Action Reports – Page 28

Mass Trial of Indigenous Leaders Set to Begin this Week in Peru

12th May 2014 A massive trial involving 53 Indigenous leaders and activists is set to begin this week, reviving the tragic events that took place four years ago in the Amazonas Region

12th May 2014 A massive trial involving 53 Indigenous leaders and activists is set to begin this week, reviving the tragic events that took place four years ago in the Amazonas Region of Peru.

In April 2009, a national indigenous mobilization was organized to stop a plan by the Peruvian government to roll-back indigenous land rights and make it easier for industry to exploit the Amazon rainforest.

The first month of the mobilization, led by more than 1200 communities, was largely peaceful. However, that began to change on May 9, 2009, when the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency in the regions of Loreto, Amazonas, Cusco, and Ucayali–where thousands of Indigenous Peoples were concentrating their efforts.

Once the state of emergency was declared, the number of confrontations with police and military began to climb. Nevertheless, the mobilization pressed on, with Indigenous Peoples carrying out daily protest actions across the country.

With the Indigenous Peoples showing no signs of backing down, on May 20, Peru’s Congress took a positive step forward by repealing one of four laws that sparked the mobilization: Legislative Decree 1090, a new forestry law that removed the protected status of some 45 million hectares of rainforest. Six days later, a second legislative decree, aimed at promoting private investment in irrigation projects, was declared unconstitutional.

While there was enormous relief over the removal of the two decrees, two others remained:

Legislative Decree 1064 removed a requirement that obliged companies to come to an agreement with indigenous communities over land compensation and land use before entering their lands (effectively giving mining, oil & gas, logging, and hydro companies free access to enter any Indigenous territory).
Legislative Decree 1089, meanwhile, gave unrestricted powers for land titling to COFOPRI, the government body that specializes in granting individual land titles.

With both decrees posing a significant threat to the security of Indigenous land rights, in addition to the fact that the government failed to carry out a process of consulting or seeking the consent of effected Indigenous Peoples–in violation of ILO Convention 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples–the mobilization pressed on.

After a few more weeks of protest, it looked as if a resolution was at hand. Several thousand Awajun and Wampis Peoples had set up a series of strategic blockades on Fernando Belaúnde Terry road in Bagua, Amazonas Region. Having so effectively seized the important road, the government sought to strike a deal with the Awajun and Wampis, ultimately convincing the Indigenous Peoples to begin taking down their blockades. Many of the Awajun and Wampis were long gone by the time June 5 rolled around.

In the early morning hours of June 5, the Peruvian military police made their move.

When the dust finally settled, 38 people were dead and more than 200 were injured.

Two weeks after the brutal confrontation, Peru’s Congress overwhelmingly voted to strike down both Legislative Decree 1064 and 1089.

Following Congress’ vote, Daysi Zapata, vice president of the Interethnic Association for Development of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP), the organization that started the mobilization, officially called for an end to all protests, stating, “Today is an historic day, we are grateful that the will of indigenous peoples has been heard, and only hope that in future, governments meet and listen to the people, and not legislate the laws back in.”

Four years later, the decrees have remained off the books; the government taking judicial aim at many of the Indigenous Peoples who took part (or allegedly took part) in the mobilization. Since 2009, more 100 separate lawsuits have been filed involving at least 350 Indigenous men and women.

The upcoming lawsuit, known as the “Curva del Diablo”, will be the largest of them all. In fact, with 53 indigenous leaders facing anywhere between 35 years to life in prison, it is going to be the largest trial in Peru’s history.

AIDESEP President Alberto Pizango, who is among the 53 named defendants, recently commented in an internal AIDESEP interview:

There’s a “Before Bagua” and an “After Bagua”. A before in which the Peruvian State didn’t want to and didn’t know how to listen to the proposals of indigenous peoples. This exacerbated the situation until things came to what happened, which unfortunately took so many lives unnecessarily. I’d say an “After Bagua” because thanks to the Amazonian mobilizations I can say that today the indigenous agenda is not only inserted in the national level and within the State, but on the international level.

