Critical Mass reports

Police charge cyclists at Glas­gow Crit­i­cal Mass
29.04.2007

Last night the police com­mit­ted a sur­pris­ing u‑turn in their approach to deal­ing with Glas­gow Crit­i­cal Mass. The Mass has pre­vi­ous­ly been accom­pa­nied by cycle offi­cers “to ensure the safe­ty of the cyclists” how­ev­er there has been no police pres­ence since last Sep­tem­ber. This changed dra­mat­i­cal­ly with the April Crit­i­cal Mass.

Police charge cyclists at Glas­gow Crit­i­cal Mass
29.04.2007

Last night the police com­mit­ted a sur­pris­ing u‑turn in their approach to deal­ing with Glas­gow Crit­i­cal Mass. The Mass has pre­vi­ous­ly been accom­pa­nied by cycle offi­cers “to ensure the safe­ty of the cyclists” how­ev­er there has been no police pres­ence since last Sep­tem­ber. This changed dra­mat­i­cal­ly with the April Crit­i­cal Mass.

Last night the police com­mit­ted a sur­pris­ing u‑turn in their approach to deal­ing with Glas­gow Crit­i­cal Mass. The Mass has pre­vi­ous­ly been accom­pa­nied by cycle offi­cers “to ensure the safe­ty of the cyclists” how­ev­er there has been no police pres­ence since last Sep­tem­ber. This changed dra­mat­i­cal­ly with the April Crit­i­cal Mass; the 50–70 cyclists were tailed by a police van for the major­i­ty of the ride with the police stop­ping some of the rid­ers at the front of the mass and warn­ing them not to con­tin­ue else they may face charges. In the midst of the cycle run, while the Mass duti­ful­ly wait­ed at a red light, the two offi­cers (A303 and A628) made their way to the front of the mass and select­ed three cyclists, appar­ent­ly at ran­dom. It should be not­ed that these three were not the cyclists spo­ken to by the police ear­li­er. These arbi­trar­i­ly cho­sen cyclists have been charged with “Cycling with­out due con­sid­er­a­tion for oth­er road users” under sec­tion 29 of the 1988 Road Traf­fic Act (exact word­ing: If a per­son rides a cycle on a road with­out due care and atten­tion, or with­out rea­son­able con­sid­er­a­tion for oth­er per­sons using the road, he is guilty of an offence.In this sec­tion “road” includes a bri­dle­way). They were informed that a report will be sub­mit­ted to the Procu­ra­tor Fis­cal for fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion. Watch this space.

http://www.glasgowcriticalmass.org.uk


Crit­i­cal Mass Lon­don 13th Anniver­sary ride.
16MB film — mp4
The very well attend­ed Mass got off to a good start, despite a spelling mis­take on the kind­ly donat­ed t‑shirts. There was the usu­al large police pres­ence with its usu­al intim­i­dat­ing video­ing of rid­ers. Pity they can’t take their own med­i­cine and try to con­ceal their faces.

The police returned to their pre­vi­ous tac­tic of block­ing the front of the ride, thus adding to traf­fic con­ges­tion. At the entrance to Par­lia­ment Square the front of the ride was blocked for sev­er­al traf­fic light cycles. Final­ly, in frus­tra­tion, and after some boo­ing at the block­ers, rid­ers decide to go around on the pave­ment to enter the Square. At some point the ride split into two but man­aged to join up again in the Strand. Video­ing stopped at the couri­ers’ pub, while the ride con­tin­ued on into the night head­ing East­wards.

All in all very enjoy­able and mer­ry ride.

MCR CRITICAL MASS THIS FRIDAY!

On the 27th April we cel­e­brate crazy bikes so please come on a crazy bike or a kids bike or a shop­per.. its time to lose your cool as the sea­son los­es its cool too! Bring on the Sum­mer! If you’d like to bor­row a kids bike for the ride please email us.

Manc CM flier April 07On the 27th April we cel­e­brate crazy bikes so please come on a crazy bike or a kids bike or a shop­per.. its time to lose your cool as the sea­son los­es its cool too! Bring on the Sum­mer! If you’d like to bor­row a kids bike for the ride please email us.

After this ride we’re gonna go hang out in the park so bring beers and food etc. Man­ches­ter Bike Polo Team The MCR Dropouts will be hav­ing a prac­tise in the park and would love it if cmers would like to have a go!
for more info on their team go to myspace.com/mcrdropouts.

We cycle round the city to cel­e­brate the bicy­cle:

It’s for any­one that rides a bike;
Its a cel­e­bra­tion of get­ting round the city with­out pol­lut­ing it;
Its about every jour­ney being an adven­ture instead of just sit­ting on a bor­ing bus or in a stress­ful car;
Its about cyclists rid­ing togeth­er to demand more respect from oth­er road users;
Its a way to meet oth­er cyclis­tas;

also at that time on fri­day hun­dreds of cities around the world do the same thing…all get togeth­er for crit­i­cal mass. its beau­ti­ful to know that as you ride with your mates through your own city that all around the world thou­sands of peo­ple are doing the same thing..

Leeds Monthly Critical Mass Celebrations

Its the last fri­day of the month again: get your chains oiled, your tyres pumped, and adore your bike with horns and bells… its time for a lit­tle reclaim­ing of the streets.

Critical Mass Ride Daily Celebrate MonthlyIts the last fri­day of the month again: get your chains oiled, your tyres pumped, and adore your bike with horns and bells… its time for a lit­tle reclaim­ing of the streets.

