Action Reports – Page 185

McDonalds Protester Found “Not Guilty”!

An activist from Animal Rights Cambridge arrested under Section 5 of the Public Order Act for a protest inside the McDonalds restaurant in Cambridge in June 2008 was found ‘not guilty’ on 30th April 09.

See http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/cambridge/2008/06/401637.html for more on the case and to see a video of the protest in question.

The protest was in commemoration of the now famous Mclibel cases anniversary, that was a huge PR disaster for McDonalds. The protesters entered the restaurant and informed customers about issues regarding McDonalds corporate practices on a range of issues. One of the campaigners was then arrested under Section 5 of the Public Order Act.

This is a small victory for the animal rights movement that has been under increasing state repression. “Lets take this as a collective lift to our self-esteem” said the cleared activist “I’m Mcloving it!”.

The case has dragged on but it finally came to an end with the magistrate finding the defendant not guilty “Animal rights activism may have been covertly outlawed in the UK” said the activist “but it seems not everyone has read the memo yet!”.

The campaigners Barrister put forward an excellent case with the help of the brilliant defence witnesses. As the Not Guilty verdict was read out the supporters in the public gallery began to applaud!

Ravens Ait evicted!

1st May 2009
around 4.15am this morning around 100 commandos stormed Ravens Ait island

they arrived in 27 black zodiac inflatables

they were wearing helmets, balaclavas, and flackjackets, and carried sidearms

1st May 2009
around 4.15am this morning around 100 commandos stormed Ravens Ait island

they arrived in 27 black zodiac inflatables

they were wearing helmets, balaclavas, and flackjackets, and carried sidearms

overhead a low flying helicopter used thermal imaging to locate the approximately 20 residents who were sleeping at the time

the commandos kicked down doors and took people outside and off the island

the entrance to the tunnel and treehouse were guarded and nobody was in them at the time

most people left peacefully, but a few resisted eviction and were arrested

the last resister climbed on top of the outdoor marquee and the police pulled it down to arrest him

by 7.30am all residents were off the island, but lots of their posessions are still on the island

at least 50 more regular Kingston police have since arrived and are currently on the island

the former residents and their supporters are currently on the Surbiton riverbank in good spirits enjoying the sunshine, and request more supporters to join them to show local and national news crews how much support they have for their eco community centre plans

www.ravensait.org.uk

—

Local press coverage, photos & alternative version of numbers of police involved.

Mexico: Telmex van torched by Luddites and the ALF

During the early morning hours of April 23, in a municipality in the State of Mexico, the Luddites Against the Domestication of Wild Nature and the Frente de Liberación Animal joined together in an action, deciding to step up the fight against the biocidal company Telmex.

received anonymously by Bite Back Magazine (translation):

“During the early morning hours of April 23, in a municipality in the State of Mexico, the Luddites Against the Domestication of Wild Nature and the Frente de Liberación Animal joined together in an action, deciding that we should step up the fight against the biocidal company Telmex. This time we placed an incendiary device at one of the front tires of a van which was responsible for maintaining different phone lines; this incendiary device did the job for which it was made and left the truck owned by Telmex unusable; when we returned to the area of action only the burnt remains could be seen.

The direct action is now claimed by the LCDNS and the FLA; we have joined our efforts and have hit hard, for the liberation of animals and the earth, destructive sabotage.

We want to take the opportunity in this communique to send a greeting to the cells of the ALF and the ELF in Guadalajara, different individuals have decided on illegal action for the anti-speciesist offensive in Mexico which is a huge step for the movement, continue on!

‘And night by night when all is still / And the moon is hid behind the hill / We forward march to do our will / With hatchet, pike and gun!’
– Luddite Anthem

Against all that wants to dominate us LCDNS FLA – México”

The Coal caravan has arrived in West Yorkshire! AND daily blog

29.04.2009
The coal caravan is now in West Yorkshire and has visited Fairburn Ings which is threatened with open casting and Ferrbybridge power station which will burn the coal.

The Coal Caravan reaches Ferrybridge

29.04.2009
The coal caravan is now in West Yorkshire and has visited Fairburn Ings which is threatened with open casting and Ferrbybridge power station which will burn the coal.

