Update from Hambach: Action Day Ticker!

The Hambach is a forest in Germany proposed for lignite (brown coal) strip mining. There is currently a forest occupation underway, as well as an action camp, and action days at the end of every month.

September 16th, 2014

from Hambach Forest

español

deutsch

Today, the new part of the Autobahn, which they built to help further the expansion of the mine, will be opened with an official celebration. Apparently, the police chose the same day to disturb our resistance in the forest and on the meadow. They appeared as early as 8:00h this morning and are giving us trouble since then. Follow us here today, we will regularly publish new updates, ticker-style.

8:00 First appearance of cops in the forest and on the meadow, building up to around 100 cops at 8:30
8:20 Person attacked by police for now reason, except asking what they want
8:30 Removal of barricades on the forest paths, takes them about 2 hours
10:20 Police are trying to evict beech town (tree occupation) destroying everything on the ground – climbing units are present
10:30 Police are amassing at plane hangar close to meadow – we‘re no longer reachable by car
11.20 Police van by the meadow occupation
11.40 Police and RWE on way to destroy kitchen near meadow
11.50 Food packs for the police (it locks that they want to work longer)
12.00 The opening of the highway A4 starts – 400 people on official opening (honored guests) The demonstration against it with 50 people works, but not directly by the opening party, 50 police are there – traffic minister talking shit
12.10 the barricades to düren are evicted and the police are blockading the way to beech town
12.28 the police start to come on the meadow occupation, hiding duty numbers. Policeblock from Aachen: (License Plate NRW-4-4623, picture of police standing on the meadow )
12.50 the official opening at the highway is over.
13.10 police „retreats“ a bit, leaving oaktown, a treehouse occupation, for now.
13:20 Police no longer visible on the meadow
13:25 News from the forest – one harvester (machine for cutting trees) is damaged (fluids leaking out)
13:30 People are doing a sitting blockade in the Forest, on the way to beech town occupation
13:40 A small group of people got controlled by Police, one person arrested for lack of I.D.
13:40 Harvester is driveable again, but is leaving the Forest, protected by RWE and Police
15:00 No more police or other enemies in the Forest – one security car was passing through the removed barricades, but left again quite quickly. The ticker will go on break for now, if there’s any more action we‘ll be updating again.

some pictures of today: 16.09.14

Eviction Underway at La ZAD du Testet

Last week, occupiers buried themselves in the ground to defend La ZAD du Testet. Photo from @seamymsg

September 16th, 2014

Occupied since October 2013, the ZAD du Testet is one of the many “zones a defendre” which were created after the mediatization of the ZAD at Notre-Dame-des Landes in October 2012. The collective in Testet, a valley in the Tarn region of southeast France, is a mix of “zadistes, farmers, clowns and people in revolt”, resisting a dam project which would destroy a wooded, wetland area with over 100 threatened species, to supply 24 agro-industrial farms with water.

The squatted forest was violently evicted in February 2014, the 10-20 opponents chose to use nonviolent tactics, and then reoccupied. They were evicted again in May of 2014.

August 15, a larger re-occupation was organized, under heavy police and military attention, with arbitrary arrests and road blockades preventing building material from arriving on site. August 25th, biologists came to give their expertise and fill out paperwork to approve the project, and evictions began. People resisted with burning barricades and molotovs, and there has been almost daily confrontation ever since. The region went under martial law on August 31st, with the police chief declaring- “the law must remain strong”, and workers began cutting the forest on September 1. A press release from the collective against the dam- “Tant qu’il y aura des Bouilles” said- “…these new events show the disdain that the Tarn Regional Council shows for dialogue and for the opponents of this project. We condemn this show of force. This kind of behavior breeds rage, even in the most pacifist of opponents, and so one can understand that actions will become more and more radical.”

People have resisted in a variety of ways- a hunger strike by locals in their 50s and 60s, numerous blockades using tractors, fire, buried people, tripods, bulls, human chains etc, a 24/7 occupation of the square in front of the city council, climbing on machines and in trees, and fighting on the ground. There are about 800 people against the project currently in and around the forest, and they frequently encounter tear gas, concussion grenades and rubber bullets. Today (September 15th) action centered around the Gaza(d) treehouse, which still hasn’t been evicted, although 5 people were hospitalized (no thanks to the police, who blocked the ambulances). There are still quite a lot of people in the trees, and the actions are slowing or blocking work every day.