The month­ly impromp­tu meet­ing of leeds cyclist will once again hit the city cen­tre on fri­day evening to parade around the city and cel­e­brate the joys of using the lo-tech car­bon free trans­port of the past, present and future. Although, by the very nature of crit­i­cal mass noth­ing has been offi­cial­ly planned its high­ly like­ly that an acci­den­tal meet­ing of cyclists will take place at 5.30pm in Mil­le­ni­um Square.

Fol­low­ing the ride, there are strong rumours that a game of bicy­cle polo will also take place on a open pub­lic space some­where in the city.

There can sure­ly be no bet­ter event to attend on the eve of the Wakey Wakey Spring Tour that comes to town this week­end. (See http://www.fraw.org.uk/tour/leeds.shtml for fur­ther info.)

…And remem­ber to spare a small thought for those still liv­ing in he 20th cen­tu­ry with inter­nal com­bus­tion engines fueled by crude oil deriv­a­tives that idle in their vehi­cles as they crawl throught the fri­day evening rush hour. Bless them and their anti­quat­ed ways.

Party Against Petrol! — Saturday 21st April

As Part of Bath Cli­mate Camp, there will be a par­ty against petrol — a chance to protest against car cul­ture and fos­sil fuels. Meet at 12 at Bath Abbey or 11 at Bath Cli­mate Camp

The protest is going to be a colour­ful car­ni­val, so bring props, ban­ners and noise mak­ers. There will be free cake, kids bloc, music, a ‘balls to cli­mate change’ reclaim the streets footie game and more!

As Part of Bath Cli­mate Camp, there will be a par­ty against petrol — a chance to protest against car cul­ture and fos­sil fuels. Meet at 12 at Bath Abbey or 11 at Bath Cli­mate Camp

The protest is going to be a colour­ful car­ni­val, so bring props, ban­ners and noise mak­ers. There will be free cake, kids bloc, music, a ‘balls to cli­mate change’ reclaim the streets footie game and more!
The day will be a chance to take back the streets from cars and pol­lu­tion and use them for fun and friv­o­li­ty!

For more info, email bathclimatecamp@yahoo.co.uk

Bath Cli­mate Camp will be set up from Thurs­day the 19th April through to Sun­day 22nd, and will both serve as a demon­stra­tion of eco-liv­ing and ideals, and also serve as an edu­ca­tion anf focus point for eco-action. Set­ting up from mid after­noon on Thurs­day, there will be onsite eth­i­cal veg­an kitchen pro­vid­ing break­fast and din­ner, music/entertainment in the evenings, talks, per­ma­nent freeshop, and a kids‘ zone, attend­ed by pro­fes­sion­al car­ers. The camp can be locat­ed near where the Low­er Bris­tol Road meets the A4 out to Bris­tol. The camp num­ber is 07800 583011.

*Fri­day 20th April — All day — Shut down Land And Marine! — Land and Marine are the main con­struc­tion com­pa­ny respon­si­ble for the gas pipeline smash­ing through the Welsh coun­try­side, includ­ing the Bre­con Bea­cons. We have the com­pa­ny’s offices in Bath, and resis­tance to the pipe has been strong in Wales, it’s time to take the fight to their doorstep! We are ask­ing peo­ple to block­ade, make music, wave ban­ners, leaflet or what­ev­er else springs to mind! For more info on the pipeline, vis­it www.risingtide.org.uk/bristol/pipeline

*Sat­ur­day 21st April — 11 @ Bath Cli­mate Camp or 12 @ Bath Abbey — PARTY AGAINST PETROL! — Colour­ful car­ni­val against car cul­ture and fos­sil fuels! Bring noise mak­ers, props, bright things and ban­ners. The demo will have a kids’ bloc.

*Sun­day 22nd April (though there will be work­shops on the oth­er days as well!) — All day — Work­shops

There will be work­shops on direct action against the pipeline in Wales, Poi mak­ing and danc­ing ses­sions, solu­tions to cli­mate change, set­ting up inde­pen­dent media, diet and the envi­ron­ment, ‘we wont buy your crap, but we will use your scrap’ DIY ses­sion, mak­ing hand­i­crafts from ‘junk’ and loads more.

bathclimatecamp@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/bathclimatecamp

Sheffield M1 Protestors Foiled — & link to activist security guide

17.04.2007
Eight peo­ple were arrest­ed and hous­es were raid­ed yes­ter­day before a planned action against M1 widen­ing in South York­shire could take place. Accord­ing to the main­stream media three women and five men were arrest­ed on sus­pi­cion of com­mit­ting Pub­lic Order offences and were lat­er released on bail, the arrest were made before the activists could stop any work and the ‘inci­dent’ did not dis­rupt traf­fic.

17.04.2007
Eight peo­ple were arrest­ed and hous­es were raid­ed yes­ter­day before a planned action against M1 widen­ing in South York­shire could take place. Accord­ing to the main­stream media three women and five men were arrest­ed on sus­pi­cion of com­mit­ting Pub­lic Order offences and were lat­er released on bail, the arrest were made before the activists could stop any work and the ‘inci­dent’ did not dis­rupt traf­fic.

