Action AWE Disarmament Camp & Blockade

25th August 2013

Directions and details here.

Update – 2nd September – big blockade

IMG_1294

25th August 2013

Directions and details here.

Update – 2nd September – big blockade

IMG_1294

More photos and videos

Twenty-one protesters have been arrested after blockading a road leading to a site which builds warheads for nuclear submarines.

Anti-nuclear weapons protesters at Atomic Weapons Establishment's (AWE) Burghfield site oppose the renewal or replacement of Trident.

Burghfield and AWE Aldermaston provide the warheads for the submarine-launched missile system.

The activists were held on suspicion of obstruction of a public highway.

The UK's existing four ballistic missile submarines are to be renewed from the late-2020s.

The government's final decision on whether to renew or replace the missile system, the UK's nuclear deterrent, is due in 2016.

'Pose a danger'

Some of the protesters at AWE Burghfield have come from Finland, Spain, Scotland, Argentina and Japan to take part.

Police said there were about 20 tents as part of a camp near the West Berkshire site.

Action AWE, which is co-ordinating the protest with Trident Ploughshares, said in a statement they were taking part in "non-violent direct action".

They said nuclear weapons were "immoral, illegal under international law, dangerous to maintain and pose a danger to peace on Earth".

Ch Insp Lindsey Finch, deputy local policing commander for Newbury, said: "We will continue to work with protesters to facilitate peaceful protest and ensure that any criminal activity is dealt with proportionately."

A spokeswoman for the weapons site said: "AWE on-site security, the Ministry of Defence Police and Thames Valley Police are currently in attendance and will remain for the duration of any protest action."

ELF fight against expansion of ski resort, Germany

September 2, 2013 – Germany

September 2, 2013 – Germany

The ELF has claimed responsibility for sabotage at a ski resort on Wurmberg mountain (Harz mountain range). During the night of August 27, the windows of several construction vehicles were smashed, hydradulic hoses and electricity cables cut on several vehicles, a snow groomer, snow machines and at electricity stations, and the cable car infrastructure was damaged. Painted slogans were left behind, such as: "LASST DEN WALD LEBEN" ("LET THE FOREST LIVE"), "SKIANLAGEN SABOTIEREN" ("SABOTAGE SKI RESORTS"), "LET THE FOREST PROSPER", "THERE'S NO TIME TO WAIT FOR CHANGE" and "SHOW YOUR DEDICATION THROUGH YOUR ACTION." Damages are estimated at €100,000. The expansion of the ski area has been strongly criticized by environmental organizations. (photos: goslarsche.de)

Anonymous claim of responsibility (German), from linksunten.indymedia.org:

"In der Nacht vom 27. August auf den 28. August haben wir die Mittelstation der Liftanlage des Skigebietes am Wurmberg sabotiert. Mit Farbe sprühten wir mehrere Botschaften an die Mauern der von der Wurmberg Seilbahn Gesellschaft betriebenen Anlage.

– 'LASST DEN WALD LEBEN'
– 'SKIANLAGEN SABOTIEREN'
– 'LET THE FOREST PROSPER'
– 'THERE'S NO TIME TO WAIT FOR CHANGE'
– 'SHOW YOUR DEDICATION THROUGH YOUR ACTION'.

Wir haben zahlreiche Scheiben des Gebäudes sowie von dort stehenden Baufahrzeugen und von zwei Pistenraupen eingeschlagen. Wir durchtrennten Kabel an Baufahrzeugen, Pistenraupen und an einigen Stromkästen der Lift- und Beschneiungsanlagen.

Dies war ein notwendiger Akt des Widerstandes gegen die von der Wurmberg Seilbahn Gesellschaft fortlaufend vorangetriebene Zerstörung der Natur am Wurmberg. Eine Skianlage, wie sie die Wurmberg Seilbahn Gesellschaft betreibt, ist in ihrer Entstehung wie in ihrem Betrieb abzulehnen.
Dort, wo die natürliche Umwelt ausgebeutet wird – also den Profitinteressen einzelner Akteure unterworfen wird -, dort ist direkter Widerstand gegen diese Ausbeutung unumgänglich! Deswegen ist die Wurmberg Seilbahn Gesellschaft zum Ziel unserer Aktion geworden.

