EarthFirst! gathering workshop call & travel info

LAST CALL FOR RUNNING WORKSHOPS

at the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing
Eco­log­i­cal Direct Action with­out Com­pro­mise
27 Aug — 1 Sept 2008, Nor­folk

Get in touch if you or your campaign/group/network would like to run a work­shop or ses­sion at the gath­er­ing, espe­cial­ly if you can offer work­shops on action train­ing, direct action cam­paigns, ecol­o­gy, eco­log­i­cal restora­tion and sus­tain­able liv­ing.

Email us on sum­mer­gath­er­ing _ AT _ earthfirst.org.uk or ring 01524 383012

Dead­line 12 August!

We’ve already got lots of work­shops con­firmed. Join us for:


LAST CALL FOR RUNNING WORKSHOPS

at the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing
Eco­log­i­cal Direct Action with­out Com­pro­mise
27 Aug — 1 Sept 2008, Nor­folk

Get in touch if you or your campaign/group/network would like to run a work­shop or ses­sion at the gath­er­ing, espe­cial­ly if you can offer work­shops on action train­ing, direct action cam­paigns, ecol­o­gy, eco­log­i­cal restora­tion and sus­tain­able liv­ing.

Email us on sum­mer­gath­er­ing _ AT _ earthfirst.org.uk or ring 01524 383012

Dead­line 12 August!

We’ve already got lots of work­shops con­firmed. Join us for:

DIRECT ACTION TRAINING
includ­ing: Blockad­ing, rec­cies for actions, secu­ri­ty for actions, how to plan actions, legal and arrest info, map read­ing for begin­ners, squat­ting, how to run legal sup­port and police liai­son

GET INVOLVED IN AND PLAN DIRECT ACTION CAMPAIGNS
Leave it in the ground — resis­tance to coal
Stop­ping GM test fields
Sav­ing Ice­land: resis­tance to heavy indus­try
Food and Cli­mate Change info and action
Oppos­ing the nuclear indus­try
Bio­fu­els
Smash Edo – what’s hap­pen­ing and inter­st­ing lessons for oth­er cam­paigns
Ris­ing Tide

ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Learn about ecol­o­gy, eco-cen­tric ethics, sus­tain­able liv­ing and eco­log­i­cal restora­tion includ­ing field trips and hands-on work.

There’ll also be inter­na­tion­al and nation­al action round-ups, region­al get-togeth­ers, ses­sions on strat­e­gy, where next and how we com­mu­ni­cate.

———

More info about the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing

Want to do some­thing to stop our plan­et from get­ting trashed?

EF! is about direct action to halt the destruc­tion of the Earth. It’s about doing it your­self rather than rely­ing on lead­ers, gov­ern­ments or indus­try.
Direct action is at the heart of it, whether you’re stand­ing in front of a bull­doz­er, shut­ting down an open-cast mine or rip­ping up a field of GM crops.

We’re a loose net­work of peo­ple, groups and cam­paigns com­ing togeth­er for eco­log­i­cal direct action.

Join us for 5 days of work­shops, net­work­ing and plan­ning actions, run with­out lead­ers by every­one who comes along. The gath­er­ing is also a
prac­ti­cal exam­ple of low-impact eco-liv­ing and non-hier­ar­chi­cal organ­is­ing.

WHERE IS IT?
The gath­er­ing is hap­pen­ing on love­ly fields less than 3 miles from Diss in Nor­folk, with reg­u­lar trains to Diss and bus­es from Diss to the site.
We rec­om­mend that you arrive Tue evening, as work­shops will start on Wednes­day morn­ing and run until Sun­day after­noon.

FOOD AND WHAT TO BRING
Deli­cious veg­an food will be pro­vid­ed by the Anar­chist Teapot for £4 per day, or you can cater for your­self
Bring camp­ing gear — if you want details of B&Bs in the area con­tact us.
We are ask­ing for a con­tri­bu­tion of £15-£25 accord­ing to what you can afford.
Dogs: the gath­er­ing is held at a dog free site, unfor­tu­nate­ly we will have to turn away any dogs that arrive.
Please leave your car at home, it’s real­ly easy to get to by pub­lic trans­port or come by bike. You can also check out our lift shar­ing board:
http://www.easf.org.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=15

WHAT YOU’LL FIND ON SITE
Wel­come tent at the gate
Work­shop spaces
Anar­chist Teapot Kitchen
Veg­gies Cafe
Kids space with toys
Library with books on rad­i­cal thought and some relax­ing fic­tion
Book stall by Nat­ter­jack Press
A space for leaflets and dis­plays
Cin­e­ma show­ing political/campaigns films
Bar
Wash­ing facil­i­ties and com­post toi­lets
Sauna and hot tubs
Renew­able pow­er

(Please not that the gath­er­ing is not a fes­ti­val)

Find out more and join in!

The near­est train sta­tion is up on the web­site (for book­ing advance train or coach tick­ets), and there’s a lift-shar­ing forum too.

Email us if you can offer a work­shop, want to help out with the gath­er­ing or if you would like posters and leaflets to dis­trib­ute.

http://www.earthfirst.org.uk, sum­mer­gath­er­ing _ AT _ earthfirst.org.uk

ACTIVISTS SQUAT NEWHAVEN INCINERATOR SITE IN PROTEST

22.07.2008
‘Stop Incin­er­a­tion Now!’ pro­tes­tors demon­strate their fury now that con­struc­tion on the high­ly con­tro­ver­sial incin­er­a­tor plant has begun.

22.07.2008
‘Stop Incin­er­a­tion Now!’ pro­tes­tors demon­strate their fury now that con­struc­tion on the high­ly con­tro­ver­sial incin­er­a­tor plant has begun.

Activists have tak­en over the site of the pro­posed new incin­er­a­tor plant in Newhaven. They entered the premis­es under the cov­er of dark­ness last night in an organ­ised attempt at non-vio­lent direct action, after resis­tance through demo­c­ra­t­ic means failed them. Sev­er­al pro­tes­tors formed a bar­ri­cade by super­glue-ing them­selves to the road in an attempt to pre­vent vehi­cle access, whilst on the site itself, oth­er mem­bers of the group ‘locked-on’ to machin­ery in order to halt fur­ther activ­i­ty. They claim to be exer­cis­ing their demo­c­ra­t­ic right to protest non-vio­lent­ly in a last-ditch attempt to pro­mote their con­cerns about the con­se­quences of incin­er­a­tors on pub­lic health and safe­ty.

