Category: Wilderness Defence

Wilder­ness defence

End of the line for coal: Protestors blockade coal trains, New Zealand/Aotearoa

Press release: Save hap­py Val­ley Christchurch
Sun­day 29th April 2007

Save Hap­py Val­ley mem­bers have locked onto the train tracks near Christchurch to call for an end to new coal mines in New Zealand. Oth­er mem­bers have hung a twen­ty-two metre ban­ner – ‘Sol­id Ener­gy: Govt Spon­sored Cli­mate Chaos – along two of the coal wag­ons. They are on Kirk Road, Tem­ple­ton.

Press release: Save hap­py Val­ley Christchurch
Sun­day 29th April 2007

Save Hap­py Val­ley mem­bers have locked onto the train tracks near Christchurch to call for an end to new coal mines in New Zealand. Oth­er mem­bers have hung a twen­ty-two metre ban­ner – ‘Sol­id Ener­gy: Govt Spon­sored Cli­mate Chaos – along two of the coal wag­ons. They are on Kirk Road, Tem­ple­ton.

“Cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mat­ic events are already occur­ring; cli­mate change is hap­pen­ing now,” said Gra­ham Jury, Save Hap­py Val­ley Christchurch spokesper­son. “Ear­li­er this year New Zealand final­ly reached the end of the line for coal fired pow­er sta­tions. It must also be the end of the line for coal min­ing.”

Two activists are locked onto the tracks, while a fur­ther twen­ty are on the tracks by the train. Save Hap­py Val­ley works for the pro­tec­tion of Hap­py Val­ley, pro­posed site of Sol­id Ener­gy’s next open­cast mine on the West Coast of the South Island. The group also cam­paigns for a just and swift tran­si­tion away from coal min­ing.

“Sol­id Ener­gy is ever increas­ing its pro­duc­tion, leav­ing dec­i­mat­ed ecosys­tems and water­ways in its wake. Already, they are respon­si­ble for annu­al car­bon diox­ide emis­sions approx­i­mate­ly equiv­a­lent to New Zealand’s entire trans­port fleet. Say­ing “no” to new coal mines would be an easy first step in actu­al­ly address­ing cli­mate change,” said Simon Rid­del, one of the activists locked to the tracks.

“The world’s cli­mate is becom­ing increas­ing­ly unpre­dictable and human-induced green­house gas emis­sions are evi­dent­ly respon­si­ble. The fos­sil fuel indus­try is a pre­ventable cause,” said Gre­go­ry Curline, the sec­ond activist ‘on the line.’

“Half of the coal extract­ed is sent off shore, gen­er­at­ing emis­sions out­side of our Kyoto Pro­to­col oblig­a­tions. How­ev­er, New Zealand is respon­si­ble for the coal it exports. The Gov­ern­ment must pull its state owned enter­prise back under con­trol,” said Mr Jury.

// ENDS

Media Con­tact
Gra­ham Jury, Save Hap­py Val­ley Christchurch spokesper­son, 0273070448

Notes
In March 2007, Mighty Riv­er Pow­er, anoth­er SOE, announced that it had dis­card­ed its plans to turn Mars­den B into an oper­a­tional coal fired pow­er sta­tion.

http://savehappyvalley.org.nz

New Titnore Woods Phone

The phone num­ber to con­tact the Tit­nore Woods protest camp has changed. The new num­ber for the camp is 07913 534083. The old one no longer works. Please pass the new num­ber around.

We are camped in Tit­nore Woods near Wor­thing to resist a large Tesco and hous­ing devel­op­ment project. It would destroy some of the last remain­ing ancient wood­land in Sus­sex, if it goes ahead. Vis­i­tors and dona­tions are wel­come.

The phone num­ber to con­tact the Tit­nore Woods protest camp has changed. The new num­ber for the camp is 07913 534083. The old one no longer works. Please pass the new num­ber around.

We are camped in Tit­nore Woods near Wor­thing to resist a large Tesco and hous­ing devel­op­ment project. It would destroy some of the last remain­ing ancient wood­land in Sus­sex, if it goes ahead. Vis­i­tors and dona­tions are wel­come.

