Transport – Earth First!

Roll Back The Tracks Bike Ride

What do you need to bring?

– bicycle 🙂
– bicycle panniers
– tent, sleeping mat and sleeping bag
– headlamp/flashlight
– power bank for charging electronics
– bottles for carrying drinking water
– a sealable tupperware for carrying food and eating out of, mug and cutlery
– toiletries and medication
– clothes to stay warm and dry
– first aid kit
– a basic cycle repair kit if you have one
– banners and flags to attach to your bike! (no XR banners please)
– cash for donations for food.
We are looking into continuing the bike ride along the second leg of the proposed route from Birmingham to Leeds from the 20th to roughly the 27th of August. For this leg, you will also need:
– camping stove & gas
– cooking equipment

Camping Sites

We have tried where possible to get permission to use camping sites. However, in some places we will be trespassing, and as such, facilities will be minimal. We have selected places that we feel are suitable to camp for the nights of the 15th-19th.
On the night of the 20th, we will be wild camping in a park in Brum centre, and from then on, wild camping in locations that we have not yet visited, and therefore we can’t guarantee they will be brilliant places to camp.

Food & water

On the first leg of the ride from Manchester to Birmingham, we will have a catering team following us in a vehicle. With volunteer support from us, they will provide one cooked, vegan, evening meal each day, and provide the ingredients for us to make our own breakfast and packed lunches.
Volunteers in the kitchen will need to wear a face mask and observe physical distancing.
Donations for food are greatly appreciated, though no-one will be turned away for lack of funds.
On the second leg, we will NOT be catered for, so if you are cycling from Brum to Leeds, you will need to buy your own food and cook for yourself.
Most of the camping sites have running water nearby. However, you need to have at least 2 1L drinking bottles with you on the ride, and to fill them up whenever possible on route to campsites. Stay hydrated!

Toilets

At some of the campsites, there are toilets. Where there are not toilets, we will have a bike trailer toilet cubicle in tow, and a spade. Collectively, we will have to dig a pit for everyone to poo in. If the idea of pooping in a pit grosses you out, then make sure you use public toilets on route.

Checking your bike is ready to join Roll Back the Tracks

Lots of different bikes can make this trip, but it needs to be in good working order.

Please make sure you have at least one water bottle holder on your bike. You also need to think about how you will carry your luggage. You need either a pannier rack bolted to your bike frame to carry pannier bags with your belongings, or you’ll need to bring bike packing bags to carry luggage directly on the frame. Please don’t come with a backpack of all your stuff, you will be sweaty and uncomfortable quickly. Full suspension mountain bikes are not recommended.

If you don’t cycle regularly, or you are borrowing a bike for the trip check that the bike fits – take it for a test ride of a few hours to see how comfortable it is. You need to be able to stand over the frame without it touching you between your legs and be able to comfortable reach the handlebars and brakes.

Check your brakes

Rim brakes (the brakes act on the metal circular part of your wheel)

• pull on the brakes one at a time to ensure that they can stop the bike
• check there is plenty of rubber across the whole of all the pads (especially if your brakes are noisy)
• check that the brakes just touch onto metal and not onto the rubber of the tyre
• check that when you pull the brake lever (the part in your hand when riding) the lever doesn’t touch the handlebars.

Disk brakes

• Check that the front and the back brake stops your bike (rather than when both are pressed at the same time).
• Check the rotary wheel is straight and firmly attached.
• If the brakes are ringing you need to get them adjusted.

Wheels

• Check that quick release wheels are properly tightened. You should be able to read the word ‘closed’ when they are;
• otherwise, check that wheel nuts are tight, especially if you remove your front wheel.
• Clean the braking surface if you have rim brakes – use washing up liquid in water and a rag.
• Check the tyres are fully inflated. The pressure is written on the side of your tyre.
• Check the tyres still have a pattern across the surface and do not bulge.
• Check that the brakes haven’t rubbed a grove in the rubber of the tyre.
• Check that the wheel runs in a straight line – do this by lifting one end of your bike and pushing the wheel round fast, it should move smoothly and not rub.
• Look at your wheels to ensure all the spokes are there and squeeze them in pairs to check they are of a similar tightness.