The Coal Caravan reaches Ferrybridge

The Coal caravan has arrived in West Yorkshire! After a day of cycling 54 miles in the rain the caravan has set up in Pontefract.

Today activists and locals walked from Pontefract to Fairburn Ings, a site which will be devastated by open cast coal mining if HJ banks and the Ledstone Estate are given the go ahead to remove coal. On the way we passed the monstrosity which is Ferrybridge power station and were able to see exactly where the coal from the Fairburn Ings area will be burned. The coal taken from this area will only power the three local power stations for 11 days, yet it is predicted to take 50 years for the area to recover. The affects on global warming will be felt indefinitely if we don’t move away from a coal based power source, to renewable technology fast.

Last night the Caravan had an evening of discussion around the history of coal and the future of coal. The event was booked to take place at Pontefract New College, but the police leant on the college and then told the public the event had been cancelled. Thankfully we were still able to go ahead with the event in the Town Hall instead! The police have been overly present at some aspects of the caravan, but this has simply increased the public’s curiosity with our events and shown how much the police waste their time.

This evening the Caravan will show the Age of Stupid in Pontefract Library.

Tomorrow we cycle North, towards events in Durham and the North East. If you are interested in the caravan there is still time to come along. We have a full timetable over the bank holiday weekend with the local community and extra hands would be welcome. Please check out our website for details of accommodation and ring the caravan on 07729575582 to let us know you are coming.

caravan@climatecamp.org.uk
http://www.coalcaravan.org.uk

Daily blog during journey – http://coalcaravan.wordpress.com/

Abseil blockade of nuclear waste train in Germany

An abseiling 27-year-old female activist from France held up a train carrying over 1000 tonnes of ‘depleted’ uranium through a densely populated region of Germany for two hours on Monday 27 April, the day after the 23rd anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster – the world’s worst ever civil nuclear accident.

A 25-car train half a kilometre long has just carried 1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium through the most densely populated region of Germany – destination unknown, presumably France. The train left Germany’s only uranium enrichment plant at Gronau (52° 12′, 160 km south of Hamburg) in the night from 27 to 28 April. Usually trains from the German-Dutch-British-owned enrichment plant close to the city of Münster and the Dutch border have taken depleted uranium to Rotterdam for shipment to Russia, where it’s been dumped in the open air.

The Urenco company is extremely secretive about the transports. This time journalists were told by federal police that the train headed for Duisburg and on to France.

That would have taken the dangerous cargo through the densely populated Ruhr and Rhineland areas – if the police information is correct.

Anti-nuclear activists say they can only speculate what’s to be done with the uranium waste in France.

They expect it will be processed into uranium oxide in the Pierrelatte nuclear centre to make it easier to store. Construction of an interim storage for uranium oxide has been approved. Activists say it could be decades before the waste is returned to Germany.
Very close to Pierrelatte are four pressurised water reactors at Tricastin, where uranium was found in ground water last summer.

The train from Gronau was held up by two hours because a female French activist who lives in Germany, 27-year-old Cécile Lecomte, had abseiled over the tracks from a road overpass. She and other climbers have made such a name for themselves in disrupting nuclear transports that police now always have climbing specialists along on the trains to take the protesters down.

In January last year Lecomte held up a train for nearly seven hours by abseiling over its route. This most recent climbing action was her third in one and a half years on this non-electrified section of railway.

The protest a day after the Chernobyl anniversary got some public attention from a demonstration at Münster central station and near the abseiling overpass.

“The aim is to reveal the secret atomic transports from the Gronau uranium enrichment plant and to draw people’s attention to the policy of Urenco,” she writes. ( http://de.indymedia.org/2009/04/248604.shtml )

“Urenco does not inform people about these transports and the dangers connected with them. On the contrary, people only get to hear about them when atomic power opponents manage to expose the departure of atomic transports by days of precise observation. It was first thought [the most recent] consignment was going to Russia.”

Lecomte writes that she means her action to be a signal against atomic policy in general and expansion of the Gronau enrichment plant in particular.

“Radioactivity knows no borders. What kind of an end to atomic power is it if Gronau is expanded, thereby supporting the construction of new nuclear plants – such as the EPR in Flamanville, France – by supplying the product to power stations all over the globe.