Amidst a storm of con­tro­ver­sy and fierce oppo­si­tion from local res­i­dents con­cerned about pol­lu­tion and health risks, con­struc­tion of the incin­er­a­tor by Veo­lia (Onyx) began ear­ly in June this year despite the fact that plan­ning per­mis­sion had not been offi­cial­ly approved and a judi­cial review of the process was still incom­plete. Angry at what they saw as a direct attack on the health of the pub­lic and a lack of trans­paren­cy through­out the plan­ning process, local Newhaven cam­paign group Dove2000 fought to keep the issue in the pub­lic eye and gen­er­at­ed 15,000 writ­ten objec­tions to the scheme. It claimed that, falling way short of pro­vid­ing a nec­es­sary solu­tion to waste man­age­ment, the plant instead would be respon­si­ble for the inevitable con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of the local area, the release of high­ly dan­ger­ous tox­ins into the atmos­phere and the dis­as­trous con­se­quences of tox­ic ash dis­pos­al.

The dev­as­tat­ing health impli­ca­tions for the envi­ron­ment and those liv­ing or work­ing with­in the (10–15 mile radius) fall­out zone of the incin­er­a­tor plant have been well doc­u­ment­ed by groups like Dove2000, and accord­ing to Dr. Neil Cat­man (for­mer incin­er­a­tor inspec­tor and inter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised expert on tox­ic waste incin­er­a­tion),

‘in licens­ing these incin­er­a­tion oper­a­tions, the gov­ern­ment is cre­at­ing zones of sacrifice.…I’m not just talk­ing about peo­ple get­ting sick. I’ve seen them die. If the wind would blow the smoke towards the school on a Mon­day you’d see the chil­dren being at home sick on Tues­day and Wednes­day. The schools near the incin­er­a­tors had the high­est absen­tee rates in the dis­trict. I met a lot of these chil­dren. I’ve seen them die of leukaemia, brain can­cer and a host of oth­er dis­or­ders’.

It is claimed* that incin­er­a­tors emit some of the most tox­ic and bioac­cu­mu­la­tive air pol­lu­tants includ­ing acidic gas­es and fine dust par­ti­cles which pen­e­trate deep into the lungs caus­ing res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­ease and asth­ma; diox­ins which sup­press the immune sys­tem, cause can­cer, and pose a par­tic­u­lar prob­lem for preg­nant or breast­feed­ing moth­ers as they pass through to babies, read­i­ly reduc­ing the rate of male births, caus­ing hor­mon­al dis­rup­tion, learn­ing dif­fi­cul­ties and behav­iour­al prob­lems. Also emit­ted are nanopar­ti­cles and 2.5 micron par­ti­cles which are known car­cino­gens able to migrate around the body, and a vari­ety of dan­ger­ous heavy met­als which affect the kid­ney and lungs, cause nerve and brain dam­age and adverse­ly affect the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem.
* (www.dove2000.org.uk). The deci­sion to use incin­er­a­tors for burn­ing radioac­tive waste from nuclear pow­er sta­tions is also being con­sid­ered.

By last year alone the cost of the project had soared to £145.7 mil­lion, with Brighton and Hove City Coun­cil and East Sus­sex Coun­ty Coun­cil hav­ing col­lec­tive­ly invest­ed at least £2 mil­lion in legal fees to bring the project beyond the plan­ning stage. There are a fur­ther 100–168 incin­er­a­tors planned for use in the UK, though it appears that the Stop Incin­er­a­tion Now! net­work of pro­tes­tors are deter­mined to assert their belief that this mon­ey could be more advan­ta­geous­ly spent on recy­cling ini­tia­tives to com­bat waste man­age­ment prob­lems more sus­tain­ably with­out cre­at­ing fur­ther envi­ron­men­tal prob­lems for present and future gen­er­a­tions.

The activists from Stop Incin­er­a­tion Now! con­tin­ue to occu­py the site deter­mined to bring the dis­cus­sion to the nation­al forum.

# # #

If you would like more infor­ma­tion about this top­ic, or to sched­ule an inter­view with Francesca Corvi­no, please call her­self on 07828178710 or email Francesca at fmcveigh@yahoo.com.

Melting Point: the new frontline in eco-activism

The Ecol­o­gist Film Unit (EFU), a col­lab­o­ra­tion between the eth­i­cal inves­ti­ga­tions agency Ecos­torm and the Ecol­o­gist mag­a­zine, has recent­ly pro­duced a short film called ‘Melt­ing Point: the new front­line in eco-activism’.

CO2The Ecol­o­gist Film Unit (EFU), a col­lab­o­ra­tion between the eth­i­cal inves­ti­ga­tions agency Ecos­torm and the Ecol­o­gist mag­a­zine, has recent­ly pro­duced a short film called ‘Melt­ing Point: the new front­line in eco-activism’. Ahead of next mon­th’s ‘Cli­mate Camp’ at Kingsnorth pow­er sta­tion, Kent, the film expos­es gov­ern­ment tac­tics in reac­tion to envi­ro­men­tal protests.

Espi­onage, news manip­u­la­tion, legal threats and even vio­lence have become the knee-jerk response of Gov­ern­ment and big busi­ness to the increas­ing and vocal con­cerns of envi­ron­men­tal activists in the UK. This exclu­sive and pow­er­ful film expos­es the extra­or­di­nary tac­tics being used to reframe con­cerned cit­i­zens engag­ing in their right to protest, as dan­ger­ous ter­ror­ists.

The film can be viewed on var­i­ous web­sites includ­ing Green TV (www.green.tv) or the Ecol­o­gist web­site (www.theecologist.org/etv/).

The youtube URL is http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I08J2BCPBDY.

Alter­na­tive­ly the video can be down­loaded at www.ecologistfilmunit.com.

