July 12, 2011
The camp site has been served a court notice earlier today with summons for a hearing on the 15th of July – this Friday.
Court time is @ 10.am, The Telford County Court, Telford Square, Malinsgate, Telford,TF3 4JB
July 12, 2011
The camp site has been served a court notice earlier today with summons for a hearing on the 15th of July – this Friday.
Court time is @ 10.am, The Telford County Court, Telford Square, Malinsgate, Telford,TF3 4JB
We are sending an URGENT CALL OUT for as many people as possible to come down and support us in whatever way they can!
Join the resistance to the “fracking” invasion! Stop the massive expansion of shale gas extraction in the UK! We need renewables and powerdown – not another source of fossil fuel!
Join the resistance to the “fracking” invasion! Stop the massive expansion of shale gas extraction in the UK! We need renewables and powerdown – not another source of fossil fuel!
Camp Frack will take place adjacent to the UK’s first fracking operations at Singleton, near Blackpool (nearest train station Poulton Le Fylde). It will be organised with the support of a local farmer who is providing the land. It will involve locals, grassroots groups, individuals and NGO’s in workshops and discussions on shale gas and on forming effective UK wide resistance against it. It will involve raising local awareness about the problems with shale gas and an action day of protest against the drilling activities currently in progress in the Blackpool area.
More details will be circulated in August regarding venue etc. To be kept up to date or for any questions email campfrack@gmail.com
on why to oppose fracking and potential drilling sites in the UK, see http://nofrackinguk.com/
Greetings all,
The beginning is nigh…
Hopefully this will be the last meeting list, so the next thing you’ll hear from us will be the swoop info.. anyone wanting to help out with the swoop, on the day- please get in contact now… Otherwise you’ll only be given short notice as to the date/location etc…
Greetings all,
The beginning is nigh…
Hopefully this will be the last meeting list, so the next thing you’ll hear from us will be the swoop info.. anyone wanting to help out with the swoop, on the day- please get in contact now… Otherwise you’ll only be given short notice as to the date/location etc…
We could do with a few more people on the ground, with a knowledge of the area to help out on the day- So get in touch if you wouldn’t mind helping to guide people in, and with some of the organisational aspects on the day and shortly before the swoop.
I’ll need some help getting the message out a few days before- spreading the news through activist networks/list and via SM…
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Wednesday 13th Gloucester @ 1:30pm, Meet in Gloucester City, pub or park!
Web 13th… Forest of Dean @ 3pm – Off to the Forest of Dean for a forage-about and nature walk. We’ll try to spot some Deer, or Wildboar, as we discuss the project.
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Saturday 16th Gloucester City @ 1:30pm – A continuation of last months guerilla gardening [see http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/06/480854.html ] weather permitting- if not, we’ll go to a park or pub for the meeting.
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Wednesday 20th West London, various sites @ times tba – Networking with other eco-villages, recruiting some extra hands for the day. Core groups members, wanting to move over shortly before the swoop of the main site- will have the opportunity to do so then. These people will then be able to help other members of the core group, with any geographic/logistical questions that arise on the day. (it is easy to get lost, round ‘ere)
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Get in touch for further details, and contact info…
Other news…
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Radical Artists call-out… Any artists/ painters/ decorators/ spray-painters/ Art teachers wanting to take the class out and do something exciting/ any other creatively minded people at all, wanting to help turn an ugly, unloved space into a vibrant and beautiful freespace, WE NEED YOUR HELP. Email the address given with “radical artist here” (or something similar) in your emails title, and come down to help us bring some color to an otherwise dreary area.
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A plan to join forces with some of the more active woodland protection campaigners around Gloucestershire is currently being worked on. Anyone networked with local or national wildlife protection groups, forest conservation activists -not of the armchair variety- or any other radical tree-top-camper, please put me in touch with them regarding an opportunity to protect an area of mixed/native woodland from further felling.