Anti Gold Mining Conflicts Spreading — 2 May global day of action

Once iso­lat­ed com­mu­ni­ties around the world are sud­den­ly unit­ing and strength­en­ing in their actions to halt transna­tion­al Big Min­ing projects. On May 2, 2007 com­mu­ni­ty and envi­ron­men­tal groups around the world will unite is strug­gle on the Glob­al Day Of Action Against Bar­rick Gold Cor­po­ra­tion.

Once iso­lat­ed com­mu­ni­ties around the world are sud­den­ly unit­ing and strength­en­ing in their actions to halt transna­tion­al Big Min­ing projects. On May 2, 2007 com­mu­ni­ty and envi­ron­men­tal groups around the world will unite is strug­gle on the Glob­al Day Of Action Against Bar­rick Gold Cor­po­ra­tion.

Anti-Gold Min­ing Con­flicts Spread­ing Through­out the Amer­i­c­as

Glob­al Day of Action Against Bar­rick Gold, May 2, 2007

Big Min­ing Investors Fear Big Loss­es

In almost every Latin Amer­i­can coun­try, transna­tion­al met­als min­ing firms are explor­ing, build­ing and oper­at­ing huge, open-pit gold mines which extract and con­t­a­m­i­nate using tremen­dous amounts of water. These new “mod­ern min­ing” projects leave thou­sand-year lega­cies of acid mine drainage, destruc­tion of ecosys­tems, dis­ease, and region­al cli­mate change. Rich­es in the form of gold, sil­ver and cop­per are export­ed to first world share­hold­ers, leav­ing behind pover­ty, depen­den­cy and pol­lu­tion.

How­ev­er, once-iso­lat­ed com­mu­ni­ties are sud­den­ly unit­ing and strength­en­ing in their actions to halt Big Min­ing projects.

Today there are more than a hun­dred min­ing-relat­ed local con­flicts, in every Latin Amer­i­can coun­try (www.minesandcommunities.org) Campesinos, indige­nous and com­mu­ni­ty groups in vil­lages and cities are fight­ing Big Min­ing inser­tion. In coun­tries such as Peru, Ecuador and Colom­bia, multi­na­tion­al min­ing firms are respond­ing by arm­ing para­mil­i­tary groups to meet com­mu­ni­ty resis­tance with mur­der, threats and vio­lence. In every instance, min­ing firms attempt to “pur­chase” social license with bribes, hand­outs, media cam­paigns and cor­rupt local politi­cians, to sell “sus­tain­able gold min­ing.”

The tremen­dous over con­sump­tion of water resources is the key issue in mod­ern met­als min­ing projects. Big mines change region­al cli­mate pat­terns, dry up ecosys­tems, cause the deser­ti­fi­ca­tion of agri­cul­tur­al lands, com­mu­ni­ties are dried out. Big min­ing projects are being locat­ed pri­mar­i­ly in sen­si­tive riv­er head­wa­ters of vul­ner­a­ble arid regions upon which mil­lions of human and eco­log­i­cal com­mu­ni­ties depend. Big min­ing, through its inten­sive use of ener­gy and destruc­tion of habi­tat, glac­i­ers, aquifers, cli­mate pat­terns and water resources, is a huge fac­tor in glob­al cli­mate change. Appro­pri­ate inter­na­tion­al and nation­al reg­u­la­tion of Big Min­ing projects is almost non-exis­tent.

On May 2, 2007, com­mu­ni­ties around the world affect­ed by Big Min­ing projects are going to car­ry out simul­ta­ne­ous demon­stra­tions against the Bar­rick Gold Cor­po­ra­tion. Simul­ta­ne­ous actions will be held in Chile, Argenti­na, Peru, Aus­tralia, Cana­da, the Philip­pines, Tan­za­nia, and Europe.

Bar­rick Gold Cor­po­ra­tion, the world’s largest gold min­ing firm, is spear­head­ing the transna­tion­al met­als min­ing firms inva­sion of Latin Amer­i­ca. In the past few years, com­mu­ni­ty groups strug­gling against projects of Bar­rick Gold Cor­po­ra­tion on five con­ti­nents began com­mu­ni­cat­ing togeth­er, and this year they have joined togeth­er for the first time to call for this Glob­al Day of Action Against Bar­rick Gold Cor­po­ra­tion.

