Category: Action Reports

Earth First! summer gathering 17-21 August 2005

A national gathering to inspire and train all those opposed to the destruction of our planet

Earth First! Summer Gathering 2005
Wednesday 17th – Sunday 21st August
Peak District
Phone: 0845 355 0111
http://www.earthfirstgathering.org.uk/

Earth First! is not a cohesive group or campaign, but a convenient banner to work under for people who share similar ideas. The general principles behind the name are non-hierarchical organisation and the use of direct action to stop, and eventually reverse, the forces that are responsible for the destruction of the earth and its inhabitants.

Since 1992 many of the people under this banner have come together at gatherings to meet, socialise, discuss and organise direct action. This year’s gathering will take place in the Peak District. Here, in our first national park, is some of Britain’s most spectacular landscape.

“In the future our generation will be remembered for having the last opportunity to halt mass extinction, unprecedented even by the dinosaurs. Now is the time to gather and form an ecological resistance before the last great forests and life-support systems of the earth disappear forever. There is no turning back it is literally up to you.”

Sessions will cover a range of practical skills and struggles. Those already planned include self-defence, nanotechnology, blockade tactics, Gleneagles G8, navigation, Iceland Dams, action First Aid, indigenous resistance, climbing, ID cards, road and airport expansion, primitive skills, organising actions and campaigns, climate change, and ecological restoration. We’ll put more details up on the website as and when sessions are confirmed.

One day of the gathering will be an away-day out in the Peak District. As well as a chance to explore the local bioregion together, there’ll be practical sessions up in the hills and a visit to Nine Ladies, a direct action camp blocking quarry expansion in the Peak District National Park ( http://pages.zoom.co.uk/~nineladies ).

There will be a reception tent, vegan catering by Anarchist Teapot ( http://www.eco-action.org/teapot ), a café by Veggies ( http://www.veggies.org.uk/ ), a reading library, a womens’ space, and a camping area including a quiet sleeping area. Re-pressed (http://www.re-pressed.org.uk/ ) will be running a stall selling books and pamphlets. Commercial stalls are not welcome, but remember to bring any information about your group, campaign or forthcoming action.

Getting there: The nearest mainline station is Derby. The exact location of the site will be announced a week before the Gathering. For a map and travel details (including trains and buses close to the site), check the website or send a first-class stamped, addressed envelope marked GATHERING MAP to the address below. We will post it back to you so that it arrives on August 10th. Alternatively, check the website from that date. We’ll run pickups from the nearest train station a couple of times a day: ring the phone number for times. Details of any regional transport contacts will be put on the website.

Arriving and leaving: The first sessions start at 1pm on Wednesday 17th August, so aim to arrive by the evening of Tuesday 16th if you want to come to the whole event; the gate will be open from 12 midday. The last session will end on Sunday 21st at 6pm. After dinner there’ll be films and a ceilidh.

What to bring: Come equipped: bring shelter, warm waterproof clothes (just in case), and boots. You’ll need money for the gate and for food from Anarchist Teapot unless you’re catering for yourself. Do photocopy and bring any ‘how to’ guides you think might be useful.

Site crew is everyone who comes along. In order for us to have the gathering, vegetables need to be chopped, young people need to be entertained, washing up needs to be done, the gate tent needs to be staffed and compost toilets need to be maintained. Sometimes this is the best way to meet new people, have great conversations, and learn how to do new things. Come prepared to volunteer. You can sign up for shifts when you get there.

Cost: At the gate, we’ll be asking for £10 for every adult (including everyone helping out in any way) to cover the cost of organising the gathering.

Camping: The accommodation is camping only, so come equipped. A women-only camping space will be provided. We aim to be as fully-accessible to all as we can. If you have any special needs, contact us. A limited number of live-in vehicles are welcome: check with us in advance to see if there’s space.

Kids: Children are welcome. Please let us know how many kids are coming and how old they are. There’ll be a kids’ space, and some events for different ages, but you’re still responsible for the children you bring.

Dogs: There is a strict limit on the number of dogs we can have on this site, so please arrange beforehand for friends or relatives to look after your dog. If this is really not possible you must contact us beforehand, as any dogs not already booked will be turned away at the gate. Dogs must be kept on a lead at all times, and exercised off-site.