Frame

• Make sure there are no cracks or big dents in the frame.
• Check the bolts attaching mud guards, water bottles and the pannier rack are all tight.
• Can you move the handlebars fluidly?
• Could they be too loose? Put the front brake on, turn the front wheel 90 degrees and then see if the front of the bike rocks if you push forward on the turned handlebar. If so, it needs tightened.

Gears

• Look at your chain and everything it touches. Dirty? It really is worthwhile using an old tooth brush to clean each link and contact point before re-applying oil to each link and then removing any excess with a rag.
• Move the pedals and ensure they can freely turn round completely.
• Check that the bike can go into all of its gears. There are going to be hills, so you’ll need a range of gears.

Got a creaking bike?

Can you work out where it is coming from? If standing up to pedal makes it stop check your saddle, if it is worse when you peddle hard it is likely your bottom bracket.

Got a problem with one or more of these areas? If yo don’t know how to fix it find a friend who does or take it to an independent bike shop – but watch out they may not be able to do this at short notice.

Please bring a spare inner tube with you in case you get a puncture, the size is written on the side of your tyre. If you don’t know how to change a flat tyre still bring a spare inner tube and we can fix it together.

Having a fully working bike is your responsibility.
We are meeting together on the 14th at Ryebank Fields Protest Camp in Manchester to check bikes. Please bring a bike which is in full working order as we may sadly have to ask you not to come if you’re bike isn’t up to the job and we can’t get parts to fix it.

How can you help?

• Know of anywhere we (max 50 riders) could sleep in the following areas?
◦ North Cheshire
◦ Birmingham Centre (ideally near Digbeth)
◦ West Leicestershire
◦ Sheffield
◦ Leeds
• Involved in a critical Mass or cycling group in Brum, Nottingham, Sheffield or Leeds? Help us organise some cyclists into a critical mass!
• Have you got a bike sound system you could bring on part of the ride?
• Do a workshop on route. Sing a song round the campfire.
• Get creative and make some flags or banners for our bikes!
• Volunteer in the kitchen.
• Tow the bike trailer toilet for a few hours.
• Spare some change? We are trying to raise 2000 pounds to fund the project. can you help either by donating or sharing? Here´s the link to the crowdfunder:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/roll-back-the-tracks

Drop us an email on rollbackthetracks@riseup.net to RSVP or for more info.

Ende Gelände #breakfree2016 action round-up

Between 13-15 May 2016 more than 3,500 people took part in a huge series of Ende Gelände (literally: ‘here & no further’) direct actions to shut down Europe’s biggest source of CO₂ emissions, following a climate camp.

The Welzow-Süd opencast coal mine in the Lusatia coal fields in Germany was shut down and the power plant Schwarze Pumpe – Europe’s 10th largest emitter of CO₂ – was cut off from all coal supplies.

Many entered the mine, others blocked coal trains and conveyor belts transporting coal to the power plant. Swedish energy company Vattenfall reduced the power plant’s capacity by 80 per cent. After more than 48 hours, the activists stopped the blockade on Sunday 15 May 2016.

The mass action Ende Gelände (‘here and no further’) demands an end of coal now.

Pictures: 1 | 2 | 3

More info

Next German climate camp in the Rhineland (note clash with EF! Summer Gathering)

Attacking UK’s coal transport system – Severing the lines that feed the machine

Severing the lines that feed the machine is not impossible. When people take up civil uprising in the UK, if people are able to shove their obligations to one side to open up an avenue, they mainly have the ability and possibility to be able to grasp their will for something new. The war is not over when those moments stop, it sparks up in little raptures here and there, showing that we are not crushed, things can be brought to a grinding halt again, even for a split second.

It just takes a few bright spirits and we see it clear, when the smug confidence of authorities is knocked, a few pins get hit out and things can be seen in a different light. Out of synch and off balance, everything no longer appears structurally sound, life feels more up for grabs.