Pizango continues:

I’d just say to the indigenous peoples and my indigenous brothers who are being tried for these regrettable events that they should stay firm in continuing to lift up the voice of indigenous peoples. All we have done is comply with our role as being the official spokespeople and work to insert in the national public agenda the different claims as mandated to us by our peoples. I’d reiterate to my brothers that they should stay firm in the significance of indigenous peoples rights. We’re going to overcome these accusations, we should be conscious of the fact that we haven’t committed any crimes. Perhaps our only crime was to carry the voice of the people, which is what we’ll be judged for starting May 14th….

Colombian Poor Occupy Lands Slated for Military Base

wYdfu2J 12th May 2014 FORTUL, COLOMBIA–Holding down an occupation for five months isn’t easy. Doing so in Colombia, even less so.

wYdfu2J 12th May 2014 FORTUL, COLOMBIA–Holding down an occupation for five months isn’t easy. Doing so in Colombia, even less so. But members of the community of Héctor Alirio Martínez in the municipality of Fortul, near the border with Venezuela, have raised the stakes even higher: they’re occupying land owned by the Ministry of Defense. The 100 hectare terrain now spotted with wood and plastic homes was slated to become a large military base.

Locals say the land originally was purchased by Occidental Petroleum in order to build a large new base to coordinate protection of a new oil pipeline which passes less than a few hundred meters from the lot.

“This land belongs to the Ministry of Defense, it was purchased and sponsored by Oxy, so we as good people from Arauca said that the most viable thing is to take over this plan, and see if the Minister of Defense will give it to us over time, many people needed this land,” said Jhon Carlos Ariza Aguilar, the Vice-President of the community of over 2,000 families. They began the occupation on November 26, 2013.

I met with Jhon and other members of the community on a hot February afternoon, weeks after the community was supposed to have been removed by force. On January 20, the army entered the shack settlement with a tank, and an eviction was scheduled for February 4, but that date came and went with community members in an uneasy calm about what would take place next.

Fortul is a municipality in the Colombian foothills, between the mountains and the wide open plains, and not far from the Arauca River, which marks the border with Venezuela. This oil rich region is also deeply conflictual, on the road over, soldiers hung around a handful of tanks, and army presence is ubiquitous. ELN and FARC guerrillas also patrol the area and have carried out attacks on Caño Limon-Covenas pipeline which serves Occidental’s nearby Caño Limon field. Under the heavy afternoon sun, a group of men lounged under a handful of trees, and women relaxed under a shelter beside them. Identical palm shacks protected by green cloth roofs dotted the area.

As we spoke, a taxi cab arrived, with a mattress strapped to the top and furniture in the trunk, indicating another family permanently moving into the area. Ariza Aguilar indicated that about one in four members of the occupation was an internally displaced person, forced out of their homes because of the ongoing conflict.

“Oxy bought this land and they gave it to the Ministry of Defense” in 2010, said Jhonny Alexis Castro, the Fortul representative of the Joel Sierra Human Rights Foundation. Oxy did not respond to a request for comment.

The Oleoducto Bicentenario, a meter wide oil pipeline that will eventually travel 960km from Casanare department to the port of Coveñas, is three minutes from the occupation by road, on the back end of the community the underground pipeline is but a few hundred meters away. “That’s why they wanted a battalion here, but there is a school very close, having a battalion here would mean having a checkpoint right in front of the school,” said Castro.

Today, children from the settlement are already attending the school. “What matters is that the children go and study, it doesn’t matter if we have electricity or not, that [they study] is the important thing,” said Ariza Aguilar. He invited me to swim in a river nearby, which provides those living in the community with a place to gather water, wash clothing, and bathe.

The community of Héctor Alirio Martínez is the first permanent occupation of land owned by the Ministry of Defense in Colombia. The community takes its name from a local peasant activist who was pulled from a house at dawn and shot to death by soldiers along with two others on August 4, 2004. “The problem is that Arauca is considered a red zone in Colombia, and any leader who orients people, who even just teaches them how to go to city hall (to manage their paperwork), that’s enough to say they’re a guerrilla and hunt them until they kill them,” said Ariza Aguilar.