• In Argenti­na, com­mu­ni­ty activists forced Bar­rick Gold to sus­pend oper­a­tions in the province of La Rio­ja, the gov­er­nor oust­ed due to his cor­rupt rela­tions with the min­ing firm, and a state ref­er­en­dum to pro­hib­it open-pit min­ing is to be vot­ed by the pop­u­la­tion.

• Chilean and Argen­tine com­mu­ni­ties are fight­ing tooth and nail against the con­struc­tion of one of the world’s largest gold mines in the heart of a UNESCO World Her­itage Wilder­ness Area, in the del­i­cate glac­i­er peaks of the Andes along the Chile-Argenti­na Bor­der. This is Barrick’s infa­mous Pas­cua-Lama/Ve­ladero project. http://projectcensored.org/censored_2007/index.htm#21

• In Ancash, Peru, fierce com­mu­ni­ty resis­tance has been answered with the mur­ders of pro­tes­tors by para­mil­i­tary and state forces work­ing for the Bar­rick Gold Cor­po­ra­tion.

• In Aus­tralia, a series of pow­er­ful direct actions car­ried out by local Abo­rig­i­nal lead­ers, indige­nous and com­mu­ni­ty activists has tied up and cast grave doubts on Bar­rick Gold’s huge Lake Cow­al project.

On May 2, A Glob­al Day of Action Against Bar­rick Gold will be car­ried out. We invite all neigh­bors, activists and ecol­o­gists to join or form the many local-scale actions to be car­ried out simul­ta­ne­ous­ly and autonomous­ly through­out the world, on the five con­ti­nents in which Bar­rick Gold oper­ates.

We hope that through vis­i­ble and spir­it­ed actions, we can join togeth­er to draw atten­tion to the grave threat brought upon our world by these transna­tion­al large-scale open-pit met­als min­ing projects using cyanide. Our world does not need more gold and sil­ver! We must fight to pre­serve this world for our chil­dren and their chil­dren.

We hope to send a mes­sage to Bar­rick Share­hold­ers that their invest­ments are high­ly risky: Through­out the world, com­mu­ni­ties are reject­ing and shall put an end to these shame­ful met­als min­ing oper­a­tions.

For More Infor­ma­tion:

Mines and Com­mu­ni­ties www.minesandcommunities.org
Cor­p­Watch www.corpwatch.org
Latin Amer­i­can Obser­va­to­ry of Min­ing Con­flicts www.conflictosmineros.net
www.noalamina.org (Argenti­na)
www.noalapascualama.org (chile)

Report from Land and Marine demo and demo announcement

Despite mas­sive over-polic­ing and the evic­tion of Bath Cli­mate Camp, actions are con­tin­u­ing as sched­uled, so if you were think­ing of com­ing down for sat­ur­days demo, start­ing at 12 at Bath Abbey, please do so to show that their repres­sion will not make us go away! — here is a report of the Land and Marine demo -

Despite mas­sive over-polic­ing and the evic­tion of Bath Cli­mate Camp, actions are con­tin­u­ing as sched­uled, so if you were think­ing of com­ing down for sat­ur­days demo, start­ing at 12 at Bath Abbey, please do so to show that their repres­sion will not make us go away! — here is a report of the Land and Marine demo -

Fri­day 20th April, at 8 am, a group of 7 pro­test­ers approached the Land and Marine office, to leaflet and ban­ner drop, as part of the adver­tised block­ade, and were faced by a huge police pres­ence. The cops demand­ed that the pro­tes­tors move about 30 meters away from L&M, mak­ing the protest invis­i­ble. The group refused, and after nego­ti­a­tions and a cou­ple of tense moments, were able to stay in front of the offices, although the cops put a restric­tion on the num­ber of pro­test­ers to 6 (they count­ing skills should be called into ques­tions, as by this point, there were 8 pro­tes­tors!), for­bid­ding any addi­tion­al pro­test­ers from join­ing the demo and also imposed a time lim­it, restrict­ing the demo to two hours. Twice the time lim­it was pass­es, and twice re-nego­ti­at­ed until pro­test­er vol­un­tar­i­ly left at 12.30. The office was shut all day and no work­ers entered the premis­es. Also, L&M shelled out on a dou­ble row of fenc­ing around their prop­er­ty and a large num­ber of secu­ri­ty guards who have been there in var­i­ous num­bers for a cou­ple of weeks… Result! Our con­grat­u­la­tions to Inspec­tor Adam Jen­ners.