“The waste is carted right across Europe in secret transports. That is no solution to the nuclear waste problem. On the contrary, the population is exposed to ever more dangers, the environment is polluted ever more.

“Atomic installations need to be switched off immediately,” Lecomte writes.

Pictures of the abseiling at http://www.anti-atom-aktuell.de/fotos/2009-04-27_uranzugstopp-haeger/. More about Lecomte’s climbing protests at http://www.eichhoernchen.ouvaton.org/deutsch/anti-atom/Luftakrobatik-Atomtransporte.html .

Report from Indymedia Germany: http://de.indymedia.org/2009/04/248655.shtml

climate rush glue themselves to Parliament

27th June 2009
Four activists from environmental action group Climate Rush glued themselves around a statue in the lobby of the Houses of Parliament today. Once fixed they spoke about the impacts of climate change, to the surprise of MPs, civil servants and tourists.

At 10am three women and one man, dressed in white like the original Suffragettes and wearing red ‘climate’ sashes, used superglue to stick their hands around the sword carried by a statue of Viscount Falkland. Exactly one hundred years earlier (27th April 1909) a Suffragette, Marjory Hume, chained herself to this sword to protest for women’s suffrage. Police were forced to cut the stone sword to set her free. One hundred years on, the police had to rely on solvent to unstuck the protesters.

Rusher Cadi St John, a twenty year old student at Bristol University said:

‘A hundred years ago women were forced to break the law to have their voice heard in Parliament. A hundred years on and nothing’s changed. I’m in my first year at uni and I’m almost ready to give up and become a full-time campaigner about climate change. Like so many of my generation I’m terrified about what the future holds, but instead of environmental action Labour promises new coal fired power stations and a third runway at Heathrow. This is the only way I can make myself heard.’

Chris Kitchen, another rusher and a secretary for The Institute of Education said:

‘We don’t want to wake up to a climate crisis which will be caused by the same political cowardice and chronic short-termism as the economic crisis. It’s now or never. The politicians need to stop relying on unproven technology and get stuck into real climate solutions.’

Last week Ed Miliband gave the go ahead to a new generation of coal fired power stations, which will use unproven CCS technology to reduce emissions. If this technology fails it will lock us into a carbon intensive energy future and make it impossible for Britain to make emissions cuts. Climate scientists predict that there will be no summer Arctic ice as early as next year. This could be the beginning of runaway climate change.

http://www.climaterush.co.uk

Climate Activists ‘Do A Banksy’ On 27 Tesco Branches

27.04.2009
At 4am this morning twenty-seven branches of TESCO across central London were attacked by teams of climate activists. ‘The Climate Suffrajets’ used stencils and green spray paint to write on the shops’ entrance doors.

The stencils were of two energy-efficient light bulbs being smashed by planes with TESCO written above and EVERY LITTLE HURTS below. The design refers to a Tesco promotion that gives free air miles to customers buying energy-efficient light bulbs. The protesters complain that offering air miles as reward for buying energy efficient light bulbs is confusing the consumer about climate change. A spokesman for the group said:

‘Energy efficient light bulbs save tiny amounts of CO2 compared to how much one flight wastes. By offering air miles as a reward for making small environmental changes Tesco is confusing us about what we can really do to reduce our climate impact. It’s like handing out a free pack of cigarettes with every nicotine patch! As long as they continue with their campaign we’ll continue with ours.’

Last week Tesco’s weekly turnover was announced to be £1 billion, as the company benefited greatly from the recession. A spokesman from Tesco was unavailable to comment on how much it will cost to wash the green stencils from their storefronts.

Police Raid on Newly Opened Squat, Bristol. Occupants evicted within 40 minutes.

27.04.2009
Thank you to everyone who came down in solidarity. Big thanks to all.

This is what occurred: Reliance security company responded to an alarm that went off inside the building. The police were then called. The first copper on scene was prepared to depart saying that ‘they have squatters rights and it is a civil matter’, and then Reliance called the police again and 3 riot vans and 5 police cars turned up.