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I’ve started setting up a social media type website to allow people already involved, or interested in this project and others similar in nature, to communicate, share knowledge, network and collaborate on projects -it’ll have a forum, media/file sharing, wiki, subgroups/ friends features. I’m looking for anyone interested in helping out with this, I’ve got everything I need bar enough time to get a workable beta up-and-running any-time close to the swoop, so if you’d like to get involved -as much, or as little as you can- drop me an email.
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Peace and Love,
Apok
admin [AT]] apokaluptein [dot]] org [dot]] uk
7th July 2011
The popular squatted Freeshop and attached Emporium Gallery on Stokes Croft were evicted this morning. Bailiffs entered the building with sledgehammers at around 6am, surprising the occupants, and had managed to secure the building before support arrived.
7th July 2011
The popular squatted Freeshop and attached Emporium Gallery on Stokes Croft were evicted this morning. Bailiffs entered the building with sledgehammers at around 6am, surprising the occupants, and had managed to secure the building before support arrived.
One occupant was arrested inside the building. The rest were allowed to leave with a single personal bag each. Bailiffs, with the full support of the police, then refused to fetch a bag containing vital documents for an occupant who had been out at the time. One supporter was arrested for holding up a banner outside, and the banner was confiscated. The arrestee was manhandled by an unbadged steward from Delta Security, and people attempting to help or advise were threatened with batons and pushed into the road. Police also prevented a passing traffic warden from ticketing the illegally-parked Sitex vehicles nearby.
The building has now been fully evicted, but the project will continue in a new space, and plans to buy the building may still go ahead. Both arrestees have been taken to Trinity Station, and we’ve made sure they have access to solicitors. Parties directly involved in the eviction seem to be the local County Court Bailiffs, Delta Security (not sure exactly who as SIA badges hidden), local police, and our old friends Sitex Orbis.
Two different communities. One living in Clifton Mansions, an inner city block of long term squatted flats in Brixton, south London.
Two different communities. One living in Clifton Mansions, an inner city block of long term squatted flats in Brixton, south London. The other made of 90 families part of the UK’s largest Traveller community in Dale Farm, a former scrap-yard purchased by the Travellers ten years ago near Basildon, Essex.
They both now face one common problem: the threat of eviction. Dale Farm’s long battle has now reached a critical point as Basildon council yesterday served a final notice of eviction giving families until midnight on August 31st to abandon their homes. The community of squatters of Clifton Mansions have learnt that the police is planning to block off Brixton’s Coldharbour Lane on Tuesday 12 July to enforce the eviction of all the people living in the 22 flats.
See calls from both communities for solidarity in resisting the planned evictions: Clifton Mansions | Dale Farm
Clifton Mansions:
Clifton Mansions On Coldharbour Lane is a community of squatters in the heart of Brixton. Squatted since the 1990’s the 22 flats are home to a large and diverse group of people. The residents have repaired and maintained the properties after Lambeth Council left them empty and neglected. Clustered around a central courtyard Clifton Mansions is a safe and vibrant community where violence and abuse are not tolerated.
On Tuesday 12 July 2011 the police plan to block off Coldharbour Lane and enforce the eviction of all the people living in Clifton Mansions. Making the astonishing claim that evicting Clifton Mansions will somehow solve the problem of drug crime in Brixton, the police failed to consult with local councillors before pushing ahead with this plan. Clifton Mansions residents have received only two weeks notice that they are to be evicted from their homes.
Following the evictions, Lambeth Council will pay Camelot, a private company, to provide “live-in guardians” to occupy Clifton Mansions. The squatters have been providing a free guardian service for years. Why make people homeless and then pay a multinational company to occupy their homes?
Eventually Lambeth wants to sell Clifton Mansions to property developers, further reducing Lambeth’s social housing stock in central Brixton. Clifton Mansions will be turned into luxury flats priced well beyond the means of the local community.
Please contact the council and the police to let them know what you think.
Show your support on eviction day:
12 July – 8am – Clifton Mansions – 429 Coldharbour Lane
They’re closing the street so lets have a party!
Dale Farm:
Dale Farm, in Crays Hill, Essex, is the UK’s largest Travellers’ community, consisting of nearly a hundred separate properties, lying well outside the village and made up of extended family plots or yards.