Watch it, show it at events, spread the mes­sage!

con­tact: anna@eco-storm.com

Spirit of Freedom (July 2008)

Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“The whole expe­ri­ence has been tough, but all the kind and strength­en­ing words and wise thoughts from strangers made it much eas­i­er!” (For­mer Swedish Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Prisoner Solidarity 8Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“The whole expe­ri­ence has been tough, but all the kind and strength­en­ing words and wise thoughts from strangers made it much eas­i­er!” (For­mer Swedish Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Wel­come to the July 2008 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. As a num­ber of ELP sup­port­ers will be aware, ELP has tra­di­tion­al­ly ded­i­cat­ed our newslet­ters to fall­en friends, who have either been killed or seri­ous­ly injured as a result of their protest activ­i­ties. For the past few months ELP has­n’t car­ried any ded­i­ca­tion and we hoped that we would not have to ded­i­cate anoth­er newslet­ter to a fall­en friend again. How­ev­er last month, ELP received the heart­break­ing news about the death of Marie Vesco. Marie was a French activist liv­ing in Eng­land. She was involved with a num­ber of groups includ­ing ‘Food Not Bombs’. On Wednes­day the 4th of June 2008 Marie was cycling to the Car­ni­val Against the Arms Trade when a Four Wheel Dri­ve
vehi­cle (an SUV if your Amer­i­can) swerved across two lanes hit­ting Marie. A sec­ond vehi­cle then also hit Marie. Marie died instant­ly: she was just a few days away from her 20th birth­day. Marie is remem­bered as a warm, loud, fun, viva­cious fig­ure with an infec­tious laugh that was always ready to help oth­ers. ELP under­stands that at least two Crit­i­cal Mass cycle rides have already been ded­i­cat­ed to Marie. Like­wise in mem­o­ry of Marie ELP is ded­i­cat­ing this newslet­ter to her mem­o­ry. The loss of Marie is a blow for the move­ment and our thoughts are with her fam­i­ly and friends.

ECO-DEFENCE PRISONERS

Tre Arrow, SWIS #640393, Mult­nom­ah Coun­ty Deten­tion Cen­ter, 1120 S.W. 3rd Avenue, Port­land, Ore­gon 97206, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing of six and a half years impris­on­ment hav­ing reached a non-coop­er­a­tion plea-bar­gain with the author­i­ties who accuse him of involve­ment in two arsons. 1) an arson on log­ging trucks 2) an arson on vehi­cles owned by a sand & grav­el com­pa­ny. (Tre is a raw ener­gy veg­an — He has asked that his let­ters of sup­port are writ­ten on scrap paper or tree-free paper).

Grant Barnes #137563, San Car­los Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty, PO Box 3, Pueblo, CO 81002, USA. Serv­ing 12 years for set­ting fire to a num­ber of SUV vehi­cles. The let­ters ELF were spray paint­ed onto all of the vehi­cles. (Grant is a veg­an).

Nathan Block, #36359–086, FCI Lom­poc, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, 3600 Guard Road, Lom­poc, CA 93436, USA. Serv­ing 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Diet unknown).

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. (Mar­co is a meat eater who encour­ages organ­ic liv­ing).

Daniele Casali­ni, Casa Cir­con­dar­i­ale, Via Burla 59, 43100 Par­ma, Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy. (Daniele is a veg­an).

Rod Coro­n­a­do — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Francesco Gioia, C.C. Sol­lic­ciano, Via Giro­lamo Min­ervi­ni 2/R, 50142 Firen­ze Sol­lic­ciano (FI), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy. (Francesco is a veg­e­tar­i­an and Straight Edge).

Pao­la Gori, Via delle Mac­chie 9, 57124 Livorno, Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of allow­ing her house to be used to plan ille­gal activ­i­ty. (Pao­la is a veg­an).

Jef­frey Luers, # 13797671, CRCI, 9111 NE Sun­der­land Ave, Port­land, OR 97211–1708, USA. Serv­ing 10 years for arson on a SUV deal­er­ship & the attempt­ed arson of an oil truck. The orig­i­nal sen­tence was 22 years & 8 months, but was reduced on appeal. (Diet unknown).

Eric McDavid, 16209–097. FCI Vic­torville Medi­um II, PO BOX 5700, Ade­lan­to, CA 92301, USA. Serv­ing 19 years & 7 months for plan­ning to destroy the prop­er­ty of the U.S. Forestry Ser­vice, mobile phone masts and pow­er plants. At the point of his arrest no crim­i­nal dam­age has actu­al­ly occurred. (Eric is a veg­an).

Daniel McGowan, Colum­bia Coun­ty Jail, 403 Jack­son Street, Portage, Wis­con­sin 53901, USA. Serv­ing 7 years for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an old growth log­ging cor­po­ra­tion. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Daniel is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

Jonathan Paul — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Bri­ana Waters, 36432–086, FDC — Seat­ac, Fed­er­al Deten­tion Cen­ter, P.O. Box 13900, Seat­tle, WA 98198, USA. Serv­ing six years for involve­ment in an ELF arson on a Uni­ver­si­ty. (Diet unknown).

Joy­an­na Zach­er, #36360–086, FCI Dublin, 5700 8th St.- Camp Parks- Unit F, Dublin, CA 94568, USA. Serv­ing 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted her role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Diet unknown).

ANIMAL LIBERATION PRISONERS
(All Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers fol­low a min­i­mum veg­e­tar­i­an diet and most are veg­an).

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. (Jon is a veg­an).

Gregg Avery TA7450, HMP Win­ches­ter, Rom­sey Road, Win­ches­ter, SO22 5DF, Eng­land. On remand accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to his involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (Gregg is a veg­an).

Natasha Avery NR8987, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx. TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. Jailed for breach­ing her parole con­di­tions imposed on her for telling a fox hunt­ing mur­der­ing scum what she thought of them. Also await­ing tri­al accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to her involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (Nat is a veg­an).

