Category: Action Reports

Electronic blockade Wednesday 17. August from 10 am.

Lets force Landsvirkjun to face up to what we think of their destruction of Iceland for their own personal profit and that of multinational corporations.

It’s high time to paralyse the destruction of Icelandic nature.

Electronic blockade Wednesday 17. August from 10 am.

Lets force Landsvirkjun to face up to what we think of their destruction of Iceland for their own personal profit and that of multinational corporations.

We can do this by telephoning them, sending faxes to them or e-mailing them.

There are plenty of questions we would like to ask them.

For example: How comes Impregilo where at such an advantage during the bidding process for the contracting of the building of the Kárahnjúar dams? Was there a leak of information? Who hired Bechtel to build the ALCOA factory in Iceland if it was not ALCOA themselves? Could it have been Landsvirkjun employee Sigurdur St. Arnalds who hired them? What was discussed at meetings between Mr. Arnalds and Bechtel in Montreal “Long before even Alcoa got into the picture”? If that is the case what did Mr. Arnalds get for arranging the contract for Bechtel to
build an ALCOA factory in Iceland? What are the names of the various environmental scientists that Landsvirkjun have threatened or persecuted when they delivered scientific results that were considered inconvenient by Landsvirkjun. Whose environmental assesments did Landsvirkjun falsify systematically?

Lets have a looooooong good talk with them, send them huge attachments or endless black fax documents. Put their e-mails on post lists and spread the word as wide as possible.

Landsvirkjun, head offices
telephone: 00354-515-9000
fax: 00354-515-9007
e-mail: landsvirkjun@lv.is

Friârik Sophusson, director of Landsvirkjun
telephone: 00354-515-9011
e-mail: fridrik@lv.is

JÃhannes Geir Sigurgeirsson, president of the board of Landsvirkjun
e-mail: johannes@lv.is

157.157.138.213

hregg@lv.is
471 2951

hronn@lv.is
470 2602

 kristjank@lv.is
515 9241

more email addresses here-
http://www.lv.is/EN/employees.asp?catID=90
eg-
bjarnibj@lv.is
edvard@lv.is
bjarnimar@lv.is
einarmat@lv.is
eddaros@bi.is
stefanp@lv.is
kristjan@lv.is
thorbergur@lv.is
thrainn@lv.is
ofeigur@lv.is
agnar@lv.is
arni@lv.is
bjornst@lv.is
gunnlaugur@lv.is
olis@lv.is
thorsteinn@lv.is
orlygur@lv.is
ragnheidur@lv.is
gudmundurp@lv.is
bergur@lv.is
asgeirg@lv.is
bjornj@lv.is
gunnhildurm@lv.is
sigthrud@lv.is
stefan@lv.is
ragnvig@lv.is
adalsteinn@lv.is
agnar@lv.is
albert@lv.is

http://vefprofun.lv.is

Today, the Department of Transport was targetted for the first time in about a year by anti-roads protesters.

Tuesday 16th August was an incredible day for our little campaign group from Southend on Sea. As some of you may now be aware we staged the latest in our series of ‘Save Priory Park!’ direct actions today, for the first time yet with the chosen venue being in the centre of London.

At 10.40am Tuesday morning, a small team of activists from the group, tailed by a London Tonight film crew and independent videographers, entered the Department for Transport (DfT) main office lobby on Marsham Street, locking down for an inside occupation that ran into the early afternoon.

The DfT is due to make a decision regarding funding for the F5 road scheme imminently, so we took action to draw media and public attention to the decision makers, to try to influence the process, and to show that the people of our town – plus our great friends from further afield – feel strongly enough to take direct action as need be to stop the road.

In conjunction with the inside team, who deployed handcuffs and lock on equipment to stay in position, a larger group unfurled two 12′ banners outside the entrance, in addition to posters depicting finds from the threatened East Saxon king’s burial site. This enabled us to maintain public engagement throughout the event, as the access doors to the DfT were
promptly locked after our arrival.

Negotiations ensued, with the office being unwilling to speak to the inside team, unless we first took the decision to leave the building. Our stance was agreed to be that we would only unlock if a senior representative from the DfT spoke to us in person, otherwise we would have to be forcibly removed by the authorities.

Eventually after a polite stand off that lasted for over two hours, the Metropolitan Police were called and we were given one final opportunity to go at around 1.00pm. We were then ejected from the building, whilst still being locked together as we had been for the duration of the event.

