Category: Squatting / Free Spaces / Protest Sites

(USA) Love and Rebellion in the East Texas Woods

I’m writing to ya’ll from a safe space nearby the Tar Sands Blockade in rural east Texas.  Early this week, heeding the call of friends and comrades already on site, we assembled a crew of Earth First!ers from the Northeast US and made the 30+ hour drive to the site to provide crucial reinforcement.  The tree village set up on site is one of the most fantastic things we’ve ever seen, and the emerging pictures on the internet do it no justice. Down below the pods, hideous monsters in the form of massive feller bunchers and dozers fill the air with the heinous sounds of corporate ecocide: mechanical whirs, sawing, and worst of the all the sound of beautiful trees hundreds of years old falling to their death, driving wildlife from their homes.

Yesterday a feller buncher began clearing through a section of the forest, rapidly advancing towards one of the tree sitters.  Clearly printed in large letters on the side of the death machine read a warning to stay back at least 500 feet.  A roving team on the ground that I was part of began cat-and-mousing the feller buncher, trying to keep our comrade in the tree safe.  On the ground two TransCanada workers and one local sheriff operating as an armed mercenary of the corporation oversaw the operations, trying to move through the felled trees to push back our crew from the clear cut site.  We continued to advance, determined not only to protect our comrade above in the canopy but to push them back and show them that we are not scared and that we will RESIST.  At one point as we had just watched the feller buncher take down an 80 foot water oak not 40 feet away from the sitter and we heard our friend screaming from above pleading for the safety of their life, I ran towards the machine about 25 feet away making eye contact with the driver who continued to operate the machine and yelling to TransCanada and their bought and paid sheriff that we would not stay back, that they were going to kill our friend if they continued to advance and they were required by law to stop the machine.  The sheriff approached saying that “they” (speaking as if they were actually part of TC) weren’t coming any further at that point and they turned the machine around to continue clear cutting.  A crew of 7 of us held our ground and remained in defense of the sitter on the opposite side of a creek where we were forced to watch tree after tree fall. A dense part of the forest was instantly turned in to a morose tree morgue.

 

Overcome with emotions, having never seen a clearcut myself and certainly having never faced down a massive feller buncher, I moved back through the clearcut, across the creek where our friend sat above us in a tree.  Feeling the energy coming from the mercilessly mauled fresh tree stumps, I lay over a large one crying uncontrollably as I watched the remaining few trees off in the distance be cut and wrestled out of place. I angrily contemplated the enormity of the corporate state, the cancer that is capitalism, and the injustice of the entire situation. Comrades were there to comfort me and together we all walked away from the horrible scene feeling renewed in our fight and certain in our decision to come to Texas to fight this madness and call attention to this scene.

As I write this now I’m receiving word from the site that they’re cutting in from the south side, only 20 feet away from the sitter we spent yesterday protecting.  North from there at the wall that y’all have seen photos of earlier this week, several of our friends’ lives are at risk and trees are being cut dangerously close. TC is now clearing from the west side of the site, attempting to box our site in and presumably make way for cherry pickers and other extraction devices.

One of the locals who is currently resisting the Keystone XL pipeline in solidarity with several local landowners shared stories with a few of us.  It is absolutely clear that TransCanada is paying off local law enforcement officers.  In addition TC is relentlessly trying to serve people with lawsuits, putting gag orders on landowners who had previously been strong allies, and buying off others.  Yesterday one of our key allies awoke to TC in their yard with a big feller buncher.  TC had promised them multiple times both verbally and in formally written depositions that they would give “fair” notice before beginning to destroy their land.  It seems like TC knew that this area is quickly receiving an influx of resisters and gave this landowner no warning, knowing that we’d have certainly acted at that site.

Despite the situation we are keeping spirits high.  Last night I came out of the woods with three comrades to head to a safe space to write this communique to y’all.  We were excited to find that many new friends and many familiar faces had arrived to reinforce the site.  We’re here for the long haul and are asking y’all to come down to help defend our friends in the trees and stand up to TransCanada and their dirty pipeline.  What we’re doing is not enough, but there is strength in numbers and with the aid of more friends we can turn up the heat on TC.  There are many opportunities to plug in in various ways here and the pipeline is going in all across this region.  There are many allies and a supportive campaign.  We sit here anxiously waiting to re-join our comrades and worried for their safety, and eager to return to the woods and keep up the fight.  We hope to see you in the woods.

In Solidarity & For the Wild,

Your Anonymous Comrade

(USA) From the Woods: Tar Sands blockade update

I’m currently part of a team of awesome friends roving through the woods of east Texas as part of the Tar Sands Blockade (TSB).