Community members know that taking part in the occupation is an extremely risky activity, but for many the need for housing and the ability to send their children to school outweighs the risk.

Protesters in East China Clash with Police Over Waste Incinerator Plan

10th May 2014 Protesters in eastern China clashed with police at a rally against plans to build a huge waste incinerator that residents fear will be harmful to their health and add to pollution.

Choking smog blankets many Chinese cities and the environmental degradation resulting from the country’s breakneck economic growth is angering its increasingly well-educated and affluent population.

Two of the protesters told Reuters that the demonstrations, which have lasted for more than two weeks, turned violent with hundreds of police descending onto the streets of Yuhang, close to the tourist city of Hangzhou.

“There have certainly been injuries,” one of the protesters, Wu Yunfeng, said by telephone. “The police have closed down the roads into Yuhang and locked the site down.”

Another protester, who declined to give her name, said several police cars had been overturned.

A police officer, reached by telephone, said the demonstration had already ended. He declined to provide further details.

Reuters was unable to reach the local government for comment.

On Friday, the official Hangzhou Daily newspaper defended the construction of the incinerator, saying the technology it would use was safe and up to standard.

Hangzhou, capital of prosperous Zhejiang province and best known in China as the site of a famous lake, has seen its lustre dimmed in recent years by a recurrent smog problem.

Pictures on China’s Twitter-like Weibo site showed police fighting with protesters and at least two protesters with blood streaming down their faces.

Another picture showed several hundred people surrounding a large group of police.

“We don’t want our children and grandchildren to get cancer. Give us back our beautiful home,” read one letter of protest carried on Weibo.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the pictures’ authenticity.

About 90,000 “mass incidents” – a euphemism for protests – occur each year in China, triggered by corruption, pollution, illegal land grabs and other grievances.

Late in March, hundreds of residents of the southern town of Maoming staged protests against plans to build a petrochemical plant there, for fear it would contribute to pollution.

Tibetan Jumps to His Death to Protest Chinese Mine

9th May 2014 A young Tibetan stabbed himself and jumped to his death from the roof of a building in Tibet’s Chamdo prefecture on Wednesday after authorities tried to halt his protest against a Chinese mine being built in the area,

Phakpa Gyaltsen, 32, died instantly after throwing himself from a building in Dzogang (in Chinese, Zuogang) prefecture’s Tongbar town, a Tibetan living in India told RFA’s Tibetan Service on Wednesday, citing local sources.

After telling local Tibetans that he would “do something” to oppose Chinese mining in Dzogang, Gyaltsen “went to the town center, climbed onto a high building, and called out for Tibetan freedom,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“When attempts were made to stop him, he stabbed himself twice and jumped off the building, dying instantly,” he said.

Tibet—called Xizang, or Western Treasure, by China—has become an important source of minerals needed for China’s economic growth, and mining operations in Tibetan regions have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms of disrupting sites of spiritual significance and polluting the environment as they extract local wealth.

Chinese mining operations at a site near Madok Tso called Ache Jema began almost two months ago, an exile source in Europe said, also citing contacts in Dzogang.

“They claimed that they are working to build a dam, but in reality they are planning to mine in the area, the source said.

“So the local Tibetans decided to stop the plan, and every day three Tibetans were sent to guard the area, working in rotation.”

Detained

Some of those watching the site were later detained by police in Tongbar but were released after a few days, he said.

“Local authorities also tried to convince area residents not to oppose the mining by offering each family 10,000 yuan [U.S. $1,603] in compensation,” RFA’s India-based source said, adding, “But the Tibetans argued that mining would have negative impacts [on the area].”

“Phakpa Gyaltsen then told the local Tibetans that he would do something himself so that they would not have to protest and cause problems.”

Gyaltsen, the elder son of the area’s Choeshoe family, is survived by a wife and three small children, with another child on the way, he said.

