Tribal Solidarity – Earth First!

UK: 4 new releases from green anarchist zine Return Fire (PDFs)

Just now we’ve sent out the PDF versions of our recent releases, for downloading and printing (for past issues, see 325).

https://en-contrainfo.espiv.net/2016/06/05/uk-4-new-releases-from-green-anarchist-zine-return-fire-pdfs/ for links to the PDFs

Just now we’ve sent out the PDF versions of our recent releases, for downloading and printing (for past issues, see 325). To summarise, there’s the full length edition of Return Fire vol.3 (Winter 2015-2016), full of news, theory, poetry and antagonism (download in low-res here); a companion piece consisting of our ‘glossary’ entry for the issue, on Colonisation; an imposed and print-ready version of ‘Smarter Prison?’ as a supplement to vol.3, which we received from ‘Radical Interference’ and released for December of 2015; and lastly, we’ve uploaded one of the feature texts from vol.3, ‘The Veil Drops’, to theanarchistlibrary.org as a separate file for reading and reproduction. Also, there is both colour and black-and-white versions of the cover included, in case some comrades want to do their own printing.

Return Fire vol.3

A continuation of our project to bring incisive anarchic content from around to world to an anglophone readership. New editorial content, reprints of things we’ve found useful, artwork, action listings, foraging information, the usual.

There’s a few previously-untranslated articles in this issue. For example, one is an extract from the latest cover story of Italy’s eco-insurrectionary periodical Terra Selvaggia, on ‘The Advance of Urbanisation’ and, simultaneously, cracks opening in the concrete which we could utilise… Annie Archet meanwhile tells a life-story of evading identity, in Portrait of the Invisible Woman in Front of Her Mirror. To name some out of the texts we’ve assembled from selections of pre-existing ones, David King looks at the reductionist and patriarchal implications of modern reproductive technologies in ‘Into Her Inner Chambers’, and Nicola Gai speaks to acting within ‘The Maximum That Our Abilities Allow’ (from his contribution to the founding issue of the Croce Nera Anarchica).

The content we have harvested whole includes The Intensification of Independence in Wallmapu, John Severino’s poignant reflections on a project within an indigenous Mapuche community; The ‘Wild’ as Will and Representation, about commodified and alienated approaches in the urgent need for land reconnection, simply signed M.; and Sean Dunohoe’s harrowing (if limited) polemic against the Close Supervision Centres within the British prison system. (We note that this year the organising collective for the June 11 project of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners has called for a focus on such units wherever they are in the world; hence we’d like to dedicate this version in that direction.)

As for our usual columns… We take a retrospective look at some Global Flash-Points of insurgent activity in the months following our last volume. Rebels Behinds Bars covers the State’s aggressions against our comrades, and the latter’s thoughts on topics from surviving incarceration or repression to (anti-)organisation for the attack on authority. ‘To Create & Maintain Their Wealth’ and ‘Sensuality, Magic & Anarchist Violence’ address gendered and speciesist domination through reviews of Silvia Federici, Arthur Evans and Jason Hribal.

The Poems for Love, Loss & War are from Rydra Cosmo, Henry Zegarrundo, Natasha Alvarez and other appreciators of all things feral. For our Memory as a Weapon segment, we’ve used Unsettling America’s spellbinding telling of civilisation’s spread through Europe from the south and beyond, and subsequent trajectory, in The Witch’s Child.

And of course, much more! (All prisoner addresses and also some court-case news is now up to date in the PDF version.)

Colonisation

This time, we ended up printing the ‘glossary’ separately to the main body of the zine. This sizeable essay could be a stand-alone on the subject (one which we feel to be both key and misunderstood by anarchists in much of the world) and distributed as such, but is also relevant to several items in contents of vol.3.

‘Smarter Prison?’

Newly laid out in A5 imposed format, this exploration of the ‘Internet of Things’ and the technological ideology which it advances was first submitted to us during the Black December mobilisation. (We’re happy that since then, Silvia, Billy and Costa, who are referenced in ‘Smarter Prison?’, have been told they will not face trial again for their thwarted attack on the IBM facility.) The struggle against the nano-world continues…

‘The Veil Drops’

This is a reader on counter-insurgency through the lens of ‘crisis’, the social and de-civilising. It’s the longest editorial piece from vol.3, and up on The Anarchist Library for wider accessibility.

