affect your
community.



http://www.thenation.com/article/162478/hidden-history-alec-and-prison-labor



-Got a projector? Have a guerilla movie night to expose ALECs major
funder the Koch brothers.



http://kochbrothersexposed.com/thepress/2011/05/13/guerrilla-drive-in-at-lincoln-center-shames-koch-brother/



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vykr06dMwY&feature=player_embedded



Lots more information can be found at:



http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Corporations



http://www.alecexposed.org/



______________________________________________________________________




Take Action on N30!SHUT ALEC DOWN!



  From November 30 to December 3rd, 2011,some of the most powerful
corporations and thousands of state legislators will be bringing Wall
Street politics and greed to Scottsdale, AZ.  The American Legislative
Exchange Council (ALEC), will be having their States and Nations Policy
Summit where they can continue their drive for profits, and to control
and destroy our communities and the earth.



Most of us learned about ALEC, a secretive nation-wide
organization, when they were exposed for their relationship with private
prisons and their role in SB1070 and its copy cat laws, although they've
been involved in various efforts to criminalize people through such
things as the mandatory minimum sentencing and three strikes laws.  They
were also involved in the creation of the animal enterprise terrorism
act (AETA), they support companies (including BP) involved with energy
extraction across the world (including Tar Sands), as well big
pharmaceutical companies.



We are calling for a *national day of action*on November 30 to
demonstrate against ALEC during their conference.



Join us in Scottsdale, AZ on occupied Onk Akimel O’odham lands, to
expose, confront, and resist ALEC and what they represent.



ALEC is everywhere. If you can't make it, find one or more
representatives of ALEC (corporate, government, or non-profit org) in
your area to expose, confront, and resist!



Please spread the word!



http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com 



http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Corporations



http://www.alecexposed.org/



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Some Messaging:



“We want ALEC to be so transparent they don’t exist anymore”



“ALEC is the 1% ”



“Corporations write legislation?!? This is corrupt and should stop!”



“People over Profits! No more profiting of the misery of others”

 

anti- Fracking protesters shut down the country’s only hydrolic fracturing rig — again!

1.12.11

1.12.11

Activists set­tle in for long-term occu­pa­tion of tox­ic new indus­try which threat­ens the West Coun­try

The con­tro­ver­sial pro­posed Frack­ing site in Hes­keth Bank, Lan­cashire was shut down this morn­ing as 8 Bris­tol cyclists stormed the drilling rig. Three of the cli­mate jus­tice cam­paign­ers from Bris­tol Ris­ing Tide scaled the Cuadrilla Resources equip­ment with sup­plies and have declared their inten­tion to stop work for sev­er­al days.

The drilling rig is the only oper­a­tion of it’s kind work­ing in the coun­try, after a sim­i­lar explorato­ry site in Black­pool was shut down in the spring because it induced two earth­quakes in the area. [1]

Liz Sparks, a spokesper­son for Bris­tol Ris­ing Tide, explained the poten­tial dan­gers of frack­ing in the South West:

“Large parts of Wales, Devon, Som­er­set and Dor­est are poten­tial­ly under threat from this des­per­ate new tech­nol­o­gy, which involves extract­ing the gas in shale rock through Hydraulic Frac­tur­ing, (or frack­ing) [2]. Huge amounts of water mixed with tox­ic chem­i­cals are forced into the ground at high pres­sure, a large pro­por­tion of which are nev­er recov­ered. This flu­id also leach­es arsenic out of rocks, cre­at­ing a dan­ger­ous cock­tail that’s dif­fi­cult to dis­pose of. In the Unit­ed states numer­ous spills of these flu­ids have con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed irri­ga­tion water, effect­ing food sup­plies, and the health of sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties.” [3]

The same site was occu­pied last month by anoth­er group- “Frack Off”, and local com­mu­ni­ty resis­tance across the coun­try is gain­ing ground. [4]

Paul Williams, who works in a Bris­tol Library, was among the pro­tes­tors. He com­ment­ed:

“Peo­ple sim­ply aren’t going to stand by and let this crazy extreme sneak into our land­scape. We’ve been inspired by the remark­able work of our neigh­bours in Wales. Glam­or­gan coun­ty coun­cil recent­ly vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly against an appli­ca­tion to Frack the area.[5] This deci­sion was influ­enced by Welsh Water’s sub­mis­sion that reserve ground­wa­ter sites are at risk of con­t­a­m­i­na­tion. We can stop this before it starts if we act now. If you want earth­quakes, run­away cli­mate change, con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed water, and a threat to agri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion then Frack­ing’s the way for­ward. If you want ener­gy secu­ri­ty and more jobs per kilo­watt hour, go with renew­ables [6]. It’s a no brain­er.”

The indus­try is quick to point to the US expe­ri­ence of frack­ing, but their safe­ty record there is on increas­ing­ly shaky ground. New York State has just insti­tut­ed a mora­to­ri­um against frack­ing, as has Que­bec, Cana­da. France has banned it out­right, as has New Jer­sey in the US. [7]

Twit­ter: Fol­low the action on twit­ter: https://twitter.com/#!/BrisRisingTide (Bris­Ris­ingTide)

Pho­tos and videos updat­ed in real-time on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/71113300@N08/ (Bris­tol Ris­ing Tide)

For more info see: www.frack-off.org
And www.risingtide.org.uk/bristol

Xstrata mining stormed by Occupy London protestors + global anti-Xstrata protests

30.11.11

30.11.11

An action took place in Lon­don against a union-bust­ing earth-trash­ing Swiss/British coal and met­al min­ing com­pa­ny — for a selec­tion of the glob­al protests against them, see below the main arti­cle.  There’s var­i­ous footage: 1 | 2 | 3  | 4 | 5. Part of the N30 mass strike (time­line). 

#Occu­pyL­SX had announced an action at 3pm at Pic­cadil­ly Cir­cus. They set off with the sam­ba band and min­utes lat­er a flare was set off inside Pan­ton House, Hay­mar­ket, whilst a ban­ner was hung from the roof. Out­side pro­tes­tors chal­lenged some plain­clothes cops in the crowd, after which a ‘bub­ble’ or ket­tle was set up, appar­ent­ly with more plain clothes cops trapped inside it.

Occu­py Lon­don – part of the glob­al move­ment for social and eco­nom­ic jus­tice – today high­light­ed the cor­po­rate greed endem­ic in the UK and called for a change with­in soci­ety.

About 60 pro­tes­tors gained entry into the offices of min­ing com­pa­ny Xstra­ta, a ‘lead­ing light’ of the FTSE 100 and British indus­try to high­light the fact that CEO Mick Davies was the high­est com­pen­sat­ed CEO of all the FTSE 100 com­pa­nies in the last year, when his com­pa­nies had loss­es and the econ­o­my col­lapsed. He received £18,426,105 for his efforts. [1]

This comes in a year when the aver­age pay rise of exec­u­tives across FTSE 100 com­pa­nies was 43%, with ‘top’ direc­tors at 49%. [2]

Led by a sam­ba band to the build­ing from Pic­cadil­ly Cir­cus, the pro­test­ers entered the HQ at 25–7 Hay­mar­ket, Lon­don, with the pro­test­ers chant­i­ng against the cor­po­rate greed of Mick and oth­er exec­u­tives, in sup­port of all those strik­ing for fair pen­sions for all today. The pro­tes­tors also unfurled a ban­ner say­ing “All pow­er to the 99%” from the roof top.

There are cur­rent­ly about 20 pro­test­ers inside – being held down on knees, of which many are women. There are a few hun­dred peo­ple ket­tled out­side.

The pro­test­ers today are mak­ing the con­nec­tion between the slash­ing of pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tor pen­sions, while sup­posed ‘top’ exec­u­tives cash in by increas­ing their own pay lev­els, leav­ing many with­out pen­sions. These CEOs like Mick Davies lav­ish­ly secure their own futures while ignor­ing the secu­ri­ty and well­be­ing of their own work­ers.

Mines have closed in Aus­tralia, South Africa and Spain with­in the last decade result­ing in hun­dreds of work­ers in the last decade being laid off.