“Phone connections to the area are now blocked, and it is difficult to learn anything more about what is happening,” he said.

Sporadic demonstrations challenging Beijing’s rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008, with 131 Tibetans to date self-immolating to protest Chinese rule and call for the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

Reported by RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

In Russia, Home-Grown Environmental Activism on the Rise

8th May 2014 Nina Popravko, one of the few professional environmental lawyers in Russia, is defending in court a group of a dozen activists in the small town of Kozmodemiansk, in the Mari El Republic on the Volga River. They have been fighting for years against plans to build a domestic waste landfill, which they say is too close to a residential block.

Straight after court hearings in the case, Popravko jumps on a train to Ufa, a city with more than a million inhabitants in the south Urals, where several hundred people are trying to organise an independent public hearing about the construction of a wood-processing factory.

Back at home near St. Petersburg, where Popravko lives and works for the environmental non-governmental organization Bellona, another fight is under way.

A group of activists are mobilising after the felling of almost 200 large pine trees to make way for a new luxury residential housing development. The activists are filing a lawsuit against the development company, which they believe acquired the plot of land illegally, as part of their drive to stop further logging in a larger forest area.

“I really notice the growing involvement of many ordinary people in the environmental movement,” Popravko says.

City dwellers across Russia are getting organised and fighting for their environmental rights at a more professional level than before, the lawyer says. They are learning to file lawsuits, organise public hearings, and work with journalists and social networks, as well as building protest camps and obstructing construction sites.

Many such local initiatives get support from larger and longer-established environmental non-governmental organisations such as Greenpeace and WWF Russia, but many also are fighting on their own – sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

WHAT WORKS

There is no clear recipe for victory, says Alexander Karpov, an expert with the ECOM centre, who has spent more than 10 years supporting local environmental and urban initiatives all over Russia and helping them grow.

He recently began working as a consultant with the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, drafting laws and other legal acts, and bringing needed insight and expertise to the work of the regional parliamentarians.

Karpov argues that the success of any environmental cause depends on the amount of time and energy activists are prepared to spend protecting their rights. He also maintains that expertise is crucial, and that the more ‘professionally’ activists interact with local administrators, draft legal documents and engage in high-quality lobbying for their cause, the better the chance of success.

Public interest in environmental issues has been rising in Russia over the last few years. Some experts link this with the growing financial wellbeing of the country’s population, which is giving more citizens the opportunity to travel abroad, and to plan their future and that of their children.

CORRUPTION AND GOVERNANCE LINK

Other experts say it is a reaction to mounting corruption and “bad” governance, often at a local level, involving local authorities building corrupt ties with a local or national company while neglecting local residents.

The push toward greater environmental activism has been met with a mixed response by Russia’s leaders.

Nikolay Gudkov, a spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said his ministry was “actively working with citizens, environmental initiatives and activists – both through our community liaison office and through further online resources” such as the website Nasha Priroda (“Our Nature”), which was launched in late 2013 and allows people from all regions of Russia to report environmental violations in their neighbourhoods, using geo-location technology.

He said ministry representatives also have organised a few meetings with environmental activists working on notorious local conflicts – such as the fight over the wood-processing facility in Ufa, and a situation in central Russia where residents are fighting plans for nickel and copper mining.

But the Russian parliament, the State Duma, has also recently initiated a number of legal acts potentially hindering the rights of local activists and opportunities for wider public participation in city planning and regional development.

In late December, members of parliament tried to pass a draft law cancelling public hearing procedures for a number of infrastructure construction projects. However, after a civil campaign initiated by activists and environmental lawyers, the draft “got hung up,” Popravko said.In mid-March, however, another bill significantly reducing the number of situations in which public hearings must be held passed in its first reading. Environmental lawyers argue the bill contradicts Russian and international rules of law.

“The Russian Parliament is moving forward draft laws which seriously limit public participation” a group of environmental lawyers said in their public appeal. A campaign against the bill is ongoing.