BBC report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/6559839.stm

York­shire Post report:
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news?ArticleID=2706544

Sheffield Star report:
http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/headlines?ArticleID=2706627

For back­ground info see this fea­ture arti­cle:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2007/01/360616.html

——————————–
http://www.nowideningm1.org.uk/
http://www.activistsecurity.org/

Support the Eco-Prisoners, Easter 2007

Spir­it of Free­dom (East­er 2007)
Pro­duced by EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“I thank you all dear­ly for writ­ing” (Jon Able­white, Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Spir­it of Free­dom (East­er 2007)
Pro­duced by EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“I thank you all dear­ly for writ­ing” (Jon Able­white, Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Wel­come to the East­er 2007 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. First off I’d like to apol­o­gise in the delay in pub­lish­ing this edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom.
A lot of things have been hap­pen­ing recent­ly for ELP’s vol­un­teers and a delay was inevitable. How­ev­er, despite the delay in pub­li­ca­tion ELP has some fan­tas­tic news. For the first time in ages ELP is able to bring some good news! A lot of the ‘Il Sil­vestre’ pris­on­ers have been released! Mar­co Camenisch has had his sen­tence reduced at appeal! Jeff Luers may have his sen­tenced reduced! Rod Coro­n­a­do has been released! Garfield Gab­bard has been released! And long-term pris­on­er Dave Blenk­in­sop has been released!!!
This is all bril­liant news. How­ev­er despite our cel­e­bra­tions, ELP has also seen a num­ber of new pris­on­ers added to our list. So lets cel­e­brate the good news of our friends and then lets sup­port the news pris­on­ers. Also before we end this edi­to­r­i­al we’ve been asked by Joy­an­na Zach­er to remind every­one on ELP’s pol­i­cy towards police infor­mants. We do not sup­port them! Regard­less of how long they are jailed for, we do not sup­port them. Regard­less of who they are, we do not sup­port them. A police infor­mant relin­quish­es their right to be regard­ed as an eco-pris­on­er as soon as they inform. ELP sup­ports eco-pris­on­ers, not police infor­mants. But remem­ber, no mat­ter where you are in the world, sup­port the real eco-pris­on­ers and no com­pro­mise in defence of Moth­er Earth!

COURT REPORTS & LEGAL UPDATES

MARCO CAMENISCH APPEAL NEWS
In mid March 2007 ELP received some news from Switzer­land that at his appeal, Mar­co Camenisch, has had his 17-year prison sen­tence, for alleged­ly killing a Swiss board­er guard, reduced to 8 years. The Appeal Court ruled that the orig­i­nal Judge had not tak­en into account Mar­co’s time spent in prison in Italy for destroy­ing elec­tric­i­ty pylons, nor had the Judge ful­ly con­sid­ered the out­stand­ing prison sen­tence Mar­co had to serve for destroy­ing elec­tric­i­ty pylons in Switzer­land. Added alto­geth­er (39 years), the prison sen­tence was exces­sive­ly long and so was reduced so now Mar­co is serv­ing an 18-year sen­tence.

JEFF LUERS APPEAL UPDATE
On Valen­tines Day (Feb 14th) the Amer­i­can media announced that the Court of Appeal has declared Jeff ‘Free’ Luers, 22+ years prison sen­tence is too long and sug­gest­ed it should be reduced to between 11+ to 13+ years. ELP will bring you more news as we get it.

ARRESTS IN MEXICO
On the 30th of Novem­ber 2006 two Mex­i­can anar­chists, Oscar San­ta Maria Caro and Sacra­men­to Delfi­no Cano Her­nan­dez, were arrest­ed for as yet unknown rea­sons. Oscar is a well known ani­mal rights activist who is involved with RATA (Resis­tance Against Ani­mal Tor­ture). Reports are com­ing out of Mex­i­co alleg­ing that both Oscar and Sacra­men­to have been tor­tured whilst inside. There are also reports alleg­ing that their inter­roga­tors have threat­ened to rape female polit­i­cal pris­on­ers if the two men do not con­fess to their alleged crimes. ELP is try­ing to obtain more infor­ma­tion about these arrests and will bring you more news as we get it.

ROD CORONADO UPDATE
In late March, Amer­i­can Earth First! activist, Rod Coro­n­a­do, was released from prison hav­ing served his sen­tence for sab­o­tag­ing a moun­tain lion hunt. ELP has learnt that Rod’s tri­al for “demon­strat­ing the use of a destruc­tive device,” relat­ing to a speech he gave in San Diego in 2003, is sched­uled to begin in June.

FINNISH ‘GREEN SCARE’
ELP has learnt that the author­i­ties in Fin­land appear to be copy­ing Amer­i­can tac­tics and are tar­get­ing known ani­mal rights and envi­ron­men­tal activists. No mat­ter how minor the ‘offence’ the Finnish police seem deter­mined to pros­e­cute. One per­son end­ed up in court for ring­ing the door­bell of an ani­mal abuser whilst on a demo. The activist was fined for “dis­turb­ing home peace”. Anoth­er activist was ques­tioned for ‘crim­i­nal dam­age’ after they alleged­ly spat on a fur shop win­dow! Two more activists were raid­ed and ques­tioned for alleged­ly putting a leaflet through a post box and putting a stick­er on the win­dow of a fur shop. The police accused them of ‘crim­i­nal dam­age’.
ELP’s Finnish friends, who wish to remain anony­mous for obvi­ous rea­sons, say these are just a few exam­ples of the types of police activ­i­ty hap­pen­ing in Fin­land at the moment.
ELP is informed that the police have set up a spe­cial unit to inves­ti­gate ani­mal rights activists and the unit has said intend to get activists involved in the ear­ly stages of activism ‘before it gets more seri­ous’. Trans­la­tion, the police want to intim­i­date peo­ple away from activism.