Karen Lin­coln, sup­port­er of Occu­py Lon­don said: “Mick Davies is a prime exam­ple of the greedy 1 per cent, lin­ing their own pock­ets while deny­ing work­ers pen­sions. In this time when the gov­ern­ment enforces aus­ter­i­ty on the 99 per cent, these exec­u­tives are prof­it­ing. The rest of us are hav­ing our pen­sions cuts, health ser­vice torn apart and youth cen­tres shut down.

“We refuse to stand by and let this hap­pen. We call on oth­ers to join us in the fight for a more just soci­ety. Today we have tak­en this to one of the offices of the 1 per cent. This is only the begin­ning. Come and join us on 15th Decem­ber for Occu­py Every­where.”

Occu­py Lon­don will unveil details of Occu­py Every­where soon. Be ready.

Notes

[1] Accord­ing to the Income Data Ser­vices, Mick Davies from Xstra­ta (min­ing com­pa­ny) was the high­est paid exec­u­tive in the FTSE 100. His com­pa­ny has recent­ly tak­en severe hits as FTSE 100 com­pa­nies face drop in val­ue (£104 bil­lion off FTSE 100 com­pa­nies). He was paid £18,426,105. LONDON OFFICE: Reg­is­tered Office, 4th Floor 25/27 Hay­mar­ket, Lon­don SW1Y 4EN

High­est paid exec­u­tives in the FTSE 100:

1. Mick Davies, Xstra­ta, £18,426,105

2. Bart Becht, Reckitt Benkiser, £17,879,000

3. Michael Spencer, ICAP £13,419,619

4. Sir Ter­ry Leahy, Tesco £12,038,303

5. Tom Albanese, Rio Tin­to £11,623,162

6. Sir Mar­tin Sor­rell, WPP Group £8,949,985

7. Todd Kozel, Gulf Key­stone Petro­le­um £8,913,223

8. Don Robert, Exper­ian £8,601,984

9. Edward Bon­ham Carter, Jupiter Fund Man­age­ment £8,003,641

10. Dame Mar­jorie Scardi­no, Pear­son £8,003,641

[2]  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/business-as-usual-top-directors-get-49-per-cent-pay-rise-2376929.html

[3] Face­book page for Occu­py London’s Stock Exchange site just by St Paul’s (Occu­pyL­SX) is  https://www.facebook.com/occupylondon. Over­all Occu­py Lon­don twit­ter Occu­py Lon­don­hastag is #occu­py­lon­don. Occu­pyL­SX Twit­ter is  https://twitter.com/#!/OccupyLSX ; hashtag#occupylsx. Twit­ter for the new Fins­bury Square site is  https://twitter.com/#!/OccupyFS; hastag #occu­pyfs. Twit­ter for Bank of Ideas is  http://twitter.com/bankofideas and face­book is  http://facebook.com/bankofideaslondon

——

What hap­pened next (& pho­tos) — ejec­tion, ket­tling (with new added ‘info screens’), arrests and arrestee-coach block­ing. 

——-

Oct.’07: Xstra­ta, crit­i­cized heav­i­ly by a grow­ing num­ber of Chileans oppos­ing the Swiss min­ing company’s plan to build a large hydro­elec­tric dam in north­ern Patag­o­nia (Region XI), is no stranger to con­tro­ver­sy – espe­cial­ly when it comes to rivers.  More

Oct.’06: THE tra­di­tion­al Abo­rig­i­nal own­ers of land near the Gulf of Car­pen­taria are trav­el­ling to Dar­win to protest against the min­ing com­pa­ny Xstrata’s deci­sion to expand a zinc and lead mine by divert­ing the McArthur Riv­er. More

Jan.’08: Com­mu­nist rebels have attacked a $2 bil­lion cop­per and gold mine owned by Xstra­ta in the Philip­pines. More

May ’11: Peru — Xstra­ta halts activ­i­ties at Las Bam­bas due to protests  More

Nov.’11: Work­ers of the min­ing group Xstra­ta are to demon­strate in Johan­nes­burg on Tues­day to demand the right to take part in indus­tri­al action.…“This march will be tak­ing place amid the impromp­tu arrest of Num­sa mem­bers by [the] SA Police Ser­vice under the instruc­tion of one of Xstrata’s key exec­u­tives.” More

