Action Reports – Page 157

Global Minga Round-up (AKA Mobilisation in Defence of Mother Earth and the Peoples)

October 12 (the 517th anniversary of Columbus’ landing in the Western Hemisphere) marked the first day of the Global “Minga”/Mobilisation in Defence of Mother Earth and the Peoples, called by the IV Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples Abya Yala. Rallies, protests and other actions are being carried out around the world in response to the call, including (infrastructure-related actions highlighted):

Labrador, Canada: Inuu elder and activist Elizabeth Penashue launched a week-long walk along the Mitsa-Shipu (Churchill River) from Happy Valley-Goose Bay to Gull Island, in opposition to the proposed Lower Churchill Hydro Project. If built, the two dams would cause vast environmental devastation and irreparable loss of Innu land, history and culture.

USA: The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) is holding a weeklong mobilization against the North American and Central American Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA/CAFTA) and against gold mining in El Salvador. Events are planned for Seattle, Olympia, Portland (OR), San Francisco, Washington (DC), Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia. Find out more information here.

On October 16, the Durango, Colorado chapters of Earth First! and Root Force are presenting the Beehive Design Collective on their True Cost of Coal graphic tour.

London, England: Protests were held at the Colombian, Peruvian and Spanish embassies, the UK Foreign Office and the Department for Energy and Climate change, demanding and end to EU-Latin America free trade agreements and an end to UK agrofuel subsidies.

Melbourne, Australia: A Latin American Solidarity Network space was launched at Trades Hall. A documentary film night will be held October 15.

Guatemala: Social movements marked the Minga with a nonviolent demonstration. An assassin dressed in black fired on the crowd, killing a 19-year-old and seriously injuring a 16- and a 65-year-old.

Colombia: More than 25,000 indigenous People have begun to March to the city of Cali to protest for respect for their territory and against the harmful social policies maintained by the Uribe government. The protesters are expecting to arrive on October 16. 115 indigenous councils have ceased ongoing dialogues with the government for the occasion. (For updates, keep an eye on: www.cric-colombia.org, www.onic.org.co). Approximately 2000 Uwa have also begun an “armed strike” in opposition to Ecopetrol, who has been exploiting natural resources from their ancestral sanctuary for the past 13 years.

Paris, France: Social groups have organized a week of solidarity actions for the Minga, including public debates, forums, a one-day festival, and protest rallies in support of Indigenous Peoples.

Argentina: A Global Week of Action against Debt and International Finance Institutions (IFI’s) is running in conjunction with the Minga. Opposing the new agreement between the Government and the International Monetary Fund, participants will be rallying for climate justice (October 13), rural women and the repudiation of debt (15 October), food sovereignty (16 October) and the eradication of poverty (October 17). A memorial was also held on October 11, honoring the martyrs of resistance.

Cuba: A one day event http://www.movimientos.org/defensamadretierra/show_text.php3%3Fkey%3D15924&rurl=translate.google.ca&usg=ALkJrhgIwwHDwwtuTEeL6TgbGl3sC3Ef7g” target=”_blank”>commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Cry of the Excluded was held in Havana.

Bolivia: The First hearing of the International Court of Climate Justice will be running at the Universidad Mayor de San Simón in Cochabamba, from October 13 to 17. The event will be transmitted LIVE on the internet. An Assembly of Social Movements will also be held in Cochabamba on the 15th, immediately followed by a Regional Meeting Against Climate Change.

Peru: Delegations from around the country marched to the headquarters of the UN in Lima on October 12, to present a series of demands and proposals by indigenous peoples to stop global warming. This will be followed by 3 days of workshops led by indigenous communities.

Other events, including festivals, workshops, protests, Ceremonies and other actions are taking place in Spain, Ecuador, Uruguay, Brazil, and elsewhere.

Via Campesina has also called for an International Day of Action Against Multinational Corporations for the final day of the Minga: October 16, 2009.

Defenders of the Land, a cross-Canada network of First Nations in land struggle, is also putting together a week of educational events on Indigenous Rights and struggles, from October 25-31, 2009.

More information and reports are available (in Spanish) here.

Phoenix, AZ — The week was kicked off with a protest at Arizona State University against the recognition of “Columbus Day,” along with education about the true (genocidal) nature of Columbus. The rest of the week consists of a media initiative to spread the truth about Columbus Day. It will culminate on Friday with a mass march to protest the racist and human rights-abusing policies of Maricopa County Sherriff Joe Arpaio.