There have also been numerous solidarity actions, from a high school walkout in Gaillac to occupying the offices of the dam construction company in Nantes. The bourgeois media, perhaps afraid of another snowball effect like in October 2012, has kept almost total silence about Testet, despite countless reports of police brutality. In addition to the theft or destruction by the police of medical supplies, food, vehicles, tents, sleeping bags, anything they can get their hands on, the farmers who stand to benefit from the dam and local suspected facists have formed a gang with iron bars, rocks, dogs, molotovs and hunting rifles- with as of yesterday about 80 people, and they are patrolling the roads.

A last word from those on the ground: “Thank you to all who are mobilizing in solidarity with the struggle in Testet, everywhere it’s the same thing, everywhere the same system of rotten politicians who decide amoungst themselves what they’re going to do and call it “democracy”, and who have only one goal: develop their businesses to strengthen the chokehold of this system of machines and technology on the natural environment and people. Those who think they are protected are already dead. We refuse to be isolated and so we struggle, we humbly resist.”

a film in french

website of the occupation

Wetlands destruction and resistance

#TESTET #ZAD

About an hour's drive north of Toulouse (sw France) there is an area of wetlands called the Testet, in the forest of #Sivens . This is the last area of wetlands ("Zone Humide" in French) in the department of the Tarn. It is home to rare and endangered species.

This area (13hectares) will be drowned by a dam. The purpose of the dam is principally to irrigate large-scale maize production.

It will also be used to regulate the levels of water in the river Tescou, so that pollution will be diluted and the local authorities can claim to respect European environment legislation. The water can also be used if difficulties arrive at the Golfech nuclear reactor.

Maize production is not appropriate to this region, it is a highly polluting form of agriculture. European and French rules say that it should no longer receive subsidies. (Dam financed by local, regional and European budgets)

The projected dam is not necessary, smaller, higher dams exist upstream, and are not used.

The studies of water availability and use, of the cost, impact and of the need for the dam are flawed and partial. (Local politicians who favour the project have interests in the company which produced the studies – which just happens to be the company which will pocket the money for building the dam….)

Claims about the need to dilute industrial pollution downstream are nonsense: the milk cooperative which used to pump effluent into the Tescou has had filters since 2006.

Environmentalists have been defending the wetlands for almost a year. Logging started on the 1st of september, the army and military police corps have commited acts of violence against non-violent protestors.

A hunger strike is in progress.

Hundreds of dam opponents are active on the site ( blocking roads, slowing the chainsaws, negociating and demonstrating). Other activists are demonstrating in front of local governement offices (and being savagely beaten for their efforts)

Calls for the public to show opposition to this unnecessary and destructive project are online.

Welcome groups exist for participants in direct action. The struggle is gradually growing, all and any help is needed. Sadly, at the time of writing the GIGN (special forces) are clearing resistance from the Zone.

Futher info:

http://collectif-testet.org/

http://tantquilyauradesbouilles.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SoutienTestet

Direct actions against open cast mines in germany 2014 – mobilisation for a big blockade/action simultaneous to the COPs in Paris in 2015

On the 1st of August this year several actions took place against brown coal mining in the rhineland in germany.

One of the biggest open cast mines of europe are located in the midwest of germany. Near to Cologne RWE, the biggest energy provider of germany runs three open cast mines with an area of 160 km². With an emission of ca. 100 million CO2 per year RWE is the biggest emittent of CO2 in whole Europe. Enough Profit for the highly indepted enterprise, the loss of natural resources for millions of people of the global south

The local consequences of the brown-coal-minig are desastrous. Highly fertile soil gets digged away. Tens of thousands of people get resettled. Important ecosystems like the hambach forest get cut down. To prevent the mines from flooding the groundwater gets pumped down. The negative effects for the agriculture and wetlands can be located even in the netherlands which are ca. 60 km away. The grit and fine dust which are produced by the biggest diggers of the world, which work 24/7 includes even radioactive particles.

There was Resistance against the gigantic project for the whole time of RWEs economic activity since the beginning of 1900. Sometimes bigger sometimes smaller the resistance moreover collapses because of the power RWE develops with lobbyism, corruption and the undercutting of administrations, courts and local social communities.

For about 4 years a constantly growing grassrootsmovement tries to power up the resistance against the power generation of coal on a local and nationwide scale. With constant crystallisation points like the hambach forest occupation and a house project in the area, with climate camps and helping to empower the local resistance movement with supporting citizen initiatives.

Embedded in the climate camp this year a powerful action day took place.