Nov.’11: Vehi­cles torched in job protest at Xstra­ta mine More

 

anti-nuke Castor transport protests in France and Germany

27 Novem­ber 2011

Ger­man pro­test­ers block rail track

27 Novem­ber 2011

Ger­man pro­test­ers block rail track

HUNDREDS of riot cops with heli­copter sup­port have cleared the way for the Cas­tor nuclear waste train in Ger­many.

This video (& lots of links to oth­er footage) from graswurzel.tv (grass roots tv) shows how activists approached the rail­way line through woods, before evad­ing police to stage a mas­sive occu­pa­tion of the track num­ner­ing up to 5,000 peo­ple.

More than 1,000 peo­ple were arrest­ed for refus­ing to leave and police also clashed with two groups of pro­test­ers that hurled stones and fire­works, say cor­po­rate media.

There were clash­es in France last week (see below) when pro­test­ers man­aged to sab­o­tage the line and torch a police vehi­cle.

The ship­ment paused overnight south of Ham­burg and is expect­ed to reach its des­ti­na­tion with con­sid­er­able delay on Mon­day.

—

23 Novem­ber 2011

Pro­test­ers bat­tle French riot cops

ANTI-NUCLEAR pro­test­ers bat­tled with riot police in France in a bid to stop a train of nuclear waste head­ing for Ger­many.

The author­i­ties used tear gas and brute force, but the envi­ron­men­tal­ists man­aged to sab­o­tage part of the rail­way and torch a police vehi­cle.  

The French state is refus­ing to end its nuclear oper­a­tions, even after the Fukushi­ma dis­as­ter and the hor­rif­ic after-effects.

The ship­ment from the French nuclear giant Are­va’s repro­cess­ing plant at La Hague is the last planned to Ger­many.

Sim­i­lar protests are expect­ed along the whole route — the last con­voy in 2010 was blocked for three hours in Caen and one night in Ger­many.

Video

http://vastminority.blogspot.com

Italy: more NO TAV protests planned for December

More ini­tia­tives being planned by the NO TAV move­ment against a high speed rail line being built in the Susa Val­ley (Pied­mont).

More ini­tia­tives being planned by the NO TAV move­ment against a high speed rail line being built in the Susa Val­ley (Pied­mont).

On Novem­ber 24, the NO TAV move­ment held a pub­lic assem­bly in Bus­soleno to dis­cuss and plan December’s ini­tia­tives and protests. For more than 3 hours par­tic­i­pants debat­ed and exchanged views on the present state of the NO TAV strug­gle and future ini­tia­tives. More protests are planned in par­tic­u­lar around the date of Decem­ber 8, anniver­sary of the great vic­to­ry of Venaus in 2005*. In 2005, the media pres­sure and the mobil­i­sa­tions were enough to make a very clum­sy and churl­ish gov­ern­ment yield. Today, the big dif­fer­ence is that the polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic lob­by behind the TAV project, after years of study­ing and observ­ing the NO TAV move­ment, is much more ruth­less. The cur­rent mil­i­tary occu­pa­tion in the Susa Val­ley doesn’t excel in speed (to this date, no build­ing has com­menced, and the exca­va­tion sites are still occu­pied by the NO TAV), but it’s cer­tain­ly deter­mined: the for­ti­fied fences around the exca­va­tion sites have become a sym­bol­ic show of strength. Decem­ber 8 2011 comes after 6 months of resis­tance in the area, where the con­flict between the local NO TAV activists and the mil­i­tary is felt every­day.

The assem­bly opt­ed for a dou­ble-protest day: a protest will take place around the fenced areas, while anoth­er group will be march­ing from Susa to the head­quar­ters of Sitaf. Sitaf is a part­ly pub­lic com­pa­ny that man­ages one of the motor­ways from Turin and that de fac­to assist­ed the mil­i­tari­sa­tion of the Val­ley by pro­vid­ing a cor­ri­dor and tech­ni­cal help to the troops trans­ferred from Turin.