Mel Broughton TN9138, HMP Wood­hill, Tat­ten­hoe Street, Mil­ton Keynes, Bucks MK4 4DA, Eng­land. On remand accused of involve­ment with an arson and black­mail cam­paign against an Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty vivi­sec­tion estab­lish­ment. (Mel is a veg­an).

Mar­tin Bal­luch, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Mar­tin is a veg­an)

Christoph, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Christo­pher does not wish to have his full name pub­lished.

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. (Jake is a veg­an).

Rod­ney Coro­n­a­do #03895–000, FCI El Reno, PO Box 1500, El Reno, OK 73036, USA. Serv­ing one-year impris­on­ment after he informed peo­ple how to make an incen­di­ary device dur­ing a speech at an ani­mal rights gath­er­ing. (Rod is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

Don­ald Cur­rie A3660AA, HMP Parkhurst, New­port, Isle of Wight, PO30 5NX, Eng­land. Serv­ing an Inde­ter­mi­nate Sen­tence, of not less than six actu­al years, for car­ry­ing out arsons against tar­gets asso­ci­at­ed the vivi­sec­tion indus­try includ­ing HLS. (Don is a veg­an).

Lau­ren Gaz­zo­la #93497–011, FCI Dan­bury, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, Route #37Danbury, CT 06811, USA. Serv­ing 54 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Lau­ren is a veg­an).

Sarah Gis­borne, LT5393, HMP Down­view, Sut­ton Lane, Sut­ton, Sur­rey, SM2 5PD, Eng­land. Serv­ing 5½ years for con­spir­a­cy to cause crim­i­nal dam­age fol­low­ing the dam­ag­ing of 8 vehi­cles owned by peo­ple linked to Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ence. Due for release at the end of July (Sarah is a veg­an).

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. (Josh is a veg­an).

Jan, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an ‘s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Jan does not wish to have his full name pub­lished.

Kevin Kroem­mer, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Kevin is a veg­an)

Leo, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Leo does not wish to have his full name pub­lished.

Sabine, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Sabine does not wish to have their full name pub­lished.

Sean Kirt­ley WC 6977, HM Prison Blak­en­hurst, Hewell Lane, Red­ditch, B97 6QS, Eng­land. Serv­ing four and a half years for run­ning an anti-vivi­sec­tion cam­paign web­site. (Sean is a veg­an).

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

Daniel McGowan — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

Heather Nichol­son VM4859, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx. TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. On remand accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to her involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (Heather is a veg­an).

Jonathan Paul, #07167–085, FCI Phoenix, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, 37910 N 45th Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85086, USA. Sen­tenced to 51 months for an ALF arson on a horse meat plant. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Jonathan is a veg­an).

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. (Andrew is a veg­an).

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. (Ker­ry is a veg­an).

Sarah White­head, VM7684, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx, TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. Serv­ing two years for: 1) res­cu­ing a pup­py from hor­rif­ic con­di­tions. 2) res­cu­ing over 100 ani­mals from a pet breed­er who was lat­er pros­e­cut­ed for ani­mal abuse. Also await­ing tri­al for SHAC activ­i­ty. (Sarah is a veg­an)

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. (Diet unknown).

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

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. (Diet unknown).

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. (Diet unknown).

Fabio Milan, C.C. via Pianez­za 300, 10151 Tori­no, Italy. On remand accused of fight­ing with the police after an anti-fas­cist protest. (Diet unknown).

Andrea Neff, Bnr: 746/07/2, Jus­tizvol­lzugsanstalt fur Frauen in Berlin, Arkonas­trasse 56, 13189 Berlin, Ger­many. Serv­ing 14 months for anti-fas­cist activ­i­ty. (Diet unknown).

Chris­t­ian Süm­mer­mann, Bnr: 441/08/5, JVA Plötzensee, Lehrter­str. 61, 10557 Berlin, Ger­many. Serv­ing 40 months for breach­ing the peace whilst serv­ing a sus­pend­ed sen­tence issued for anti-fas­cist activ­i­ties. (Diet unknown).

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

OTHER PRISONERS

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. (Diet unknown).

Vagge­lis Botzatzis, Komo­ti­ni Juridi­cal Prison (“Dikastikes Fylakes Komo­ti­nis”), T.K. 69100, Greece. On remand accused of set­ting fire to two com­pa­ny cars owned by a energy/power com­pa­ny. It is believed that the per­son or per­sons unknown who car­ried out the arson did so in protest at the destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment and in sup­port of two work­ers who
died at the pow­er plant. Vagge­lis is also accused of set­ting fire to a bank and start­ing a fire inside a car yard. (Meat Eater).

Michael W. Sykes, 100 East 2nd St, Mon­roe, Michi­gan 48161, USA. Youth held on remand accused of anti-sprawl arsons, crim­i­nal dam­age, spray-paint­ing an anar­chist sign and burn­ing the Amer­i­can flag. (Diet unknown)

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. (Fran is a veg­an).

MOVE
MOVE is an eco-rev­o­lu­tion­ary group who car­ried out protests in defence of all life. All move pris­on­ers describe them­selves as veg­e­tar­i­ans. 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 Grater­ford, PO Box 244, Grater­ford, PA 19426–0244, USA.

Edward Good­man Africa (AM4974), SCI Mahanoy, 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.

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 month­ly pris­on­er list­ing which is cir­cu­lat­ed by e‑mail.

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

Greek lan­guage ELP Web­site
http://greekelp.blogspot.com

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

Aus­tralian ELP.SN is our Aus­tralian con­tact. For more info 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.

Greek ELP.SN is our Greek con­tact. For more info e‑mail greekelp@yahoo.gr

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

Bristol Tree Felling Protest

July 8th 2008
A protest organ­ised by the Snuff Mills Action Group attract­ed a very healthy turnout last night despite adverse weath­er con­di­tions. Around 250 peo­ple turned out to express their dis­gust at Bris­tol City Coun­cils approval of a plan­ning appli­ca­tion to fell 27 trees in a con­ser­va­tion area.

Snuff Mills protestJuly 8th 2008
A protest organ­ised by the Snuff Mills Action Group attract­ed a very healthy turnout last night despite adverse weath­er con­di­tions. Around 250 peo­ple turned out to express their dis­gust at Bris­tol City Coun­cils approval of a plan­ning appli­ca­tion to fell 27 trees in a con­ser­va­tion area.