I’m currently part of a team of awesome friends roving through the woods of east Texas as part of the Tar Sands Blockade (TSB). This is an epic fight to defend Texans’ homes and land against the clearcutting and pollution caused by the building of the massive Keystone XL pipeline.

The media team for TSB are doing an awesome job of updating our website as TransCanada (TC) and their hired goons advance toward our blockade with heavy equipment and repeatedly endanger our people in some scary ways. A friend and I thought that allies of the TSB might appreciate an on-the-ground perspective, and so before I go back to defending our blockade I thought I’d update y’all.
     The forest of east Texas is totally beautiful. Water oak, sweet gum and slash pine trees define the canopy, and green briar, muscadine grapes and beautyberry bushes cover the ground. This forest is home to great blue herons, turkey vultures, whippoorwills, lots of deer, rattlers and other snakes, armadillos, and even occasional black bears. All of these are our natural allies and have been incredibly disturbed by the clear cutting of their home.   
     At the beginning of this week the bad guys were operating a feller buncher and clear cutting a vast swath of forest aimed directly at our blockade. On Tuesday morning we temporarily stopped them by placing ourselves directly in the path of their machines. As a backhoe was placing timbers over a gully so that other more destructive stuff like feller-bunchers could advance toward our blockade, two of our team locked down to the backhoe and stopped it in its tracks while the rest of us provided cover. The lockdowners were then tortured by local police with TC supervisors watching and laughing. After they were extracted from the backhoe, the timber bridge got built and the feller buncher started rapidly destroying trees advancing toward our blockade.
     Then we ran out in front of it and one of my friends sat down directly in its path. All of us were way too close to the backhoe for it to operate safely. Instead of backing away slowly to a safe distance per OSHA regulations, the operator of the machine (which might’ve been the same guy operating the backhoe) decided to fell another tree and drop it right on my friend’s head. This demonstrates antisocial and potentially murderous behavior and this guy clearly should be getting mental help, not operating heavy machinery. TC supervisors were watching this happen the whole time, and nodding with approval. This is criminal and they should be prosecuted for reckless endangerment and attempted manslaughter, both of which are illegal in the state of Texas. It’s lucky that I caught the whole thing on film and even luckier that my friend jumped out of the way in time and is now relatively safe.
Our friends in trees and on the Wall are incredibly brave to be maintaining their positions despite the mechanized onslaught advancing toward them and the possibility of brutality by TC’s hired goons, and we are here to support them no matter what. The bad guys have now advanced all the way up to the wall, leaving a scarred and devastated landscape in their wake. There are workers, bosses and goons below (as I write this) making all kinds of scary and empty threats. Our people are jovial and defiant in the face of danger. We’re inviting all our friends and allies out to visit our blockade and provide supplies, encouragement and reinforcements. We who are living in the forest are committed to maintaining our positions no matted how intimidating this multibillion-dollar corporation and their enablers in local law enforcement try to be. Running circles around confused TC bosses and their goons in the beautiful Texas forest is totally fun, and everyone should come out and participate.You can help by coming down to join us, by doing solidarity actions against TC and their enablers in your local town, by sending us funds and/or gear, reaching out to your media contacts, and telling all your friends about this and asking them to spread the word.
    We need: walkie-talkies, AAA batteries, camo gear, rain gear, climbing gear of all kinds, tools, satellite internet, solar panels, deep-cell batteries, woods food, water filters, and video cameras.
     We make our stand here in the hope of inspiring others to make a stand against Keystone XL in a broad diversity of ways. Corporations should not be allowed to just roll over us the way they’ve repeatedly done for decades. Resistance is coming. Everyone affected by this pipeline must realize that risks must be taken in defense of what we love. Laying down in front of things, or any variation on that, is good for publicity but is nowhere near enough. People must rise up and defend their homes.
Love and Rage,
Anonymous Blockader # 57

(USA) When Big Oil Attacks

Tuesday afternoon in East Texas, after police brutally tortured two protesters locked to a backhoe and workers resumed destruction of the forest, members of the Tar Sands Blockade, determined not to be deterred by violence, moved in to try and stop work again. One activist sat down in front of a feller buncher, a hideous machine used to rapidly cut down smaller trees, and, after making eye contact with the worker, almost had a tree dropped on him. The video shows it all, and you can read the activist’s own telling of the incident here.

There’s really not much else to say. Big Oil is attacking our bodies, our homes, and the planet, and now that the cards are on the table, it’s time to fight back. Word on the street is that we’ve got a lovely crew of Earth First!ers ready for action joining us tonight or tomorrow morning, but there’s plenty of room for you to get involved too. Go here or email noneshallpass@riseup.net, and we’ll see you on the ground.