Tucson, AZ — A banner was suspended from a downtown bridge in opposition to mining (possibly a reference to planned copper mines in Arizona).

Another anti-mines banner, this one reading “No New Mines on Apache Land! Ya Basta!” was hung in Tucson, AZ on October 16 (this time from the “Snake Bridge” over Broadway Boulevard). It was in opposition to the proposed mine in Superior, Arizona on sacred Apache land.

Also in Tucson, activists held a Fair Trade fair. In Tucson and New York City, activists distributed information on the connection between the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and swine flu.

Action at Mainshill: Tree felling stopped again in solidarity with communities

At 10:30 Tuesday morning (10/11/2009) activists from the Mainshill Solidarity Camp stopped a massive harvesting machine from working at the site, and one person locked-on to it by the neck.

Work was stopped for 5 hours and the protestor who locked on will appear in Lanark court tomorrow. Today is the 14th anniversary of the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa & 8 other Ogonis for resisting Shell in the Niger Delta. This action was done in remembrance of them & in solidarity with communities across the world who are still fighting corporate oppression.

This action is one of many that has taken place at Mainshill Wood, in a relentless and determined campaign of direct action to stop Scottish Coal and Lord Home opencasting the site.

This action is in solidarity with communities who have their health destroyed, their environment polluted and countryside trashed, all for the quick profits of opencast coal mining. It is also in solidarity with other communities around the world fighting similar battles – communities such as in Rossport, Co. Mayo in Ireland fighting Shell’s raw gas pipeline, and indigenous communities in the Niger Delta also fighting Shell and their paramilitary forces and environmental destruction.

Solidarity is a weapon in the global struggle against big corporations and climate chaos, and linking our movements makes us stronger.

Join us at Mainshill Solidarity Camp to continue the struggle.

No new coal!

MOVEMENT #1 – No Borders Newsletter

The new free monthly newsletter featuring news and updates from the No Borders Network and beyond.

Download the .pdf

Join the mailing list

The new free monthly newsletter featuring news and updates from the No Borders Network and beyond.

Download the .pdf

Join the mailing list

The re-naming and re-launching of the newsletter is part of an attempt to to create a more regular and broad based periodical, drawing in other groups, organisations and individuals that work for freedom of movement and equality for all.

More details

No New Nuclear. Planning to win – updated details

Time to get organised and stop the new generation of nuclear power stations.

London
11am Saturday 21st until 4pm Sunday 22nd November 2009

The weekend will be a space for grassroots campaigners to network, share ideas and information and make plans to win.

Time to get organised and stop the new generation of nuclear power stations.

London
11am Saturday 21st until 4pm Sunday 22nd November 2009

The weekend will be a space for grassroots campaigners to network, share ideas and information and make plans to win.

Whatever your campaigning tools are, wherever you are from, if you are in a group or an individual, this weekend is for us all. The more of us who can make it the better plans we can make.

By developing skills and confidence in creating and implementing campaign and action plans we can identify when and where our interventions can be most successful.

Over the weekend we will:

Reflect on the successes of the anti nuclear movement.
A presentation from Ben Ayliffe, Greenpeace’s nuclear power campaigner.
A presentation from a representative of the French network “Sortir du nucléaire” on the ongoing calamities with EPR reactors (the types of nuclear reactors being proposed for the UK).
Discussion and making plans to stop a new generation of nuclear power.
Skills workshops such as: Strategic action planning and Dealing with the media.
Meet and build networks with a broad range of people opposed to new nuclear.
Get angry, get organised.

Seeds for Change is an activist training network that will facilitate the weekend and share skills for winning through campaign and action planning. Come along and take away ideas and tools for winning to share with your community and networks at home. http://seedsforchange.org.uk/free/winning

Cost: Costs will be kept as low as possible. You will be asked to contribute towards the venue and food, but don’t let being skint stop you from coming :).

To book your place, help organise or get more details contact: nonewnuclear@aktivix.org or ring 01524 383012 and leave a message.

http://www.nonewnuclear.wordpress.com/
http://www.gmdcnd.org.uk/

Alleged ELF/ALF Anarchist Arrested in Mexico

ELP has learnt of an arrest in Mexico where a 16 year old is accused of ELF activity. Below is a report about his arrest.

Last 27 of October a 16 years old Mexican activist was arrested at night and acused of being part of the ELF. He was riding his bike with a back pack wen a police patrol started to follow him. He decided to get rid of the backpack and ran away with his bike. Sadly the cops managed to capture him. Afterwards they took the backpack and found 4 incendiary devices (each one made with two petrol bottles), another petrol bottle, a pair of plastic gloves, a balaclava, a lighter, a spray can, and environmentalists logos.