Also, the activists were all searched under a pro­posed mod­i­fi­ca­tion to Sec­tion 1 of the PACE 1984 Act, for items to be used in con­nec­tion with crim­i­nal dam­age. It may well be that this pro­posed mod­i­fi­ca­tion to the law has­n’t yet came in to pow­er by the time they tried to use it, so there may well be a law­suit in the works…

Police also con­firmed their use of phone tap­ping to one activist: “Acord­ing to your phone calls, you only expect­ed 10 peo­ple at your meet­ing, but when we there you had 100.” It seems that the police had con­fused our camp with that of the com­ing nation­al Cli­mate Camp, this sum­mer — and wast­ed 100,000s of pounds in the process. The head of this over-zeal­ous polic­ing oper­a­tion is prob­a­bly sweat­ing round about now.

Overkill police tac­tics failed to intim­i­date us and hope­ful­ly the day long clo­sure of L&M will be anoth­er set­back in the con­struc­tion of the pipeline.

To find out the facts, and get involved in the anti-pipeline cam­paign, check out www.risingtide.org.uk/bristol/pipeline

Intim­i­da­tion and repres­sion will not beat us or make us go away!

Disrupt Shell’s Annual General Meeting!

Notice is here­by giv­en that the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing of Roy­al Dutch Shell plc will be held at Cir­custhe­ater, Cir­cusstraat, The Hague, The Nether­lands at 11.00 am (Dutch time) on Tues­day May 15, 2007, with an audio-visu­al link to a satel­lite meet­ing place at Novo­tel Lon­don-West Hotel and Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, 1 Short­lands, Ham­mer­smith, Lon­don, Unit­ed King­dom at 10.00 am (UK time).

Notice is here­by giv­en that the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing of Roy­al Dutch Shell plc will be held at Cir­custhe­ater, Cir­cusstraat, The Hague, The Nether­lands at 11.00 am (Dutch time) on Tues­day May 15, 2007, with an audio-visu­al link to a satel­lite meet­ing place at Novo­tel Lon­don-West Hotel and Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, 1 Short­lands, Ham­mer­smith, Lon­don, Unit­ed King­dom at 10.00 am (UK time).

Dear All,

The date for the Shell AGM has been recent­ly announced. It is the 15th of May. As with last year the AGM will be held in the Hague with a video link up in Lon­don. The link up in Lon­don will be at the Novo­tel Lon­don West Hotel and Con­fer­ence Cen­tre, 1 Short­lands, Ham­mer­smith, at 10 am UK time.

Shell to Sea is call­ing for Sol­i­dar­i­ty protests at the AGM. On the ground in Erris resis­tance con­tin­ues to Shel­l’s pro­posed refin­ery. Peat removal began at the start of April and since then there have been five group tres­pass­es onto the site shut­ting down work tem­porar­i­ly. We are cur­rent­ly in the midst of the EPA oral hear­ing for the IPPC (inte­great­ed pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion and con­trol) license which is to grant Shell a license to pol­lute. Num­bers of Gar­dai in the area remain high.

Now more than ever we need to send Shell a mes­sage that this project is not accept­able and that 100 years is enough! We are hop­ing to send a del­e­ga­tion from Ire­land to the Hague to protest direct­ly. All protests at the Lon­don video link up would be warm­ly appre­ci­at­ed.