Mean­while, a few nights after the assem­bly, some NO TAV witch­es held a night-time coven, armed with very dan­ger­ous seca­teurs to cut the fence down. My favourite chant: “My nan was a par­ti­san and she taught me that cut­ting down fences isn’t a crime” 🙂 There was some ten­sion when the secu­ri­ty forces start­ed mea­sur­ing the length of the cut in the fence with their batons (??!!), but they then left, and the witch­es cir­cle end­ed unharmed. Watch the video:

* On 5/6 Decem­ber 2005 the police and secu­ri­ty forces vio­lent­ly evict­ed one of the per­ma­nent look­out posts in Venaus, injur­ing about 20 pro­test­ers. On the 8th the NO TAV had a mas­sive march from Susa to Venaus and man­aged to estab­lish a new look­out post. Fol­low­ing the clash­es and pres­sure from the NO TAV move­ment, the gov­ern­ment decid­ed to put the works on hold.

Sources: arti­cles from www.notav.info, no 1 and no2.

 
italycalling.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/no-tav-more-protests-planned-for-december/

Ministry blocks anti-tar sands law, so we block ministry’s front door

28.11.11

28.11.11

This morn­ing, 50 activists block­ad­ed the Depart­ment for Trans­port with two immo­bilised cars parked in front of the entrance. Why? Because our gov­ern­ment is try­ing to scup­per EU leg­is­la­tion that will block tar sands oil — the dirt­i­est, most pol­lut­ing form of oil there is — from being sold at UK petrol pumps.

Min­ing for tar sands is wreck­ing the Cana­di­an bore­al for­est, destroy­ing the home­lands of indige­nous peo­ple, and accel­er­at­ing dan­ger­ous cli­mate change.

So why then is the Depart­ment for Trans­port try­ing to sab­o­tage leg­is­la­tion that would block tar sands oil from Euro­pean petrol pumps? Looks like they’ve been lob­bied hard by the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment and big oil.

 

Consumer Culture Brought to Its Knees in Bradford — Buy Nothing/Steal Something Day

In one sweep­ing stroke the false con­scious­ness of con­sump­tion was served a mor­tal blow in the streets of Brad­ford today. As the world­wide rip­ples of Buy Noth­ing Day crashed upon the shore of BD1, multi­na­tion­al cap­i­tal trem­bled in it’s blood­stained boots.

In one sweep­ing stroke the false con­scious­ness of con­sump­tion was served a mor­tal blow in the streets of Brad­ford today. As the world­wide rip­ples of Buy Noth­ing Day crashed upon the shore of BD1, multi­na­tion­al cap­i­tal trem­bled in it’s blood­stained boots.