The new horizon peaked through our cloudy day, Sunday 6th March, and we hope this uncomplicated act of sabotage we have undertaken exposes the vulnerability of their complex matrix.

We took a risk assessment and as night just started to close in we entered the 1st railway tunnel, we cut both lines with a portable disc cutter, we didn’t imagine de-railing a locomotive but wrecking disruption and economic damage (time is money). We entered a 2nd and did a further two cuts, marking them all with pink paint, and leaving a banner as a warning.

The line in question runs through the Avon Gorge from Royal Portbury Dock over from Avonmouth, it’s freight only (no passengers), 70% of the UK’s imported coal for power generation comes through these docks. This line is a bottle-neck to the country’s dispersal. Most of it from USA where they blow apart mountains to get it out and Russia from the Shor and Teleut ancestral lands laid waste in Siberia, also places like Indonesia which drive back the forests for sprawling mines and plantations. That’s to keep factories running and city lights on, when we’ve got a feeling for escaping the work prisons and regaining the stars. Other loads carried on the line include construction aggregate and new built vehicles on their way to the show room. More high-speed trainlines are coming to the UK, more roads, more ancient woodland and wildlife wiped out in the frenzy of progress.

After seeing the firey activities against the coal flow in the Hambach forest of Germany since New Years – don’t give up the fight!, or the cutting of the coal belt in Scotland some years back by persons unknown when the battles against coal mining raged, we realise we’re not original. It’s not even the first time for eco-sabotage ambushes on that line from Portbury or the troublesome cargo, over the years. We see attacks following attacks on trainlines in different countries, it’s within reach to hinder the circuits powering the giant, we just have to harness our courage, keep an eye peeled for soft spots, maybe starting small but always dreaming big. Right now we’re reading about economic damage this month from trainline saboteurs in the north of Spain, we affirm our solidarity and respect too for the anarchists there with showcase court cases or police attention otherwise, we laugh to hear about the rowdy spirits that keep up when repressed for the fight to reject dominion. Maybe the sparks kicked up in the train tunnels even reflected over the Alps and beyond to light the sky for those in dark cells for trying to stop high-speed capitalism and also its nano-world technologies.

Joining our strength with the near and distant tribes, refusal and attack! Block the flows, up the fighters!

Toward a life that’s wild and free from coal, quarries, cars or cops. Avon Gorge sabotage group “Sand In The Gears”, signing out…..

Plane Stupid kick off Red Lines COP21 direct action

The main road entrance to Heathrow airport, London, was blocked by climate change activists for four hours early on Thursday morning, causing a traffic tailback several miles long.

The main road entrance to Heathrow airport, London, was blocked by climate change activists for four hours early on Thursday morning, causing a traffic tailback several miles long. Three members of anti airport expansion campaign group Plane Stupid parked a vehicle across both lanes of the inbound tunnel and locked their bodies to it, unfurling a red banner quoting David Cameron’s election promise: “No Ifs, No Buts: No Third Runway”. David Cameron has promised a decision by the end of the year on whether to build another runway at Heathrow.

This action represents an early entry for the Climate Games, sending a clear message to the UK government that expanding aviation is a no-go for the climate; were it to go ahead the UK would undoubtedly miss its emissions targets as set out under the 2008 Climate Change Act.

Nor will aviation expansion benefit the majority of the population or businesses, as is often claimed. The demand for airport expansion is being driven by rich frequent flyers. Last year, less than half of people in Britain flew. Of those who did, a mere 15% of flyers took 70% of our flights. As well as noise and air pollution, poor people are paying the price in droughts, flooding and storms so that the rich can cook the planet with frequent leisure flights. Whilst we might hope that David Cameron might live up to his pre-election promise – “no ifs, no buts, no third runway” – we can’t rely on it. Partly after being forced to take non-violent disobedient action where all other options were exhausted, we stopped a third runway before and we’ll stop it again this time too.