Der bereits weit vorangeschrittene Ausbau des Skigebietes am Wurmberg macht einmal mehr das destruktive Verhältnis der Menschen zur Natur im Kapitalismus deutlich. Über 16 Hektar Wald wurden gerodet, um eine neue Liftanlage, einen Großparkplatz sowie neue Pistenabfahrten an den Berghängen zu schaffen. Die Bäume, die übrig sind, im Rodungsgebiet jetzt plötzlich am Rand der Baumgruppen stehen, werden durch Windbruch zusätzlich gefährdet sein. Auch sollen mehrere Beschneiungsanlagen neu gebaut werden, die künstlich erzeugten Schnee auf den Pisten verteilen. Dafür wird aus dem Wasserschutzgebiet der Warmen Bode Wasser entnommen und ein riesiger Speichersee auf dem Gipfel angelegt. Diese Kunstschneepisten werden bei Nacht dann weiträumig mit Flutlichtscheinwerfern ausgeleuchtet. Den Tieren, die noch nicht aus ihrem Lebensraum vertrieben wurden, wird das Leben in ihrer ursprünglichen Umgebung zur Unerträglichkeit gemacht. Der Lärm und das Licht der Wintersportanlage wird den Wald stetig belasten. Da hilft es auch nichts, dass die Wurmberg Seilbahn Gesellschaft – zur Vortäuschung der eigenen Umweltfreundlichkeit – von künftigen Bergwiesen an den gerodeteten Hängen und von Aufforstungen an einem anderen Ort spricht.

Der Wald am Wurmberg ist zerstört. Er wird nie wieder so werden wie er einmal war. Die Konsequenz daraus muss sein, die Zerstörung jetzt auf das destruktive Skigebiet zu verlagern, um dem Wald Stück für Stück seinen Raum zurückzugeben, damit er, sich selbst überlassen, frei von Ausbeutung existieren kann.

Earth Liberation Front

ELF"

Balcombe anti-fracking protests update days 25-39

Day 37 (Fri 30th) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Update (10:30am): One protector arrested defending Sussex from fracking.

Update (9:30am): Police trying to force fracking truck through community blokade.

 

Day 34 (Tues 26th) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Day 37 (Fri 30th) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Update (10:30am): One protector arrested defending Sussex from fracking.

Update (9:30am): Police trying to force fracking truck through community blokade.

 

Day 34 (Tues 26th) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Update (5:00pm): One protector arrested today as police continue to force fracking trucks through the blockade for Cuadrilla.

Update (10:30am): First fracking truck of the day.

 

Day 28 (Wed 21st) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Update (3pm): All Protectors who were in Crawley Magistrates Court today have been given bail conditions that allow them to return to the camp.

Update (1pm): Forest camp evicted by police.

Update (12pm): Police are trying to illegally evict (without a court order) the forest camp (smaller camp in woodland next to the Cuadrilla rig site, not main camp on grass verge) at Balcombe. Come support the community!

 

Day 27 (Tue 20th) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Update (10:40am): Another fracking truck being blocked.

Update (9:30am): Fracking truck forced through community blockade by police. One Protector arrested.

 

Days 25/26 – the Reclaim the Power blockade and more updates/photos here

 

200 activists blocking coal train in the Rheinland

coalblockade

coalblockade

31/08/2013 Manheim. Second Day of the Actions Days in the Rhineland Coalfield. Around 300 activists are occupying the coal train tracks which is the main way to transport coal between the open-cast coal mine “Hambach” to the big power plants which emit 100 millions tons of CO2 per year. The action is happening in solidarity with the Climate and Reclaim the Fields Camp that is taking place from August 23 to September 6, 2013 in the Rhineland coalfield.