SERIOUS ORGANISED CRIME!
Every so often ELP brings you sto­ries of ridicu­lous pros­e­cu­tions of non-vio­lent activists under Britain’s new ‘Seri­ous Organ­ised Crime’ leg­is­la­tion. Who can for­get the fines imposed on two peace activists for read­ing out the names of the British war dead, killed in Iraq, whilst stand­ing next to Britain’s main war memo­r­i­al! Sad­ly the courts have now moved beyond just fin­ing peo­ple and have start­ed to hand out prison sen­tences to activists under this new law. In ear­ly March three British ani­mal rights activists were jailed for between 15 months to 4 years for their part in a non-vio­lent cam­paign against Huntin­don Life Sci­ences.
Accord­ing to the BBC, the three were accused of being key fig­ures in a cam­paign against com­pa­nies with links to HLS. They were accused of enter­ing the offices of the com­pa­nies and demand­ing that those com­pa­nies cut their links to HLS. They were also accused of organ­is­ing loud demon­stra­tions against the com­pa­nies build­ings. Plus they were accused of tak­ing pho­tos of the peo­ple who worked for the com­pa­nies.

MAN ARRESTED IN AMERICA
At the end of March the Amer­i­can media report­ed that a 24-year old man, Grant Barnes, had been arrest­ed accused of set­ting fire to SUVs in Den­ver, CO. The media quot­ed the cops as say­ing incen­di­ary devices were used to dam­age the vehi­cles and one of the vehi­cles had ELF spray paint­ed on it. The police also stat­ed they did not believe that Grant Barnes was a mem­ber of the ELF.

IL SILVESTRE UPDATE
At the end of Feb­ru­ary 2007 the Ital­ian courts ruled that Sil­via Gueri­ni and Fed­eri­co Bonam­i­ci should be released under house arrest. This means that only three Il Sil­vestre mem­bers are cur­rent­ly impris­oned. They are Benedet­ta Galante, Francesco Gioia and Costan­ti­no Ragusa.

ECO-DEFENCE PRISONERS

Fadal­la Idris Ala­jaimy (address unknown). Sudan anti-dam pro­test­er on remand accused of Wag­ing War against the State for protest­ing against the con­struc­tion of a dam.

Mohamed Ahmed Ala­jaimy (address unknown). Sudan anti-dam pro­test­er on remand accused of Wag­ing War against the State for protest­ing against the con­struc­tion of a dam.

Tre Arrow, CS# 05850722, Van­cou­ver Island Region­al Cor­rec­tion Cen­ter, 4216 Wilkin­son Rd., Vic­to­ria, BC, V8Z 5B2, Cana­da. On remand accused of involve­ment with an arson on log­ging trucks and an arson on vehi­cles owned by a sand & grav­el com­pa­ny. Both arsons occurred in the USA. Tre is fight­ing his extra­di­tion to the USA.

Grant Barnes #1533241, PO Box 1108, Den­ver, CO 80201, USA. On remand accused of set­ting fire to a num­ber of SUV vehi­cles. On one of the vehi­cles the let­ters ELF was spray-paint­ed.

Nathan Block, #1663667, Lane Coun­ty Jail, 101 W 5th Ave., Eugene, OR 97401, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing hav­ing admit­ted involve­ment in an arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted involve­ment in a con­spir­a­cy to car­ry out direct action in Ore­gon.

Mar­co Camenisch, Post­fach 3143, CH-8105 Regens­dorf, Switzer­land. Serv­ing 18 years. 1) Ten years for using explo­sives to destroy elec­tric­i­ty pylons lead­ing from nuclear pow­er sta­tions. 2) Eight years for the mur­der of a Swiss Board­er Guard whilst on the run. In ’02 Mar­co com­plet­ed a 12-year sen­tence in Italy for destroy­ing elec­tric­i­ty pylons in Italy.

Ibai Eder­ra, Car­cel de Pam­plona, C/San Roque. Apdo. 250, 31080 — Iruñez Pam­plona, Navar­ra (España), Spain. Serv­ing just under 5 years for sab­o­tag­ing machin­ery at the con­tro­ver­sial Itoiz dam con­struc­tion site.

Benedet­ta Galante, Casa Cir­con­dar­i­ale, Con­tra­da Capo di Monte, 82100 — Ben­even­to (BN), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist sen­tenced to 3 years 6 months for pro­mot­ing & par­tic­i­pat­ing in COR direct action. Also await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy.

Francesco Gioia, Via Maiano, 10, 06049 Spo­le­to, Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist sen­tenced to 5 years 2 months for pro­mot­ing & par­tic­i­pat­ing in COR direct action. Also await­ing tri­al for escap­ing from house arrest.

Jef­frey Luers, #13797671, OSP, 2605 State St. Salem, OR 97310, USA. Serv­ing 22 years & 8 months for arson on a SUV deal­er­ship & the attempt­ed arson of an oil truck.

Ali Mohamed Alhas­sen Mas­sad (address unknown). Sudan anti-dam pro­test­er on remand accused of Wag­ing War against the State for protest­ing against the con­struc­tion of a dam.

Eric McDavid X‑2972521 4E 231A, Sacra­men­to Coun­ty Main Jail, 651 “I” Street, Sacra­men­to, CA 95814, USA. On Remand accused of plan­ning to destroy the prop­er­ty of the U.S. Forestry Ser­vice, mobile phone masts and pow­er plants.

Costan­ti­no Ragusa, Casa Cir­con­dar­i­ale, Via Prati Nuovi 7, 27058 Voghera (PV), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist serv­ing 7½ years. 1) Five years for pro­mot­ing & par­tic­i­pat­ing in COR direct action. 2) 18-months for bur­gling and fire­bomb­ing a multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny. 3) 12-months for organ­is­ing an anti-GM protest. Costani­no is also await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy.

John Wade #38548–083, FCI Peters­burg Low, Satel­lite Camp, PO Box 90027, Peters­burg, VA 23804, USA. Serv­ing 37 months for a series of ELF actions against a num­ber of tar­gets includ­ing McDon­alds & Burg­er King; urban sprawl; the con­struc­tion indus­try; and an SUV deal­er­ship.