URBAN FOCUS

One of the most popular environmental issues in Russia at the moment is urban ecology – the environmental aspects of cities’ development. That includes clean transport, a focus on air and water quality, the protection of green zones and parks, and sustainable consumption and lifestyles.

Such interest is centred mainly in large cities with populations of over half a million people, but it has begin springing up in small towns as well.

Roughly speaking, most of these civil initiatives fall into two groups, experts say.

The first comprise protest actions – against new building of infrastructure or housing, or against the destruction of a park, for instance. Such groups form quickly, and their success often depends on the solidarity and energy of their participants, as well as on the resources they can invest, experts say.

Groups of this kind initiate legal cases or public hearings, work with media and social networks, and organise protests – and quite often the groups fall apart after the case is won or lost.

The most complicated efforts are long-running ones that last several years, and can result in activists becoming worn out, losing energy and losing interest in the case.

Activists face a variety of threats, including physical violence or legal prosecution. Recently, environmental activist Evgeny Vitishko, from Tuapse in southern Russia, was jailed for three years for writing protest slogans and attaching posters to a fence around the villa of the Krasnodar governor.

Vitishko alleged the villa had been built illegally in a forest reserve and its owner had fenced off a stretch of the coastline.

A Vitishko support campaign has been launched, and “it is particularly important that we also get international support for the case – both for Evgeny Vitishko himself and for the growing environmental movement in Russia”, says Dmitry Shevchenko, a Krasnodar-based activist with the NGO “Environmental Watch of the North Caucasus.”

FILLING THE VACUUM

Another part of of Russia’s growing environmental movement consists of community and civil society activists trying to put bottom-up initiatives in place to “substitute” for failing state regulation, given the absence of an environmental agenda and policy mechanism at both federal and regional levels, experts say.

These groups build up environmental and volunteer networks in areas such as separating garbage collection, recycling, planting trees, taking care of parks and shores, and promoting eco-friendly agriculture and a green lifestyle.

One of the best-known organisations is the movement Musora bolshe net (meaning “no more rubbish”) created first as a volunteer initiative to remove trash from forests and lake shores and developed later into a full-scale network organisation, active in many projects from community recycling to environmental education.

Many such groups gather annually at a Delai Sam (Do it yourself) Summit, first only held in Moscow but now in other cities as well, to exchange practices, technologies and skills.

It is not only the young and trendy who take part in such initiatives. In some cities, groups are led by female pensioners using their free time to build up community do-it-yourself groups to improve the urban environment.

Still, quite often activists float from one environmental focus area to another. Tatyana Kargina, originally from Irkutstk and now living in Moscow, is one of Russia’s best-known environmental activists.

She set up a first eco-housing project in Moscow, one of the first Russian networks for environmental-friendly living and consumption, as well as other initiatives. During the last couple of years she’s also been active in a civil society protest action against plans to begin nickel mining in Voronezh region, Central Russia, an agricultural region rich with black soils, nature reserves and biodiversity.

SUSTAINABLE CITIES

Growing environmental activism in Russia also is focused on the need for more sustainable and inclusive city and region development. An Open Urban Lab uniting around 30 young professionals involved in urban planning, architecture, public participation and sustainable development, has been trying to introduce participation principles into city and neighbourhood planning in Russian cities recently.

The organisation, while working with regional administrations and business, sees “participation as a technology to transform social groups earlier not included in decision making into included ones, in order to create and sustain public good,” said Oleg Pachenkov from the Open Urban Lab.

The process of civil society development is hardly smooth or quick – but the trend is there, experts say.

“Quite often ordinary citizens don’t really want to become activists, don’t want to spend all their free time campaigning, protesting, talking to media, promoting the case in social networks 24 hours a day,” said Popravko, the lawyer. “But after realising that they can’t really appeal to anyone, not to city authorities, not to control bodies, they just have to become activists themselves and try to influence the situation, which they reckon affects their lives and living environments.”

Nantes, France: Call for a Demo and Decentralized Solidarity Actions Against Repression of the Anti-airport Movement

8th May 2014 On February 22nd, 2014, more than 50,000 people gathered in Nantes for the biggest anti-airport demonstration ever.