„Already in the last two years, there have been actions like this. But this year, there are much more people who express their legitimate protest in this way. It is people from the most varied backgrounds and regions of the world. This clearly shows: Climate change affects us all. And: A change of the existing conditions of exploitation and destruction is only possible with determined and joined grass-root actions”, says one of the activists.

„The impacts of lignite burning is not a local issue – first, because of the consequences of global warming but also because of the far-reaching distribution of particle matter. Depending on the weather conditions, the particle matter of RWEs power stations can go down anywhere in Europe and can cause grave health problems.”

„Some people criticize the resistance actions against lignite mining because they are in conflict with the law. However, if the existing law protects industries which destroy the future of this planet, then the law is the problem. Not the people who violate it“. This is how one of the activists explains why she is there and why she thinks this action is legitimate..

Manual for Sabotaging Wolf Hunts Released

“And in that case, we choose to be saboteurs for the wild.”

The following text is from a press release of the Earth First! Media office, which provides correspondence to news outlets around the world.

“And in that case, we choose to be saboteurs for the wild.”

The following text is from a press release of the Earth First! Media office, which provides correspondence to news outlets around the world.

Download the Earth First! Wolf Hunt Sabotage Manual Here

Download the Earth First! Wolf Hunt Sabotage Manual Here

by Earth First! News

Earth First! Media has released a manual which provides detailed information for disrupting wolf hunting in those states that allow it. Titled The Earth First! Wolf Hunting Sabotage Manual, the text, complete with step-by-step graphics, explains how to find and destroy wolf traps, handle live trapped wolves in order to release them, and various methods, including the use of air-compressed horns and smoke-bombs, for stopping wolf hunts.

The authors of the manual describe themselves as,  “hunters and proud of it,” adding, “But we aren’t proud of what passes for hunting these days and especially for what passes as ‘sportsman’ hunting. Somehow, the National Rifle Association, yuppie trophy hunters, cattle barons, and the Obama Administration are in cahoots in an effort that promises to wipe wolves clean off the planet. And in that case, we choose to be saboteurs for the wild.”   

The manual, which was sent to Earth First! Media by unknown persons calling themselves “the Redneck Wolf Lovin’ Brigade,” is being published electronically at Earth First! News and is being offered for others to print and distribute.

Panagioti Tsolkas, a correspondent with Earth First! Media, says the manual is being published in light of regional delistings of wolves in the Great Lakes region and the Northern Rockies since 2011 where subsequent wolf hunts have accounted for over 1,500 wolves hunted or trapped. “According to several wildlife agencies’ reports, there are fewer than 6,000 wolves left in the lower 48 states where wolves once numbered in the hundreds of thousands,” Tsolkas added.

In June of this year, the Obama administration announced that it plans to push for nearly all wolves, excepting those in the U.S. Southwest, to be stripped of Endangered Species Act protections despite compelling evidence from numerous scientists that wolves have not recovered as a species. “We are coming into a new era of wolf genocide,” said Tsolkas, adding, “It will be important for individuals and groups with a passion to protect wolves to take this manual into consideration. It will surely save lives, but it is also a very dangerous undertaking. Wolf hunters have guns and obviously little morals when it comes to what they shoot.”

Over its 33-year history, Earth First! activists have used hunt sabotage to disrupt hunts across the country. “This wolf hunting manual could very well spark a new version of Whale Wars. It’ll be called Wolf Wars.”

Earth First! is an international radical environmental movement which began in 1979. The movement also publishes a quarterly magazine and online newswire.

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28 Days Later: Please spread far and wide

Cuadzilla Balcome Rolling Blockade Red Version

Cuadzilla Balcome Rolling Blockade Red Version

A Rolling Blockade of the Balcombe fracking site, 1st September – 28th September

Fracking company Cuadrilla’s governmental licence to drill in Balcombe ends on September 28th. The government may be allowing them to drill but they have no social licence from the people of Balcombe to frack their land and threaten their water supply.  Neither do they have any mandate to begin an entire wave of fracking across the country. The vast majority of people in the UK want cleaner, greener energy.
After the upsurge of climate activism at Reclaim the Power in August, let’s make these last 28 days count. Let’s halt their work at Balcombe, and also send a strong message to those wanting to frack elsewhere.