Although being threatened with various possible charges including a breach of the peace – even after our forced relocation outside – we chose to stay and continue the protest to maximise our impact, with lunchtime office workers taking much interest in the proceedings. Surprisingly for us, and in light of all of the above, no arrests were made.

Looking back for once, we have come a long way since we formed Parklife in June 2001. We have shown yet again that local people can empower themselves, by taking action to stand up for what they believe in. We remain a single issue and highly focused campaign/action group, but at the same time we hope that people will say, ‘If they can do it then we can!’

Parklife video 6mins (6.6mb mpeg4 version) –
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2005/09/323692.mp4
A short sequence of clips from tuesdays action at the department of transport. 2 mins 4 mb –
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2005/08/321318.mov

e-mail: priory_parklife@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://www.savepriorypark.org

Earlier this summer an illegal roadstone quarry at Back Dale Quarry, on Longstone Edge Nr Bakewell was targeted by saboteurs.

The quarry owned by Bleaklow Industries, was being mined by Merrimans (Merrimans, Gleabe, and Stancliffe – 9 Ladies – are the main companies ripping up the Peak Park).

The Quarry was granted permission for mineral extraction (Flurspar) in the 1950’s. Due to protest about the quarry which eats into Longstone Edge and the Combe Dale SSSI,(Sites of Special Scientific Interest) including mention in Parliment, quarrying by RMC stopped. Merrimans took over and to maximise their profits started to illegally extract roadstone.

The pressures on our National Parks will increase as the new road building program gets underway. At the start of this year the Peak Park Authority took out an injunction to stop Merrimans from extracting roadstone at Back Dale, as the quarry is eating into the Edge and the woods there at a rapid pace. Merrimans have refused to stop extracting the stone, even stepping up their extraction.

Due to these facts persons unknown took it upon themselves to take direct action againts machinery used there and 2 excavators and 2 crushing and sorting conveyers had their engines destroyed, 2 crushing and sorting converyers and a drilling rig had their engines sabotaged, 2 lorries and a bulldozer had locks glued, and a dust lorry was sabotaged.

The Save Happy Valley Campaign has taken the fight against Solid Energy to a new level. In a carefully planned protest, three activists ‘locked on’ to train tracks at about 11.50am today preventing Solid Energy’s coal trains reaching Lyttelton port [first press release]. Two were locked onto the track directly and a third was hanging from a tree 30m up with his support rope connected to the track.

Three trains were forced to stop and police quickly turned up [second press release]. Those locked-on refused to move and police were forced to dig up the concrete that been laid to remove the two directly connected. The third in the tree took longer for the police to get down. In all, the protesters held up the coal trains for just under 4 hours.

All three have been arrested and charges of trespass, wilful damage and trespass under the Railways Act. They have vowed to fight the charges and as well as Solid Energy’s intimidation tactics, who plan to sue them for two hundred thousand dollars [third press release].They will be staging a protest at their first court appearance this Thursday, 9.00am at the District Court in Christchurch.

Solid Energy has been pushing very aggressively to destroy Happy Valley, a beautiful area of native bush, fragile wetlands and a thriving ecosystem of native birds and animals located on the West Coast of New Zealand, with an open-cast coal mine and have just recently cleared the necessary legal hurdles. The mine will not only destroy the valley and the surrounding area, but further add to climate change which is expected to have devastating global consequences if left to continue unabated.

Check out www.savehappyvalley.org.nz for more information about Solid Energy’s plans and the campaign against them.

Corporate Watch is a small independent research co-op, publishing info on corporations to help resistance to corporate power. We publish newsletters every two month and emailnews updates every two weeks. To subscribe to either visit www.corporatewatch.org.uk

CORPORATE WATCH LATEST NEWSLETTER NOW OUT

URGENT — SUPPORT TESCO AGENCY WORKERS

Workers in Tesco’s Irish distributing centres have been protesting against conditions since Thursday 28th. Mainly Polish agency staff, they have been brought over by Tesco, presumably in the hope that they will work for lower pay and not know their rights. Two workers who complained at the a back-breaking targets were moved to another workplace. Now they are calling for solidarity pickets of all Tescos on Thursday the 6th of August, at 6pm. freelance @mailworks.org