Food: The Anarchist Teapot mobile action kitchen will be cooking GM-free vegan food. You can buy their meal tickets for £3.50 a day, or bring your own food to cook and a camping stove.

Cameras and press: This is an action-orientated gathering, not a press event, so if you are coming as a journalist then you are not welcome. Please respect the wishes of some people not to be photographed and leave your camera at home.

NO COPS, NO JOURNALISTS, NO CAMERAS

Set-up and tat-down: We’ll need some people to help out on site for a few days before and after the gathering. If you can help, phone us on the number below.

Earth First! has no central office, no members, no paid workers, and also no money. Any donations will be appreciated. Make cheques and postal orders payable to “Earth First!”.

Earth First! Gathering 2005, 6 Tilbury Place, Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 2GY
Phone: 0845 355 0111
Email: summergathering @ yahoo.co.uk
Website: http://www.earthfirstgathering.org.uk/

Anti-shell action in Edinburgh

The parade started at the Irish embassy, and moved along early in the streets of Edinburgh. It was a colorful and relaxed protest despite the police taking photographs.

The protest was partly against the Shell pipeline being built in Mayo, Ireland, but also highlights shell appauling human rights and enviromental record.

More information at:
http://www.indymedia.ie/index.php?region=mayo
http://www.shellfacts.com

Direct action against the oil industry and the G8 started early today in Edinburgh….

Today at 07:30, 2 petrol stations were shut down in Edinburgh. The first was a BP station on Calder Road, and the second was a Shell station on Comiston Road. All pumps were put out of action with bike locks, and oil spills at the forecourt entrances meant no more business as usual for a while.

The oil industry, like the G8 is the epitome of capitalism and it’s ills. It places wealth and power in the hands of the few at massive expense to this planet’s environment and peoples.

Oil exploration and production destroys wilderness and maims ecosystems. 10,000’s of tonnes of oil are routinely dumped in rivers and oceans, poisoning aquatic life and water supplies.

In the U.K. alone, 24,000 people die prematurely each year from emissions from vehicles and refineries, and many more are killed or crippled on the roads.

Against this background, the vested interests of the oil industry fund academics to hide the causal link between greenhouse gases emissions from burning fossil fuels and spiralling climate change. Global temperatures are the highest in 2,000 years – we are facing an environmental meltdown crisis.

No amount of corporate PR exercises can hide how the oil industry helps make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Most of the top 20 petroleum corporations are based in G8 countries, with a revolving door of top jobs between their governments and the industry. These corporations set the global agenda, reaping massive profits as the majority world are crushed by poverty characterised by a lack of clean water, food, health care and education.

Workers in the oil industry suffer long arduous hours in dangerous condition, for poor pay. Easily preventable accidents are common. Attempts to unionise and organise for better conditions are met with intimidation, sackings and violence.
Oil multinationals literally call the shots, as they routinely back ruthless dictatorships across the world, from Sudan to Columbia, Angola to Indonesia. The death squads do their dirty work. Hand in glove with the ruling elites, they make sure that nothing stands in the way of their pipelines and profits. Should oil producing regimes not toe the line or comply with corporate interests, invasion is always an option, with the military might of the U.S. and U.K. as the enforcers.Tens of thousands were killed in Iraq to secure access to the world’s second largest oil reserves.

For all the G8’s talk of cancelling debt and promoting “development” (ha ha ha!), the existence of the oil industry and the capitalism which it drives condemns millions to hellish lives and is pushing life on earth to the brink of environmental and social catastrophe. Everything it touches dies. The G8, the oil industry and capitalism cannot be reformed. They must be dismantled and destroyed if there is to be any hope of a better world. This is why we take direct action, to dent their profits and to oppose their world of power and profit. The power and the odds against us are enormous, but we can never give up. Fight for a new world in any way you can.The oil industry is the epitome of capitalism and it’s ills. It places wealth and power in the hands of the few at massive expense to this planet’s environment and peoples.

Oil exploration and production destroys wilderness and maims ecosystems. 10,000’s of tonnes of oil are routinely dumped in rivers and oceans, poisoning aquatic life and water supplies.