The coal train which transports the coal from the hambach open cast mine to the power plant was blocked two times. On the the first blockade chained themselves to the rails of the coal train which transports the coal of the mine called hambach to the power plant and the second time two people roped down from a bridge above the rails.

Nearly at the same time about 80 people moved the other big mine Garzweiler to block the infrastructure. 2 Diggers were blocked 3 times with lock-on-actions and squattings.From 8 o'clock in the morning to 10 in the evening the drivers of the diggers and the other personal in the mine had no calm minute.

It seems that more and more people want to take responsibility for themselves to protect ecosystems and natural resources and begin to stop the worst effects of climate change with direct actions against fossil infrastructure.

Photos of the action day:

Lock-on-action and climbing action (with other photos of the hambach forest occupation)

https://secure.flickr.com/photos/hambacherforst/with/14797606761/

Blockade of diggers:

https://secure.flickr.com/photos/100963658@N02/sets/72157645681194248/

Mobilisation for a big infrastructure blockade simultaneously to the COP21

According to the next COP-meeting in Paris 2015 we want to invite people from all over europe to think about what to do. As we don't want to have such a big depression after the COPs 2009 in Copenhagen again there is a tendency to organise a big blockade of infrastructure of fossil fuel energy production simultaneously somewhere centrally located in Europe. If you have ideas and want to distribute them you can come to Cologne/Germany from the 3rd to the 5th of octobre. There will be accomodation and board.

English callout for the action plenary:

http://ekib.blogsport.eu/2014/08/23/invitation-action-plenary-meeting-3-5-oct-2014-in-cologne/

Earth First!

An activist from ausgeco2hlt

Unfortunately the websites are not in english or the english blogs are not well operated

www.ausgeco2hlt.de

www.hambacherforst.blogsport.de / http://hambachforest.blogsport.de/

http://ekib.blogsport.eu/

www.klimacamp-im-rheinland.de

Grow Heathrow eviction resistance

15/8/14

WE DID IT, TOGETHER WE RESISTED AN EVICTION TODAY!

THANK YOU

everyone who helped resist the eviction at Grow Heathrow, the chefs, live band, bike powered smoothie makers, seed sowers, climbers, people locked on, Jonathan Goldberg for photos, organisers and more…

BUT….

Unfortunately this is not the end…

The Bailiffs may return any day without warning…

to try and evict Grow Heathrow once more… we will need to come together again for this…

Email us your phone number if you want to be part of the phone tree or join the mailing list on the website: http://www.transitionheathrow.com info@transitionheathrow.com

Come down and visit, stay and help the site run

Anti-fracking protestors join occupation of Cuadrilla site

14 August 2014

At midday today, protestors from Reclaim the Power set up camp at Preston New Road, at fracking company Cuadrilla’s proposed drilling site. Approximately 1000 attendees will stay for six days, to take direct action and share skills and knowledge. They do so in support of the local community’s fight against Cuadrilla’s plans to drill for shale gas in Lancashire.[1]

Last year, the Reclaim the Power camp shut down Cuadrilla’s operations in Balcombe, Sussex for a week. The company later announced that they would not frack the site, and the Balcombe community has set up an initiative to supply their area with renewable energy.[2]

In 2011, Blackpool experienced earthquakes caused by fracking. Hannah Jones from Reclaim the Power said:

“Blackpool is where the fracking industry started in the UK, and this is where it has to stop. Besides the damage it can cause to water and air locally, fracked gas can be as bad for the climate as coal. We need energy that’s sustainable, democratic, and affordable, instead of corporate controlled fossil fuels.”

Since August 7^th, a group of Lancashire grandmothers, mothers, and children have been occupying a field on Preston New Road – one of Cuadrilla’s proposed drill sites. Local residents handed in a record-breaking 14,000 objections to a council consultation on Cuadrilla’s plans.[3] When asked why the local women are occupying the field, Tina Louise from Lancashire said,

“The shale gas industry and Cuadrilla in particular have not acted honestly in their dealings with our community and are not to be trusted with the health and well-being of our children. We do not want them here and so are gathering to make sure we are heard and we are calling others to help us amplify this. As air and water do not recognize county boundaries, the defence is for everybody in the UK.”

[1] Press pack with more detailed camp information available. [2] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/17/balcombe-fracking-energy-community-renewables [3]http://www.foe.co.uk/news/14000-people-call-frack-free-lancashire

How to get to the camp

Programme (including march on Sunday, day of action on Monday)

Reclaim the Power to come to North West England anti-fracking site

Reclaim the Power, the action camp that shut down Cuadrilla’s operations in Balcombe for a week last year, will take place near Blackpool between 14 – 20 August. The precise location of the camp will be revealed on the starting day. An estimated 1000 participants from across the UK and local residents will take part in 6 days of direct action, training, and workshops as they join the dots between social, climate and economic justice.