Joy­an­na Zach­er #1662550, Lane Coun­ty Jail, 101 W 5th Ave, Eugene, OR 97401, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing hav­ing admit­ted involve­ment in an arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted involve­ment in a con­spir­a­cy to car­ry out direct action in Ore­gon.

ANIMAL LIBERATION PRISONERS

Jon Able­white TB4885, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA, Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

Made­line Buck­ler PR7492, HMP Mor­ton Hall, Swinder­by, Lin­coln, LN6 9PT, Eng­land. Serv­ing 2 years for send­ing hate mail to a fam­i­ly who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

Jacob Con­roy #93501–011, FCI Vic­torville Medi­um I Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, P.O. Box 5300, Ade­lan­to, CA 92301, USA. Serv­ing 48 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Don­ald Cur­rie TN4593, HMP White­moor, Longhill Road, March, Cambs, PE15 OPR, Eng­land. Serv­ing an Inde­ter­mi­nate Sen­tence, of not less than six actu­al years, for car­ry­ing out arsons against tar­gets asso­ci­at­ed the vivi­sec­tion indus­try includ­ing HLS.

Josh Dem­mitt 12314–081, FCI Saf­ford, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, P.O. Box 9000, Saf­ford, AZ 85548, USA. Serv­ing 30 months for an ALF arson on a Uni­ver­si­ty ani­mal test­ing facil­i­ty.

Dar­ius Fullmer #26397–050, FCI Fort Dix Satel­lite Camp, P.O. Box 1000, Fort Dix, NJ 08640 USA. Serv­ing 12 months for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Lau­ren Gaz­zo­la #93497–011, FCI Dan­bury Route #37, 33 1/2 Pem­broke Road, Dan­bury, CT 06811 USA. Serv­ing 54 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Sarah Gis­borne, LT5393, HMP Cookham Wood, Rochester, Kent, ME1 3LU, Eng­land. Serv­ing 5½ years for con­spir­a­cy to cause crim­i­nal dam­age fol­low­ing the dam­ag­ing of 8 vehi­cles owned by peo­ple linked to Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ence.

Joshua Harp­er #29429–086, FCI Sheri­dan Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, P.O. Box 5000, Sheri­dan, OR 97378 USA. Serv­ing 36 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Joseph Har­ris TN5728, HMP Bulling­don, Patrick Haugh Road, Arn­cott, Nr. Bices­ter, Oxon, OX25 1WD, Eng­land. Serv­ing 2 years for dam­ag­ing the prop­er­ty of peo­ple asso­ci­at­ed with Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences. (His orig­i­nal sen­tence was reduced on appeal).

Kevin Kjon­aas #93502–011, FCI Sand­stone, PO Box 1000, Sand­stone, MN 55072 USA. Serv­ing 72 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Josephine Mayo PR6508, HMP Drake Hall, Eccle­shall, Stafford­shire, ST21 6LQ, Eng­land. Serv­ing 4 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

Trish Portwine, TM7153, HMP Cookham Wood, Rochester, Kent, ME1 3LU, Eng­land. Serv­ing fif­teen months for her role in loud demon­stra­tions out­side the offices of com­pa­nies with links to HLS.

John Smith TB4887, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA, Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

Andrew Stepan­ian #26399–050, FCI But­ner Medi­um II Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, PO Box 1500, But­ner, NC 27509 USA. Serv­ing 36 months for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Mark Tay­lor TT6636, HMP Bel­marsh, West­ern Way, Thames­mead, Lon­don, SE28 0UB, Eng­land. Serv­ing four years for organ­is­ing loud demon­stra­tions out­side the offices of com­pa­nies with links to HLS.

Suzanne Tay­lor, TM7154, HMP Cookham Wood, Rochester, Kent, ME1 3LU, Eng­land. Serv­ing two and a half years for help­ing organ­ise loud demon­stra­tions out­side the offices of com­pa­nies with links to HLS.

Ker­ry Whit­burn TB4886, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA, Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

PLOUGHSHARES PRISONERS

Helen Wood­son, 03231–045, FMC Car­swell — Admin. Max. Unit, POB 27137, Ft. Worth, TX 76127, USA. Serv­ing 8 years 10 months for actions that focused on the inter­re­la­tion­ship of war & the destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al world. The actions includ­ed pour­ing red paint over the secu­ri­ty desk of a fed­er­al court and mak­ing threat­en­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions. Pre­vi­ous­ly Helen had served 20½ years for: 1) Using a ham­mer to dis­arm a nuclear mis­sile silo. 2) Burn­ing $25,000 on the floor of a bank whilst denounc­ing war, envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion & eco­nom­ic injus­tice. 3) Mail­ing warn­ing let­ters with bul­lets attached to Gov­ern­ment & cor­po­rate offi­cials.

OTHER ANTI-WAR PRISONERS

Bren­dan Walsh, 12473–052, FCI Allen­wood Low, PO Box 1000, White Deer, PA 17887, USA. Serv­ing 5 years for an arson on an army recruit­ment office in protest at the War on Iraq.

THE LECCE FIVE
The Lec­ce Five have been charged with ‘sub­ver­sive asso­ci­a­tion’ accused of dam­ag­ing Esso petrol pumps to oppose the War on Iraq; sab­o­tag­ing the cash machines of a bank which funds an immi­gra­tion cen­tre; and tar­get­ing the multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny Benet­ton in sup­port of Mapuche land rights activists in Chile. All of the defen­dants are cur­rent­ly either under house arrest or released on bail.

