Category: Action Reports

Angels Disrupt Nanotech Conference and Present ‘Can of Worms’ Award to former Monsanto Man.

A host of heavenly angels from THRONG (The Heavenly Righteous Opposed to Nanotech Greed) appeared today unto a nanotechnology business conference in order to bestow a “Can of Worms” Award on a representative of the Nanotechnology Industry. Chosen to receive the award was Mr Harry Swan, formerly of Monsanto, who is Nanotechnology manager of Britain’s leading producer of carbon nanotubes, Thomas Swan & Co.

Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter at the levels of atoms and molecules (a million nano-angels can dance on the head of a pin), is being touted to Industry as “the next big thing” despite major concerns over its safety and disruptive societal impacts.

Holding a banner that read “Nanotechnology – its not big and its not clever”, a dozen angels sang a melodic chorus of “Hark the throng of angels sing, Nanotech’s a dodgy thing” as the “Can of Worms” award was presented by THRONG archangel Sarah Phimn. She cautioned delegates against the foolish attempt to rush nanotechnology to market: “Where these nano fools rush in we angels fear to tread”, she said.

The “Nanotechnology – Delivering Business Advantage” conference is intended to convince UK businesses to adopt this controversial set of technologies. The conference, featuring speakers from arms company BAE and chemical giant ICI, is in part sponsored by The Institute of Nanotechnology – a UK Nanotech Trade Group whose backers include GM crop company Syngenta, food giant Unilever and defence contractor Qinetiq.

“The same greedy corporations who messed with the genetic basis of life are now seeking to alter and privatize nature right down to the atomic level”, explained THRONG spokesangel Pandora Spocks. “We want to warn companies attending this conference that getting into nanotech is really not a clever idea – for society or their business”

This is the first in what is hoped to become an annual “Can of Worms” award ceremony. This year’s prizewinner, Harry Swan, is very familiar with opening cans of worms: He was responsible for Monsanto’s public relations attempt to convince the public to accept GM foods – just a small taste of the bigger controversy over nanotechnology still to come.

Notes to Editors:

– For more details, photos and video contact Gabriel: +44(0)7746 411539
email: angelsagainstnanotech@crapmail.com

– Copies of the information given to delegates and of Sarah Phimns award presentation speech will be available at http://angelsagainstnanotech.blogspot.comand www.indymedia.org.uk

– Details of the conference can be found athttp://www.imeche.org.uk/

– The Institute of Nanotechnology can be reached atwww.nano.org.uk

– THRONG are not affiliated with THONG (but we offer them a tip o’ the hat!) seehttp://www.chicagothong.org/nanocommerce.php?photo=061

 

Award Speech given by Sarah Phimn, THRONG Archangel, at “Nanotechnology-Delivering Business Advantage” conference, Bucks UK – 9th Dec 2004

“Brothers and sisters
Be not afraid. We have tidings of great importance. We are here on behalf of THRONG (The Heavenly Righteous Opposed to Nanotech Greed) to hand over the first ever “Can of Worms Award” to a representative of the nanotech industry.

We have been watching the earthly plain for many millennia and from the firmament we have noticed of late many fools rushing into the great nanotechnology gamble. This causes us much concern. Those we see rushing into nanotech include: the great foolish armies of the world; the foolish US president and of course the transnational companies fresh from making foolish things such as weapons (like BAE Systems), pesticides (like BASF) and GM Crops (Syngenta).
Where these nano fools rush in, we angels fear to tread.

Our angelic host will pass out amongst you hymnals to explain our concern.

And its not just us in the heavenly high getting our halos in a twist about small things. Environmental groups, the insurance industry, trade unions … why even royals and royal societies are issuing stern warnings:
– about the toxicity of nanoparticles.
– about the military use of nanotechnologies.
– about how nanosensors will increase control and surveillance.
– about how nanotechnology will strengthen corporate power.
– about patents on matter.
– about circumventing disability rights.