Most are owned by Travellers of Irish heritage, although some Romani families also own yards. The estate is divided in two sections, the front part (about 45 plots) has planning permission; while the back part (52 plots) despite numerous applications and appeals, has been refused planning consent, even though the site was previously a disused scrap yard! 90% of traveller planning applications are initially rejected compared to 20% overall.
Caving in to racial prejudice, Basildon District Council (BDC) has set aside 9.2 million pounds to demolish the homes in the back 52 plots and have asked the Home Office for 10 million more. This could happen as early as June. We view the destruction of half this community as ethnic cleansing.
The planning history of the area has shown that the site had been used without planning permission since early 1990’s for a variety of industrial uses. In 1992 BDC issued Enforcement Notices against various unauthorised commercial activities that were being pursued on the site. Part of the land at the east side of the site was previously the subject of two temporary consents for the breaking of motor vehicles, sale of vehicle parts and dealing in scrap metals. This use ceased following the vacation of the?land by the business proprietors in 2001.
When the unauthorised development of the application site first came to the Council’s attention in September 2003, the land to the east of the site had been used as a scrap yard from 1978 until 2001 under a permission granted by the Council to be used as such. If an exception was allowed for the scrap metal yard, surely an exception can be made for a vulnerable minority group to continue to live there, particularly given that many of them have already been through traumatic experiences of forced eviction.
In May 2005, the BDC voted to take direct action, setting aside some three million euro for an eviction and demolition operation. Residents sought a Judicial Review of this decision and won in the High Court. This judgment was overturned by the Court of Appeal on 22 January 2009. An appeal to the House of Lords was denied on 14 May 2009. After extensive research into the needs of Travellers and Gypsies in the UK, on 20 July the Department for Communities and Local Government informed BDC and the Gipsy Council that the District Council is required to provide sufficient land for 62 (sixty two) additional pitches. This requirement can be easily met by BDC if it decides to grant planning permission for the 52 (fifty two) unauthorised pitches already in existence at Dale Farm.
As mentioned before, the main desire of the families is to not move from Dale Farm; they wish to get planning permission for permanent residence to continue living in the site they privately own.
We say no to home demolitions, and no to ethnic cleansing!
On Tuesday 5th July activists from the Telford no new coal (aka Defend Huntington Lane) protest site halted early morning operations by storming the open cast mine. Two protesters dead locked on to heavy plant machinery, disrupting the destruction caused by them. Activists have been on the site for 15 months and are awaiting eviction papers.
On Tuesday 5th July activists from the Telford no new coal (aka Defend Huntington Lane) protest site halted early morning operations by storming the open cast mine. Two protesters dead locked on to heavy plant machinery, disrupting the destruction caused by them. Activists have been on the site for 15 months and are awaiting eviction papers. The camp is situated in what would be the road between the current mine site to another, and in an area of natural beauty
https://wmclimateaction.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/activists-temporarily-halt-work/
4 july 2011
4 july 2011
After a crowded torchlight march on the night between June 26th and 27th, the Free Republic of the Maddalena in Piedmont was brutally assaulted by a full-scale military operation performed by around 2000 forces that turned the place into a battle site : teargas thrown at eye level, bulldozers and heavy vehicles used to evict the camp, water jets against protesters, beatings, tents and equipment smashed up. In the nearby town of Venaria, a riot police vehicle on its way to the site ran over and killed “by mistake” an elderly woman. Demonstrations, pickets and several other initiatives were organised all over Italy to show solidarity with the NO TAV movement that for years has been fighting against the construction of a high speed train line between Turin and Lyon in France. A national demo was called out for today 3rd July, and it’s still going on as I’m writing this. It’s about 8.40pm and it’s difficult to have a clear idea of what’s been happening at the Maddalena today, but what is clear is that there have been hundreds of people injured on both sides (but it’s only one side that I care about). Police have been using rubber bullets and at least one young man is seriously injured after being shot in the face. Protesters have compared the military operation to the repression in Palestine…check out some of the videos to make your mind up : video 1, video 2,video 3 (and more on the same website).