Grove Wood on Black­ber­ry Hill in Sta­ple­ton has been part of the hos­pi­tal site since it was orig­i­nal­ly built to house French pris­on­ers of war dur­ing the Napoleon­ic Wars but was sold off at auc­tion last year to Mr Hus­sain Jafari Najafaba­di of Clifton for £39,000 as part of the Gov­ern­ments dri­ve to sell off sur­plus state owned assets. The land forms part of the con­ser­va­tion area that runs from East­ville right through to Dow­nend.

Mr Jafari has a record of plan­ning vio­la­tions (most of which have been grant­ed ret­ro­spec­tive­ly) and, it is alleged, has been heard to be brag­ging of his long term plan to turn the site into a hotel and con­fer­ence cen­tre. His busi­ness deal­ings are car­ried out under a num­ber of alias­es.

Short­ly after pur­chas­ing the wood, the new landown­er set about cut­ting down trees with impuni­ty and sit­ed a por­tak­abin with­in sight of the main road, near the entrance to the Wood.

Bris­tol City coun­cil took no action and when he sub­mit­ted a plan­ning appli­ca­tion to fell the trees lin­ing the road, locals thought that con­ser­va­tion area sta­tus would prob­a­bly lim­it health and safe­ty work to prun­ing alone, giv­en the mas­sive impact on visu­al ameni­ty that felling would have.

Bris­tol City Coun­cil grant­ed the per­mis­sion cit­ing that the list­ed wall was being under­mined, a sew­er was affect­ed and high­way obstruc­tion.

The protest last night was the first of its kind in the cam­paign to save Grove Woods and Snuff Mills Action Group Spokesman Steve Mick­lewright said:
“We want to know the real ratio­nale behind this deci­sion, we are very sus­pi­cious about what’s hap­pened here and we want prop­er answers imme­di­ate­ly”.

He went on to say
“Come on Bris­tol City Coun­cil, do your job and stop pan­der­ing to rogue devel­op­ers.”

This full details of this cam­paign can be obtained from the link below, and the online peti­tion can be accessed also.
http://snuffmills.blogspot.com/

On the arson of Sprider store (Athens, 28/6/2008)

“After put­ing off the fire, fire­men found gas can­is­ters inside the store, a fact lead­ing invsti­ga­tions to an arson case, and police takes over…”

Sprider shop burnt“After put­ing off the fire, fire­men found gas can­is­ters inside the store, a fact lead­ing invsti­ga­tions to an arson case, and police takes over…”

Com­mu­nique sent via e‑mail to directactiongr@yahoo.gr:

On June 28, 2008 we chose to strike one of the well-known Sprid­er chain stores, at Lykovris­si. This choise was­n’t ran­dom at all.

We live an every day life turned into an are­na of com­pe­ti­tion as well as accu­mu­la­tion and demon­stra­tion of life­less objects. The expen­sive car, the classy out­fit, the new mobile phone and fast inter­net are the mod­ern val­ues of your world. The con­sumer crowds grum­bles over cost­li­ness while they buy off at their shop­ping ther­a­py a piece of “joy” and a ster­ile image of suc­cess and show-off. In our days, humans seek for an iden­ti­ty at the new acces­sories of their mobile phones, their cars’ cov­ers and fash­ion trends. And every­thing seems cool.

It is enough for one to choose, of Sat­ur­day night’s dilem­ma between Kolon­a­ki or Psyrri area, the right dress, the appro­pri­ate mobile phone and most of all that fake smile, to impress every­body around.

When it comes to every­day life, the lack of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, lone­li­ness, the slow sui­cide of alien­ation, the servi­tude to a job, the cops’ orders, the reporter’s truth, the boss­es’ exploita­tion… Who cares about all that? Besides, they’re not even a life-style trend to be adver­tised and fol­lowed faith­ful­ly.

Thus, all of you faith­ful con­sumers, titled with mis­ery and pro­pri­etors of the lie can keep dress­ing up your fan­cy noth­ing­ness tis­sued with all the shades of com­pro­mise and indif­fer­ence. We instead have cho­sen for our­selves the col­ors of war: As long as our life suf­fo­cates in the tis­sue of com­mer­cial adver­tise, use­less objects, styl­ish orders and all the sym­bols of a con­sumer par­adise, our rage with con­sious­ness will keep search­ing for break-outs.

We had writ­ten in our com­mu­nique con­cern­ing our pre­vi­ous strike against the Aiga­leo Police Sta­tion, that we do not need an inci­dent or a con­cur­rence to get to action. Now though, we come with an event. On July 11, 2008 the com­rades Mar­ios Tsoura­pas and Chris­sos­to­mos Kon­tore­vithakis face a jury, for their arson­ist attempt against a munic­i­pal police car, an action they have claimed respon­si­bil­i­ty for, and stand up to it.

All we have to say on that, is that the mate­r­i­al dam­ages and the total destruc­tion of this lux­u­ri­ous store are illus­tra­tive of our wil­ful­ness, in case of our com­rades impris­on­ment con­tin­ues.

Gangs of Con­science

Note: You can read the pre­vi­ous claim of the Gangs of Con­science (Sym­mories Syni­di­sis) on their attack against Aiga­leo Police Sta­tion here:
http://directactiongr.blogspot.com/2008/05/attack-against-police-station-plus.html

Anti-Sprawl Direct Action in Montana

Flat­head Val­ley, Mon­tana, U.S. — A group call­ing itself Amer­i­cans Stop­ping Sprawl­ing Devel­op­ment (ASSD) has tak­en cred­it for a rash of inci­dents involv­ing the removal of sur­vey­or stakes and graf­fi­ti that is esti­mat­ed to have cost devel­op­ers as much as $20,000 so far.

Stop Sprawl!Flat­head Val­ley, Mon­tana, U.S. — A group call­ing itself Amer­i­cans Stop­ping Sprawl­ing Devel­op­ment (ASSD) has tak­en cred­it for a rash of inci­dents involv­ing the removal of sur­vey­or stakes and graf­fi­ti that is esti­mat­ed to have cost devel­op­ers as much as $20,000 so far.

