Category: Action Reports

First lock on in Icelandic history

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.

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.