The Val di Susa (Susa Valley) has been one of the most important political campaigns of the last few years, organising resistance and fighting to protect the local territory and the locals’ health, that governments and companies would like to sacrifice once more in the name of profit. The TAV project (where TAV stands for High Speed Train) is basically a transfer of public money to a group of private companies united under the name Impregilo – multimillionaire companies such as FIAT, Benetton and others. After construction, these companies would be allowed to set up and run their own private rail service in competition with the State Railways (just in case they didn’t make enough money already). Despite not being finished yet, the business enterprise has already earned its contractors (all of which are millionaire businessmen) a very high income.
Sources for this article : Indymedia Piedmont and the new Italy Indymedia site. Cool postcard images also found on Indymedia sites – thank you unknown artists !
https://madrid.indymedia.org/node/17884
http://italycalling.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/brief-history-of-the-no-tav-movement/
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NO TAV press conference – “This is the people’s resistance”
In the midst of the riot porn that can be found on the internet about the NO TAV protests of Sunday 3 July – and that I’m not going to post here because a) you can find it anywhere and b) you can have too much of it – I’ve found a story that I think is much more important. On the Monday after the protests, the NO TAV network held a press conference in Chiomonte. So what?, you might ask. Well, it could’ve been a disaster. In 2001, after the ferocious state violence of the G8 summit in Genoa, the Genoa Social Forum made the big mistake of retreating: instead of staying united, some groups left the alliance, others stayed but distanced themselves from the “bad protesters” (namely the Black Block) and blamed them for the violent reaction of the police. The State, the police and the media had won their war: they had wanted to tear the movement apart and they succeeded. So, you can imagine what a joy it was for me to read the NO TAV network statements:
“It wasn’t the Black Block, it was just people, and the majority of them locals. We came prepared with helmets and masks after what happened on the 27th June (see my previous article), but we came with bare hands. After the police started attacking us with teargas, stones and water jets, we defended ourselves in any way we could. We couldn’t do anything else”, declared Maurizio Piccione, who opened the conference. Another representative said “Popular resistance is our way of doing things. The only accusation we will agree with is that we resisted against a situation that wasn’t created by us. The Black Block is being used as a scapegoat, because people can’t accept the fact that a whole valley wants to resist. We must thank the Valsusa residents for resisting, and we’re proud of this”.
The people's Resistance in the Susa Valley
Despite it being a press conference, the marquee was crowded with about 50 people, not just representatives and delegates of the different groups, but also people who wanted to tell their version of the story. When a journalist of the right wing paper Secolo XIX asked about the Black Block, a person just replied “I was there and I’m not the Black Block”. The journalist was challenged and finally left the conference. Other journalists left “in solidarity” with their colleague. Gone forever are those times when journalists in Italy (or any other country) would literally risk their lives to speak The Truth. Now they just mouth the words of those who stuff their mouths with gold.
The Catholic groups in the No TAV alliance criticised Susa’s local bishop for closing down the cathedral and obeying the prefect’s order of keeping the priests under him quiet. A local wine farmer described his by-now daily experience of having to travel into the militarised territory to get to his vines. Everyone was united in their rage and outrage at the lies perpetrated by the media, and expressed solidarity and sympathy with the protesters injured and arrested. At the moment there are 4 people still in prison – they were going to know today if their arrests would be confirmed or not, but the meeting has been postponed, so they’re still in. To send them cards and letters:
Marta Bifani / Roberto Nadalini / Salvatore Soru / Giancarlo Ferrari
Casa Circondariale Lorusso Cutugno
Via Pianezza 300
10151 Torino
Italy
Looks like there’ll be a protest camp at the end of July and an international one in August, so…stay tuned!
Article based on this text – if you understand Italian you can watch some videos of the press conference. This is a good website in general, and it’s got a page with English translations, so take a look!
Climbing, blocking, stinking, sabbing earth defenders rock!
