Action Reports – Page 121

Hundreds of Brazilian Indians set up protest camp in capital

14 May 2011
Over 700 Brazilian Indians from more than 230 tribes set up camp last week in the country’s capital city, Brasília, to urge the government to respect their rights.

Outraged by the advance of large scale infrastructure projects which threaten to devastate their land, the Indians marched, chanted and debated in the streets, calling on the government to act fast to prevent this destruction.

The Madeira dams, currently being built in the Amazon, are putting immense pressure on uncontacted Indians’ lands as migrants are arriving in the area and deforestation is increasing. The uncontacted Indians rely on their forest to survive and any form of contact with outsiders could be fatal for them.

The Belo Monte dam planned for the Xingu river in the Amazon threatens the livelihoods of thousands of tribal people, who have not given their consent for the dam to be built.

The protestors stated in an open letter, ‘We will not allow our Mother Earth, which we have been preserving for millennia and which contributes to the social and environmental sustainability of our country and of the world, to be torn away from us yet again, or destroyed irrationally’.

Last month, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called on the Brazilian government to suspend the Belo Monte project, but Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has refused to do so, and ordered an immediate break in the country’s relationship with the Commission.

Guarani Indians at the camp warned that the government is proceeding extremely slowly with its program to map out the tribe’s ancestral land, and that meanwhile, thousands of Guarani are living in overcrowded reserves or on the sides of main roads.

The current boom in sugarcane and ethanol production is of particular concern to the Guarani, some of whom have seen their lands taken over by sugarcane plantations.

Survival International is calling on energy giant Shell and its joint venture partner in Brazil, Cosan, to stop using sugarcane planted on the Guarani’s ancestral land to produce ethanol.

Patagonian Hydroelectric Project Approval Spurs Protests in Chile

10 May 2011
Chile approved a hydroelectric project that would flood Patagonian valleys and become the country’s biggest power generator, sparking violent protests and more than a hundred arrests.

Police fired water cannons and tear gas at demonstrators outside the building in the city of Coyhaique where 11 of the 12 members of an environment commission voted in favor of the HidroAysen project that Santiago-based Empresa Nacional de Electricidad SA and Colbun SA (COLBUN) want to build.

HidroAysen’s five dams would flood nearly 6,000 hectares (14,800 acres) of land and require a 1,900 kilometer (1,180 mile) transmission line to feed the central grid that supplies Santiago and surrounding cities as well as copper mines owned by Codelco and Anglo American Plc. The government of President Sebastian Pinera says Chile needs more hydroelectric and coal- fired plants to meet demand that will double in the next decade and reduce power costs that are the highest in the region.

“We have to get that energy somewhere, independent of what the project is, because energy today is twice as expensive as in other Latin American countries,” Ena Von Baer, the government’s spokeswoman, told reporters yesterday in Santiago. “We want to be a developed country and to do that we need energy, especially cheap energy for the poor.”

Street March

Hundreds of protesters blocked the entrance to the room where the government’s regional representative Pilar Cuevas and other officials sat after yesterday’s meeting in Coyhaique. A police officer and at least one other person were injured by stones thrown by demonstrators, while more than 20 people were arrested during clashes with police involving tear gas and water cannons, regional governor Nestor Mera told reporters yesterday.

More than 120 were arrested last night in protests around the country, newspaper La Tercera reported. About 1,500 people gathered in a plaza in central Santiago before marching to the presidential palace, the newspaper reported. Police dispersed protesters who tried to block traffic in the downtown area.

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The results of the vote give the go-ahead to HidroAysén, a dam project run by the Italian group Endesa and its minority holding group the Chilean corporation Colbún, which holds a 49% stake in the project. The proposed series of dams would affect the Baker river, the most most voluminous in Chile, which attracts ecotourists, rafters and fishermen, and is an important ecological feature of the region. Project opponents say the project will badly impact 6 national parks, 11 national reserves, 12 important conservation sites, 16 wetlands and 32 privately-held protected areas. Meanwhile, proponents of the project project construction jobs and electricity production of 2.750 megawatts.

The organization Patagonia Sin Represas (Patagonia Without Dams) planned a peaceful protest in the wake of the approval, to take place at Plaza Italia, Santiago’s ground zero for demonstrations at 7:00 PM tonight. Thousands of people joined together, chanting (among other slogans), Piñera, entiende, Patagonia no se vende (Piñera (president of the Republic), understand, Patagonia is not for sale). Protesters held signs with messages opposing the project, including one written in English, shown below partially supported with a kayak paddle. When asked why their sign was in English, the protesters said it was for the international media.