In the U.K. alone, 24,000 people die prematurely each year from emissions from vehicles and refineries, and many more are killed or crippled on the roads.

Against this background, the vested interests of the oil industry fund academics to hide the causal link between greenhouse gases emissions from burning fossil fuels and spiralling climate change. Global temperatures are the highest in 2,000 years – we are facing an environmental meltdown crisis.

No amount of corporate PR exercises can hide how the oil industry helps make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Most of the top 20 petroleum corporations are based in G8 countries, with a revolving door of top jobs between their governments and the industry. These corporations set the global agenda, reaping massive profits as the majority world are crushed by poverty characterised by a lack of clean water, food, health care and education.

Workers in the oil industry suffer long arduous hours in dangerous condition, for poor pay. Easily preventable accidents are common. Attempts to unionise and organise for better conditions are met with intimidation, sackings and violence.
Oil multinationals literally call the shots, as they routinely back ruthless dictatorships across the world, from Sudan to Columbia, Angola to Indonesia. The death squads do their dirty work. Hand in glove with the ruling elites, they make sure that nothing stands in the way of their pipelines and profits. Should oil producing regimes not toe the line or comply with corporate interests, invasion is always an option, with the military might of the U.S. and U.K. as the enforcers.Tens of thousands were killed in Iraq to secure access to the world’s second largest oil reserves.

For all the G8’s talk of cancelling debt and promoting “development” (ha ha ha!), the existence of the oil industry and the capitalism which it drives condemns millions to hellish lives and is pushing life on earth to the brink of environmental and social catastrophe. Everything it touches dies. The G8, the oil industry and capitalism cannot be reformed. They must be dismantled and destroyed if there is to be any hope of a better world. This is why we take direct action, to dent their profits and to oppose their world of power and profit. The power and the odds against us are enormous, but we can never give up. Fight for a new world in any way you can. See you on the streets…

Earth First! summer gathering 17-21 August 2005

A national gathering to inspire and train all those opposed to the destruction of our planet

Earth First! Summer Gathering 2005
Wednesday 17th – Sunday 21st August
Peak District
Phone: 0845 355 0111
http://www.earthfirstgathering.org.uk/

Earth First! is not a cohesive group or campaign, but a convenient banner to work under for people who share similar ideas. The general principles behind the name are non-hierarchical organisation and the use of direct action to stop, and eventually reverse, the forces that are responsible for the destruction of the earth and its inhabitants.

Since 1992 many of the people under this banner have come together at gatherings to meet, socialise, discuss and organise direct action. This year’s gathering will take place in the Peak District. Here, in our first national park, is some of Britain’s most spectacular landscape.

“In the future our generation will be remembered for having the last opportunity to halt mass extinction, unprecedented even by the dinosaurs. Now is the time to gather and form an ecological resistance before the last great forests and life-support systems of the earth disappear forever. There is no turning back it is literally up to you.”

Sessions will cover a range of practical skills and struggles. Those already planned include self-defence, nanotechnology, blockade tactics, Gleneagles G8, navigation, Iceland Dams, action First Aid, indigenous resistance, climbing, ID cards, road and airport expansion, primitive skills, organising actions and campaigns, climate change, and ecological restoration. We’ll put more details up on the website as and when sessions are confirmed.

One day of the gathering will be an away-day out in the Peak District. As well as a chance to explore the local bioregion together, there’ll be practical sessions up in the hills and a visit to Nine Ladies, a direct action camp blocking quarry expansion in the Peak District National Park ( http://pages.zoom.co.uk/~nineladies ).

There will be a reception tent, vegan catering by Anarchist Teapot ( http://www.eco-action.org/teapot ), a café by Veggies ( http://www.veggies.org.uk/ ), a reading library, a womens’ space, and a camping area including a quiet sleeping area. Re-pressed (http://www.re-pressed.org.uk/ ) will be running a stall selling books and pamphlets. Commercial stalls are not welcome, but remember to bring any information about your group, campaign or forthcoming action.