8th May 2014 On February 22nd, 2014, more than 50,000 people gathered in Nantes for the biggest anti-airport demonstration ever. As it was declared illegal by the prefecture, it quickly faced stunning repression; hundreds of over-armed cops surrounded the demo while a huge anti-riot wall blocked the central street of the city (le cours des 50 otages). It was the first time in Nantes’ social struggles history that a demo couldn’t pass by there. Politicians and media talked about “lootings” and “devastations”, deploring the violence after a group of demonstrators attempted to walk the original route.

However, the Power and its accomplices failed to mention the extreme ferocity in the crackdown on this demonstration. On February 22nd, hundreds of people were hurt by police weapons. At least three of them lost an eye from rubber-bullet shots. A lot of people breathed tear gas, were shaken up from stun grenades, or wounded from dispersion grenades, or repulsed by water cannons.

A few weeks later, on March 31st, media exultantly declared a first “dragnet” following a special police force’s investigation. Nine comrades had their houses searched and were arrested in the early morning. Two of them were immediately released, as one of them was not even in Nantes on the day of the demonstration. Four others couldn’t prepare their defense since they were sent to the court through the immediate arraignment procedure. Sentences are as heavy as the records are empty: indeed, the only real evidence the prosecution had were the confessions of the accused. Three of them have been condemned to prison terms without remission. During this parody of a trial, judge Tchalian did not hesitate to double the prosecutor’s requisitions and put our comrade Enguerrand directly in prison. One year in prison without remission for some stones and smoke cans.

The purpose of the repression from police and the justice system that the anti-airport movement is now facing is only to terrorize those who revolt and start fighting against capitalism’s hold on our living spaces. It is to psychologically and physically touch a social movement, to mutilate and incarcerate some of us to reach all the others. The sentences and mutilations of the 22nd of February are not only an application of laws or peacekeeping techniques—they are deeply political. This real state terrorism expresses clearly what must be expected for those who resist.

Today, Enguerrand, Quentin, Damien, Emmanuel, Philippe, J. and G. are its victims. It could have been any one of us. According to the State and its so-called justice, taking part in a demonstration is sufficient to justify the loss of an eye or a prison term.

We shouldn’t step back as we are facing such violent repression. By doing so, we would only prove their case. The best support we can give to our wounded and incarcerated comrades is to keep on fighting. Our struggle has never been so powerful, and we have never been so close to realizing a future without concrete. More than ever, we must keep on fighting and not give anything up in the struggle against the airport and the world that produces it.

Against the assassin Power that mutilated and incarcerated, we have a weapon that it cannot take back. In a letter, on April 8th, Enguerrand stated: “The strength of activist solidarity cannot be defeated,” and indeed, we agree. Actions in support of those wounded and accused in the struggle have already been diverse and numerous, modeled on the diversity within the movement. Infinite are the potential actions. Organize a concert or a fundraiser to financially support the accused and their families. Call for a demonstration (“peacefully helmeted”? —a reference to the “Flashballes” song) to express revolt against police crimes. Cover the walls with painted slogans or posters to make sure that no one ignores what is happening…

Every initiative is welcome to bring reassurance to our comrades and remind the Power of our rage and determination. Against the conniving silence of the media spectacle, we can only rely on ourselves to make “justice” a meaningful word again. We strongly encourage every solidarity action against repression of the anti-airport movement, no matter whether it happens in Nantes or anywhere else, today or anytime.

No justice, no peace!
Solidarity with the wounded and the accused!
No to the airport and its world!

DEMONSTRATION Saturday, May 17th, 2014 at 3pm – Nantes prefecture

To write to the support committee for Enguerrand or to sign this call: soutien.enguerrand(at)riseup.net

Former ELF Member Pleads Guilty to Arsons; Snitches on Friends for Reduced Sentence

Tomorrow, May 5, 2014, Liam Mulholland will be sentenced for his involvement in a 2003 ELF arson.