The police then drove four buses along the curve of the street to block the protesters and their signs from view by the commuting public driving and walking east up Avenida Providencia, the street on which thousands of commuters travel home each weekday night.

At approximately 7:30 PM, the protesters attempted to cross the street from Plaza Italia and take over one direction of the Alameda (the main street which leads down towards the city centre), at which point the police shot water from water cannons at the protesters and began to release tear gas into the crowd. Many protesters scattered, and several offshoot groups tried to make their way down to the Moneda (the presidential palace) where tensions increased between the protesters and the police, and local news reported that 600 protesters arrived and later set several barricades aflame. As of approximately 10:00 PM a helicopter with a search beam could be seen overflying the Moneda and nearby streets.

Similar protests were planned in other cities throughout the length of Chile.

2010 protest

Sarawak: Bidayuh villagers set fire to logging camps, machinery

May 9, 2011
Residents from 10 Bidayuh villagers this week set fire to five logging camps and thirteen heavy machines in a stark protest against logging activities on their land, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

As reported by Free Malaysia Today, the Bidayuh villagers took matters into their own hands because of the governments refusal to address their complaints about logging activities within their Native Customary Rights (NCR) land.

One village leader, who did not wish to be identified, explained to reporters that, “We have made several reports to the authorities and yet the logging activities still continue[d],” adding that crops, fruit trees and land had already been destroyed by the activities.

He also said that they warned the workers to stop what they were doing, but the workers ignored them, much like the government. “We gave them ample time, and when they failed to adhere to our warning, we have to take action,” he said.

Shortly after the fire, an unnamed villager was quoted as saying, “They have tested our patience and we just cannot take it anymore. We have lodged several reports and complaints to the authorities, but the logging activities continued. We are fed up. Our rights have been encroached, our crops destroyed.”

Dr. Christopher Kiyui of the People’s Justice Party (PKR), who lost to Manyin in Sarawak’s recent election, told Radio Free Sarawak that 500 villagers had “burnt 13 Caterpillar and tractor machines and some lorries, around 10 in the morning [of May 9th, 2011]. About 50 people came from each village.”

Fortunately, no one was injured during the agitation. Similarly, no arrests have been made; however the police did step in several hours after the fires began. They just couldn’t do anything because they were so outnumbered.

Leading up to May 9th, the Bidayuh were already busy blocking the access road used by the workers to defend their land. Local assembly representative and state Infrastructure Development and Communications Minister Michael Manyin Jawong had also incensed the Bidayuh when he claimed that the protesters were merely a group of “trouble makers” who were “causing a ruckus” to get some money from the logging company.

A spokesperson for the communities said that Manyin was lying. The villagers rejected the company’s intrusion, he said, because “our NCR land and our jungle… are our ancestral properties.” Properties that the Bidayuh clearly want to protect.

Agitations such as these are few and far in between, but have occurred in other parts of the world. In 2009, for instance, the Maya reportedly burned equipment at a gold mine in Guatemala; and the Lepcha took action against the Panan hydel power project in Sikkim, India. Similarly, in 2008, the Enawene Nawe completely levelled a hydro dam construction site in Brazil.

Governments and Industry spokespersons tried to dismiss these actions as mere vandalism, as if Indigenous Peoples have nothing better to do than trash private property. But the fact is, with more than 5,000 industrial projects taking place on Indigenous lands around the world, it’s no wonder it doesn’t happen more often.

Especially since the stakes are so high. Companies may offer a few short term jobs and maybe even free bubble gum for the kids, but Indigenous people face the depletion of their water supply, the destruction of their food sources, the loss of their cultural property and the overall devastation of their homelands.

The burden is simply too great for anyone to carry.

In the spirit of Gerrard Winstanley; a shout out for help from a neighbouring allotment group. Are you free on Saturday?

On St. George’s Day, Saturday 23rd April, 2011 we started a Green revolution in Ashton-under-lyne, Tameside, in the tradition of English radical group The diggers who during the period of the English Commonwealth, in 1649 reclaimed the common land of St. George’s Hill from the Lords of the Manor by digging and cultivating it.

After years of delay by Tameside Council prospective allotment holders in Ashton have now organised ourselves to take over control of the land on Ashton Moss that had been allocated for the replacement allotments, supported by sympathetic
volunteers we came together in a day of action to reclaim the allotments from Cordingleys who have neglected and mismanaged the land.

Background

In 1996 at the time of the development of the M60 Motorway, Ashton Moss allotment sites were taken out of use and the land was given by Tameside Council to local estate Agents, Cordingleys, to develop for business and leisure use, the contract included providing alternative allotment sites

People on the Council’s allotment waiting list who were promised plots on the site are still waiting, although the allotment site was
developed by Cordingleys over 7 years ago, we have now been told that the site is not due to be handed over in the near future.