Roll on down to the EF! Summer Gathering in mid-August.
Paint-throwing, blockading, rioting, boarding up offices and gathering hundreds of thousands together – all ways to try and defeat the Nuclear Behemoth.
Climbing, blocking, stinking, sabbing earth defenders rock!
Roll on down to the EF! Summer Gathering in mid-August.
Paint-throwing, blockading, rioting, boarding up offices and gathering hundreds of thousands together – all ways to try and defeat the Nuclear Behemoth.
Blockading coal in Bangladesh, copper mining in Peru, Italian ecotage against incineration, Greek firebombs opposing landfill, pro-rickshaw car-smashing in India, actions and camping to protect the Tasmanian forests, and anti-mining trashing of many things in Indonesia…just a taste from around the world of how people campaign to stop the destruction of the earth and it’s inhabitants.
More news from the front lines: travellers digging in, mobile phone mast torching, a first time hunt sabber’s diary, the latest from the GM ‘anti-lobby’, and tracking new developments – UK fracking, FFS!
Plus with the latest advice from AUntie Miffy, contacts and dates to get you in the mood for Captain Swing, download, distribute, subscribe and get out there, and stuck in.
earthfirst.org.uk/efau
[- to subscribe & get the EF!AU as soon as it’s produced, rather than when we put it up here!]
25 June at 12:00 – 26 June at 23:30
Location: Bilston glen woods, Midlothian
25 June at 12:00 – 26 June at 23:30
Location: Bilston glen woods, Midlothian
More info
To celebrate the 9th year of resistance to the destructive and unnecessary A701 bypass, we at bilston glen protest site invite you to 2 days of workshops and entertainment, on saturday 25th and sunday 26th june there will be workshops and food through the day and music and madness by night, with punk, acoustic, folk and electro performers . if you plan on spending the weekend please remember to bring a tent and all your nice friends!
Bands (more t.b.a)
OI Polloi
Total Bloody Chaos
T34
X And The Apes
Daddy No
Puddock Stew
Malakandra
Malicious Mischief
Buff
Overspill
Permanent French
Fresa’s Magic Performing Hat 😉
Chris Hayworth
Any bands wishing to perform please message us, but please be aware that this event is to try to raise some funds for site so we cannot pay for fuel etc. for bands.
HOW TO FIND US!!!
By bike – from city centre, go down the bridges / nicholson street towards cameron toll. turn right at cameron toll and take the A701 towards Pennicuik & you´ll get to Bilston. There is a metal gate on your left, opposite the VW garage and right next to the first bus stop in bilston…
by bus – take the 37, 47 or X47 from Edinburgh (bridges/clerk st/nicholson st) towards Penicuik, get off at the 1st bus stop in Bilston opposite a VW garage, the metal gate is right next to the bus stop……go through the wee metal gate & down the path till you come to the bridge & you’ll see us!
by car- Bilston is located on the A701, abot 6 miles south of Edinburgh city centre, the best place to park is on the bilston glen industrial estate, to get into the ind. est once on the A701 turn onto the A768 towards Loanhead then onto dryden road, the bilston glen indusrial estate is quite well sign posted so it should be easy enough to find
This year’s Earth First Summer Gathering takes place in East Anglia this year, starting on the 10th of August and running for five days. With six workshops tents we have space for over 100 discussions, presentations and workshops. The spaces are filling up fast, but there is still time to book a spot.
This year’s Earth First Summer Gathering takes place in East Anglia this year, starting on the 10th of August and running for five days. With six workshops tents we have space for over 100 discussions, presentations and workshops. The spaces are filling up fast, but there is still time to book a spot. So if you’ve got an idea you wish to highlight, whether it’s related to ecological defence or social resistance here is your chance. The gathering is attended by hundreds of individuals interested and participating in struggles around the UK and Europe.
To get in touch just email efsummergathering2011announce@riseup.net with a blurb of for you workshop or discussion and we’ll do our best to fit you in.
For monthly email updates for the gathering subscribe to efsummergathering@lists.riseup.net