ANTIFA PRISONERS

Lasan­dra Bur­well W063658, Ohio Refor­ma­to­ry for Women, 1479 Collins Ave. Marysville, OH 43040, USA. Serv­ing 5 years for tak­ing part in an anti-fas­cist demon­stra­tion which turned into a riot.

Vah­tang Devitlidze, ul. Libbedo­va 42, UO 68/2, otryad 14, briga­da 142, g. Hagyshen­sk, Krasnodarskiy Kray, 352680 Rus­sia. Serv­ing 2½ years for stab­bing a neo-nazi in the leg whilst defend­ing him­self from attack.

Augustin Kraus, Vazeb­ni veznice, PP‑1, Lit­o­merice, 41 201, Czech Repub­lic. Serv­ing 14 months for his par­tic­i­pa­tion in attacks against local neo-nazis. His charge was “bod­i­ly harm”. He speaks Czech, Slo­vak and Pol­ish. You can also write him short post­cards in Eng­lish.

Tomasz Wiloszews­ki, Zak­lad Karny, Orze­chowa 5, 98–200 Sier­adz, Poland. Serv­ing 15 years for acci­den­tal­ly killing a neo-nazi whilst defend­ing him­self.

PARTY & PROTEST
Around the world there have been sev­er­al mas­sive protests against glob­al cap­i­tal­ism and its envi­ron­men­tal impact. The fol­low­ing have all been jailed in con­nec­tion with the protests.

Jonathan Philip Robert, Crisp Coun­ty Deten­tion Cen­ter, 197 Ga. Hwy. 300 South, Cordele, GA 31015, USA (12 months)

OTHER PRISONERS

Oscar San­ta Maria Caro, CERESO, Miahu­at­lan de Por­firio Diaz, Oax­a­ca en Hall B, Cell 5., Mex­i­co. On remand. The exact charges against Oscar are unknown but Oscar is a mem­ber of RATA, a known ani­mal rights group.

Sacra­men­to Delfi­no Cano Her­nan­dez, CERESO, Miahu­at­lan de Por­firio Diaz, Oax­a­ca en Hall B, Cell 5., Mex­i­co. On remand. Co-defen­dant of Oscar San­ta Maria Caro.

Olga Alek­san­drov­na Nevskaya, UU163/5, 7 Otryad, pos. Dzerzhin­skiy, Mozhaysk 140090 Moskovskaya oblast, Rus­sia. Eco-activist serv­ing 6 years for arson, crim­i­nal dam­age and caus­ing explo­sions in protest at the war in Chech­nya. Due for release in 2009.

Fran Thomp­son, #1090915 HU 1C, WERDCC, PO Box 300, Van­dalia, MO 63382, USA. Serv­ing Life for killing, in self-defence, a stalk­er who had bro­ken into her home. Before her impris­on­ment Fran was an eco, ani­mal & anti-nuke cam­paign­er.

MOVE
MOVE is an eco-rev­o­lu­tion­ary group who car­ried out protests in defence of all life. There are cur­rent­ly eight MOVE activists in prison each serv­ing 100 years after been framed for the mur­der of a cop in 1979. 9th defen­dant, Mer­le Africa, died in prison in 1998.

Deb­bie Simms Africa (006307), Janet Hol­loway Africa (006308) and Janine Philips Africa (006309) all at: SCI Cam­bridge Springs, 451 Fuller­ton Ave, Cam­bridge Springs, PA 16403–1238, USA.

Michael Davis Africa (AM4973) and Charles Simms Africa (AM4975) both at SCI Grate­ford, PO Box 244, Grate­ford, PA 19426–0244, USA.

Edward Good­man Africa (AM4974), 301 Morea Rd, Frackville, PA 17932, USA.

William Philips Africa (AM4984) and Del­bert Orr Africa (AM4985) both at SCI Dal­las Draw­er K, Dal­las, PA 18612, USA.

Mumia Abu Jamal, (AM8335), SCI Greene, 175 Progress Dri­ve, Way­nes­burg PA 15370, USA. In 1981 Mumia, for­mer Black Pan­ther and vocal sup­port­er of MOVE, was framed for the mur­der of a cop. He was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death but is cur­rent­ly await­ing re-sen­tenc­ing fol­low­ing a court hear­ing in 2001.

MAPUCHE PRISONERS & OTHER LAND RIGHTS PRISONERS
Due to space lim­i­ta­tion we can­not pub­lish the names & address­es of the Mapuche & Land Rights pris­on­ers in this edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom, how­ev­er if you would like a list please con­tact Spir­it of Free­dom.

STATEMENT ON VIOLENCE
Some peo­ple list­ed in this newslet­ter have car­ried out vio­lent actions. ‘Spir­it of Free­dom’ does not con­done vio­lence. But we are also against cen­sor­ship & believe peo­ple can decide for them­selves who they wish to
sup­port.

ABOUT E.L.P. SUPPORT NETWORK
ELP is an inter­na­tion­al eco-pris­on­er sup­port net­work found­ed, in Britain, in 1993 to sup­port jailed eco-activists. We sup­port the pris­on­ers by pro­duc­ing var­i­ous reg­u­lar pris­on­er lists:

Spir­it of Free­dom is ELP’s inter­na­tion­al bimonth­ly pub­li­ca­tion (avail­able via e‑mail or in a paper ver­sion). If you would like to receive a copy con­tact Spir­it of Free­dom, BM Box 2407, Lon­don, WC1N 3XX, Eng­land. Or e‑mail ELP4321@hotmail.com

Urgent ELP! Bul­letin is an e‑mail ser­vice that dis­trib­utes the names of any new eco-pris­on­er as soon as ELP gets their details. For more info e‑mail ELP4321@hotmail.com

On-Line Newslet­ters – ELP has a num­ber of web­sites that pro­vide news, pris­on­er lists and addi­tion­al info about ELP & the pris­on­ers.