Until next time,
R.F.

Ditch Coal Speaking Tour. The realities of coal mining in Russia. 25th May to 10th June.

“Mining is going on a hundred meters away. When they started blasting, all the dust was brought to our vegetable gardens. Vegetables got covered with the coal dust which is impossible to wash out. Now I don‘t want to harm myself by eating anything from this garden,” a resident of Kazas, Siberia, Russia, describes the impact of coal mining.

The London Mining Network and the Coal Action Network are heading off on tour with a Russian environmental activist who has witnessed first hand the impacts of the UK’s burning of coal on indigenous people.

“The consequences of coal mining in Russia are terrible. There are environmental and economic disasters happening in mining regions, especially in Kuzbass where the most of coal reserves located. Public health is getting worse and worse, indigenous people being forced out of their land, air and water poisoned.” Vladimir Slivyak, Ecodefense.

The UK imports two thirds of the coal it burns in the remaining nine coal fired power stations. In 2015, 24% of our electricity came from burning coal. Just under a third of this coal comes from Russia.

Vladimir, a Russian anti-coal activist is visiting the UK for a speaking tour starting on the 25th May in Brighton before touring around the UK and finishing on the 10th June in London. Full details of the tour can be found www.coalaction.org.uk/tour. He will discuss the problems caused by mining for the UK’s power stations in his home country, while the Coal Action Network discuss how we can act to end the destruction.

The tour is part of the launch of Ditch Coal, a new report from the Coal Action Network released earlier this year. It tells the human and localized environmental story of the coal burnt in UK power stations. The climate change impacts of burning coal are well documented, but somehow hard to relate to in a concrete manner. By contrast the stories of those living in the shadows of the mines are somehow more tangible, being direct human experiences being felt already.

The tour will be joined by local community campaigners fighting opencast coal operations in Sheffield, Newcastle and Edinburgh. Speakers from Colombia Solidarity Campaign will join at Brighton, Newcastle, Cambridge and London.

The problem in Russia
The Siberian village of Kazas was surrounded by opencast coal mines and had a population of predominantly indigenous Shor people. Kazas was entirely destroyed in 2014 to make way for the expansion of the mines although the villagers did not all consent to leave. The problems of this village are not unique. For each tonne of coal produced six hectares of land is disturbed, land which was home and habitat to both people and wildlife before the mining companies’ encroachment.

Prior to the destruction of Kazas, pressure was applied to get families to move. Infrastructure was no longer maintained – roads were not cleared of snow in winter and clean drinking water was no longer provided. With only 6% of water from the mines being treated, filthy water killed the fish and the wildlife dispersed, preventing the traditional economic activities of the Shor people – hunting and fishing.

Communities in the coal mining regions struggle to have their objections heard as the system is stacked against them. Decisions about mining applications are heard away from the ancestral lands which are threatened so those affected cannot attend hearings.
The worsening situation for the residents meant that many agreed to leave. For those who didn’t the outcome was more sinister, their homes were destroyed by arson.

The village of Kazas now only exists in the memories of the people who lived there. “Chuvashka is the Shors’ only village in this area. In the 1990s, about 16,000 Shors were living here. Today, there are just between 4,500 and 5,000 people here” said a Shor woman in Ecodefense’s film Condemned. Eight other villages in the area have been destroyed.

The mining exploits in the Kemerovo region have left many of the indigenous Shor homeless, or displaced to other areas, which severs their spiritual, cultural, and practical attachments to the land. No adequate substitute land, nor compensation has been offered to them. The Kemerovo Oblast, where most of the Shors and Teleut live, produces 60% of Russia’s coal for export.

The Russian coal industry also has the most dangerous working conditions of any industry in terms of risk to life and welfare, with 40-50 fatal accidents each year, killing 180-280 people annually, mainly in the deep mines.

Why is the UK burning Russian coal?
In the year to August 2015, 31% of all thermal coal burnt in the UK came from Russia. Since 2005, Russia has supplied the UK with more coal than any other country – coal is cheaper from Russia than anywhere else, which is why we burn so much of it. There is little transparency in the coal supply chain and large volumes.

Where else does coal come from?
32% of the coal used in the UK was extracted in Britain in the year to September 2015. Here opencast mining operations have continually faced resistance from those living in the shadow of mines and proposed sites. At the end of March 2016 there were 21 opencast mines working, a number which is decreasing. There are no longer any underground coal mines in this country.