A three page anti-cap­i­tal­ist man­i­festo was left behind by the van­dals after the first inci­dent which took place on May 17th. The doc­u­ment call urban sprawl “one of the great­est issues fac­ing our soci­ety” and promised more actions against it.

The non-prof­it envi­ron­men­tal group Cit­i­zens for a Bet­ter Flat­head has joined devel­op­ers and their allies and offered a cash reward for infor­ma­tion lead­ing to the arrest and con­vic­tion of indi­vid­u­als respon­si­ble for a cam­paign anti-sprawl van­dal­ism.

Cit­i­zens for a Bet­ter Flat­head pledged $100 towards the reward fund. A rep­re­sen­ta­tive at the Sier­ra Club’s Mis­soula office also dis­avowed the action.

open cast plans for the north of england — meet in Newcastle to make plans, and for the Camp for Climate Action

The 2008 camp for cli­mate action is to be held near to the pro­posed site for a new coal fired pow­er sta­tion. E‑on the com­pa­ny that wants to build the pow­er sta­tion has stat­ed that it will use a sys­tem called Car­bon Cap­ture and stor­age. C.C.S is still in an ear­ly devel­op­ment stage and has not been used on such a large scale.

The 2008 camp for cli­mate action is to be held near to the pro­posed site for a new coal fired pow­er sta­tion. E‑on the com­pa­ny that wants to build the pow­er sta­tion has stat­ed that it will use a sys­tem called Car­bon Cap­ture and stor­age. C.C.S is still in an ear­ly devel­op­ment stage and has not been used on such a large scale. The pow­er sta­tion will have to begin life with­out any c.c.s mean­ing mega-tons of unfil­tered Co2 emis­sions’ head­ing into our atmos­phere .

The cli­mate camp(www.climatecamp.org.uk) at Kingsnorth in the Med­way val­ley will high­light and take direct action against the black hole in the gov­ern­ments cli­mate change pol­i­cy. COAL.

Pow­er sta­tions like Egg­brough, Drax and Kingsnorth pro­duce huge amounts of filthy emis­sions, drax alone pro­duces approx 21 mil­lions tones of Co2 per year.
All this coal has to come from some­where and it would ‘seam’ the mon­ey men have set their greedy eyes on the north of Eng­land again.
U:k coal and the banks group have sev­er­al plan­ning appli­ca­tion to sur­face mine/open cast across the North East.
*Bradley Co. Durham- 550 000 tonnes
*Park wall north Co. Durham- 1 275 000 tonnes
*pot­land burn Northum­ber­land- 2 000 000 tonnes
*Shot­ton Northum­ber­land- 3 000 000 tonnes
*An exten­sion to the exsist­ing site at wid­dring­ton

In addi­tion to these appli­ca­tions there is already one of the largest open cast sites in the U:K at Sto­b­swood near Mor­peth. Sur­face min­ing sites are also oper­at­ing in Wid­dring­ton, Blag­don estate in Northum­ber­land. Stead­burns and stoney heap near to Con­sett Co. Durham.

In the case of shotton/cramlington plan­ning appli­ca­tion, Shot­ton is in an open­cast con­straint area which means that there is a pre­sump­tion against Sur­face min­ing. Northum­ber­land coun­ty coun­cil up held the con­straint and re-ject­ed the appli­ca­tion. How­ev­er the com­mu­ni­ties and local gov­ern­ment sec­re­tary Hazel Blears M.P Stepped in and over­ruled the coun­ty coun­cil allow­ing the open­cast oper­a­tion to go ahead much to dis­may of the local com­mu­ni­ty
(www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2008/02/08/ministers-quizzed-on-opencast-policy-61634–20450633/ )
The pot­land burn site is also in a con­straint area yet U:K coal has still lodged an appli­ca­tion prob­a­bly because they feel the polit­i­cal cli­mate is in their favor.

As if the eco­log­i­cal destruc­tion, indus­tri­al injuries/deaths and dis­rup­tion to the com­mu­ni­ty that open­cast min­ing leaves behind Npow­er have stat­ed that they have an immi­nent plan­ning appli­ca­tion to build a new coal fired pow­er sta­tion in Blyth on the site of the exist­ing pow­er sta­tion. Con­struc­tion is due to begin 2014 on the same time­line as Kingsnorth.
Whilst the focus is on the cli­mate camp and Kingsnorth, the North of Eng­land and our resources are cen­tral to the U:K gov­ern­ment and their cap­i­tal­ist boss­es plans for a new gen­er­a­tion of dirty pow­er sta­tions .
This new gen­er­a­tion of coal fired pow­er sta­tions and the unac­cept­able min­ing prac­tices that accom­pa­ny them must be stopped.
One of the key fea­tures of the cli­mate camp is direct action.
The Banks group have offices in West Corn­forth near Fer­ry­hill, U:K coal head offices are in Don­cast­er’ leave it in the ground’ have began reg­u­lar noise demos out­side the next is 14th July. All the open­cast sites are eas­i­ly acces­si­ble.

Peo­ple are meet­ing to dis­cuss and plan for the upcom­ing cli­mate camp at the star and shad­ow cin­e­ma, New­cas­tle upon tyne. Next meet­ing is Thurs­day July 3rd at 6pm why not come along and join the move against cli­mate change.

Links and info:

www.climatecamp.org.uk
www.earthfirst.org.uk/leaveitintheground
www.greenpeace.com
www.thecoalhole.org
www.indymedia.org.uk
www.pontvalley.net
www.banksdevlopments.com
www.ukcoal.com

Climate change protestors occupy Derbyshire open cast coal site — contact, map, wish list, access & court papers

18th June 2008 – For imme­di­ate release
Leave it in the Ground 07852 460871

Today cli­mate cam­paign­ers from ‘Leave it in the Ground’ have occu­pied the UK Coal’s Lodge House site in Der­byshire by bar­ri­cad­ing them­selves in a dis­used farm build­ing and tak­en to the trees on the site of the open cast mine.