Mulholland pleaded guilty to setting fire to a house at Mystic Forest housing development in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on March 21, 2003. Spray painted on the garage of a neighboring house were the words “ELF – No Sprawl.”

In Michigan, the mandatory minimum for this kind of property destruction is five years in prison. However, the government has requested a reduced sentence because of Mulholland’s “cooperation” with the federal government.

From his plea agreement and the Government’s Sentencing Memorandum, it seems Mulholland handed the feds a lot of information. He claimed involvement in several more ELF and ALF actions, including arsons that destroyed two homes at another housing development in Michigan in June of 2003; using incendiary devices to destroy chicken delivery trucks in Bloomington, Indiana in May of 2002; an arson at a housing development in Bloomington, Indiana in June of 2002; and a failed attempt to set fire to a pumping station in Stanwood, Michigan, in September of 2003.

Mulholland also provided feds with the names of the other activists with whom he carried out these actions—as well as where and how they traveled, where and when they planned and discussed their actions, what they purchased for the actions, how they disposed of the purchased items, and how they carried out each action.

The government is requesting a sentence of 18 months for Mulholland—a reduction of 42 months from the state’s mandatory minimum—because his cooperation will aid the government in cracking down on the other ELF and ALF suspects: “The government has determined that the defendant’s cooperation to date amounts to substantial assistance in the investigation or prosecution of others.”

Photo captured from Local 4 Defenders.

The agreement also asserts that, because of his cooperation, all his charges related to the other admitted ELF and ALF arsons will be dismissed.

And it seems that Mulholland isn’t the only one snitching. The Sentencing Memorandum states that, though Mulholland often asserted that he was simply “along for the ride” during these actions, the feds have received contradictory information: “According to witnesses, it was the defendant who had the expertise to construct incendiary devices and did so for both the arson of the delivery trucks at Sim’s Poultry, as well as the attempted arson of the Ice Mountain pumping station.”

Stay tuned for more information after tomorrow’s sentencing hearing. If anyone has pictures of Liam Mulholland, or more information, please send them to collective [at] earthfirstjournal [dot] org, so that the word can be spread, and activists and activist groups can be on guard for the presence of this snitch.

For more information on snitches and informants, be sure to check out our online Informant Tracker.

Rabbit is an editor for the Earth First! Journal and Newswire. He can be reached at rabbit [at] earthfirstjournal [dot] org. If you appreciated reading this article, or want to support the informant tracking and prisoner support services, please consider subscribing or donating today.

Karadere beach Bulgaria

Karadere beach is one of the last stretches of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast not yet covered in concrete, and free camping is still permitted there. A plan to develop the beach into a "holiday village" has been on the cards for several years and recently, developers began cutting trees, prompting thousands to protest in the streets in Sofia and Varna.

After a lot of secrecy, some of the investors in the proposed development have been named. The company known as Madara holdings (formerly Mayfair holdings) or Madara Europe which is owned by Rainbow Malta, head man Paul Riley seems to be the main player All these companies are based in the channel islands, and the investors seem to be British (although the whole affair is very murky with corruption, and there are probably other Bulgarian and/or Russian investors lurking in the shadows). The British involvement seems to be significant, and if the British investors could be pursuaded to withdraw, the project would be set back.The British investors are named on this excellent journalism page, and the site has other info about Karadere

http://tinyurl.com/lg8p86e

It also seems that some of the investors are in south wales, and are linked to a rugby club in Cardiff

https://opencorporates.com/companies/gb/03389199

More info on these people could certainly be uncovered by someone on the ground in Britain. It would be great to get this issue raised in Britain, and see some of these investors publically shamed.

There is lots of stuff about Karadere on facebook and youtube

love and rage!

May Gathering in Plymouth to Prevent Wilful and Accidental Nuclear Holocaust

The Tamarians are inviting members of the public to a gathering in Plymouth from the 9th to the 12th of May 2014. The group is a local affinity group of Trident Ploughshares, and is determined to abolish Weapons of Mass Destruction, starting with the one on their doorstep: the Trident submarine based system.