Eng­lish lan­guage ELP Web­site
www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk

North Amer­i­can ELP Web­site
www.ecoprisoners.org

Turk­ish lan­guage ELP Web­site
www.geocities.com/yesilanarsi/elp.htm

ELP Extra is an e‑mail group that cir­cu­lates the details of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, ELP learns about, who do not fall with­in the remit for sup­port by ELP. To sub­scribe to the list e‑mail ELP4321@Hotmail.com

Bel­gium ELP.SN is our Bel­gium con­tact. For more info e‑mail elp_bel@hotmail.com

Ger­man ELP.SN is a pris­on­er led ini­tia­tive run by eco-pris­on­er Mar­co Camenisch. For more info con­tact Mar­co Camenisch, Post­fach 3143, CH-8105 Regens­dorf, Switzer­land.

North Amer­i­can ELP is our North Amer­i­can con­tact. For more infor­ma­tion e‑mail naelpsn@mutualaid.org

Turkey ELP.SN is our Turk­ish con­tact. For more info e‑mail yesilanarsi@yahoo.com

North Amer­i­can ELP Pris­on­er Fund. The North Amer­i­can ELP group has set up a fund where peo­ple can pay mon­ey, for North Amer­i­can Eco-Defence and Ani­mal Rights pris­on­ers, which will then be dis­trib­uted to the North Amer­i­can pris­on­ers. For infor­ma­tion about the Fund and how to make a dona­tion please con­tact naelpsn@mutualaid.org

DEDICATION
This Edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom is ded­i­cat­ed to Russ­ian antifa activist, Stanislav Korepanov, who died in hos­pi­tal on the 31st of March 2007, hav­ing been attacked a few days ear­li­er by an armed gang of neo-nazis. Stanislav is the sec­ond Russ­ian antifa activist to have been bru­tal­ly attacked in recent months. On the 14th of Jan­u­ary 2007 veg­an ani­mal rights activist, Ivan Elin, was sur­round­ed and attacked by ten neo-nazis in St. Peters­burg after he had tak­en part in a week­ly “Food not bombs” peace ral­ly. Ivan suf­fered 21 stab wounds and was rushed to hos­pi­tal where he is mak­ing his recov­ery. Fol­low­ing on from the knife attack on Ivan, on the 4th of Feb­ru­ary, with a small bomb explod­ed in Vladimirskaya Square of St. Peters­burg, near to where Food Not Bombs organ­ise their week­ly protests. The bomb was hid­den in a kiosk sell­ing flow­ers. Luck­i­ly the bomb only dam­aged the kiosk and did not injure any­one.
This is not the first time neo-nazis have used knives or explo­sives to tar­get Russ­ian activists. On the 22nd of Decem­ber 2006 a num­ber of police were injured whilst try­ing to defuse a device, which set to mur­der antifa activists in Moscow. In August 2006 eleven peo­ple were killed in Moscow when a neo-nazi bomb explod­ed in Cherk­isovs­ki mar­ket­place. The bru­tal mur­der of Stanislav Korepanov and the attack against Ivan are a remind­ed of why fas­cism must nev­er be allowed to go unchal­lenged. ELP wish­es Ivan Elin a speedy recov­ery from his injuries and we con­grat­u­late the Russ­ian ‘Food Not Bombs’ move­ment for not giv­ing into this neo-nazi intim­i­da­tion.
Our thoughts and sor­row are with the fam­i­ly and friends of Stanislav Korepanov who was only 18 years old when he died.

Spring into Action — Critical Mass

There will be a crit­i­cal mass ride celabrat­ing the joys of cycling and all car­bon free forms of Trans­port on the Fri­day of Spring into Action.

Fri­day 6th April 5:30pm Mar­ket Square.

Come join us and cel­e­brate all forms of car­bon free trans­port, cyclists, walk­ers, skaters all wel­come.

There will be a crit­i­cal mass ride celabrat­ing the joys of cycling and all car­bon free forms of Trans­port on the Fri­day of Spring into Action.

Fri­day 6th April 5:30pm Mar­ket Square.

Come join us and cel­e­brate all forms of car­bon free trans­port, cyclists, walk­ers, skaters all wel­come.

See you there

info@eastsideclimateaction.org.uk
http://www.eastsideclimateaction.org.uk

Latest on police appeal against London’s Critical Mass

What if the police win their appeal? Could it be the end of this Crit­i­cal Mass, after 12 years of month­ly rides, or the begin­ning of a strate­gic rebel­lion?

At the start of last night’s ride Des Kay, who orig­i­nal­ly took the Met police to court, report­ed on the progress of their appeal. He said it is not look­ing good as the police are using a high pow­ered lawyer. The police want the ride to be treat­ed as a reg­u­lar pub­lic protest with a fixed route and organ­is­ers. Of course, cyclists are not going to stand for this and Des asked for dis­cus­sions on pos­si­ble strate­gies in the event of the appeal suc­ceed­ing. The result of the appeal could be soon or take sev­er­al weeks more.

What if the police win their appeal? Could it be the end of this Crit­i­cal Mass, after 12 years of month­ly rides, or the begin­ning of a strate­gic rebel­lion?