#RedLines

At the COP21 talks this year in Paris, the theme for the mass day of action on December 12th (D12) is Red Lines. These blockades will represent lines that cannot be crossed if we are to stay within the 2C rise in global temperatures. Failure to stay within this threshold will take us down a road where even if we reduce emissions to zero, feedback loops will mean that emissions will continue to rise: climate chaos.

In reality there are many Red Lines we should not cross, but governments and corporations seem intent to do so. In the UK this includes the aviation industry, which if it continues to grow at its current rate will by 2050 emit all of the carbon it is safe for the UK to emit. Beyond this, other red lines that are close to being crossed nationally include increasing unconventional fossil fuel extraction through fracking and a government’s ‘dash for gas’ to build power stations rather than renewables. Internationally, there are similar concerns as well as a clear need to stop lignite coal mining in Germany and the Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada. Whilst there are many such examples of industries that cannot continue, overall the science dictates that the fossil fuel industry must transition to renewables and most of the carbon must be kept in the ground.

Beyond the Paris conference

Unlike the climate talks in Copenhagen, many activists are going to Paris with low expectations. We know that the heads of state and business leaders won’t come up with a satisfactory deal to prevent climate catastrophe. Naomi Klein writes in ‘This Changes Everything’ that climate deals always come in second place to trade deals as corporate profit and perpetual economic growth are ideologically untouchable in our neoliberal era. With this in mind, the aim for many activists is to see the Paris talks as a way for us all to network between struggles and to show on day 12 that if our ‘leaders’ won’t do it, then we can stop climate chaos ourselves. Unfortunately, with the recent events in Paris, marches have been banned out of fears over safety, which may mean that our mobilisations might not be as big or as effective as we hoped.

However, given that we know that the solutions to the climate crisis won’t come from the COP, let’s see this as an opportunity rather than a problem. Let’s get out and take action wherever the real #RedLines are: the dirty fossil fuel industries, the unsustainable, undemocratic mega-projects. #ClimateGames starts tomorrow. In this game we have nothing to lose but our fears. We have our whole futures to win. Asking our ‘leaders’ to solve our problems has left us with the hottest years on record, year after year. We are the solution we’ve been waiting for.

We are not fighting for nature. We are nature defending itself.

Earth First! Summer Gathering, August 2015

Update: see earthfirstgathering.org for an inspiring and exciting programme and more.

Exciting plans are taking shape. Get involved by coming along to the EF! Winter Moot in Bristol.

Email: summergathering AT earthfirst.org.uk

Update: see earthfirstgathering.org for an inspiring and exciting programme and more.

Exciting plans are taking shape. Get involved by coming along to the EF! Winter Moot in Bristol.

Email: summergathering AT earthfirst.org.uk

Earth First! Winter Moot (Bristol): 20th-22nd February 2015 /full programme

A weekend gathering for people involved or wanting to know more about ecological direct action around the UK including fighting opencast coal, fracking, GM, nuclear power, new road building and quarries with discussions and campaign planning – emphasis on the tactics and strategies, community solidarity and sustainable activism.

Sharing stories, skills, tactics, updates & analyses of the radical ecological movement

Cost scale £20 to £30 . This includes full vegan meals and accommodation. Arrive Friday evening (programme starts at 7pm), leave Sunday (ends by 4pm). It will be an indoor floor sleeping space so bring a warm sleeping bag and mat to…

Kebele Community Centre 14 Robertson Road Easton Bristol BS5 6JY
Train—To Stapleton rd , two stops from Bristol TM then 7min walk —

Earth First! is a network of people and campaigns who fight ecological destruction and the forces driving it. We believe in non-hierarchical organising of Direct Action, to confront, stop and eventually reverse the forces that are responsible for the destruction of the Earth and its inhabitants. EF! is not a cohesive group or campaign, but a convenient banner for people who share similar philosophies to work under and doing it ourselves rather than relying on governments or industry.