Colombia is known for its human rights abuses, yet it supplies 23% of the coal imported to the UK. Over 90% of Colombian coal production occurs in three large-scale open cast mining operations in the northern departments of La Guajira and Cesar. Communities close to the mines suffer the same problems in terms of forced relocations as those neighboring Russian mines, additionally there have been links made to assassination attempts on those who speak out against the mines, mass killings and violence.

Most of the 14% of coal coming to the UK from the USA is from damaging longwall mining systems – where the material over the coal is intentionally collapsed as the mine progresses – or from opencast or mountaintop removal mines. Both of these methods destroy huge areas of land, displace people and damage the water table. During mountaintop removal coal mining is destroying entire mountain ranges in Appalachia.

The Coal Action Network is working with grass roots groups on campaigns to close the UK’s remaining coal fired power stations. Come along to one of our tour dates to find out why we must close these power stations and to see how you can get involved.
Full tour details www.coalaction.org.uk/tour

Earth First! Summer Gathering 2016 dates & location

Earth First! Summer Gathering! – 17th-22nd Aug – The address is: The Limes, Milton Rd, Gayton,Northampton NN7 3HE.

For workshop programme and directions etc. see: http://earthfirstgathering.org/

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…..

Peruvian Land Defender Killed After 48-Hour Anti-Mining Strike

October 29th, 2015

Seven rural communities organized a general strike that immobilized completely the activities in Puquio, capital of Lucana province, and resulted in the unfortunate death of a young member of the Cccollana community: Erick Mendonza Tumaylle, age 22. The conflict occurred at the site of one informal mining project where toxic run-offs lead directly into fields used by the community for agriculture.

Leaders of the community have reported Juan Pariona of Ccollao injured as a result of being held hostage by the informal mining company in the San Andrés zone.

This theme of conflict is a recurring one throughout the entire southern territories of Ayacucho, Ica, and parts of Arequipa. Some community members are suing Laytauma Corporation for being the main storage facility for explosives, for being the main source of income for informal transient workers, and for being the sole purchaser of feed produced in Sancos district.

People are worried about how thousands of informal workers are affecting the Yuariviri lagoon, the many springs and water sources. It has been made apparent that the center storm of this conflict has moved to this zone of the country.

by Observatorio de Conflictos Mineros en el Perú / Conflictos Mineros

translated by Earth First! Newswire

Anti-Dam Activists Celebrate Two Years of Blockades in Malaysia

On October 23rd 2015, indigenous communities from around the world gathered on the banks of the Baram River in Sarawak, Malaysia in the context of the second year anniversary of the indigenous-led blockades against the proposed Baram Dam. Two years ago indigenous communities set up two blockades and chased workers and researchers from the site. The works on the dam have come to a standstill and last month the government of Sarawak announced a moratorium.

Indigenous anti-dam activists from Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Brazil, the US, Honduras, and from around Malaysia united at the blockades to stand in solidarity with the resistance against the Baram Dam and to strengthen ties between their communities. The week-long event is called the World Indigenous Summit on Environment and Rivers, WISER Baram 2015, and was hosted by the grassroots network SAVE Rivers.

During celebrations at the two blockades, the proposed dam site, as well as at a conference in the town of Miri, the participants were united by the similarities between their struggles. “I have gained a lot of experience from all of the delegates. And with such information, I am confident enough such experiences will be fundamental to us – the Baram People – and our strategies to continue to fight and stop the proposed Baram Dam,” said James Nyurang, who hosted the delegates at his village.

According to Berta Cáceres, 2015 Goldman Prize winner from Honduras, “this summit on indigenous peoples and rivers has a special value in that its actions give strength to the historic resistance of our peoples and makes visible the grave aggression and conflict generated by the privatization of rivers and the construction of dams within Indigenous communities and regions.”

The declaration also calls on governments and institutions to stop presenting dams as climate neutral, and recognize that dams emit large amounts of greenhouse gases, including methane.

Participants in the summit collectively produced a declaration that acknowledges the widespread suffering and destruction caused by dams, and stresses the importance of obtaining Free, Prior, and Informed Consent from communities impacted by dam building. It urges all stakeholders to act in full accountability, transparency, and compliance of all human rights principals and values.