MORE NEWS…

CHINA: BACK ON THE SCENE

During the last ten years China has become a full part of the globalised corporate economy. This is a return to normality for the country that dominated world trade for most of its history. On the basis of China’s massive labour force, most analysts are predicting a similar role in the near future. Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1865

CHINA’S CORPORATE BABIES

The news that Nanjing Automotive had succeeded in its bid to buy failing car company MG Rover, 22nd July, was greeted as yet more evidence of Chinese economic strength. ‘There is a new kid on the world’s economic and political block; everything is going to change’ — Will Hutton. As former editor of the Observer and Chief Executive of the Work Foundation (a business think tank, formerly the Industrial Society), Hutton is a good indicator of what the UK elite are thinking — and it seems that they view China’s rising economy with both excitement and a frisson of fear. Read more: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1866

CORPORATE WATCH G8 MINI POSTER

See the latest A3 Poster from Corporate Watch. Lie 8 at the G8.
Download the image here:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1868

BOOK REVIEW: THE CORPORATION

Joel Bakan’s seminal anti-corporate work, The Corporation — probably the most read book in our office since David Korten’s When Corporations Rule the World — has been re-released in a new revised and expanded edition (*now with added Chomsky*). Read more: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1881

CORRUPTION IN IRAQ: AKA ‘THE NORMAL’ WAY TO DO BUSINESS

The corporate invaders of Iraq have found themselves mired in corruption. Many report that sweetener payments for those who fix them with clients and sub- contractors have become part of the routine. In typical colonial fashion, the occupiers blame Iraq’s endemic bribery and fraud, not on the way that the American firms like Halliburton conduct themselves. Read more: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1867

SEA SHELLS AND PIPE DREAMS

Shell are up to some more landscape trashing, leading a consortium proposing to build an overland pipeline through the west of Ireland. Wending its way sixty five kilometres off the North West coast, passing through villages and farmers’ land, the pipeline will got from the Corrib gas field in Western Ireland to a refiner then end at Galway. Read more: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1870

WEIR — REAPING THE BENEFITS OF WAR

Supported by the British government, Weir  ‘Scotland’s 20th largest company’ is playing a key role in economic imperialism and feeding the west’s oil addiction. Read more: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1871

WHO’S PULLING THE EU LOBBY STRINGS?

Corporate lobbyists first began migrating to Brussels after the signing of the Single European Act in 1986, sensing the rich pickings to be had from Europe’s neoliberal slide. Nearly two decades later there are over 15,000 lobbyists, 70 per cent representing corporate interests, operating in hundreds of lobbying consultancies, PR agencies and EU affairs offices in an industry which generates an estimated €90m every year. Yet unlike in the United States, there are still no binding requirements for EU lobbyists to disclose who they are lobbying for, what they are lobbying on, or how much they are being paid. Read more: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1872

YOUR DEBT DRIVES THE ECONOMY

Ever felt guilty about taking out a loan to buy that car, fridge or presents at Christmas? Well don’t — with all the factories closing down and even the call centres being sourced overseas, consumer spending is one of the only things driving the UK economy. Read more: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1892

PANDA-ING TO THE SOYA BARONS?

‘In the past the big conservation organisations used to believe that nature reserves should not include people, so many were moved out, and indigenous people lost their lands. Now it seems as though the WWF is making another big mistake, with serious implications for small farmers, rural communities and food sovereignty.’ Helena Paul, EcoNexus. Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1873

WWF REPLIES TO CORPORATE WATCH’S ARTICLE:

http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1890

DIRECT ACTION FLOODS ICELAND

Direct action against the Karahnjukar hydro-electric dam project in Iceland has started in earnest. The dam will devastate Western Europe’s last pristine wilderness, solely to power an Alcoa aluminium smelter (see Corporate Watch number 23, April May 2005, page 9). Read more: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1889

DIARY:

http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1864

CORPORATIONS THROUGH HISTORY: HSBC

The ‘world’s local bank’ started off as a British company that took over the lucrative trade with China, after the Opium wars of the mid-nineteenth century had opened up the economy to foreign traders. Read more: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1874

—
Corporate Watch
Oxford, UK
www.corporatewatch.org.uk
01865 791 391

Corporate Watch is an independent research co-op. Please help us out by donating money or subscribing to the newsletter

Original press release:

Today a group of activists invaded the Alcoa construction site at Reyðarfjörður and climbed cranes on the site. The aim of this action was to stop the work on the site. Alcoa have been targeted because of their involvement in the Kárahnjúkar dam project and the other proposed dam projects and aluminium smelters in the Icelandic highlands as well as environmental destruction worldwide. The Icelandic high court has judged that the building of the Alcoa factory in Reyðarfjörður is illegal; we demand that the construction of this factory is immediately halted in observance of this court ruling.