More info in press release. Programme

anti-fracking news from the frontlines, Britain

There are currently three community blockades / protest camps – West Newton, Crawberry HIll (both in Yorkshire), and Upton (Cheshire).

For other news, upcoming events and info, see http://frack-off.org.uk

Workers evicted in protest against tar sands, USA

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July 17th, 2014 – from Swamp Line 9

Individuals from Six Nations and their allies have interrupted work on a section of Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline. The work stoppage began around 10am this morning. Individuals involved asked workers to leave, asserting that the land is Haudenosaunee territory guaranteed under the Haldimand deed, and that Enbridge’s workers were present without consent or consultation.

“Meaningful consultation isn’t just providing information and going ahead without discussion – it’s giving the opportunity to say no and having a willingness to accommodate.” says Missy Elliot.

“Enbridge left a voice message on a machine with one person. That’s not meaningful – it’s not even consultation.” Emilie Corbeau, there in support of Six Nations points out.

Those involved intend to host an action camp, filling the time with teach-ins about Six Nations history, indigenous solidarity and skill shares centering on direct action.

The group states that they’ve tried the other processes available to them and here out of necessity. “We’ve tried pursuing avenues with the NEB, the township and the Grand River Conservation Authority. Our concerns were dismissed. What other choice do we have if we want to protect our land, water and children?” Missy Elliot of Six Nations asks.

Under bill C-45 the section of the Grand River adjacent to the Enbridge work site and pipeline is no longer protected. Approximately half a million people rely on drinking water provided by the Grand River.

“This isn’t just about line 9 – or Northern Gateway, Energy East or Keystone XL. This is about pipelines – all of them.” Daniell Boissineau, of Turtle Clan, asserts. “This is about the tarsands and how destructive they are to expand, extract and transport.”

“This is a continental concern. It’s not just a Six Nations issue or an indigenous issue. We share the responsibility to protect our land and water as human beings.” Elliot states.

Germany’s Hambach Forest Occupation Calls for Solidarity and Support

Greetings and Salutations from the Hambacher Forest Occupatio

Greetings and Salutations from the Hambacher Forest Occupation!

We are presently blocking the expansion of the largest opencast lignite mine in Western Europe with tree sits and barricades through out the Hambacher Forest. After the last eviction on March 27th 2014 we re-occupied the forest, this time, building up two tree sits with multiple platforms, tree-houses, walk ways in between and barricades .

At present we are facing regular intrusion of repressive law enforcement destroying our structures on the ground and have already faced two largescale evictions using tactical teams costing millions of euros while at the same time, the German government, is cutting sustainable energy subsidies. Instead choosing to compensate for the shut down of nuclear power plants with support to the extremely polluting and ecologically catastrophic coal industry (in our case RWE power company which is engaging in massive green washing PR campaigns).

We would like to send you updates and inform you of the upcoming Climate Camp and Skill-shares Gathering (July 26th to August 3rd 2014) happening in our vicinity which we are also helping to organize. We also have a support camp with legal status at the edge of the forest functioning as a de facto activist eco village with a vegan kitchen, guest
caravans, straw bail structures, gardens and many other on-going sustainable projects, to which we would like to invite all of you who may find yourselves in our neck of the woods.

As of recently, we have also built an info-shop/library for which we would like to appeal for any extra literature that you would be willing to share with us. We could cover the costs of shipment and if possible discount rates of literature itself not to mention we would be extremely interested and gratefull if you would be willing to share any back issues or extra literature. If this is a possibility please also respond with your preferable snail-mail address, as we would like to share some of our material with you as well.

We have a support centre in Duren, which is unfortunately undergoing a bit of transition at the moment. For the time being the literature for our Meadow Base Camp info-shop and the Climate Camp could be sent, care of one of our supporters:

Frau Annika Lindberg
Rohrbachstr. 37
60389 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

If you would be interested in updates from the forest please include your PGP key in the correspondence.

There is a sense of urgency as even though the forest has been occupied for two years now there is a new autobahn ready for opening in September bypassing the one separating the last remnant of the forest from the mine allowing the mine to expand and logging and strip mining to commence on the last remnant of the forest. We expect that to be the time of mass police actions. For that reason it is mega important to both get the word out and keep people involved, inspired and on track of the importance and the context of the struggle.