The indigenous defense of the Baram river stands united with other communities’ struggles for land, livelihood, spirituality, identity, and community cohesion.

Indigenous activists celebrate bitter victory over rainforest dam moratorium

22nd October 2015

As indigenous activists opposing hydropower dams on their territories gather this weekend in the rainforests of Sarawak, Malaysia, they have good news to celebrate: a giant dam on the Baram river has been put on hold. But the forests are still being logged, local people have been stripped of land rights, and a programme of 12 giant dams is still official policy.

Indigenous anti-dam campaigners from Brazil, India, Honduras, and across Southeast Asia are gathering on the island of Borneo to coordinate campaigns on the impact of large hydroelectric dams.

The World Indigenous Summit on Environment and Rivers is now under way in the town of Miri on Baram River in the Malaysian state of Sarawak – where rainforest dams have already drowned thousands of square kilometres of forest.

Local indigenous people belonging to Penan, Kenyah, Kayan and other groups have led a two-year blockade against the proposed Baram hydropower dam sited on the upper reaches of the Baram River, staging encampments at the dam site itself and at a site along its access road.

“We are maintaining the blockade and we are going to celebrate the anniversary on the 23-24 October”, said Peter Kallang, conference organizer and coordinator of SAVE Rivers Sarawak, a network of groups opposing dams.

Baram dam on hold – but the logging rages on

Activists have reason to celebrate. In a television address in July Sarawak’s Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem declared a moratorium on the Baram Dam project. The 400-square-kilometer (154-square-mile) reservoir of the 1,200-megawatt Baram Dam would displace up to 20,000 people and submerge their lands.

So good news, certainly. But despite the moratorium, clearance of the vast Baram Dam site is proceeding quickly. The government has already extinguished local land rights and issued logging permits to large Malaysian logging companies, and logging has begun, as Kallang explains:

“The loggers are going all out to take this opportunity to cut everything in the way. This license for logging is a legal license given by the government under what they call the salvage logging … under salvage logging they cut anything and everything, even the small trees about six inches in diameter.”

Meanwhile it appears that the moratorium decision may have been forced by simple economics: an inability to raise the billions of dollars needed for its construction.

In the case of the 2,400-megawatt Bakun Dam, which became operational in 2011 private financing fell short and British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto backed out of a proposed aluminium smelter. The state resorted to loaning most of the $2.3 billion construction cost from state pension funds.

The controversial dam, Asia’s second largest outside China, displaced 10,000 people and submerged 700 square kilometres (270 square miles) of rainforest and farmland. But now it is running at well under half of its capacity three years after it came online: it is actually generating just 900MW due to lack of domestic energy demand.

A plan to export Bakun’s energy to the Malaysian mainland via undersea transmission lines has been shelved. Activists are also keen to highlight the poor record of electricity generation by Sarawak’s Batang Ai dam.

But there’s plenty more dams planned for Sarawak’s rivers

The Baram Dam is only the fourth proposed development of twelve large dams slated to be constructed by 2030 as part of a broader hydropower-development plan called the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE). And there’s no sign that the project is to be abandoned.

Next in line for construction is the 1,295 megawatt, 204-meter (669-foot) high Baleh Dam, which so far has attracted less opposition because it is not scheduled to displace communities. Over the long term, 50 dams will be required to realize the Malaysian government’s target of 20 gigawatts of hydropower capacity in Sarawak.

“The essence of SCORE is to industrialise the state by leveraging on Sarawak’s competitive advantage in bulk hydropower”, Sarawak’s Public Utilities Minister Datuk Amar Haji Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said in a speech at the International Hydropower Association’s (IHA) conference in China last July.

Hasan argued that the plan would bring jobs and economic development to Sarawak, particularly it’s remote areas, according to the Borneo Post. Mongabay contacted the IHA for its views on SCORE and the Baram moratorium but it declined to comment.

SCORE, born in 2006 out of the Ninth Malaysia Plan, a government roadmap for development by 2020, represents a formidable scheme to replace indigenous lands and tropical rainforests with heavy industry like steel, glass, aluminium, and agri-business plantations.

However, the aim to industrialize might not be going according to plan. “It is all talking nonsense”, said Kallang, explaining that Sarawak Energy, the nationalized state energy supplier that manages all of Sarawak’s electricity, has repeatedly failed to disclose a list of companies that have signed on to purchase electricity from the 12 planned dams. Kallang suspects this is because no such list exists.