The 26th of Novem­ber has been known by some as Buy Noth­ing Day for twen­ty years. A day to cel­e­brate the mad­ness of our self-con­sump­tion and to plead for the soul of our civil­i­sa­tion, Buy Noth­ing Day is about touch­ing peo­ple. Inspir­ing a thought, a doubt, a scrunched up brow, a gob of spit in the face maybe, but a reac­tion.
Today the hardy shop­pers of driz­z­ley Brad­ford met friend­ly faces, offer­ing a smile, a song, a book and a drink. No mon­ey accept­ed.
Shiv­er­ing souls warmed their long neglect­ed cock­les with some fine rebel cof­fee, lov­ing­ly grown by Zap­atista coop­er­a­tives in Mex­i­co.
Con­fu­sion reigned as peo­ple won­dered, “why is this stuff free?”. The answer: “why not?“
We can’t buy hap­pi­ness, even dodgy sci­ence has shown that pay­ing for expe­ri­ence rather than things is more sat­is­fy­ing. Our habits of pur­chas­ing anti­dotes to alien­ation are seem­ing­ly fur­ther­ing our descent into dis­s­ap­point­ment, and so we fill our lives with shiny things while we deplete our plan­et of nec­es­sary sur­vival items like air and water, and thus end­ing poten­tial for japes and jig­gery-pok­ery.
Luck­i­ly, a col­lec­tion of peo­ple put an end to this cycle of deprav­i­ty by hav­ing some stalls in the sog­gy streets. A free shop was erect­ed and peo­ple played songs, out­side a mon­u­ment to failed cap­i­tal­ism, an emp­ty shop. (The sweet irony of protest­ing against con­sump­tion in a half-vacat­ed city cen­tre was not lost). A wor­thy tar­get was found, and Star­bucks was pick­et­ed by free shop­pers and Zap­atista sup­port­ers, high­light­ing their bul­ly­ing tac­tics towards small farm­ers and their own work­ers. Their dubi­ous involve­ment with green­wash front Con­ser­va­tion Inter­na­tion­al was blown wide open (see this http://londonmexicosolidarity.org/content/chiapas-coffee-starbucks-and-conservation-international or http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/starbucks.cfm) and peo­ple com­plained that their inde­pen­dent cafes were being suf­fo­cat­ed by this silky sham sofa swarm­ing of ster­ile Star­bucks, with one inde­pen­dent observ­er com­ment­ing “I don’t know why peo­ple go there, their cof­fee’s shit.” The York­shire Zap­atis­tas were on hand to offer some free cof­fee, and a taste of auton­o­my to curi­ous peo­ple, and many fruit­ful dis­cus­sions were had.
So is this the end of the con­sumerist mod­el?

Maybe a Buy Noth­ing Christ­mas will ham­mer the final nails into the cof­fin.

—–

Back­ground:

No pur­chase nec­es­sary!

Sat­ur­day Novem­ber 26th is Buy Noth­ing Day (UK). It’s a day where you chal­lenge your­self, your fam­i­ly and friends to switch off from shop­ping and tune into life. The rules are sim­ple, for 24 hours you will detox from shop­ping and any­one can take part pro­vid­ed they spend a day with­out spend­ing!

Every­thing we buy has an impact on the envi­ron­ment, Buy Noth­ing Day high­lights the envi­ron­men­tal and eth­i­cal con­se­quences of con­sumerism. The devel­oped coun­tries — only 20% of the world pop­u­la­tion are con­sum­ing over 80% of the earth­’s nat­ur­al resources, caus­ing a dis­pro­por­tion­ate lev­el of envi­ron­men­tal dam­age, and an unfair dis­tri­b­u­tion of wealth.

Peo­ple around the UK will make a pact with them­selves to take a break from con­sump­tion as a per­son­al exper­i­ment or pub­lic state­ment and the best thing is — IT’S FREE!!!

For a quick start to Buy Noth­ing Day read the FAQ page. If you want to take part in more active­ly, which is far more fun, then you may want to organ­ise an event — take a look at the TOOLKIT for info and ideas and check the EVENTS page. If there are no events near you — organ­ise one! Get social and fol­low Buy Noth­ing Day UK on TWITTER and FACEBOOK

Of course, Buy Noth­ing Day isn’t about chang­ing your lifestyle for just one day — we want it to be a last­ing rela­tion­ship with you con­sumer con­science — maybe a life chang­ing expe­ri­ence? We want peo­ple to make a com­mit­ment to con­sum­ing less, recy­cling more and chal­leng­ing com­pa­nies to clean up and be fair. The super­mar­ket or shop­ping mall might offer great choice, but this should­n’t be at the cost of the envi­ron­ment or devel­op­ing coun­tries.

Around the world: Adbusters.org | Argenti­na | Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina | Croa­t­ia | Den­mark | Fin­land | France
Hong Kong | Intl. BND | Japan | Nether­lands | New Zealand | Roma­nia | Swe­den | Uruguay

Buy Noth­ing Day Web­site

—–

Steal Something Day, a shameless 24-hour stealing spree!

Cri­tique and call-out

Stop Shell’s peat removal!

Fri­day 25th Novem­ber saw over 5 hours of Shel­l’s peat and stone haulage com­plete­ly blocked by cam­paign­ers, and no arrests were made. First thing in the morn­ing four cam­paign­ers had trucks blocked for over an hour and a half, and lat­er on one per­son climbed on top of a peat truck out­side Shel­l’s Bel­lan­aboy refin­ery, remain­ing there for 3 and a half hours stop­ping all haulage.