Bodge House squatBodge House roof banner18th June 2008 – For imme­di­ate release
Leave it in the Ground 07852 460871

Today cli­mate cam­paign­ers from ‘Leave it in the Ground’ have occu­pied the UK Coal’s Lodge House site in Der­byshire by bar­ri­cad­ing them­selves in a dis­used farm build­ing and tak­en to the trees on the site of the open cast mine.

Under the cov­er of dark­ness activists have secured them­selves in the Prospect Farm build­ing on the site which is about to be dev­as­tat­ed by huge machines. Food and sup­plies have also been tak­en in for a long term occu­pa­tion and bar­ri­cades’ have been set up pre­vent­ing police form bring­ing in spe­cial­ist equip­ment down Bell Lane, Smal­l­ey Der­byshire into the heart of the site. Sim­i­lar­ly, peo­ple are locked on by their necks behind the doors pre­vent­ing force being used to gain entry. The pro­test­ers are claim­ing squatter’s rights.

At Lodge House today, Andy Green said “We are here because the sin­gle great­est threat to the cli­mate comes from burn­ing coal. Coal fired gen­er­a­tion is his­tor­i­cal­ly respon­si­ble for most of the CO2 in the air today – about half of all car­bon diox­ide emis­sions glob­al­ly. Coal form open cast mines is dirt­i­er than that from deep mines, so it is even worse!”

Lodge house is owned by UK Coal, Britain’s largest coal com­pa­ny who plan to extract one mil­lion tonnes of coal from the 122 hec­tor site. Pro­tes­tors claim this will dev­as­tate the area. Local coun­cils, res­i­dents and local envi­ron­men­tal groups have all object­ed to the plans, how­ev­er, the Envi­ron­ment Sec­re­tary Hilary Benn grant­ed plan­ning per­mis­sion in 2007 and work is set to com­mence immi­nent­ly.

New open cast mines are being active­ly sup­port­ed by the gov­ern­ment and the num­ber of open­cast mines going into the plan­ning process and being approved is on the increase.

The Leave it in the Ground, is part of the Net­work for Cli­mate Action (2) and its allies, has seen over a dozen actions take place around the UK includ­ing the occu­pa­tion of a coal train head­ing for Drax pow­er sta­tion. Protests have focused on the com­pa­nies respon­si­ble for run­away car­bon diox­ide emis­sions, as well as those pro­mot­ing false solu­tions to cli­mate change.

“We are tak­ing action to pre­vent the coal indus­try bent on eco­nom­ic growth from destroy­ing our future,” said Julie Lee from Leave it in the Ground. “If Gor­don Brown gives the go ahead to a new gen­er­a­tion of coal fired pow­er sta­tions begin­ning with Kingsnorth in Kent, it will under­mine – per­haps fatal­ly — Britain’s chances of meet­ing its cli­mate change tar­gets. If Britain is to cut its emis­sions by 80% by 2050, the eight planned new coal pow­er-fired plants alone will wipe out half of our car­bon bud­get.”

A fur­ther demon­stra­tion is planned for 14th July at UK Coal’s Head quar­ters in Don­cast­er.

For inter­views and more infor­ma­tion about today’s action at Lodge House con­tact:
Andy PHONE NUMBER 07852 460871
EMAIL derby@earthfirst.org.uk

** Updates will be avail­able through­out the day at
http://leaveitintheground.wordpress.com or from 07852 460871 **

Notes to edi­tors.

1. UK coal’s head­quar­ters is sit­u­at­ed at Har­worth Park, Blyth Road, Har­worth, Don­cast­er DN11 8DB.

2. To com­bat open-cast min­ing, a new action group “Leave it in the Ground” has formed, sup­port­ed by Earth First! As well as oth­er envi­ron­men­tal groups.

3. UK coal has sub­mit­ted plan­ning appli­ca­tions for 5 new sites:
(Site and Poten­tial Ton­nage)
Pot­land Burn, Northum­ber­land 2,000,000 tonnes
Park Wall North, Co. Durham 1,275,000 tonnes
Bradley, Co. Durham 550,000 tonnes
Hunt­ing­ton Lane, Shrop­shire 900,000 tonnes
Blair House, Fife 700,000 tonnes

It is pro­posed that the 122 hectare site will pro­duce one mil­lion tonnes of coal over five years, after which the land will be ‘returned back to its nat­ur­al state’. How­ev­er, UK Coal will not be able to replace ancient edges and mature trees, and their licence enables the com­pa­ny to expand beyond the 122 hectares with­out need­ing fur­ther per­mis­sion

Coal is the dirt­i­est form of pow­er gen­er­a­tion known to man. Top NASA James Hansen recent­ly remarked: “The only prac­ti­cal way to pre­vent CO2 lev­els from going far into the dan­ger­ous range, with dis­as­trous effects for human­i­ty and oth­er inhab­i­tants of the plan­et, is to phase out use of coal except at pow­er plants where the CO2 is cap­tured and sequestered.”

—-

The house and site has been dubbed Bodge House.

We need more peo­ple on site to make addi­tion­al prepa­ra­tions and secure oth­er areas to stop open cast­ing and build long term home.

Sup­plies are also need­ed

Site phone 07503 335870

Most of all we need peo­ple to come down and stay on the site. It is a beau­ti­ful area, with much wildlife, and easy access to pub­lic trans­port. Come down and vis­it!

See here for direc­tions & map — take pub­lic trans­port to Ship­ley Coun­try Park or oth­er near­by place, then make for Prospect Farm, marked on the map.

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Wish list:

Water: Please bring lots when you come as there is cur­rent­ly no run­ning water on site.

scaf­fold, tar­pau­lin, planks, large nails, polyprop espe­cial­ly 8mm, 10mm and 12mm (but any rope is good)

sand and cement

Climb­ing tat — ropes, har­ness’ cara­bi­nas, belay plates, d‑locks, pad­locks and chains, car­go net­ting,

Blan­kets, car­pets, quilts, sleep­ing bags, ham­mocks,

bow­saws, burn­ers, plas­tic sheets, shov­els and oth­er tools, torch­es, hur­ri­cane lamps and head torch­es.