Meanwhile Sarawak’s 944-megawatt Murum Dam is complete but has yet to become operational. Kallang explained that controversy still surrounds the project, with displaced Penan hunter-gatherer indigenous communities claiming they have not been paid the compensation that the Sarawak government promised them. But another problem, surely, is that there is no demand for its power.

Still no final decision on Baram dam

Activists remain cautious about the Baram moratorium and have decided to maintain their blockade pending further confirmation. Kallang thinks the state elections next year might have influenced the decision to put the dam on hold. “When politicians talk we have to know whether they are really genuine or they are fishing for votes”, he said.

Sarawak Energy spokesperson Ahadiah Zamhari told Mongabay that a final decision on the dam’s construction has yet to be made. “The Chief Minister of Sarawak has imposed a moratorium to all parties on matters related to Baram hydropower project pending the government’s final decision on the project”, he stated in an email, while declining to be interviewed.

But Rebekah Shirley, a researcher with the Energy and Resources Group at University of California, Berkeley, is cautiously optimistic: “I see this recent moratorium on works in Baram as progressive. It is hopefully a signal of new leadership that is keen on listening to the concerns of stakeholders – albeit stakeholders that should already be a legitimate part of the decision making process.”

Shirley’s work with her Berkeley colleague Daniel Kammen showing the potential of small-scale energy options such as solar and micro-hydro to meet Sarawak’s energy needs without building dams has influenced the government.

Their research appears to provide a cost-effective alternative to big dams with the added advantage of reduced environmental and social conflicts. After meeting with Kammen, Kallang, and others in June, Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan said in a television interview last month that he would look into these alternatives.

But in recent years a number of revelations have exposed corruption at the highest levels of Sarawak’s Government. The business affairs of the former Chief Minister and current state Governor, Taib Mahmud, have particularly been in the spotlight. Kallang explained Taib’s links to dam construction, which have been well documented by the news media:

“If the dams, especially Baram and Baleh are cancelled, it will affect Taib’s company very much because the sole supplier of cement in the whole of Sarawak is a company called CMS [Cahya Mata Sarawak] which is owned 90% by the Taib family… Also Sarawak Cable is owned by his son, so they are going to supply all the cable required for the transmission lines.”

The struggle is global

Dam-building remains widespread worldwide. The International Hydropower Association in its 2015 report said: “We publish this report at a time of significant hydropower development, with 37.4 GW of new installed capacity in 2014 bringing the global total to 1,036 GW.”

As part of the convergence this week, the international delegation of activists is due to join villagers on the blockades in solidarity, and over a hundred people are expected to stay in the camp, extended for the occasion, at kilometer 15 of the dam’s access road. “They are going to visit the dam site and from there they will visit the villages which could be flooded if the dam is built. We will stay overnight on the blockade”, Kallang said.

Annina Aeberli, who is helping to organize the events as a campaigner with the Swiss NGO Bruno Manser Fonds, explained the idea behind the initiative: “We were really thinking about what we can do to strengthen [the villagers’] spirits to fight. So then we came back to this idea to bring international dam activists to the Baram area, so that they can show solidarity and motivate the people.”

Though the Baram Dam protests appear to have been effective, on October 26 Kallang is due in court, where he faces fines and even jail-time in a suit brought by Sarawak Energy against him and 22 others for allegedly chasing the company away from the Baram worksite.

Whatever the court outcome, Kallang is committed to the struggle long-term and recognizes the global dimensions of the issue as indigenous activists battling dams abroad make the long journey to Sarawak:

“We would like to invite them to share their experience in fighting against dams. And with this we hope to build better solidarity with them.”

Videos and sources here

Ahousaht First Nation Blockade Open Net Salmon Farm

An aerial view of Clayoquot Sound, just north of Tofino, B.C., is shown in this handout photo. The Ahousaht First Nation are protesting an open-net salmon farm in the area.

September 11th, 2015

TOFINO, B.C. — Members of a Vancouver Island First Nation are vowing to risk arrest rather than allow an international fish farming company to anchor an open-net salmon farm north of Tofino.

Members of the Ahousaht First Nation say they set up a boat blockade Wednesday at the site of the new farm, owned by Norwegian-based Cermaq.