A blockade has been on-going at the drilling site, but trucks have still been getting through. Now it’s time to up the ante.

We invite groups from around the country to come and play a part in a 28 day rolling blockade.

Think creatively and act responsibly. Pick a weekday before September 28, gather friends and useful kit get yourselves to Balcombe.

Fracking is stoppable, another world is possible.

* People are reminded that this is a peaceful blockade and that the Balcombe camp is alcohol-free.

* For further information please contact 28dayslater.balcombe@gmail.com

* Follow us on Twitter (@28_dayslater) and like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/28dayslaterrollingblockade)

Arson against police training building and attack of security services vehicles

The (under construction) Police Firearms Training Centre in Black Rock Quarry, Portishead, situated directly beneath the Avon and Somerset Police regional headquarters was our target on the night of 26th August, and we left it with flames licking high. The facility is intended to serve forces across the South West.

The (under construction) Police Firearms Training Centre in Black Rock Quarry, Portishead, situated directly beneath the Avon and Somerset Police regional headquarters was our target on the night of 26th August, and we left it with flames licking high. The facility is intended to serve forces across the South West.

After climbing into the quarry we used accelerant to burn the major electrical cables at five junction points throughout the complex, and doused and lighted a pallet of electrical fittings and wires. More than twelve hours later the fire is still burning. It put smiles on our faces to realise how easy it was to enter their gun club and leave a fuck you signature right in the belly of the beast, with a curious fox as our only witness.

On the same night others of us attacked two vehicles near St George, Bristol with paint stripper and by slashing the tyres – one G4S and one Amey. In the UK and globally G4S provide prison and security services and profit from many aspects of prison society. Amey, in a joint venture with GEO transport prisoners in England and Wales and run courthouses in Bristol and North Somerset.

In the City around us the lock down increases; there is a general atmosphere of rising fear and powerlessness; there is more and more surveillance, and security guards with handcuffs appear on more and more doors. Tensions across the world are simmering as people lose faith in the system. As a response to this insecurity the state is militarising it's police with firearms, remote control drones and 'non-lethal' weapons that regularly kill. At the same time they develop the preventative 'soft cop' buffer of community support officers, liaison teams and so on, that are more fitting with the democratic image. They even get some help from leftists such as John Drury from Aufheben with his contributions on crowd control, who is as terrified of the unmanageable as the ruling classes are. The British state is a world leader in counter-insurgency techniques. Their expertise is the result of generations long brutal colonisation, like in India, Kenya and to this day in Ireland.

Two years after the major UK riots we think an important door was opened for radical and combative refusal of our daily existence on a wide scale. For those of us who took to the streets it was a breath of clean air in the dungeons, a reminder that the encroachment and control is not complete. Even when the apathy and isolation seems to have taken hold again we continue our attacks. The police and security industry specialise in making us feel powerless in our own lives, and making these attacks goes a long way to overcoming this feeling.

This is also our way of marking two years that Bristol anarchist Badger has evaded capture after the riots. Stay free, keep fighting!

Speaking of which, the night of our action coincides with the announced start of the planned cull of wild badgers in the South West of England. Through attempting to facilitate the cull and stop resistance the police shore up the interests of agricultural industry and the land owning classes. We hope this will be one of many rebellions against this slaughter. Because the state and corporate security forces are integral to this world of exploitation and authority.

Our best wishes to the Greek anarchist Kostas Sakkas in recovery from a successful hunger strike for pre-trial release after 30 months on remand.

The struggle will continue until all are wild and free.