Ashton Allotment Action now intend to take direct action to start
cultivating the allotments as a matter of urgency. Because the land has not been cultivated, since it was developed it has now become overrun with weeds, principally Soft Rush which needs to be cleared before we can start growing fruit and vegetables. We intend to clear the weeds from a part of the site and to the plant seeds or seedlings.

Regular Saturday Action days

We inviting everyone to come along to our action days and help us, every Saturday from 10.00 am

Please come along and support our action days, come when you want and stay as long as you want, please bring your own hand tools, food and drink

The allotments are located on Moss Lane, which is a rough track
running from a junction of Lord Sheldon Way, left turn from
Droylsden/Manchester, right turn from Ashton.

If you are coming by car, it could be advisable to park at the leisure park and walk over the roundabout and motorway bridge, where you will find a footpath leading to the allotments

Ashton Moss Allotment site co-ordinates
OS X (Eastings) 392221
OS Y (Northings) 399178
Nearest Post Code OL7 9LA
Lat (WGS84) N53:29:21 (53.489254)
Long (WGS84) W2:07:07 (-2.118708)

Please view our video of the 23/04/11 Action day http://you.tube/8X0qjO_UxkQ

For further information and directions contact Nigel 07709056079

For history buffs, the Diggers’ pamphlet online:
http://www.bilderberg.org/land/poor.htm

http://ashtonallotmentaction.wordpress.com/

Indigenous People and Supporters Occupy Sacred Land at Glen Cove

On April 15, 2011, approximately 150 Indigenous People and supporters occupied the ancient burial site at Glen Cove, Vallejo, California, blocking the Greater Vallejo Recreation District (

On April 15, 2011, approximately 150 Indigenous People and supporters occupied the ancient burial site at Glen Cove, Vallejo, California, blocking the Greater Vallejo Recreation District (GVRD) from gaining entry to the site with bulldozers to begin work on their new public park. The GVRD’s plans, which involves grading a hill and building toilets and a parking lot in the area, would deface the landscape and desecrate the sacred site.

Indigenous People at the protest, including Members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), have said they will remain at the site until the GVRD and the City of Vallejo agree to not carry out their plans.

The federal government has reportedly stepped in to mediate talks between the Indigenous People and the park district.

See Below for a Press Release from Sacred Site Protection & Rights of Indigenous Tribes (SSP&RIT).

Media Contacts: Mark Anquoe (415) 680 0110; Morning Star Gali (510) 827 6719; Norman “Wounded Knee” Deocampo 707-373-7195; Corrina Gould 510-575-8408.

Please Urge the GRVD and the City of Vallejo to respect the Ohlone Peoples wishes of preserving Sogorea Te. They do not have to desecrate the site. They are choosing to desecrate it.

Greater Vallejo Recreation District
707-648-4600
Shane McAffee, General Manager
395 Amador St.
Vallejo, CA 94590
E-mail: smcaffee@gvrd.org

Osby Davis, City of Vallejo Mayor
707-648-4377
555 Santa Clara St

Vallejo, CA 94590
E-mail: mayor@ci.vallejo.ca.us

Current requests from the group: shade structures, tents, paper towels, banner/sign making supplies, rope, moist hand wipes, Bronners soap, honey, and most of all, more people to stand with us. We do not need any more bottled water!

An Emergency Defense Fund has also been set up to sustain the ongoing effort.

To send a message to the group, just leave a comment on any of the articles at http://protectglencove.org.

Directions: If you’re in the Bay Area, you are invited to stop by for a few hours, or a few days. Directions to Glen Cove can be found here.

April 15th: Occupation underway, demonstrations at City Hall and GVRD Headquarters

Native Americans and supporters have successfully occupied the ancient burial site at Glen Cove, Vallejo, preventing the Greater Vallejo Recreation District from beginning work that would desecrate the sacred site. Beginning with an early morning spiritual ceremony attended by over 100 people, protesters vowed to block bulldozers and prevent any work that would desecrate the site from taking place. The occupation will continue until there is an agreement to protect the burial site. Dozens will camp at the site tonight.

At 11:30 am today the protesters held a peaceful rally and ceremony at Vallejo City Hall and then marched to the offices of the Greater Vallejo Recreation District.