Saturday is a day of workshops: NVDA, facilitation and consensus, update on Devonport subs, dance of nuclear fission, stories from veteran peace activists, banner making and insurrectional art.

Food and shelter will be provided for the whole weekend.

Address: 74 Mutley Plain, Plymouth
Directions: Mutley Plain, Plymouth
Nearest Public Transport: Plymouth train station; Bretonside Bus station
Postcode: PL4 6LS
Time: 9:30
Price: Donations are welcome
Phone: 01822 832 815
Email: tp_tamarians@hotmail.co.uk
Web: www.tridentploughshares.org

Support the SOCPA 7

22nd April Over recent years there have been many attempts to stop UK activists protesting against Europe’s largest animal testing laboratory; Huntingdon Life Sciences. Activists have been arrested, raided, imprisoned and banned from taking part in the campaign. Despite these attempts, SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) has been a groundbreaking campaign which has succeeded in almost bankrupting the multi-national corporation. Hundreds of companies have refused to deal with HLS after learning about the horrors happening to animals inside the torture lab – including some of the world’s largest business and financial institutions.

There is an ongoing battle taking place in the UK, with SHAC trying to shut down HLS and vested business and state interests trying to shut down SHAC. The desperation on the part of the state has lead to the introduction of new laws criminalising legitimate protest and the harassment and targeting of peaceful and lawful campaigners.

On 18th May 2012, three people were arrested in connection with a protest at a newly exposed supplier of Huntingdon Life Sciences. A fourth person was also arrested a few weeks later. The four were accused of SOCPA 145 (interfering with a contractual relationship so as to harm an animal research organisation) and SOCPA 146 (intimidation of persons connected with an animal research organisation). They were bailed with strict conditions, such as banning them from campaigning against HLS and ordering them to live and sleep only at designated addresses.

SOCPA 145 and 146 were introduced in 2005 to class even minor public order offences against vivisection as serious crimes and to enable higher sentencing of anti-vivisection protesters. An activist found guilty of a civil wrong whilst protesting against vivisection now faces up to 5 years imprisonment, whereas someone committing the same act in connection with another issue (anti-fascism, environmentalism etc) could expect to receive a small fine.

The four were rebailed numerous times over the next 8 months, although it is extremely bad practice (and fairly unusual) for the police to keep suspects on bail for such a prolonged period without reaching a decision. The delay behind this became apparent on Thursday 17th January 2013, when the four suspects and another two people, were raided and arrested – this time for “conspiracy” to commit SOCPA 145 and 146. This offence was allegedly in relation to SHAC and took place between October 2011 – June 2012, covering 25 incidents, including the protest the four suspects were already on bail for (which has now been dropped as an individual charge). All six were questioned and eventually bailed to return to the police station in April, again with strict conditions and this time banned from communicating with each other.

A seventh person was arrested in this case shortly afterwards and bailed along with the others.

During the raids, the policed forced entry to a number of properties, including those of the suspects’ partners and mistakenly, their neighbours. Many items were seized, including electronics and personal items unconnected to the case and belonging to both the defendants and other people living in the properties.

The most worrying aspect of this case is the lack of evidence of criminal activity against the defendants as individuals. As with previous cases, “conspiracy” is being used to group people together, without the need for evidence against them individually. During the police interviews they mentioned a number of protests against companies dealing with HLS (some of which the defendants were accused of attending), as well as direct action (although there is no suggestion or evidence that the defendants had any knowledge or involvement in this). Beneath the legal terminology, the only thing they’re accused of doing themselves, is taking part in protests.

This case is one of the most recent examples of the lengths the UK authorities are going to in their attempt to stop people campaigning against vivisection and especially HLS. When people are no longer able to attend a lawful protest without being accused of taking part in a criminal conspiracy, it is our responsibility to speak out.

In an atmosphere of increasing repression against activists and the criminalisation of effective campaigns, it is important that we show our solidarity for those involved and form a strong network to support the UK animal rights movement.

http://www.stopukrepression.org/