At the start of last night’s ride Des Kay, who orig­i­nal­ly took the Met police to court, report­ed on the progress of their appeal. He said it is not look­ing good as the police are using a high pow­ered lawyer. The police want the ride to be treat­ed as a reg­u­lar pub­lic protest with a fixed route and organ­is­ers. Of course, cyclists are not going to stand for this and Des asked for dis­cus­sions on pos­si­ble strate­gies in the event of the appeal suc­ceed­ing. The result of the appeal could be soon or take sev­er­al weeks more.

Police are still warn­ing rid­ers with sound sys­tems not to play them with­in the SOCPA zone and are ask­ing for their names and address­es but take no action when this request is refused. They also video the sound sys­tem peo­ple.

Pre­vi­ous court deci­sion http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk/2006/sedley.html

Web­site http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk/

Legal com­ment below:

Its not unlaw­ful to go on a bike ride!

If a group of peo­ple decide to go for a bike ride for leisure pur­pos­es only, it is not unlaw­ful.

The bike ride can only be sub­ject to require­ments of writ­ten notice and pos­si­ble restric­tions if it falls with­in Sec­tion 11 of Part II of the Pub­lic Order Act 1986, which deals with pro­ces­sions and assem­blies. It states:

“11. Advance notice of pub­lic pro­ces­sions

(1) Writ­ten notice shall be giv­en in accor­dance with this sec­tion of any pro­pos­al to hold a
pub­lic pro­ces­sion intend­ed:

(a) to demon­strate sup­port for or oppo­si­tion to the views or actions of any per­son or body
of per­sons,

(b) to pub­li­cise a cause or cam­paign, or

© to mark or com­mem­o­rate an event,

unless it is not rea­son­ably prac­ti­ca­ble to give any advance notice of the pro­ces­sion.”

The police would have to show that there is a ‘col­lec­tive inten­tion’ to the bike ride which brings it with­in the cat­e­gories (a), (b) and © of Sec­tion 11 (1).

A reg­u­lar bike ride for ‘leisure pur­pos­es’ only, tak­ing a vari­able route, would not fall with­in those cat­e­gories. If an iso­lat­ed indi­vid­ual or num­ber of indi­vid­u­als decid­ed spon­ta­neous­ly and sep­a­rate­ly to dec­o­rate their bike or bod­ies to make any spe­cif­ic point falling with­in the above cat­e­gories, so long as it was not the ‘col­lec­tive inten­tion’ of the group as a whole to do so, the ride would not be brought with­in the require­ments of Sec­tion 11 (1).

So the ‘South Bank Cycling Club’ or who­ev­er, just needs to make it clear in any pub­lic­i­ty or in any com­mu­ni­ca­tion that the inten­tion of the ride is for leisure pur­pos­es and not for demon­stra­tion, pub­lic­i­ty or com­mem­o­ra­tive pur­pos­es.

Local Residents Close Climate Criminal’s Yard

26.3.07 — Today, a group of local res­i­dents, inspired by last year’s Camp for Cli­mate Action at Drax pow­er sta­tion, but dis­mayed at plans to increase con­ges­tion and pol­lu­tion on the M1, have vis­it­ed Jack­son’s yard in Sut­ton in Ash­field, near Mans­field. The cit­i­zens locked the gates shut and hung a vari­ety of ban­ners giv­ing the clear mes­sage that Jack­son’s con­tri­bu­tion to a wors­en­ing envi­ron­ment was not wel­come.

A Slack Morning For Jacksons26.3.07 — Today, a group of local res­i­dents, inspired by last year’s Camp for Cli­mate Action at Drax pow­er sta­tion, but dis­mayed at plans to increase con­ges­tion and pol­lu­tion on the M1, have vis­it­ed Jack­son’s yard in Sut­ton in Ash­field, near Mans­field. The cit­i­zens locked the gates shut and hung a vari­ety of ban­ners giv­ing the clear mes­sage that Jack­son’s con­tri­bu­tion to a wors­en­ing envi­ron­ment was not wel­come.

Jack­sons are heav­i­ly impli­cat­ed in the ridicu­lous plans to increase con­ges­tion and pol­lu­tion on the M1 by widen­ing it into four lanes in each direc­tion — their main focus is the area around junc­tions 31 and 32. Until recent­ly, the yard, on Cox­moor Road, also housed a dodgy Scan­di­na­vian out­fit called Skan­s­ka. These clowns are even deep­er in the mire; in ass­co­ci­a­tion with Bal­for Beat­ie they are engaged in work from the M25 to Luton.

Giv­en that Blair’s gov­ern­ment is thor­ough­ly in the pock­et of big busi­ness, it should be no surpise to any­one that recent­ly, when Roads Min­is­ter Stephen Lady­man was churn­ing out the same old lies about road widen­ing for the Not­ting­ham Evening Post, he repeat­ed almost word for word parts of the Skan­s­ka web­site’s M1 page!

Clear­ly, the sen­si­ble response to traf­fic con­ges­tion would involve invest­ment in pub­lic trans­port and increased use of the rail­ways for frieght. How­ev­er, since these solu­tions are unlike­ly to make much prof­it for Blair’s friends in big busi­ness, we are all left chok­ing on the fumes gen­er­at­ed by a mas­sive­ly expen­sive white ele­phant. The Gov­ern­ment is
giv­ing your mon­ey to cli­mate crim­i­nals and prof­it ter­ror­ists, whilst claim­ing to take cli­mate change seri­ous­ly — the time has come for sane and mod­er­ate peo­ple every­where to take a stand against this mad­ness.

Maybe the Police are start­ing to get the idea too — they turned up, but then went away again, alleged­ly due to a staff short­age.

To get involved in the next Cli­mate Camp, vis­it www.climatecamp.org.uk