Last night the United States Department of Justice sent a senior conciliation specialist to Glen Cove to meet with Native American leaders. The Native Americans asked the DOJ to help facilitate a meeting with the GVRD to try to reach an agreement to protect the sacred burial site. It is possible a meeting between the sides, mediated by the US Department of Justice, may occur Monday. The State Attorney General’s office has also become involved after the organization SSP&RIT filed an administrative civil rights complaint against the City and GVRD on Wednesday.

Native American activists and supporters have begun the occupation of Glen Cove as an escalation of their struggle that has been going on for over a decade, since the Greater Vallejo Recreation District (GVRD) first proposed plans for a “fully featured public park” including construction of a paved parking lot, paved hiking trails, 1000 pound picnic tables and a public restroom on top of the 3500 year old burial site.

On Wednesday, April 13th, Sacred Site Protection and Rights of Indigenous Tribes (SSP&RIT), a Vallejo-based community organization, filed an administrative civil rights complaint to the State of California alleging that the City and GVRD are discriminating on the basis of race in threatening to destroy and desecrate significant parts of the Glen Cove Shellmound and burial site, for harming Native Americans’ religious and spiritual well-being, and effectively excluding Native Americans from their right to full participation in decision-making regarding the site.

The history and cultural value of the site has never been disputed. Human remains have been consistently unearthed as the area around the site has been developed. Native Americans continue to hold ceremonies at Sogorea Te just as they have for thousands of years. The Glen Cove Shell Mound spans fifteen acres along the Carquinez Strait. It is the final resting place of many Indigenous People dating back more than 3,500 years, and has served as a traditional meeting place for dozens of California Indian tribes. The site continues to be spiritually important to California tribes. The Glen Cove site is acknowledged by GVRD and the City to have many burials and to be an important cultural site, yet they are moving forward as early as Friday with plans to build a toilet and parking lot on this sacred site and to grade a hill that likely contains human remains and important cultural artifacts.

SSP&RIT have asked GVRD to reconsider their plans to grade the hill and build toilets and a parking lot at the site.

Video of trip there

anti-GM action at Tesco Belfast

Gathering Momentum for the fight against biotech in our food chain

Tesco Metro, on Belfast?s Royal Avenue, had its labelling improved by anti-GM protestors on Saturday morning (23rd April). The additional labels warned consumers about the potential Genetically Modified content of meat and dairy products in store.

Gathering Momentum for the fight against biotech in our food chain

GM produce has been thoroughly rejected by the general public – however, it is still entering our food chain and being sold in shops across the UK. Dairy and meat products on our shelves today have been produced using GM animal feeds. There are no measures in place to trace these products, there is no labelling to warn consumers – none!

The protestors surreptitiously stickered dozens of meat and dairy
products, then (less surreptitiously) donned white bio-hazard suits, handed out leaflets and talked to shoppers in the aisles. This riled the somewhat irksome security guard, who helped the protestors safely find their way to the exits. (Perhaps he was a little tetchy following the successful fire-bombing of a Tesco Metro in Bristol on Thursday night??).

This simple and easy protest action reminds us that the GM issue has not gone away. Monsanto and other agri-business corporations want to own our stomachs. We need to be aware of which food products are made using Genetic Modification so that we can avoid them ? with no legislation to warn of GM animal feeds, we are vulnerable to consuming food that is potentially (seriously) harmful.

Tesco anti-GM action

16.4.11
We had a successful Anti-GM action this past weekend (the first in London in a long time).

Regarding GM animal feed Tesco has said (2010) “Unfortunately, because of the vast amount of products we sell, and the turn around on them, we do not have a specific list of products that come from animals that have not been fed on GM feed.” So basically, any stuff that’s not organic could be GM. Let’s go and tell the customers!

We went into a TESCO in Hackney and put stickers on all the meat and dairy. The stickers said said “Tesco cannot guarantee you that this meat or dairy product is GM free.

For more information on genetic modification in animal feed see www.stopgm.org.uk”. We then got dressed in white suits in the store that said “biohazard” and passed out information to customers about animal feed. We also went after GM oil (KTC brand) with stickers. Big jugs of it are sold for chippies and small restaurants. We wandered around the store dressed like outer space handing out leaflets for a half an hour before the security finally asked us to leave. We then set up a table outside and continued to pass out information.