It is clear to us that the emerging field of Nanotechnology is an almighty can of worms fraught with problems, dangers and, lets face it, really bad PR problems..

And so we are here to present the first ever Can of Worms Award to:
Mr Harry Swan (of Thomas Swan and Co.)

Now.. you might not all realise but Harry is no stranger to opening messy cans of worms.

He was PR spokesperson for Monsanto. He had the job of convincing the British public that they wanted GM foods. Oops!
Later Harry took a job with a company that helps big oil and biotech companies attack environmental and human rights groups. tut tut!

But with an unerring nose for new cans of worms, Harry has now returned to the family firm to stake its future on becoming the UK’s major producer of carbon nanotubes – toxic asbestos-like fibres.

Harry, with neither regulations, safety tests or a clear liability regime in place for nanotechnology we can already hear those worms squirming .. You are a very deserved winner of this can of worms..
But really we would advise you NOT to open it….”

 

A Nano-hymn

Hark the throng of angels sing, nanotech’s a dodgy thing
Piece by piece the world defiled
Godlike science running wild
Careful al ye people wise
Nano could be your demise
We will not cooperate
With your corporate nano-state
Hark the throng of angels sing, nanotech’s a dodgy thing

Leaflet at:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2004/12/302569.pdf More info from:
http://angelsagainstnanotech.blogspot.com/

Video at:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2004/12/302638.wmv

Battle of Sherwood commences as Under-sheriff risks protestors lives

Eviction Aruga!! Sherwood eviction

Eviction underway at Sherwood Green Protest site, Nottinghamshire – Under-Sheriff risks tunnellers’ lives, trees protestors have been cleared, tree-felling underway.

After over 14 months spent protecting a village green from illegal destruction. Protesters in Sherwood forest are facing the toughest day – Police turned up without warning at 8 this morning and started to evict them.

The trees were evicted quite fast , but there is a tunnel network that will take far longer. The tunnels are well stocked and extremely well defended.

No notice was given that the evictions were to take place and the Under-Sheriff of Nottingham (whose ultimately in charge of evictions in the area) told the protesters only last week, that there would not be an eviction while legal cases were still outstanding.

Protesters and local people are currently trying to prevent the police from getting near the tunnels to stop any further destruction of the village green.

As this release goes out, the beech tree which is at least a couple of hundred years old is facing the axe.

Several people are known to be in tunnels, local residents watch in anger, and the Nottinghamshire Police who previously assured them that no tree-felling would take place until the tunnels had been evicted, have now allowed felling to commence  of very large mature trees, directly above the siting of the tunnels which could cause a fatal tunnel collapse.

For information telephone: Olan Trust 08708 080 080 or Fax: 08708 080 081

www.sherwoodgreen.net

Peat Excavation Site Sabotaged – Chat Moss

Earlier this year a peat excavation works at Chat Moss near Manchester was Sabotaged. The site where the extraction was taking place was of high ecological value and in the vacinity of a wildlife Site of Scientific Importance. Peat bogs also have great value as Co2 sinks.

Under cover of a gale people entered the peat excavation site at Chat Moss. A turbo engined peat cutter and a catapilar tracked excavator both had their engines destroyed. Locks on workshops, storage area and office all had their locks sealed. This action was taken in defense of the wild. It was easy, anybody could do it all it takes is the will to act!

Sherwood Forest Camp on High Eviction Alert

Sherwood Back Off Bellway

Sherwood Forest protest camp at Mansfeild Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire are on high eviction Alert after they have been issued new Papers earlier this week, Balifs and unmarked security vans are now patrolling the area and equipment is being delived to site.
The camp expects to be evicted very soon. They need people to act now, get on camp

According to people on site they could be evicted within the week, or by christmass. there is lots of activity and desperatly need help in preperations and to have people on site as once the cordon goes up you won’t get in. So get on camp as soon as possible.
If you are not on the phone tree call the SUMAC centre on 0845 4589595 or the site 07800 501248
Website and maps etc.http://www.veggies.org.uk/sherwood/index.htm

They obviously need climbing tat, materials and food etc.