This action was only one of many that shall be taken against Alcoa and their like in Iceland and across the world. The last clean wilderness in Western Europe, heavy industry must not be allowed to despoil Icelandic nature. This is a call out to the people of Iceland and all in peoples of the earth to stand up and fight against the destruction of our environment and culture.

As you will see in the video at the end. some strong Alcoa supporters were trying to bust one of the protest supporters car and got arrested for it (dum fuck)

The crane shown in the picture is from a company called Weldex, based in Inverness, Scotland:

Tel: 01463 220333
Fax: 01463 241616
E-mail: info@weldex.co.uk
Web: http://www.weldex.co.uk/

How about calling and e-mailing them and demanding that they remove their equipment from the site?!

Short video of action –http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2005/08/320344.mov

On the first of August 2005 a group of activists dropped a banner at the Karahnjukar Dam Site in Protest abainst all planned Heavey Industry in Iceland..

A painted crack indicated the dangers of such collosal construction on a substructure already weakened by geothermal pressuresIn 2003 Landsvirkinjun’s chief, fridrik Sophusson, was asked what would happen if there was an Earthquake under the Dam. “It would burst. A catasprophic wall of water would annihilate everyone in this ….and all the neighbouring farms wold be swept away.” Though he said “this won’t happen”, several days of continous Earthquakes in 2004 suggest otherwise protesters commented. The crack is also a symbol of solidarity with other Dam Campaigners globally. In 1980 the ecological resistance group ‘Earth first’ dropped a 100 metres  banner from Glen Canyon Dam on Colorado River (U.S.A.).

Twenty years later a strong movement is successfully challenging development and has achived reversal of some plans. It is hoped the same will happen here.

In 2001 The national planning agency (NPA) rejected plans for Karahnjukar because of the”substantial, Irreversible, negative environmental impact” – yet it is still going ahead.If these projects continue, iceland will and itself destroyed, polluted, enslaved to foreign companies and living with a timebomb. This action is to highlight the dangers of heavy Industry, the successes of resistance in other countries and to call out to the icelandic people to join in and defend their country and culture.

The group of activists were detained for 9 hours in Egilsstadir without beeing formally arrested. The cases are beeing dealt with currently.

Video –http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2005/08/320242.mov

e-mail: saveingiceland@riseupnet.is
Homepage: http://www.savingiceland.org

On Tuesday, the 29th June, 2005, in Dublin, Ireland, 5 farmers from Rossport, Co. Mayo,Ireland were sent to Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, for violating an order imposed by the High Court to stop blocking Shell access to their lands to constuct the onshore section of the Corrib Gas Field pipeline.

The men have appeared in Court several times since that date and have been asked whether or not they wish to purge their contempt and agree to obeying the injunction,a request the have flatly refused on each occasion.

A Nationwide campaign of Boycotts,Blockades,Pickets,Fundraisers,Large -Scale Demos,Occupations and sit-ins, Solidarity gatherings as well as a permanent activist camp and blockade at the remote site of the proposed pipeline has exploded in Ireland since the men’s jailing.

The Irish Government has given Shell carte blanche with Ireland’s energy resources. Shell and statoil plan to build the world’s first-ever onshore gas processing plant in Mayo, and can now have the courts imprison anyone who tries to get in their way.

The High Court has jailed five people at the request of Shell for attempting to stop the multinational from laying a controversial, high-pressure, “offshore” gas pipeline through their land in Rossport, Co Mayo. The judge ordered that the five men – four small landowners and a local supporter – be imprisoned “until they purge their contempt”, meaning they will not be released until they have promised to allow Shell to dig up their land.

The pipeline is proposed to run alongside the men’s homes as well as those of many other local residents at several times the normal pressure of such operations due to the distance thegas must travel form the sea-source to the onshore refinery.Shell have built 3km of the pipeline without planning permission and have told the Minister they are reporting to-Mr Noel Dempsey,of the right wing Fianna Fail party,that they will be “more careful@ in future”

The jailing comes 10 years after the execution of nine Ogoni activists for their opposition to Shell’s operation in Nigeria.
The supply pipeline will be carrying raw, unprocessed gas at high pressure, in close proximity to houses and through a protected estuary. The processing plant will burn waste oil on site and discharge it into the atmosphere, and will dump toxic waste directly into the estuary, which is a habitat for rare marine life. The Co. Mayo coastal area itself is a Whale and Dolphin sanctuary.