For info or offers southwest.earthfirst@riseup.net www.earthfirst.org.uk

Download the (ready-to-print) flyer

Programme subject to change:

Starts 7pm Friday with dinner, followed by films & an intro to EF!

On Saturday, breakfast is before the 9:30am start with campaigns round-ups and legal & security workshops. After lunch we'll be looking at strategic thinking (see below) and at 5 exploring the relationship between Reclaim the Power and EF!

On Sunday we'll continue those explorations from 10am. After lunch, there'll be a workshop on sustainable activism, and a chance to get involved in organising the EF! Summer Gathering. Please stay for that if you can and get involved.

Workshops include:

“Intelligent Resistance: strategy and its implementation in the modern world”

Summary: Strong strategy has always been a key element of successful resistance movements. Whether it be the anarchist movements of revolutionary Spain, or the contemporary fight against fracking, a solid strategy is proven to be indispensable.‘Intelligent Resistance’ is a basic introduction to strategic thought and action and looks to provide those in attendance with a practical set of theoretical tools to take away and apply to their own movements and practice.

“Sustaining Resistance: avoiding ‘Burn out”

This is a taster workshop from a much longer ten day workshop and offers a range of tools, collective and personal, which can make our activism more effective and help us avoid burn out staying in for the long haul.

Reclaim the Power meets Earth First!”

How can Earth First! and Reclaim the power coexist in the future struggles and is there a need for collaboration between other camps or a consolidation of resources?

Legal Defence Monitoring:

A taster session in how to be an effective LDM on actions and demos.

Campaigns go-round:

Dates for your diary and what resistance is going on around the world and your back yard..

Earth First! Summer Gathering 2014 – exact location & other practicalities added

Updates: Exact location has been releases – see here.

Travel – book your travel to Castle Cary or Bruton train station, then it's a bus journey and 20 minute walk.

Updates: Exact location has been releases – see here.

Travel – book your travel to Castle Cary or Bruton train station, then it's a bus journey and 20 minute walk.

Bus times are : 8.14am – 9.44am – 11.44am – 12.33pm – 2.14pm – 4.33pm (last bus). There's no Sunday service so we will timetable a shuttle bus to return.

Cycling: Bruton is better if you are cycling as it is a mile shorter, and there is also a bus from there too. The last bus from here leaves later. (Bus times from Bruton are: 9:09am – 10:39am – 12:12pm – 1:39pm – 3:54pm – 5:39pm)

We will post the exact address three weeks before the gathering.

Refreshments – ‘This year there is no bar on site. People are welcome to bring their own but we ask that there's no drinking before dinner/7pm. Anyone causing a nuisance or breaking our Safer Spaces policy will be asked to stop and/or leave. There will be a cafe & snack bar on site.’

Dogs – ‘This year dogs are welcome, but please get in touch in advance, and keep them on a lead at all times on the site.’ Further info

—————-

28th-31st August 2014, in the South West….

A place for people involved in radical green direct action to come together….
to talk….share skills….learn….listen….play….rant…. find out whats going on….
scheme….live outdoors….hang out….laugh….
experience non hierarchical, low impact, family friendly living.

An activist camp that spans 5 days and consists of a programme of workshops throughout each day facilitated by people like you and me who think they have a skill or a level of knowledge in a subject that is valuable to share with others to improve their activism.

Is this camp for you? Whether you're just starting out in the world of direct action or you're an old (glued and paint-stained) hand at it, you're welcome here.

More info here

Action dates & gatherings now working again!

The action dates and protest gatherings page is once again working! Apologies, we accidentally deleted it!

If there's any ecological actions that are openly advertised, protest camps or campaign gatherings, that you want to add to it, do it through the submit report link and in the subject, make it clear it's to add to the calendar. Thanks.

The action dates and protest gatherings page is once again working! Apologies, we accidentally deleted it!

anarchists claim string of fires in east bristol

Just before sunrise this morning we launched a targeted arson spree along Glebe Road — which meets the main east Bristol thoroughfare of Church Road — and burned out corporate, luxury, private security and hunt-scum vehicles. Wildfire in the arteries of the city-prison! To break the lie of social peace and intensify the hostilities!