Getting there: The nearest mainline station is Derby. The exact location of the site will be announced a week before the Gathering. For a map and travel details (including trains and buses close to the site), check the website or send a first-class stamped, addressed envelope marked GATHERING MAP to the address below. We will post it back to you so that it arrives on August 10th. Alternatively, check the website from that date. We’ll run pickups from the nearest train station a couple of times a day: ring the phone number for times. Details of any regional transport contacts will be put on the website.

Arriving and leaving: The first sessions start at 1pm on Wednesday 17th August, so aim to arrive by the evening of Tuesday 16th if you want to come to the whole event; the gate will be open from 12 midday. The last session will end on Sunday 21st at 6pm. After dinner there’ll be films and a ceilidh.

What to bring: Come equipped: bring shelter, warm waterproof clothes (just in case), and boots. You’ll need money for the gate and for food from Anarchist Teapot unless you’re catering for yourself. Do photocopy and bring any ‘how to’ guides you think might be useful.

Site crew is everyone who comes along. In order for us to have the gathering, vegetables need to be chopped, young people need to be entertained, washing up needs to be done, the gate tent needs to be staffed and compost toilets need to be maintained. Sometimes this is the best way to meet new people, have great conversations, and learn how to do new things. Come prepared to volunteer. You can sign up for shifts when you get there.

Cost: At the gate, we’ll be asking for £10 for every adult (including everyone helping out in any way) to cover the cost of organising the gathering.

Camping: The accommodation is camping only, so come equipped. A women-only camping space will be provided. We aim to be as fully-accessible to all as we can. If you have any special needs, contact us. A limited number of live-in vehicles are welcome: check with us in advance to see if there’s space.

Kids: Children are welcome. Please let us know how many kids are coming and how old they are. There’ll be a kids’ space, and some events for different ages, but you’re still responsible for the children you bring.

Dogs: There is a strict limit on the number of dogs we can have on this site, so please arrange beforehand for friends or relatives to look after your dog. If this is really not possible you must contact us beforehand, as any dogs not already booked will be turned away at the gate. Dogs must be kept on a lead at all times, and exercised off-site.

Food: The Anarchist Teapot mobile action kitchen will be cooking GM-free vegan food. You can buy their meal tickets for £3.50 a day, or bring your own food to cook and a camping stove.

Cameras and press: This is an action-orientated gathering, not a press event, so if you are coming as a journalist then you are not welcome. Please respect the wishes of some people not to be photographed and leave your camera at home.

NO COPS, NO JOURNALISTS, NO CAMERAS

Set-up and tat-down: We’ll need some people to help out on site for a few days before and after the gathering. If you can help, phone us on the number below.

Earth First! has no central office, no members, no paid workers, and also no money. Any donations will be appreciated. Make cheques and postal orders payable to “Earth First!”.

Earth First! Gathering 2005, 6 Tilbury Place, Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 2GY
Phone: 0845 355 0111
Email: summergathering @ yahoo.co.uk
Website: http://www.earthfirstgathering.org.uk/

Community request for help fighting Shell in Mayo, Ireland

Local community requests help from activists to fight a Shell/Statoil/Marathon gas pipeline that will threaten their lives and be ecologically devastating for an isolated, beautiful area of Ireland

The local community of Rossport, Co. Mayo is threatened with unprecedented human and ecological devastation by a collusion of the Irish State and a hydrocarbon consortium, led by Royal Dutch Shell. The consortium plan an unprecedented raw gas pipeline that will run over boggy land, within 70m of farmer’s houses and through a landslide prone area to a refinery, also built on bogland. The Irish State granted Shell Compulsory Acquisition Orders, which threaten the landowners with prison if they refuse to sell their land. There was also an injunction placed upon the landowners from preventing Shell employees access to their land.

Today, in the midst of a week-long blockade of the roads to the refinery building site by locals and activists, the High Court has ruled to imprison all five defendants for breaking the injunction (ie. refusing to allow Shell employess access to land). It looks like the Court will attempt to imprison everyone who gets in the way of this pipeline.