– Tar Sands Blockader

(USA) Texas Tar Sands Blockade Continues Despite Police Torture

Despite summer being over, things continue to heat up in Texas for the Tar Sands Blockade as we enter day 3 of the tree-sit.  On Monday, 8 people took to the trees to defend the land from clear-cutting that would allow for continued construction of the pipeline.  And yesterday, two ground-dwelling allies locked themselves to a piece of construction machinery that was being used to build a road to the tree village, effectively halting TransCanada’s work for most of the day.

The police response to this action was predictable but nevertheless shocking.  Under the encouragement of TransCanada supervisors, police used sustained chokeholds, violent arm-twisting, pepper spray, and multiple shocks from a Taser, all while the two blockaders were in handcuffs. Despite the torture, the two blockaders held strong for hours, and their perseverance has only further inspired blockaders to continue the protests. This morning, in response to the brutality inflicted on our comrades yesterday, another activist has ascended into the tree village to join the aerial blockade, bringing its total population to 9.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the tortured protesters, had this to say after being released from jail: “As someone who has a religious dedication to nonviolence, I have a duty to assist nonviolent tactics. This is a path to change that works. Despite everything that happened at the direction of TransCanada, I don’t regret my involvement at all. I encourage everybody to persevere in the face of this type of sheer brutality. To follow one’s moral compass in spite of extreme challenges is the way we move forward towards a more humane, tar sands-free planet.”

TransCanada has shown blatant disregard for the safety of peaceful people, local families, and our planet. Despite their claims to be concerned for safety, whether of protestors, landowners, or the planet, time and time again this has been shown to be patently false. From encouraging torture to defrauding and coercing people out of their land to cutting corners with safety measures for detecting and preventing spills, TransCanada’s only concern is abundantly clear – profit.

They can be stopped. Every day of delay costs them money and brings us a tiny bit closer to the goal of stopping the pipeline. The odds are low, but this is a winnable fight.

If you read the call to action or saw this awesome video, you know how devastating extracting and burning tar sands oil will be to the climate and how critical stopping this pipeline is. This action has the potential to be a huge turning point for the resistance movement against fossil fuels, but it needs your help to survive and succeed. If you can spare anything, make a donation here. If you want to do more, visit this page or email noneshallpass@riseup.net to get involved.

For the wild!

– Tar Sands Blockader

Campaigners mobilising to fight ‘hundreds of new roads’

Campaigners are hoping to kick-start opposition to 'hundreds of new roads' with actions in Twyford Down and Hastings this weekend.

Campaigners are hoping to kick-start opposition to 'hundreds of new roads' with actions in Twyford Down and Hastings this weekend.

Government and local councils are planning to spend billions of pounds on dozens of new roads over the next few years, and new 'growth' funds and devolved spending powers for local councils threaten to add hundreds more disastrous projects to this list.

In the 1990s, what was in effect a popular uprising [ 1 | 2 | 3 ] brought Tory plans for ‘the greatest road-building programme since the Romans’ to a screeching halt.

Could this weekend's actions be the beginning of a new upsurge of anti-roads protests?

 

Twenty years ago, in 1992, protests at Twyford Down helped light the fuse of the modern environmental direct action protest movement, and hundreds of campaigners – old and new – will be gathering there this Saturday (29 September) to protest against the new schemes.

At the same time, activists in East Sussex will also be staging a two-day Camp and Rally this weekend in the Combe Haven Valley outside Hastings, threatened by a £100m road, work on which is planned to start in the new year. The Camp will include direct action training and renowned transport campaigner John Stewart will lead a workshop on 'How to stop a road'.

Of the 45 transport schemes approved in the budget by the Department of Transport, the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road (BHLR) is the worst in terms of carbon emissions.

Abby Nicol, a spokesperson for the Combe Haven Defenders, who are organising the Camp near Hastings, said:

Run-away climate change is one of the greatest threats we face. Yet the government are sponsoring a new wave of road-building across the country, using money that would be much better spent on improving public transport. We urge people to join us this weekend to see the amazing area that will be destroyed unless we take action to stop it, and to learn about practical ways in which we can all peacefully and effectively resist the construction of this road.

A major conference of local anti-road groups is due to take place in Birmingham in November.

(USA) People Lock Themselves to Keystone XL Machinery to Defend Tree Village

Defending the blockades from “the machine”

Defending the blockades from “the machine”

DATELINE WINNSBORO, TX — This morning two Texas-born Tar Sands Blockaders have locked themselves to a critical piece of equipment for TransCanada’s Keystone XL construction in order to protect a massive tree village in the direct path of the toxic tar sands pipeline.