Solidarity Action for Nine Ladies

Early this morning activists blocked Stancliffe Stone a subsidiary of Marshalls PLC for three and a half hours using two tripods.

The action was done to show that regardless of the camp being evicted from 9 Ladies site, that Marshalls or Stancliffe Stone are still very easy to shut down and that activists can cause economic damage in a peaceful non violent way.

Nanotech conference at Leeds’ Royal Armouries disrupted at lunchtime today (Friday 12th November)

At lunchtime today, a meeting of companies involved in nanotechnology industries was invaded and disrupted by a group of people opposed to technologies of social control.

The protest took 3 main parts. Firstly, an information gathering exercise to gain further details of who is involved in what, for future actions. Secondly, the hall was visited and made extremely unplesant by a well-known substance for stinking out conferences: comfrey in water left to rot for a couple of months, and fish bait. visitors to the hall an hr after said people were holding their noses and not staying, and the smell was hideous. Leaflets were also given out. The third aspect was the seizing of the tannoy and a communique being read out. This coincided with a talk on nanotech which drowned it out, and was heard in every room through the museum. Leaflets were also scattered down. Two of these people were held by security until the police arrived, took down the name and address and date of birth that the two claimed were theirs, quick check to make sure there was no warrant on the names given, and then released.

Nanotechnology is the newest weapon against diversity, rebellion, difference, autonomy and freedom. The US military is, of course, the biggest investor as it tries to ensure total domination of all life on the planet. The British government has also invested £90 million in nanotechnology and most industries and universities* are developing interests in the field.

Genetic engineering was recognised as having massive social and ecological implications and this ensured worldwide resistance against it. Nanotechnology, which has the ability to transform all matter, has far more dramatic effects and needs drastic action to confront this new assault on diversity of life.

Nanotech, and its links to biotechnological, informational and cognitive sciences, provides the state with yet more tools with which to control all dissent and iron out all life into a homogeneous, manipulable mass. Be it advances in surveillance technologies, the ability to disable neural transmitters and break apart DNA strands by remote control, artificially create ‘workaholism’ in labourers, or ‘stamp out’ physical and mental difference, nanotechnology puts mind control, body control, social control and control of the natural world more firmly in the hands of the state, the corporations and the ruling elite.

Just as biotechnology was sold to us as a green technology that would feed the world, so nanotech is being heralded. Both instinct and reason tell us to take action against these new technologies before we lose our last liberties to them.

Leeds action is a UK first!

However, we were beaten by North Americans taking their clothes off in October – Action in Chicago by THONG at nanocommerce 2004 – (Topless Humans Organised for Natural Genetics) – see
http://www.chicagothong.org/nanocommerce.php?photo=061 for amusing photos and also
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004/10/nano-industry-hits-bottom.html for industry reaction
and before that, a 30 Jan 2004 protest of the groundbreaking of the Molecular Foundry, a new Dept of Energy nanochemistry facility at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, CA USA;

and those pesky Continental-types:
actions/protest against nanotech/converging technologies in Grenoble by piecesetmaindoeuvre (anti tech activists – disrupting nano-conferences) – seewww.piecesetmaindoeuvre.com

* These are easy targets
* Get scared, then get active!

FURTHER INFO ON NANOTECH:

For those who, like many of us, have buried our heads in the sand about this new technology, but have decided it is time to learn and to act, the following information should assist:

http://www.etcgroup.org – campaigning but non-radical group with info on nanotech; see ‘The Big Down’ report
http://www.wtec.org/ConvergingTechnologies/Report/NBIC_frontmatter.pdf– info from the “other side”
http://www.leedsef.org.uk/atomtech.htm – earth first! website with an 8 page nanotech article somewhere on it!

Another Director Resigns from ‘Bridge Across the Bay Co’

Prof. Bill Davies has announced his resignation from the notorious ‘Bridge Across the Bay Company’ after protests last week at the Lancaster Enivironment Centre.