The area, Rossport in north Co. Mayo is one of incredible natural splendour. Broadhaven Bay, into which Shell would pump magnesium oxide, arsenic, lead etc. is a breeding ground for whales, basking sharks, dolphins (including the very rare Rizo’s dolphin) and salmon. A camp was first established at an early June solidarity weekend and there are now calls for its revitalisation. For photos of the solidarity weekend, go here:http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70173

For photos of the area, see here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayogas/

This campaign is winnable, but it needs committed activists. I am currently in London, but will be heading to Mayo immediately after the G8. I hope to spend the time until then informing people about this situation and getting people to go to the camp in Mayo. If you’d like to learn more, I’ll be at the gig in RampArts tonight; glasses, black hair, short and slightly silly Irish accent. Otherwise, I’ll be on the train on Friday. Please talk to me if you’d like to get involved so we can sort out logistics with the people in Mayo now.

e-mail: info@shelltosea.com
Homepage: http://www.indymedia.ie/mayo

nine ladies no real victory – The real news direct from the nine ladies collective.

Today we finally received the high court verdict regarding the classification of the quarries at lees cross and endcliffe. the quarries are now (or still) officially dormant. This means that the quarries cannot re open until the peak park have agreed a set of working conditions for them. Stancliffe Stone still have the permission to quarry from 1952, and the peak park still have the power to revoke the permission, or to impose such restrictions that the re opening of the quarries would be financially unviable. Our protest site must and will continue to exist in order to protect our beautiful hillside (in the second most visited national park on the planet), as it is still quite possible that this awesome natural heritage of ours could be destroyed. Please dont let the media convince you that this is a victory on our behalf. Please send your comments on the proposals to re-open Lees Cross and Endcliffe quarries to The Peak Distric National Park Planning Authority and Lord Edward Manners of ‘Haddon Hall’ (who owns the land) or come and visit our protest community. Thank you (and a happy nearly-solstice) from the 9-ladies collective! x x x

Iceland holds UK protestor for alleged £40,000 damage using yoghurt

Paul Gill, a British protester against Iceland’s ecologically devastating Karahnjukar dam project, is being held for allegedly committing £40,000 worth of criminal damage using ‘yoghurt’.

Details are sketchy at the moment, but it seems Paul and two icelanders attended an international aluminium industry conference and made their protest felt using the medium of butter milk – they emptied out the contents of two buckets containing a mixture of “sourmilk” (Not really yoghurt but a milk product, sometimes described as “butter milk” – makes more of a stink than yoghurt), water and green colour. Damage was done to computers, furniture and conference participants clothing, according to the hotel.

Subsequently the three were arrested. The two Icelanders were released, but Paul is being held at Litla Hraun prison in Reykjavik. The hotel, Hotel Nordica, hosting the conference is apparently seeking to press charges for £40,000 of criminal damage. The action was a total success but all three who were arrested will need all the support they can get.

There was a demonstration outside the Ministry of Justice in Reykjavik demanding the immediate release of Paul.

Please contact any or all of the following:

Litla Hraun Prison, Reykjavik: 00354 4809000 (between 6pm and 10pm), then press 3.
The British Consul: Simon Mitchell, 00354 6901501. Please be polite, we want these people on our side!
If anyone’s reading this in Iceland, Paul could really do with some support – legal, material and financial.

  • Can anyone recommend a good lawyer for this sort of thing? At the moment Paul’s having to rely on a police-appointed lawyer.
  • He could do with some clothes, soap and washing stuff and books in English.
  • Money wouldn’t go amiss, for phone cards etc.

Please do what you can to help! Email icelandsupport@trition.org.uk with any queries.

Police called to Titnore meeting

POLICE were called to a council meeting in Worthing on Friday June 10 after protesters stormed the stage.

The borough council’s planning committee was discussing highly controversial plans to build 900 homes and widen a road through woodland in Titnore Lane, Durrington, Worthing.

The intervention began after meeting chairman, Tory John Livermore, refused to take any more questions from the public at the packed hall, which was being used as an emergency council chamber because of the massive local interest.

While security staff ejected one protester, others occupied the stage, unfurling a large banner and forcing councillors to flee.
Police eventually removed all the protesters from the hall, after a half hour interruption, while chanting continued outside the front doors. There were no arrests.