Axes, bat­ter­ies (car and torch), bolt crop­pers, buck­ets, can­dles, fish­ing line, flex­i­flue and cut­ting gear,

food (tinned is good, dried food par­tic­u­lar­ly things like fruit and nuts is fan­tas­tic, fresh fruit and veg is real­ly appre­ci­at­ed) cook­ing pans and cut­lery, mugs and plates first aid, gen­er­a­tors, paraf­fin, refuse sacks, rope, string, tents, ther­mos flasks, tin stor­age (ammo) box­es, water butts.

Nylon crane net­ting, pul­leys, loud­hail­ers, para­chutes, ruck­sacks, steel cable,

Clothes, Boots, warm clothes and socks, water­proof cloth­ing, wellies.

Musi­cians, climbers, mechan­ics, car­pen­ters, heal­ers, bak­ers, solic­i­tors, spon­sors, poets, friend­ly shop keep­ers, trad­er exchange, nature-lovers and every­one else too!

Trans­port

Bicy­cles and tools.

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access to site

19th June
The chap at the Lodge on Bell Lane is not let­ting peo­ple past and claim­ing he owns the road (he is an angry farmer with dog).

Alter­na­tive access is from ship­ley — when com­ing from heanor, turn right off A6007 (Ilke­ston rd) as you leave ship­ley (into ‘the field’), turn right onto tar­mac road after the stein­er school (one left) and go up this road. Bear left past bridge and lake on right and turn right through gate just before big house. You are now on Bell lane and site is the house next to road works after bridge.

if you go take lots of water

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Papers served and anoth­er protest

The farm house on the prospec­tive open cast coal site that was squat­ted this week has receieved its papers.

It will be tak­en to court on 30th June at 10 am at Der­by Com­bined Court Cen­tre, Morledge, Der­by, DE1 2XE by Har­worth Estates Agri­cul­tur­al Land Ltd (part of the UK Coal Con­glom­er­ate).

The peo­ple on site are putting a call out for peo­ple to come and stay on the site and help out. If you have ever fan­cied your hand at pro­tect­ing beau­ti­ful land against the cap­i­tal­ist machine, nows your chance!

There will be a protest/show of sup­port is planed for the 30th June at Der­by com­bined courts, The Morledge, Der­by.

Come and show your sup­port with a fun lit­tle protest at 9am.

Residents clash with riot police against dump construction (Corfu, 16/6/2008)

Mas­sive clash­es erupt­ed out­side the ‑under con­struc­tion- ille­gal garbage dis­pos­al cen­ter at Lefkim­mi, a vil­lage in south­ern Cor­fu, once the con­struc­tion com­pa­ny (DOMOKAT) is now tres­pass­ing land they haven’t

Corfu dump kids protestCorfu dump protestMas­sive clash­es erupt­ed out­side the ‑under con­struc­tion- ille­gal garbage dis­pos­al cen­ter at Lefkim­mi, a vil­lage in south­ern Cor­fu, once the con­struc­tion com­pa­ny (DOMOKAT) is now tres­pass­ing land they haven’t yet expro­pri­at­ed and paid. Some hun­dreds of local res­i­dents gath­ered in order to reclaim the area from the police forces and block the works. The cops attacked them using exces­sive tear gas and rub­ber bul­lets, they even sent the police chief injured to the hos­pi­tal, once he was­n’t in his uni­form and was­n’t recog­nised! Anoth­er three cops were injured dur­ing the clash­es. Three arrestees were tor­tured by the police­men and face charges.

The res­i­dents mobi­liza­tion came from a pop­u­lar assem­bly, one day before, that took place in Lefkim­mi’s high-school yard, also sug­gest­ing the fol­low­ing actions:
A whole island-wide demon­stra­tion on June 27 togeth­er with trade unions, envi­ron­men­tal asso­ci­a­tions and oth­ers, lead by the strug­gle co-ordi­na­tion com­mit­tee.
A demon­stra­tion in Cor­fu city blockad­ing the air­port sym­bol­i­cal­ly for two busy hours.
A sit-in at the entrance of the ring road to Mis­so­rachia and the pro­mo­tion of the issue of a total man­age­ment of sol­id wastes through­out the pre­fec­ture.

Pre­vi­ous actions of Lefkim­mi res­i­dents in strug­gle: http://directactiongr.blogspot.com/2008/05/residents-clash-with-riot-policemen.html

More info in greek and some pho­tos-videos at:
http://xyta-lefkimis.blogspot.com/
http://enakcorfu.blogspot.com/
http://athens.indymedia.org

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from a mes­sage post­ed on myspace.com

Last Sat­ur­day, 14/6/2008, the res­i­dents of the south Cor­fu town of Lefki­mi have resumed their mobil­i­sa­tion against the build­ing of an open garbage-dump (XYTA) meant to acco­mo­date refuse from the tourist-rich north of the island. After lengthy direct-demo­c­ra­t­ic dis­cus­sions, the town’s “Peo­ple’s Coun­cil” has decid­ed to refuse the medi­a­tion of polit­i­cal par­ties and demand the imme­di­ate depar­ture of the riot police forces (MAT) sta­tioned in their area since the last street bat­tles (29/5) which led to the death of a 42 year old moth­er, an event that has trig­gered sol­i­dar­i­ty protest march­es across the coun­try. “No dia­logue can even start while our town is under occu­pa­tion”, claimed the res­i­dents iden­ti­fy­ing the riot police with the nazi forces of the 40s.

The sit­u­a­tion esca­lat­ed once again, when on Mon­day the 16th of July, faced with the gov­ern­men­t’s refusal of their terms, the res­i­dents of Lefki­mi errect­ed once again bar­ri­cades in an effort to inhib­it con­struc­tion of the new refuse unit. The renewed mobil­i­sa­tion of the res­i­dents was met with ruth­less repres­sion dur­ing which the riot-police used tear gas and, for the first time in recent greek his­to­ry, plas­tic bul­lets. Four res­i­dents and 3 police­men have been wound­ed dur­ing the clash­es, with the sit­u­a­tion remain­ing tense and rein­force­ments sent by the main­land.