The Ahousaht say the company holds 17 salmon farm tenures in Clayoquot Sound and applied for two new tenures in the same area last year.

The First Nation believes the applications signal a new round of fish farm expansion on the West Coast, with the Ahousaht Fish Farm Committee predicting a four-fold increase in the industry over the next 15 years.

Protesters oppose any new fish farms in the area.

They fear possible diseases bred in fish within the open nets could be passed to clam beds or wild salmon travelling to and from nearby spawning grounds.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/first-nations-blockade-halts-anchoring-of-tofino-area-salmon-farm-1.2556934

First Nations blockade Clayoquot Sound salmon farm

This is a media release from UBCIC.

Members of Ahousaht First Nations are currently blockading the attempts of Cermaq to install a new open-net salmon farm at Yaakswiis, north of Tofino BC.

On Wednesday Ahousaht members took boats out to the site and prevented Cermaq from anchoring the controversial new farm, which was assembled off-site and towed to Yaakswiis.

“Wild salmon are in decline everywhere salmon feedlots are in operation around the world. We will stop any future activity at this location”, said Tom Paul, an Ahousaht member. “We will stay out there until we are moved—we will be arrested if need be” he added.

The Ahousaht Fish Farm Committee strongly opposed any fish farms at the Yaakswiis location, due to concerns about proximity to rich seafood resources such as clam beds and wild salmon rivers.

Cermaq is a Norwegian-based corporation recently acquired by Mitsubishi. They currently hold 17 salmon farm tenures in Clayoquot Sound, which was the site of major logging confrontations in 1993.

Cermaq applied in 2014 for two new tenures in Ahousaht First Nations territories. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans approved one application in late July this year, and one was refused.

The salmon farming industry is poised to increase four-fold on the BC coast by 2030. These new applications are the first round of this major expansion.

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/first-nations-blockade-clayoquot-sound-salmon-farm

President of Uganda threatens death to Protesters of Palm Oil land grab

President Museveni of Uganda has joined his support to Bidco and Wilmar. calling for Bullets to be used against those who protest the Palm Oil development on the islands of Kalangala.

President Museveni of Uganda has joined his support to Bidco and Wilmar. calling for Bullets to be used against those who protest the Palm Oil development on the islands of Kalangala. The development has meant that 10,000 hecatres of virgin forest has been destroyed leaving environmental damage and economic hardhsip for the people. The words from Museveni come after a renewed protest against Bidco began earlier this year through twitter and Youtube. Further direct action against Vimal Shah the owner of Bidco is expected soon.

Hawaii: Eight Arrested in Protest Against Mauna Kea Telescope

Seven women and one man were arrested early on Wednesday in the latest round of arrests in the ongoing battle against building a giant telescope atop a mountain many native Hawaiians consider sacred.

The state department of land and natural resources said 20 of its officers arrested the protesters on Mauna Kea at about 1am. They were enforcing an emergency rule created to stop people from camping on Mauna Kea. The land board approved the rule in July, which restricts access to the mountain during certain nighttime hours and prohibits certain camping gear. It was prompted by protesters’ around-the-clock presence to prevent construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope.

Protesters say officers hauled them away while they were praying. In video footage provided by the state, officers are seen walking toward a group of people huddled in a circle and chanting. A man’s voice is heard saying: “Eh, they’re praying you guys, they’re praying.”

The footage shows officers putting plastic handcuffs on women and putting them into the back of a vehicle. “Why do I have to have my hands behind my back,” a woman asked. “Because you’ll be placed in restraints, ma’am,” an officer responded.

The emergency rule, in place for 120 days, is intended to make the mountain safe for protesters, visitors and workers of the 13 telescopes already on the mountain, the state said. Attorney general Doug Chin told the land board that even though camping is already prohibited on the mountain, a targeted rule is necessary because of bad behavior by some protesters – ranging from putting boulders in the road to threats and harassment – created unsafe conditions.

The nonprofit company building the Thirty Meter Telescope hasn’t indicated when there will be another attempt to resume construction. Workers weren’t able reach the site during two previous attempts when they were blocked by hundreds of protesters, including dozens who were arrested.

This was the fourth time telescope opponents have been arrested on the mountain.

University of Hawaii law school professor Williamson Chang has filed a lawsuit seeking to repeal the rule, arguing it prevents telescope opponents from legally exercising their rights to peacefully protest.