ELP has learnt of an arrest in Mexico where a 16 year old is accused of ELF activity. Below is a report about his arrest.

He was sent to the police station were the police took pictures of him and found out that he is vegan. He was kept there all night and next morning. He refused to talk to the police or explain why he was carrying all that stuff in his backpack.

According to the press he is suspected of at least six attacks with incendiary devices by the ELF, ALF and eco-anarchists which are:

– The destruction by fire to a JCB on March 22 by the ELF.
– The arson attack that left serious damage inside a McDonalds on 12 May by the ALF.
– The destruction of a truck by an incendiary device of the government institution Sistema Intermunicipal Water and Sewer on May 19 by the ELF.
– The bomb threat at Federal Palace and the hospice cottages, where the Summit of North American leaders took place on July 7 by eco-anarchists.
– The placement of an incendiary device under a sports car in a residential area in Zapopan on 18 August by eco-anarchists.
– The burning of seven luxury cars at a car show on September 26th by eco-anarchists.

See communiques at http://www.elfpressoffice.org/actions2009.html and the McDonalds arson communique (+ video) at http://www.directaction.info/news_may12_09.htm

According to the press Diego A, the arrested activist, admited to be Anarchist, part of the ELF and responsable of the 6 attacks. But according to the Mexican Animal Rights magazine Rabia y Acción, this seems to be false.

Last 29 of October he went to trial but the judge didnt find enought evidence to convict him in a special prison for young men under 18 years old, so he was released. Now his parents are responsable of his future behaviour.

Weekend of Action and Workshops at Mainshill Solidarity Camp

RESIST new coal! Stop climate chaos!

Sat 28th Nov – Tues 1st Dec

RESIST new coal! Stop climate chaos!

Sat 28th Nov – Tues 1st Dec

While politicians are set to add more air to the climate pressure cooker in Copenhagen, the UK government is pushing ahead with doubling the number of opencast coal mines in the country. In the past 18 months 14 companies have applied to dig nearly 60 million tonnes of coal from 58 new or enlarged opencast mines. With our climate under imminent threat, this is just insane and needs to be stopped. So what better place than Mainshill for kicking off a December of direct action against climate criminals at home and abroad?

The Mainshill camp is occupying the site of a new open cast coal mine in Lanarkshire with lots of local support and seriously delaying work with digger diving, drill rig occupations and sabotage actions.

Join us for our open weekend Sat 28 Nov – Tues 1st Dec. There’ll be direct action workshops, legal briefings and a guided tour of the site on Sat and Sun, plus whatever actions people are up for. Or come up any time!

There’s lots and lots to do – not only are contractors busy felling trees on site, there are also four opencast coal mines within spitting distance of Mainshill, as well as the Ravenstruther coal rail depot.

From jumping on machinery and building momentum and support in the community, to chopping wood and cleaning out the compost loos – there’s something for everyone!

A brochure of coal targets in Scotland plus Digger Diving for Beginners
can be found at http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/?page_id=10

WHAT TO BRING:
*warm clothes, boots and waterproofs, a tent, sleeping bag and mat *tools for building work and action materials if you can *Most importantly bring yourself and friends.

FOOD:
There’ll be communal vegan food for a donation, so come prepared to help with chopping veg.

GETTING THERE:
The camp is right next to junction 12 of the M74, which runs from Carlisle
to Glasgow. The nearest train stations are Lanark and Hamilton and there
are frequent direct busses to the site.
Email us if you need a lift from the train station.

Detailed travel directions:
http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/?page_id=415

MORE INFO AND CONTACT:
info@leaveitintheground.org.uk
http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/?page_id=827

Please note: People arrested at Mainshill are held overnight, then taken to the Sheriff’s Court in Lanarkshire on the next day before being released. If you are planning to take action, make sure you’ve got the next day off too.

Anti Heathrow campaigners target Architect awards

6 November 2009
Plane Stupid activists along with three residents from Heathrow this evening targeted one of the potential third runway designers at this years Architects of the Year Awards held at London’s Intercontinental Hotel.

Architect group Pascall and Watson, nominated for Transport Architect of the Year have been at the forefront of airport expansion since the early 1960’s.*

The activists stormed the podium and gave a short speech** before offering Pascall and Watson the “We don’t give a Shit” award in protest at their 50 year aviation portfolio including expansion at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Birmingham, Manchester, Dublin and Abu Dhabi airports. Other activists handed out leaflets to the audience. Once the award had been presented the activists left of their own accord.