At about 7.15am Fri­day 25th Novem­ber four peo­ple went out to Shel­l’s haulage route to stop work­ers from get­ting to the Augh­oose tun­nel­ing com­pound. A van full of work­ers was stopped, along with the first load of quar­ry trucks which came along about 10–15 min­utes lat­er.

A squad car with one gar­da was present, but he was unable to stop peo­ple from block­ing on his own. Even­tu­al­ly more gar­daí arrived so peo­ple stopped block­ing, and the trucks that had been stopped up all morn­ing start­ed mak­ing their way to the com­pound. No arrests made.

Lat­er that day at 3.30pm, three peo­ple stopped a peat truck out­side Gate 1 of Shel­l’s Bel­lan­aboy refin­ery. See­ing as there were only three peo­ple to block the truck and gar­daí would sure­ly arrive soon to move peo­ple out of the road, one per­son climbed on top of the lor­ry to ensure all haulage would be stopped.

Sol­i­dar­i­ty camp mem­ber Grainne Clan­cy speaks, “We are doing all we can with the num­bers we have at the moment, but we real­ly need more peo­ple up here right now. Some­times there’s only a cou­ple of us block­ing, if we had even a few more peo­ple we could be doing a lot more to dis­rupt Shel­l’s peat removal”

She con­tin­ues, “There have been some actions like the last Bar­ret­t’s [quar­ry in Ban­gor] one, where secu­ri­ty could bare­ly han­dle us as it was, and with a cou­ple more peo­ple we would have been suc­cess­ful”

See report and pho­tos from Bar­ret­t’s quar­ry action here: http://shelltosea.com/content/shells-peat-haulage-has‑b…upted

On Fri­day the per­son remained on top of the truck for three and a half hours, until Shell stop work at 7pm. All Shell traf­fic was blocked but local traf­fic was still able to pass on the oth­er side of the road, aside from when gar­daí rather arbi­trar­i­ly claimed the entire road was blocked, turn­ing local traf­fic around.

At a lock-on protest ear­li­er in the week a gar­da was over­heard giv­ing orders to “shut the road down to local traf­fic, if they see a local in the lock-on they’ll be delight­ed,” appar­ent­ly try­ing to stop local traf­fic from see­ing one of their neigh­bours with an arm in the con­crete lock-on.

At the protest on Fri­day gar­daí were over­heard explain­ing to dri­vers that pro­test­ers have the entire road shut down, when clear­ly traf­fic could pass and it was actu­al­ly gar­daí shut­ting the road down. Even­tu­al­ly the gar­daí gave up block­ing the whole road and resumed direct­ing local traf­fic around the stopped lor­ry.

By 4.30pm a lot of locals had shown up with tea and snacks, and at least 20 peo­ple remained there for the ear­ly evening. At 7pm the per­son got down from the top of the peat truck and walked away, escap­ing arrest.

Grainne Clan­cy con­tin­ues, “Fri­day was great, but the pos­si­bil­i­ties of what we could do with a few more peo­ple is real­ly excit­ing. Shell are only allowed to use one haulage route, and with us block­ing it all the time they’ll hard­ly get any work done. Please come up to Mayo”

The Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp is a wel­com­ing base for any­one inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about the cam­paign or any­one inter­est­ed in tak­ing action against Shell. All are wel­come at any time, come vis­it and see what it’s about for your­self. And tak­ing action against shell does­n’t have to mean climb­ing on trucks or doing lock ons. Help is need­ed with tak­ing pho­tos and video, mak­ing din­ner, build­ing lock ons, chop­ping wood, and lots of oth­er things it takes to keep the camp run­ning smooth­ly.

The camp is locat­ed in a field in Augh­oose, next to Augh­oose Church (between Pul­lath­omas and Bel­lan­aboy).

To ring for direc­tions, ques­tions or to let us know you’re com­ing: 085.114.1170 or email: rossportsolidaritycamp[at]gmail[dot]com