Transport minister pied for support of Heathrow expansion lobby

Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Transport, was pied today at the launch event of a powerful new industry coalition, ‘Future Heathrow’, formed to ensure expansion of Heathrow goes ahead. Meanwhile over 100 local residents took time off work to demonstrate outside the CBI HQ launch event, with a huge banner reading ‘Future Heathrow Stinks’, and a new report that concludes that Heathrow contributes little to the national or local economy, but simply lines the pockets of the aviation industry. Future Heathrow is led by Clive Soley, once a Labour MP, now Lord Soley, now heading up this sleazy bunch of planet trashers with a multi-million pound budget to over ride the residents and the planet. Nobody expected the Secretary of State to make the phenomenally stupid mistake of so publicly siding with the aviation industry over such a controversial project. But he did, and was repaid with carrot cake, cream and major political embarrassment.

In the Future of Aviation White Paper of 2003, the Government paved the way for massive expansion of the aviation industry despite all the evidence that urgent action is needed on climate change. Transport is the single largest and fastest growing source of CO2 emissions, and the sector most in need of being tackled. Yet despite this, the Government is following a ‘predict and provide’ pattern of development, with more roadbuilding and aviation expansion. The expansion of Heathrow would mean more flights and CO2 emissions, and more noise and misery for residents already suffering under the flight paths. The number of flights has rapidly increased to an intolerable level, with night flights and noise particularly, making life hell. Air pollution levels are already at the legal limit, with insane proposals to put the M4 in a tunnel to allow the expansion to go ahead. Vibrant, feisty and passsionate campaigns have set up against the expansion called HACAN Clearskies,


and NOTRAG (No Third Runway Action Group).
http://www.notrag.org.uk/

Many homes are threatened by the third runway and sixth terminal expansion, and this proposal, and other plans to expand airports, will be fought against tooth and nail.

A climate change activist posing as a journalist managed to gain access to the high security ‘Future Heathrow’ event and, planted in the front row, waited her moment. She couldn’t believe the audacity of the Transport Minister to stick his fingers up at the residents groups and environment lobby, and to so firmly side with the completely unsustainable aviation industry. As the first speaker welcomed all the suits to their exclusive little back slapping event, she sprang up and planted the carrot and cream cake firmly in the face of the Minister who was sat on the platform alongside Lord Soley, the CBI and the Chambers of Commerce. As she did so, she said “Future Heathrow stinks, your bogus economics stink, Alistair Darling being here stinks, and your vision for this planet stinks”, and was then ejected by security guards. Fortunately she was not arrested, and after being held by the guards for a while was released. Unfortunately she only had one pair of hands, otherwise they would have also been doused in a powerfully smelly brew of comfrey and nettle plant feed she had in her bag!

One might assume that at such a high profile event, especially with the Secretary of State attending, that all the media would be there. In fact, Future Heathrow had not told the media that Darling was attending. They wanted to keep it quiet – it is a massive political boob – and they just wanted it as quiet endorsement. They weren’t allowing in any journalists that had not pre-booked – even a BBC TV crew were turned away. The lone environmental activist only pulled off this meticulously planned feat by pre booking as a journalist herself and even so, had to negotiate triple security checks and was then briefed by BA’s head of group affairs. He also kindly arranged a later interview for her with Clive Soley which she sadly had to miss! To have arranged for an independent photographer to be admitted would have alerted their suspicians. This is why, regrettably, there were no pictures. The group of mostly elderly protesting residents outside the event were totally elated and tremendously inspired by the direct action. They are now asking for training so that they can start their own direct action campaign.

The residents are furious that their previous MP Clive Soley, has been given a Labour peerage, and now Lord Soley heads up this powerful lobby group. All smells a bit nasty? When the ‘journalist’, tackled one of the heads of British Airways about how extraordinary it was that the Secretary of State would so obviously side with this new alliance, he agreed that he was surprised too, but added “well you know, Alistair and Clive are great friends”… By this act, Darling has revealed his true colours, and there is no doubt that he, and new Labour don’t give a toss for the environment.

Even their own arguments – that Heathrow is vital to the economy of London, the South East and nationally – don’t add up. A report, released today by HACAN Clearskies, proves that Heathrow, as a ‘hub’, relies on transit passengers who contribute nothing to the economy, only lining the pockets of the airlines.