Sol­i­dar­i­ty

Saving Iceland tour coming to Oxford

Mon­day 23 April 7.30pm
Oxford Action Resource Cen­tre (OARC) 44b Princes St (cor­ner of Cow­ley Road)

Activists from the Sav­ing Ice­land cam­paign to defend Europe’s last great wilder­ness from destruc­tion by dams and cor­po­rate ‘devel­op­ment’ will be in Oxford next Mon­day (23rd). Come and meet them to hear about the cam­paign, this sum­mer’s protest camp and forth­com­ing con­fer­ence. Find out what peo­ple in Britain can do to help.

Dead Icelandic reindeerMon­day 23 April 7.30pm
Oxford Action Resource Cen­tre (OARC) 44b Princes St (cor­ner of Cow­ley Road)

Activists from the Sav­ing Ice­land cam­paign to defend Europe’s last great wilder­ness from destruc­tion by dams and cor­po­rate ‘devel­op­ment’ will be in Oxford next Mon­day (23rd). Come and meet them to hear about the cam­paign, this sum­mer’s protest camp and forth­com­ing con­fer­ence. Find out what peo­ple in Britain can do to help.

Tea and cof­fee avail­able. Venue unfor­tu­nate­ly not wheel­chair acces­si­ble.

http://www.savingiceland.org/camp2007
http://www.savingiceland.org/conference

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.

Polish ecologists still under surveillance…

A let­ter, sent to all Pol­ish police head­quar­ters about an order to inves­ti­gate and gath­er infor­ma­tion about oppo­nents of build­ing the bypass through Rospu­da Val­ley has already been cir­cu­lat­ed around the Inter­net.

A let­ter, sent to all Pol­ish police head­quar­ters about an order to inves­ti­gate and gath­er infor­ma­tion about oppo­nents of build­ing the bypass through Rospu­da Val­ley has already been cir­cu­lat­ed around the Inter­net.

Although every­body laughs at the fact that the police are wast­ing their time keep­ing ecol­o­gists under sur­veil­lance the case is quite seri­ous because the pur­pose of this police action is defined as: “to gath­er infor­ma­tion about pos­si­ble dan­gers to pub­lic order and ille­gal sab­o­tage acts from orga­ni­za­tions which show their aver­sion to gov­ern­men­tal enter­prise”.

For the time being, it is not entire­ly obvi­ous what they are look­ing for and how this infor­ma­tion is going to be used by them but most prob­a­bly jour­nal­ists from www.zieloni.org.pl will also be under police sur­veil­lance (although we do not have any sab­o­tage plans, we show our “aver­sion” to gov­ern­men­tal project) that is why we’re going to observe con­stant­ly their plans and inform you sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly. Below you can read the let­ter to the police head­quar­ters.

The same let­ter was sent to all police head­quar­ters in Poland (a copy of the let­ter is avail­able from the web­site http://adamwajrak.blox.pl)

From: The Crime Divi­sion of The Police Head­quar­ters in Jele­nia Góra
To: The Police Head­quar­ters in Jele­nia Góra

TELEGRAM nr MJ-B-5421/38/07

On account of the orders includ­ed in doc­u­ment no WK II 146/06 from the Chief of the Police Sta­tion, Kon­rad Kor­na­tows­ki, dat­ed 19 Feb 2007 about the plans for build­ing the Augusów bypass (Pod­lask­ie province) I would like to ask to order sub­or­di­nate police­men to direct work of per­son­al sources of infor­ma­tion (and to recruit new ones) to gath­er infor­ma­tion about pos­si­ble dan­gers to pub­lic order and ille­gal sab­o­tage acts from orga­ni­za­tions which show their aver­sion to gov­ern­men­tal enter­prise.

All the infor­ma­tion should be sent to SMI WWK KWP in Wrocław (with “Rospu­da” in the sub­ject of the report) and The Crime Divi­sion from The Police Head­quar­ters in Jele­nia Góra should be informed at the same time.

One copy was made.

(sent via fax)

Writ­ten by JL

VICE GOVERNOR
of the Crime Divi­sion
The Police Head­quar­ters in Jele­nia Góra

Chief Inspec­tor Artur KRAWCZYK

[a com­ment by the author of the post] I am not sure what it sup­posed to be: is it a joke or should I start to pan­ic that we are under sur­veil­lance. I won­der what they are going to do with this infor­ma­tion and for what and where they are look­ing… It’s mad­ness! So far I count on free flow of infor­ma­tion and that they will restrain them­selves when they see that every­body has read these let­ters.