It was all surprisingly easy. If anyone wants a copy of the stickers we can send them on to you.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/geneticmodification/8393880/Shoppers-kept-in-dark-over-GM-ingredients.html

More photos and video at http://ungm.posterous.com/

MACHINERY SABOTAGED TO PROTECT WILD LAND, ITALY

anonymous report, from finoallafine.info (translation):

“Tired of seeing the Earth destroyed, we decided to act. In the night between April 6 and 7 we entered one of the many construction sites in Rome, a city raped by the cement and speculative building that the big manufacturers, with the complicity of the little fascist mayor Alemanno, that are destroying any space that is still wild to construct department stores, malls and parking lots. In this case the work involves the destruction of a very large thicket, with the resulting devastation of the habitat of many animals, birds, insects and mammals. We approached the seven machines (bulldozers and others) that were present; with wire cutters we cut oil tubes, cables and wires, and then we poured gravel and sugar in the tanks and we disappeared leaving a written claim.

This action was taken in solidarity with all who everywhere and at all times struggle against speciesism, anthropocentrism and exploitation, particularly with the defenders of the Russian forests of Khimki and Bitcevski.

Solidarity also with all animal-ecological prisoners, beginning with Walter Bond. For animal liberation, for the liberation of the Earth!”

BP and Culture – time to break it off!

A week of action to kick BP out of our cultural spaces
14–20 April 2011

In the week between BP’s AGM and the one-year anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, we are calling for actions and creative interventions to show the true nature of BP’s damaging activities around the world, and to persuade our most prestigious galleries and cultural spaces to liberate themselves from BP’s dirty money.

Sponsorship of galleries, museums and other cultural spaces is one of the most important ways BP tries to protect its reputation and buy our acceptance. By breaking off BP’s relationship with our most prestigious cultural institutions, we strike a blow to BP’s precious brand, topple BP’s powerful position in our society, and reclaim our public spaces. On the anniversary of the Gulf spill, let’s reveal the sticky black stuff behind BP’s shiny green logo, and pile on the pressure to kick BP out of our cultural spaces for good.

Creative interventions will be popping up at sponsored galleries and institutions throughout the week, so watch this space, or better yet plan your own!

This week of action is called by Art Not Oil, Climate Camp London, Climate Rush, Indigenous Environmental Network, Liberate Tate, London Rising Tide and UK Tar Sands Network

More info including events list, targets and resources:
http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/bpweekofaction
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198819640150485

INCLUDING…
The Great BP-sponsored sleep-in

Sunday 17 April 2011, 2PM at Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG

To mark the one year anniversary of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, join us for ‘The great BP-sponsored sleep-in’, a 4-minute flashmob art installation inside Tate Modern. Imagine the turbine hall of this former power station filled with BP-branded sleeping figures, who will soon wake from their BP-sponsored coma to sound the climate alarm.

BP’s greenwash is sleepwalking us into the climate crisis. BP sponsors galleries like Tate to try and clean up its tarnished image, and distract us from its devastating activities around the world. Every pound of dirty oil money accepted by Tate helps legitimise a long legacy of environmental destruction and human rights abuses. It’s time to take off the blindfold, rub the sponsorship sleep from our eyes, and give Tate and BP a wake-up call.

This family friendly event will highlight BP’s sponsorship to the public, and show that we are not prepared to stand by as the Tate helps BP greenwash its image… and allow us all a few minutes to dream of a future free from oil spills and oil sponsorship of the arts.

SIX STEPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL SPONSORED SLEEP-IN
1. Synchronise your watch using this website:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fullscreen.html?n=136
2. Enter the building before 2PM
3. Choose your sleep-in spot – café, corridor, lift, gift shop, and of course exhibits are all fair game, but please pick somewhere on Levels 1 (turbine hall level), 2 or 3 (this is where our camera crews will be to film the fun).
4. At exactly 2.15PM, unpack your BP branded sheet, pillow, pyjamas, sleep mask, teddy bear, alarm clock or any other sleep related props (see here for ideas and downloadable props:
http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/bpweekofaction/resources) and start the sleep-in!
5. Exactly 4 minutes later, the flash mob will be over as alarm clocks sound the wake-up call throughout the gallery. Take off your sponsored blindfolds and bedding, leave them behind if you wish, and head outside to…
6. Post-slumber party on the South Bank. Listen to speakers from BP-affected communities from the Gulf of Mexico and the Canadian Tar Sands, help engage gallery-goers with leaflets and vox pop video messages, and enjoy live music and a pedal-powered sound system.

So join us on April 17th, and show the Tate that we won’t take oil sponsorship of the arts lying down!

More info: http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/bpweekofaction/flashmob
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=137704989634221

Cut the crap – GM in Germany

1/4/2011

KWS has again planted genetically-modified sugar beet H7-1 in a field, despite vociferous protests. Today, Friday at noon, we unloaded about 16 tonnes of manure in front of the headquarters in Einbeck, under the slogan: “KWS – keep your GM crap.”

1/4/2011

Images of the action here!
Video here!
Our press release: here!