Whilst some of the Reliance personnel tried to take sitex metal sheets off, in order to gain access, the police suited up and arrived at the main door with battering ram in hand.

The occupants were given the option of leaving now with no charge (‘leave now and you can walk’), or stay and get nicked. After a group meeting, the occupants decided to remain. The police (with riot shields and shouts of ‘stand down, stand down’) then bashed down the door, detained the occupants and bailed them to the street, to return to Trinity police station in May, on suspicion of criminal damage.

They were allowed leave with cheers for each person resonating from the crowd.

There were a couple of comedy moments: namely a conversation between Reliance security and squatters:
Squatter: Can I tell you a joke?
Reliance: Go on then
Squatter: What do call a man with no shins?
Reliance: What?
Squatter: Tony!

—and an old classic from the sargent in charge: ‘Can I speak to the organiser, or your spokesperson?’ Amazing, they never learn do they?!

— A battering ram police officer was hilariously referred to by their colleagues as ‘Captain Chaos’, which caused the occupants much constant mirth. ‘Whose Captain Chaos then, when’s he coming!’

141 Ashley Road has been empty for nearly a year now since the previous occupants (who were squatters) were evicted and empty for longer before that. It is on the corner before the shops on Ashley Road and Grosverner Road, and the garden is regularly used for drug deals. Locals complain about this, yet Places for People have done nothing about this property for years.

87 Ashley Road whose roof was occupied for 3 weeks during eviction resistance, remains empty to this day, (despite Places for People’s assurances that it would be turned into affordable housing.)

The director of places for people receives a salary of £250,000 a year.

Squatters, self-housing themselves, are taking matters into their own hands, and the onus off social housing corporations to house them. The argument that squatters delay social housing is rubbished by the fact that 87 and 141 Ashley Roiad have remained empty for months and years after the eviction of squatters, and not turned into affordable social housing. It seems P4P are more concerned with selling off social housing stock on the private market as can be seen with the new flats up at the top of Ashley Road.

This is a company that claims to be working to house people, yet it appears profit is the only motivation they have.

and another joke from the day:
One of the riot vans had a sticker saying Operation Relentless which after investigation is a campaign of fear against ‘those who commit crime’: laughable.

Sizewell nuclear vigil report

26.4.09: Protesters gathered at a generating station in Suffolk to mark 20 years since the Chernobyl disaster have held a vigil against nuclear power.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), which organised a “peaceful” overnight protest at Sizewell said it wanted to highlight the dangers.

26.4.09: Protesters gathered at a generating station in Suffolk to mark 20 years since the Chernobyl disaster have held a vigil against nuclear power.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), which organised a “peaceful” overnight protest at Sizewell said it wanted to highlight the dangers.

The Government said new nuclear power stations could be built at 11 sites in England including Sizewell.

The group has been joined by a number of clergymen who are leading the vigil.

A spokeswoman said the protesters were angry about plans for new reactors on the site.

In the early hours of April 26 1986, one of four nuclear reactors at a power station at Chernobyl, Ukraine, exploded in the world’s worst nuclear accident.

Orissa Tribes stage mass protest against British mining company Vedanta – 25 April 2009

Several hundred tribespeople today staged a protest against FTSE-100 company Vedanta, as it bids massively to expand its controversial aluminium refinery in Lanjigarh, Orissa. The refinery occupies land belonging to the Majhi Kondh tribe, and lies at the foot of the Niyamgiri hills, home of the isolated Dongria Kondhs. Both tribes took part in the protests.

Over a hundred families lost their homes to their refinery. Many more lost their farm land and with it their food-security and self sufficiency.

Vedanta’s refinery expansion project is integrally linked to its plan to mine the Dongria Kondh’s mountain home. Vedanta’s mine is needed to provide the refinery with a nearby, and cost efficient, source of bauxite – the raw material for aluminium.

One Dongria Kondh man said, ‘Mining only makes profit for the rich. We will become beggars if the company destroys our mountain and our forest so that they can make money. We cannot give our mountain, it is our life. And other tribes will also suffer, those who live on the rivers that come from our mountain.’

Today’s protest is just the latest in a string of demonstrations against Vedanta’s activities.

More info: www.survival-international.org/tribes/dongria