-Angry Foxes Cell in collaboration with ACAB

From the BBC:

An anarchist group has claimed it started a fire which ripped through a police firearms training centre being built in Somerset.

A passing officer spotted the blaze at the Black Rock centre in Portishead in the early hours of Tuesday.

In a post on the Bristol Indymedia website, the group, called "Angry Foxes Cell", says it "used accelerant to burn the major electrical cables".

Police said it is too early to decide "cause or responsibility".

The centre, which is being built at Black Rock Quarry, is to be used by the Avon and Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire forces.

The facility, which will contain two indoor firing ranges and classrooms, is due to open in January.

It is part of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deal, worth more than £100m, which will also see police stations and other operational facilities built in Patchway, Keynsham and Bridgwater.

Photos & videos from Canton police station eviction resistance in Cardiff

Eviction of Canton Police Station in Cardiff on August 23rd.

Eviction of Canton Police Station in Cardiff on August 23rd.

Antagonistic Collective Against BoredomClick here for more photos:
http://cardiff.squat.net/canton-police-station-eviction-resistanc

Bailiffs smashing in the door:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2HbkdTmNXU

Last squatter leaving the property:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-1KYVfuzYk

Antagnoistic Collective Against Boredom (ACAB)
cardiffsquatters@riseup.net
cardiff.squat.net

Memorial at Greenham Common bulldozed

27.8.13

I have just heard via a local woman that the memorial to the sisters who protested outside the Greenham Common Nuclear site from 1982 until the government was forced to remove the nuclear cruise missiles located there has today been removed by the owners of the Greenham Common Enterprise Centre that owns the site. 

 

27.8.13

I have just heard via a local woman that the memorial to the sisters who protested outside the Greenham Common Nuclear site from 1982 until the government was forced to remove the nuclear cruise missiles located there has today been removed by the owners of the Greenham Common Enterprise Centre that owns the site. 

 

Bulldozers arrived at around 8am and began to rip up all the flowers and stones including even the memorial to Helen Thomas who was killed while protesting there.   The memorial was a garden of seven standing stones encircling the 'Flame' sculpture which represented a camp fire.  I have called the Greenham Common Trust who run the site and they said the memorial had "been there long enough" and was "a problem for local traffic".  I understand the entire garden is now gone and the land is simply earth with all traces removed.

 

People may wish to contact the Greenham Common trust and let them know what they think of this disgusting action

 

 

Swedish anti-mining protest camp against Beowulf Mining

Right now there is a battle to save Sápmi (occupied by Sweden) from more mines. Sápmi has already been exploited and colonized by the Swedish state and corporations for generations. Now an entirely new area is under attack from the mining industry, the forests, mountains and lakes west of Jokkmokk are threatened.

Since a month there is a blockade against british Beowulf Mining´s test mining project in Gállok (swe: #kallak) going on. Activists have joined together with indigenous Sami people to save the place from a big iron mine. The 29th of July the swedish police came and tore down the first blockade and arrested 6 persons. The same night the blockade was raised again, with improvements to the company´s great disappointment. The activists plan to stay for the winter when the reindeer and herders come and legally can stop the test mining.

Resistance against the planned mine is growing while the swedish police have said they are doing what the mining corporation orders them to. Beowulf is currently silent and probably don’t want more bad exposure and might try to beat the activists in the waiting game. Meanwhile more people join the protests in different ways through art and music as well as supporting the growing protest camp. The activists are now building Pentagon, a house supposed to work to decolonize the world.

Update: The second barricade was also destroyed by the cops the 12th of August and a security guarding company is hired to protect the testmines and the road from protesters. This only to do test mining.

More recent update: Yesterday they started blasting, with 4 people near by in trees not outside the blasting safety zone. pigs removed barricades in the morning. many people got pulled off the road and chased from the forest. 8 people were arrested. last night and again tonight the road is barricaded to delay work. now 10 security workers work 12hr shifts, day and night. our spirits are high. the battle continues.

http://kolonierna.wordpress.com/ for more info, pictures and videos.