The village, where eight tree sitters remain in vigil, is on property that TransCanada now claims ownership of through court action. Keystone XL construction crews have advanced just over 300 yards away from the northern boundary of Tar Sands Blockade’s tree vigil.

Stay updated at the Tar Sands Blockade website

 

Local residents camp & rally against Bexhill-Hastings link road

Local residents have released further details of the two-day programme of events- including a camp and rally – in Combe Haven Valley this weekend, 29/30 September, to protest against controversial plans to build a £100m link road between Hastings and Bexhill. The group Combe Haven Defenders have gathered experts and entertainers from across Sussex and beyond to join their 'Stop the Road' event.

 

Following a lunch and rally around 1pm, renowned transport campaigner John Stewart will lead a workshop on 'How to stop a road', drawing lessons from the successful '90s anti-roads movement [1]. Local people will also be able to attend an'Introduction to Direct Action with national group Seeds for Change, as they plan the next steps of the campaign.

Families will also be catered for with a workshop and play from environmental youth group The Otesha Project UK, shadow puppetry and story-telling. Local botany expert Judy Clark will be on hand and in the evening participants will be able to stargaze with a professional astronomer.

Local musicians have also rallied to support the campaign, with evening performances promised from Tim Hoyte, Eleanor Lynn, Anita Jardine, Las Pasionaras, Will Davis and Krysia Mansfield. The group have stated that there will be no amplified music and the event will be alcohol-free.

Guided walks to the Camp site will depart on Saturday 29 September from Bexhill Station and Bulverhythe (Sheep Wash bridge) at 11am, and from Crowhurst Station at 12 noon. Details of the Camp's location will also be available on the Combe Haven Defenders' web-site on Saturday morning: www.combehavendefenders.org.uk.

Spokesperson Abby Nicol said: 'We urge people to join us this weekend to see the amazing area that will be destroyed unless we take action to stop it, and to learn about practical ways in which we can all peacefully and effectively resist the construction of this road. The appalling traffic problems along the Bexhill Road need to be alleviated, but the building of a new road – which according to the County Council’s own figures will increase overall traffic by 14 per cent – is not a sustainable or financially viable solution. We have to look to more creative and sustainable solutions to traffic problems: the link road is not the answer. '

NOTES
[1] John Stewart was named "Britain’s most effective radical green activist" in the first comprehensive list of the country’s most effective greens, compiled by The Independent on Sunday – in part for his role in "co-ordinat[ing] protests that brought Tory plans for ‘the greatest road-building programme since the Romans’ to a screeching halt in the 1990s." For more info see www.airportwatch.org.uk/?p=2244 Combe Haven Defenders

(USA) Tar Sands Blockade Launces 8-Person Treesit

Gandalf hates tar sands.

The ongoing Tar Sands Blockade campaign has launched an 8-person treesit in the planned path of the under-construction Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. “Construction cannot proceed until tree-sitters descend and TransCanada clear-cuts through hundreds of trees to make way for the toxic tar sands pipeline,” Tar Sands Blockade announced.

The treesitters have announced their intention to remain in the trees until the Keystone XL pipeline is stopped for good.

Tar Sands Blockade is an ongoing campaign to stop the construction of TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline through Texas and Oklahoma. The pipeline is meant to carry oil from Alberta’s tar sands to the US.

There are still plenty of ways to get involved in this campaign. Follow news of the treesit here. For some ways to get involved, read this call to action or visit Tar Sands Blockade.

 

 

Twyford Down anti-road protests gathering, September

There is going to be a Twyford Down anti-roads protest reunion to mark that it is 20 years since the protests started.  It's on 29-30 Sept, when it'll be the Harvest Moon.  

There is going to be a Twyford Down anti-roads protest reunion to mark that it is 20 years since the protests started.  It's on 29-30 Sept, when it'll be the Harvest Moon.  

There will be a camp run along the same lines as 20 years ago (bring what you expect to find… water butts, tents, food, etc).  That said, there will be some domes and the @ teapot are going to be doing catering (Sat dinner and Sun breakfast) – hurrah!  Camp location to be on top of St Catherine's Hill, near Winchester.

There will also be a protest / photo opportunity about this current Government's mania of roadbuilding. 

 Please spread this amongst your contacts who you think may be interestd.  There is a Facebook page if you do such things called Twenty Years Since Twyford: http://www.facebook.com/events/344190508996315/

More details and flyer downloadable at http://bettertransport.org.uk/blogs/roads/100912-twyford-20