This issue raises again the incredible situation whereby the fabulous gas wealth off the coast of Co. Mayo has been given by the Government to Shell and Statoil for not a penny in royalties to the Irish people and with huge tax write offs against the cost of exploiting it. The alternative is that the gas would be treated and purified in a completely different way to the present proposals by Shell and Statoil. The fact is that the intense pressure of raw gas mixed with condensate oil and water, which is proposed to be brought through the disputed pipeline, is unprecedented by world standards and gives rise to potential unprecedented risks for the local community. To have residents exposed to this kind of pressure to facilitate a multinational corporation is intolerable.

The Irish people are rising up against these corporate thiefs and the corrupt government that gifted them our natural resources!
Like so many other issues we stuggle on,this is and has become more so an Internationational issue of corporate repression with state assistance!
The campaign is escalating and shall do so until the 5 men are released and receive justice for themselves and their families and until Shell have been stripped of the resources they have stolen from the Iirsh people!

BOYCOTT SHELL AND STATOIL!

More info,statistics,campaigns,how to get involved—
www.shelltosea.com
www.indymedia.ie
www.indymedia.ie/mayo

On Tuesday 19th July 2005.a group of approximately 20 of us hiked to the main junction approaching the site. Four of our group locked on to a pick up truck and a HUGE caterpillar construction vehicle. We managed to block 2 other access roads and hault work on the site for three hours. This was a first in Icelandic history:the police had to make up a word for lock-on. Thirteen of us were detained, apparently arrested, and later released without charge….with the warning that Impregilo were looking at this incident with grave eyes and were likely to make a civil case. Impregilo have since changed their mind. For a change, the media did report that the protesters were friendly!

We have gathered to protest the continuing devastation of global ecology in the interest of corporate profits. The struggle to save our planet, like the struggle against inhumanity, is global, so we have to be too. We are here to prevent the Karahnjukar Dam project from destroying Western Europe’s last great wilderness.

Dodgy Italian construction conglomerate Impregilo, is in charge of building most of the dam . One of Impregilo’s consultants has already been found guilty in 2003 of offering bribes to a Lesotho hydro-electric firm, and the company itself will face another hearing before the Lesotho courts in April 2005. Impregilo were also involved in building the Argentina’s Yacyreta dam, which went almost $10 million over budget and was labeled by President Carlos Menem ‘a monument to corruption’ . Impregilo were also one of the firms planning to build the infamous Ilisu dam in Turkey which, had it gone ahead, would have made 30,000 Kurds homeless and drowned the world historic site of Hasankeyf..

Aluminium smelters emit enormous quantities of greenhouse gases. In 2001, super-clean Iceland was able to negotiate a 10% increase in permitted emissions under the Kyoto protocol – the biggest increase in the world. In effect, Alcoa is buying Iceland’s licence to pollute, as well as cheap electricity. The ministry of environment also gave Alcoa a licence to emit 12 times the level of sulphur dioxide the World Bank expects from modern smelters. SO2; and fluoride, the most dangerous pollutants in terms of public health and land damage, will be pumped directly into the air via giant chimneys.

Many geologists fear catastrophic results, especially as construction is on a substructure weakened by geothermal fissures. Thorsteinn Siglaugsson, a risk specialist, prepared a recent independent economic report on Karahnjukar for the Icelandic Nature Conservation Agency. It states that the project would never have attracted private finance: “Karahnjukar will never make a profit, and the Icelandic taxpayer may well end up subsidising Alcoa.” A respected figure of the Icelandic university sent out an email declaring that it will take the Icelandic government 250 years simply to recoup the financial costs of the dam (which is unlikely to be operational by that time). Nobody will be making a profit except for Alcoa. The only explanation for this project is one which confirms the findings of the 2001 Greco (EU anti-corruption group) report, that “the close links between the government and the business community [in Iceland] could generate opportunities for corruption”. This project is corrupt to the core, and it is the first of many planned for the future. Iceland’s unique beauty is-literally- to be sacrificed to power the corporate machine.