Emergency services were too slow to catch the responsible as the empty street was brightened from end to end as by torches. In a few words, the selected vans and cars were active components of the life they represent and also enforce.

Virgin Media supply television and also internet, and a national fibre optic cable network. To keep us enmeshed in the modern information economy and the spectacle of celebrities, video games and advertising is their business. Destroy what domesticates and stupefies us!

A car as fancy as a Quattro is an extra spit in the face for the property-less as well as the earth. In wealthy areas or parts undergoing gentrification they're commonplace, in England as in Argentina, Sydney as in Berlin, and there to be picked off at our leisure.

BWS's security vehicle in ashes is one less to aid their task across the UK of keeping the haves from the have-nots by threat or force and of expanding the matrix of surveillance cameras we pass under hundreds of times in a day. Minions of the established order have chosen their side! Insurrectional action against the constructs of authority above us, around us, within us.

Either an active fox hunter or a supporter and promoter of killing wild animals solely for entertainment — either way, owner of a heavy-duty 4×4 bearing pro-hunt stickers — got their incendiary gift too. Some call bloodsport uncivilised, but it's really perfectly reflective of the disdain for the nonhuman, upper class entitlement and also cross-class collaboration which is the basis and content of civilisation. Let's make the rich and their terrier-boys the hunted, let's harass them in city or countryside.

This deed coincided with the call for collective action in support of our caged brother G. Pombo da Silva (Spain), who's resisting his forced transfer to a maximum security module. Hopefully our flaming regards will also make it through the prison bars to the wandering she-wolves A. Trudeau and F. Rouiller along with compa C. 'Chivo' López (Mexico) — they all face charges over Molotov attacks against State and Capitalism. We're also thinking of the unnamed animal liberation fighter who prosecutors have tried to link to the anarchist paper UpprorsBladet (Sweden) and the co-convicted who also had the sense to stay silent before the cops. While A. Cospito and N. Gai, G. Iacovacci and A. Antonacci will all be tried next on July 4th, we take aim to light up their jail cells with the warmth of our solidarity. Prisoners to the streets, running wild and free!

ABOUT THE ACCUSED IN BRISTOL
We learned from the scum-press newspapers that early on June 12th an individual was stopped in their vehicle by police in the Bradley Stoke area and suspected of going equipped to commit a crime, then arrested on suspicion of four counts of arson. This was in the context of four coordinated sabotages in the days before which took down many phone signals and also radio services — all of which had already been claimed by Live Wires, FAI/ELF, as reported in the scum-press and carried by anarchist counter-information pages (although hidden once again by the moderators of Bristol Indymedia).

After the resounding silence so far from the local anarchist movement, the first thing we want to state is that — although none of ourselves, our wider network or fleeting affinities know who this person is or anything about their sympathies or complicities — the repressive move by the State aims to discourage similar actions and we will not stand complacent. Either police made an unconnected arrest in efforts to shed some of the criticism they've come under in the regional and national media for failing to stem the flow of anarchist attacks in their area, in which case it was a fruitless provocation as action continues, or that individual really did set out to somehow fight the system that night — singularly, in the context of decentralised informal groups open to anyone such as FAI or ELF, or anonymous — in which case they're a potential comrade and we would defend them as such.

It seems for now that police have little interest in the arrested individual as according to the scum-press they're out on bail after questioning, but we call on anyone with more information to release it if they see fit. Meanwhile, solidarity with the live wires and whoever shares their motivations to do the same!

Informal anarchist federation/Earth liberation front
Rogue fire brigade.

Three More Vehicles Sabotaged in Italy’s No TAV Struggle

14th June We receive from anonymous mail and transmit:

“Genoa—In the night of 3rd June 2 excavators and 1 concrete mixer were sabotaged at the Terzo Valico Erzelli yard.

To stop it is up to us

To stop it is possible

Let’s sabotage everything

No TAV Terzo Valico”