Lancaster Earth First! have been informed that Professor Bill Davies, who was one of the directors for the company investigating the possibility of building an 11mile bridge across Morecambe Bay from Heysham to Barrow has sent an email explaining that he is no longer a director of the company.

Visit Lancasteraction.co.uk for latest updates…
earthfirst@lancasteraction.co.uk

Protesters Storm the Stage of the “Champion Canterbury Awards”, Aotearoa/New Zealand

About 20 protesters made quite a ruckus at Thursday’s “Champion Canterbury Awards” in Christchurch.

Attendees to the awards, including Helen Clark and the Christchurch mayor, were greeted with drums, chants, heckles (‘Why don’t you get a real job?’ was a favourite) and banners.

There were three key targets of the awards: Solid Energy for planning to decimate Happy Valley on the West Coast with their proposed Cyprus Mine; Crop & Food who are currently testing ’roundup-ready’ GE onions; and the Cancer Society who spend a massive amount of their budget on vivisection.

Protesters dressed in $2-shop suits managed to get into the conference, despite the heavy police presence, enjoyed a few glasses of complimentary wine and stormed the stage just prior to the award ceremony beginning. They had ample time to chant, scream and explain what they were opposed to. They also carried a banner that read “Don’t Award the Capitalist Hoard”.

The police that were outside intimidating the protesters panicked and quickly turned to race inside but ran straight passed the three protesters as they casually made their own way out.

No arrests resulted, though numerous people were threatened.

Helen Clark was reported as saying that she thought she was in for a night of “Theatresports” before she realised it was “just the local anarchists”.

The Christchurch Press reported the events in a couple of columns. They tried to defend themselves as the primary sponsors of the event but, instead, summed up the protesters standpoint with accuracy unusual in mainstream media.

“[The awards] are an unabashed celebration of the virtues of capitalism… A tiny band of protesters called themselves “anti-capitalists” … deplored the honouring of those who “exploited” or made profits from the community, animals and the environment.”

The protesters also staged their own “Corporate Backscratch Awards” outside, with awards like ‘eco-terrorist’ for Solid Energy, ‘bio-hazard’ for Crop and Food and ‘animal torture’ for the Cancer Society.

None of the camps were willing to accept their awards on the night, so were visited Friday morning where they were delighted to see the protesters again and gratefully accepted the awards.

Save Happy Valley campaigners hunger strike and occupy mine site (New Zealand/Aotearoa)

Save Happy Valley treesit

Two South Island students began a hunger strike today in protest of the proposed“Cypress” mine in Happy Valley. The students will confine themselves to a small platform suspended from a tree on the road to Stockton, near Granity on the West Coast.

“What we are doing may seem dangerous, but the dangers posed by the Cypress Mine are far greater. We want to illustrate the hunger and suffering that global climate change will cause, to empathise with those who have no voice in the world.” stated Fiona Gibson, one of the hunger strikers.

A number of protestors from around New Zealand have also occupied the site of the proposed mine for the second time.

The proposed mine will extract 500,000 tonnes of coal from the mine each year for 10 years, mostly for export. Protestors say the mine will cause massive loss of vegetation, and destroy habitat for endangered insects and kiwi. [ Read more ]

Talking CCTV cameras nicked wholesale, in Wakefield!

Thieves broke into Business Homes’ new business park in Wakefield last week and stole the 60 cameras and sensors that made up its “state of the art security system”.

The theft was particularly embarrassing given that two of the site’s occupants are HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and HM Prisons Service.

“This was a seriously sophisticated system,” insists director Simon Houlston, prompting me to ask how the burglars did away with it.

“There are cameras hooked up to a central office in Blackburn,” he says. “If the men watching the screens see a burglar they send a message out on loudspeakers to the office warning them to leave.

Unfortunately, in this case the thieves just didn’t listen. “One other person did, though. The old lady next door later told us she had heard the voice of God, last night, telling her, in a strong Lancashire accent, to leave the vicinity as soon as possible.”

(from The Telegraph)