Tracy Howard, 35 year old mother and long term resident of Sipson said:

“We’re here today to let the architectural world know about the diverse and growing movement against the Third Runway and airport expansion across the country.

“Those involved with airport expansion will have to include this growing opposition in their designs and in their budget”.

Joe Ryle, 18, Plane Stupid activist and Heathrow resident said:

“Architects such as Pascall and Watson involved with airport expansion should expect to see a lot more of us. We presented them with the ‘We don’t give a Shit’ award, both to recognise their contribution to destroying our homes and to say that trying to build a green airport is like trying to polish a turd”.

Contact: Plane Stupid Press Line 07847 204469

Video

apex drilling visited – MAINSHILL SOLIDARITY action

apex drilling @ bridgend sabotaged by anti opencast activists.

In the early hours of tuesday 3rd november, anti opencast activists visited Apex Drilling based near Bridgend. They are integral to the expanding opencast monster and are currently active at Mainshill in Scotland.

apex drilling @ bridgend sabotaged by anti opencast activists.

Cameras were disabled, containers and vehicles had their locks glued, windscreens were etched with ‘No opencast’, wires and pipes were cut on heavy vehicles, fuel systems were contaminated, anti opencast graffiti sprayed all over the compound and the main site gate locked shut.

This company and others will be repeatedly targeted until they are put out of business.
No compromise in defence of mother earth.

Mainshill Camp Gathering round-up: workshops, walks, sabotage and lock-ons

The past weekend saw numbers swell at the Mainshill Solidarity Camp, with people travelling from far and wide to support the ongoing struggle to stop Scottish Coal opencasting Mainshill Wood.

The past weekend saw numbers swell at the Mainshill Solidarity Camp, with people travelling from far and wide to support the ongoing struggle to stop Scottish Coal opencasting Mainshill Wood. The number of people occupying the site reached numbers seen at Mainshill when the Camp for Climate Action set up on the site in August, showing how this issue is not going away.

Community Walk

On Saturday afternoon as the sun shone down on the Douglas Valley, residents of the camp, supporters and activists from local communities came together to witness the changes that Mainshill Wood has seen over the past few months. The tour took in the parts of the site that have been occupied, defended and heavily fortified for nearly 5 months, leading up to areas that have been most recently felled and cleared.

The walk then went down to the far corner of the site where Scottish Coal and various contractors have set up a compound, surrounding machinery in fencing, floodlighting and security guards. The walk then passed through the huge area of clearfell, and down through the field on which the Camp for Climate Action took place, past more defences, treehouses and tunnels. The tour ended with tea and biscuits in the communal, and discussions on where the campaign is going, and how the camp and communities can continue to support each other in their struggle to stop Scottish Coal.
Workshops

After the walk, a group from the camp walked into the clearfell to plant native trees, in a symbolic effort to reforest the area, with indigenous tree species. Although Scottish Coal flout their plans to restore the site using native species after coaling, history and common sense tells us that the site will not be restored. Take a walk across the valley to Dalquandy, which was Europe’s largest mine at 20 million tonnes and stopped producing years ago. It has been left as it was, a dangerous moonscape, leaking toxics into groundwater and polluting surrounding environments.

Other workshops skill-shared on tree-climbing, tree-house building, lock-on building and generally resisting Scottish Coal’s plans for the area.

Sabotage

A report posted on Indymedia Scotland reads:

Activists sabotaged a specialist drilling rig and other machinery in Mainshill Wood on Saturday night.

Cables were cut, controls damaged, levers busted, locks glued, windows broken, lights smashed. There were no injuries or arrests.

The specialist drilling rig, owned by Apex Drilling Services, is performing an essential role for Scottish Coal. This action may stop their work for a considerable time while repairs are made.

The drilling rig takes core samples of the rocks under the woods, to determine rock types and amounts of minerals present. This is work that needs to be completed before coal can be excavated from Mainshill.

Scottish Coal have agreed to pay for any damage to the contractors expensive machinery while working at the Mainshill site.

This action to stop the work carried out by Scottish Coal or its contractors is one of many acts of sabotage at Mainshill over recent weeks.

Lock-ons

No work took place on the site throughout the weekend, and the harvesting machine had been taken off-site on the back of a flatbed lorry on Friday, probably so that it couldn’t get damaged over the weekend as has happened in the past. So a large group decided to stop the harvester from being brought on-site on Monday morning.