Shell Poisoning Erris Water Supply: Don’t Mention The Water

A two part short film (from an in-progress fea­ture movie called Polic­ing The Pol­lu­tion) inves­ti­gat­ing the pol­lu­tion of Car­row­more Lake, the water sup­ply for over 10,000 Erris peo­ple in Coun­ty Mayo. The pol­luter – Shell. Local res­i­dent John Mon­aghan and myself look over the water tests and con­front Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil.

A two part short film (from an in-progress fea­ture movie called Polic­ing The Pol­lu­tion) inves­ti­gat­ing the pol­lu­tion of Car­row­more Lake, the water sup­ply for over 10,000 Erris peo­ple in Coun­ty Mayo. The pol­luter – Shell. Local res­i­dent John Mon­aghan and myself look over the water tests and con­front Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil.

Don’t_mention_the_water_01 — video/x‑ms-wmv 19M

Don’t_mention_the_water_02 — video/x‑ms-wmv 17M

When I first met with John Mon­aghan dur­ing my time in Ire­land, the first thing he men­tioned was the pol­lu­tion of the local water sup­ply which was com­ing direct­ly from the Shell/Statoil Cor­rib Gas Project at Bel­lan­aboy Bridge.

This has been report­ed before on Indymedia.ie. Now their lat­est reports are start­ing to point to what we uncov­ered whilst out there.

In order to con­struct the refin­ery foun­da­tions 500,000 tons of wet Atlantic peat must be removed. Shell start­ed this but halt­ed oper­a­tions when high-alu­mini­um con­tent “doib” soil was exposed. The alu­mini­um made con­tact with on-site sur­face water and pro­ceed­ed to con­t­a­m­i­nate sur­round­ing streams and rivers, all of which lead to Car­row­more Lake, the drink­ing water sup­ply for over 10,000 res­i­dents in the Erris com­mu­ni­ty.

Act­ing after the ini­tial prob­lem arose, on 8 Sep­tem­ber 2005, Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil (MCC) issued Shell E & P Ire­land (SEPIL) an offi­cial warn­ing: “Fail­ure to take imme­di­ate action to avoid pol­lu­tion of the water­ways will result in MCC issu­ing a notice under Sec­tion 12 of the Local Gov­ern­ment (Water Pol­lu­tion) Act 1977.”

Alu­mini­um in drink­ing water has been linked to demen­tia and Alzheimer-type dis­eases, and bone dis­or­ders. Although the World Health Organ­i­sa­tion (WHO) will not admit or deny this, stat­ing the link between alu­mini­um and such dis­eases “can­not be ruled out”, in 1993 they set a max­i­mum lim­it of 200 ug/l (micro­grams per litre).

The lev­els set on the Cor­rib Gas Project and issued direct­ly to SEPIL are an “action lim­it” of 135 ug/l and an “max­i­mum lim­it” of 200 ug/l.

It took Shell till Feb­ru­ary 2006 to act. They installed an Axon­ics Elec­tro-Chem­i­cal Water Treat­ment Plant to strain out alu­mini­um using elec­tri­cal cur­rents that passed through the water and col­lect­ed the alu­mini­um on con­duct­ing plates. But the alu­mini­um lev­els kept ris­ing and the Axon­ics plant con­tin­u­al­ly broke down.

When asked by this jour­nal­ist to dis­cuss the lev­els of alu­mini­um that the plant could safe­ly deal with, no one at the Axon­ics com­pa­ny in Swansea would give a reply. The sec­re­tary said she was told to explain to me they were in a legal­ly bind­ing con­tract and were allowed not to make any com­ment with­out pri­or con­sent from the cus­tomer.

When the lev­els in the riv­er, lake and water con­tin­ued a steady rise the local com­mu­ni­ty com­plained again. MCC act­ed again. This time it cut near­ly all drink­ing water tests, reduced Car­row­more Lake tests dra­mat­i­cal­ly and Shell began doing their own on-site test­ing.

By the end of 2006 the water com­ing off-site was reg­u­lar­ly over the max­i­mum lim­its, often two or three times and peak­ing at lev­els of over 2000 and 3000 ug/l.

Dis­crep­an­cies were also found when records released from MCC were com­pared to the tests by Shell on-site.

On 13/12/06 Shell’s on-site test­ing show­ing an “indica­tive lev­el” of 666 ug/l, still over three times the max­i­mum lim­it. MCC Fig­ures released in Feb­ru­ary showed the same date, same source of test­ing (SP1) and record­ed 3271 ug/l.

On 20/12/06 Shell’s fig­ures showed 180 ug/l. MCC record­ed 1928 ug/l.

The knock-on effect has seen high­er lev­els of alu­mini­um appear in the lake and the drink­ing water itself. 03/01/07 it test­ed 521 ug/l. By 14/02/07 it had risen to 658 ug/l. The drink­ing water, test­ed twice from a source in Bel­mul­let at the end of Jan­u­ary 2007 first reg­is­tered 1714 ug/l, then dropped sev­er­al days lat­er to 406 ug/l.

Shell denied they were any­thing to do with the ris­ing lev­els, claim­ing it was because of riv­er bank ero­sion in the area.

The pol­lu­tion of Car­row­more Lake has more recent­ly took cen­tre-stage of the protest, lead­ing to a site inva­sion by 60 locals and an occu­pa­tion of coun­cil offices in recent weeks, who res­i­dents accused of fail­ing to act on the issue (see Indymedia.ie/mayo).

On 2 April 2007, I was informed by local peo­ple in the area Shell had recom­menced the removal of the rest of the peat, which will expose more of the doib soil. Only one-third was orig­i­nal­ly removed in pre­vi­ous oper­a­tions.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion:

http://www.corribsos.com/

http://www.indymedia.ie/mayo

Machinery occupied near anti-pipeline camp (plus camp directions, carnival footage, news of court ruling on terminal…)

2.04.2007

Activists have once again climbed on machin­ery to delay work on Nation­al Grid’s 200 mile gas pipeline. Work was stopped near the anti-pipeline tree camp for sev­er­al hours on two con­sec­u­tive days.

2.04.2007

Activists have once again climbed on machin­ery to delay work on Nation­al Grid’s 200 mile gas pipeline. Work was stopped near the anti-pipeline tree camp for sev­er­al hours on two con­sec­u­tive days.

Trees around the anti-pipeline tree camp in Pen­pont have been chopped down in recent days and heavy machin­ery has been brought in to enable work on the pipeline to start in the area. How­ev­er, the anti-pipeline camp has still not been evict­ed. More peo­ple are urgent­ly need­ed to take part in the grow­ing resis­tance to the pipeline, which is caus­ing huge destruc­tion to the envi­ron­ment and pos­es seri­ous safe­ty risks.

For more infor­ma­tion on the dam­ag­ing effects of the pipeline: fightthepipe.co.uk

DIRECTIONS to Pen­pont tree camp:

The protest camp is in ancient wood­land at Pen­pont, 4 miles west of Bre­con on the A40 close to Bet­tws Pen­pont church. It is locat­ed at Ord­nance Sur­vey nation­al grid ref­er­ence SN9728728525. There is a bus going from Cardiff coach sta­tion to Bre­con town (X43, takes aprox 1hr, costs around £4). From the bus stop you get off at in Bre­con town (the only bus stop there) there is anoth­er bus that goes right past the camp (£1.60, aprox 10 mins- ask dri­ver for tree camp, you will prob­a­bly see ban­ners on the left).

DONATIONS:

Peo­ple on site are request­ing any dona­tions. Please send sup­plies of all sorts, espe­cial­ly beams for build­ing, tarp, rope, nails, D‑locks, heavy chains, stuff for lock-ons (sand, cement, grav­el.), har­ness­es and oth­er climb­ing gear, scrap met­al, cud­dles etc etc etc.
We can use almost any tat…

Please come vis­it the camp before it’s too late!

Footage of Sat­ur­day 24th March Tre­banos car­ni­val against pipeline.

News of court rul­ing stop­ping work on ter­mi­nal — http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6510957.stm