Using New Mains Home Farm as its access to the site and compound, the flatbed drove in with the harvester at around 7am, quickly followed by people from the camp. The harvester was just off the flatbed when it was chased and surrounded, with people climbing on it.

The driver put up quite a fight in an effort to get his machine on site, putting lives at risk by recklessly driving the machine and then violently trying to remove people from it. However, a camper managed to scale the crane-like arm of the harvester, and locked-on to it with a bicycle D-lock.

Violent responses from the workers is becoming an all too common reaction to actions at Mainshill where people try to peacefully used their bodies to stop machinery – people have been pushed, kicked in the head, grabbed, nearly run over, and had their campers taken off them and thrown into the mud.

Although a lot of this has been documented and definitely constitutes assault, even attempted murder in some instances, the fight of the Mainshill Solidarity Camp is with the bosses, landlords and decision-makers. The Scottish Coal and Scottish Woodlands executives sit in their offices, drive their fancy company cars to their fancy homes, and tell the contractors or subcontractors they employ that they wont get any trouble from the Solidarity Camp. They tell them that they won’t be given any more work until they have finished at Mainshill Wood. They put working people, with families to feed and no choice but to carry out the contracts they’ve been given, in between themselves and the community and Solidarity Camp activists.

We say that these bosses act cowardly, paying others with blood money to carry out their dirty work. We appeal to contractors to stand in solidarity with the camp and community and not accept contracts for work at Mainshill. We appeal to the Scottish Coal technical directors, the Estates Manager, the Scottish Woodlands directors, the councillors responsible for passing this project and Lord Home to come do the work themselves, get their overalls dirty for a change and see how long they last.

The action lasted for five hours, with the camper locked-on at the neck throughout that time. Eventually a V-division support unit from Glasgow with the Mountain Rescue team arrived, and in true V-division style rigged up a pallet on a farm tractor as a “makeshift cherry-picker”. Earlier in the day the Inspector present had said that Health and Safety rules for how close machinery can operate to people on site were “guidelines” – it must be the same for removing people from lock-ons!

The camper was removed from the harvester arm, arrested for a Breach of the Peace, held over night at Bellshill police station and then taken to court in Lanark the next morning, where she plead guilty and will be sentenced in six months, pending good behaviour.

This action was a victory for the camp and took the resistance into New Mains Home Farm, where the Douglas and Angus Estates Office is, and where a community of people will live only some two hundred metres from the excavation works. The action also saw a down-scaled police response. Where at previous actions some 25 officers had been in attendance, this time there were only 4 for the most part, and support was only moved away right at the end. Is Strathclyde Police getting sick of being used as Scottish Coal’s private security force?

In Conclusion…

As well as some superb evening entertainment, the weekend’s events and the people that came through and saw the camp has strengthened the resistance to the ongoing work at Mainshill, and given people new energy to fight these corrupt councillors, fat-cat land-owners and greedy corporate types with everything we’ve got.

mainshill@riseup.net
http://mainshill.noflag.org.uk/

Blockade of UN’s Climate Change Conference in Barcelona

Wednesday 4th November in the morning – Eco Activists block for one hour the main entrance to the UN’s Climate Change Conference taking place in Barcelona.

This morning more than forty activists blocked the entrances to the main halls of the conference centre where the BARCELONA CLIMATE TALKS are taking place. Their action involved shutting and locking many of the main entrances, taping building tape X´s across shut doors, placing stickers on doors saying entrances closed. Their action had a banner that read that “Without a drastic reduction, there is no solution.”

There was quite a lot of press coverage, including Catalan TV3 and Japanese national TV. They chanted songs about climate change, read out statements and spoke from the heart as to the reasons for their actions in Catalan, Spanish and English. At one point an excellent eco rap tune was sung.

Amongst other things mentioned was the following; the fact that Africa feel they have to boycott the talks due to lack of seriousness from the rich countries, the fact that people were there to speak on behalf of indigenous in Bagua, Peru who are defending their land, which has been sold off by Peruvian state along with 70 of the countries Amazonian rainforest area, all communities in struggle around the planet, trying to defend their resources and communities against multinational climate injustice, including the Rossport community in North Western part of Ireland.

There was no police or security attempts to remove the activists. After an hour they stood up and left. They had much support and were applauded from people outside.

The action was organised by the group ‘El Clima no esta en Venda” (Climate is not for Sale)

More info: http://www.elclimanoestaenvenda.wordpress.com