Wilderness Defence – Page 43

Residents protest at Manchester Airport

On Saturday 3rd November around 100 local residents and campaigners took part in a protest walk against the proposed World Logistics Hub at Manchester Airport. The protesters braved the cold to take a route around the 90 acre former greenbelt site, which is threatened by the plans to build 43 cargo sheds and almost 1,500 car parking space

Local residents, wildlife enthusiasts and environmental campaigners spoke at various points along the walk, sharing their experiences of fighting Manchester Airport expansion and highlighting the numerous ways that the plans would affect local people and the environment.

The Wildlife Walk came the week after the Wythenshawe Area Committee‘recommended for approval’ the World Logistics Hub plans, on the 25th October. The application will now be sent to the Planning and Highways Committee at Manchester City Council for a final decision on 22nd November 2012. A number of attendees at the Wildlife Walk, keen for their concerns to be brought to this Committee, pledged to attend this November meeting at Manchester Town Hall.

Several Councillors of the Wythenshawe Area Committee backed the Logistics Hub plans based on the Airport's promises of local job opportunities. However campaigners argue that

job creation figures proposed by the Airport are inflated.

Jane Beetson from 'Stop Expansion at Manchester Airport' campaign said “When Manchester Airport first announced plans for a second runway, they claimed 50,000 jobs would be created. No-where near that number of jobs materialised. Just like then, they are misleading the public now.”

She added, “Local Councillors say they will force the Airport to give jobs to local people but in practice they will have no way of enforcing this on the firms that move into the new office and warehouse spaces. We need to create green jobs in sustainable industries not dirty aviation.”

The Wildlife Walk was also an opportunity for wildlife experts to explain that Airport's promises of preserving wildlife are also unrealistic, and that creating a 'mitigation zone' is no substitution for leaving habitats untouched.

Along the route, campaigners encountered the threatened habitats of numerous plant and animal species. Several mature oak trees line Sunbank Lane, providing nesting opportunities for rare birds, and potential roosting spots for endangered bat species. The site is also home to 12 ponds occupied by Great Crested Newts, an endangered species found only in the North West of England. Walkers were also able to spot signs of protected animals for example badger snuffle holes and mole hills in the green space around Sunbank.

Zombie Roads – Hastings

A Combe Haven Defenders protest against not only the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road, but all the 'zombie road' plans previously believed to be dead and buried but resurrected by the UK coalition government.

Combe Haven Defenders protested in the streets of Hastings today, culminating in a die-in outside the offices of local MP Amber Rudd, who is fervently in favour of the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road which will destroy the beautiful Combe Haven Valley if it is built next year.

The Zombie Roads, previously believed to be dead and buried but resurrected by the UK coalition government, did meet with some resistance, however….

(France) La ZAD prepares for another week of eviction NON A LA AEROPORT

In La ZAD, a zone occupied to stop the construction of a new airport for Nantes, the eviction looks set to continue from tomorrow. La Saulce is now evictable and it is possible the police will also target some of the places that require special forces to evict treehouses and such. Callout for solidarity actions against VINCI, the company who will be constructing. Callout for people here to help. All means to increase awareness.

The police have been evicting la ZAD for two weeks now, only stopping for lunchbreak and the weekends. and the nights.
We are still expecting them to return tomorrow to continue. Theyve been passing by with the helicopter today, having a look around. Since Saturday night la saulce has become legally evictable. La secherie won an appeal in court, and is now not evictable till december, and la rosier also is not evictable til the middle of november.
But it seems likely they will come next week for the places they can already evict, and havent already, mostly la saulce, sabot, and the other cabins that dont have a real 'house' on the property.
There is a lot more info on the website http://www.zad.nadir.org if you dont read french you can change the langue to english.
get in contact if you want to come over, or just arrive
or do something in your place, the company which build the aeroport is called VINCI ( http://stopvinci.noblogs.org/ ) and they have many things everywhere. They are also responsible for the destruction of the khimki forest ( http://www.khimkiforest.org/ ) in russia for the construction of a highway and the eviction of the protest camp there. There has already been a lot of stuff done to humiliate them in the last weeks it is very cheering.
Let everyone know.
The resistance wont end with eviction.
Need people to help with reoccupation.
Peace and love.

(USA) LOGGING COMPANY HIT AGAIN

anonymous report:

"Gilliardi Logging and Construction have not gotten the message. so we poisoned one of their semi-trucks, carrying a vicious wood-chipper. the evicted hawks and owls will be pleased."

anonymous report:

"Gilliardi Logging and Construction have not gotten the message. so we poisoned one of their semi-trucks, carrying a vicious wood-chipper. the evicted hawks and owls will be pleased."

EF! Winter Moot 2013: 22-24th February, near Preston

A weekend get-together for people involved in ecological direct action, from fighting opencast coal, fracking, GM, nuclear power to road building. There’ll be discussions and campaign planning – with the emphasis on the tactics and strategies we use, community solidarity and sustainable activism.

Update: full transport details and programme at link below.

(USA) LOGGING COMPANY TARGETED

anonymous report:

"puyallup wetlands are under attack by a private logging company that I and others have yet to identify. this attack was carried out on canyon rd. short-term damage was done to a hydraulic excavator, as a warning. if they continue – our attacks will increase."

anonymous report:

logging company hit again, USA

October 25, 2012
anonymous report:

"Gilliardi Logging and Construction have not gotten the message. so we poisoned one of their semi-trucks, carrying a vicious wood-chipper. the evicted hawks and owls will be pleased."

October 25, 2012
anonymous report:

"Gilliardi Logging and Construction have not gotten the message. so we poisoned one of their semi-trucks, carrying a vicious wood-chipper. the evicted hawks and owls will be pleased."

Wife of Gulf Coast Oilfield Worker Chains Herself to Keystone XL Pipeyard Gate

Drawing connections to all coastal communities threatened by toxic tar sands development, Cherri Foytlin, an indigenous South Louisiana mother of six and wife of a Gulf Coast oilfield worker, chained herself to the gate of a Keystone XL pipeyard. Effectively blocking pipe from being shipped to construction sites along the controversial pipeline’s route, Foytlin’s action coincides with the Defend Our Coast activities in British Columbia, where more than 60 Canadian communities are protesting a proposed tar sands pipeline through their region.

Yesterday the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation filed a legal challenge to Shell’s proposed expansion of the Jackpine Tar Sands Mine in Alberta, Canada. From It’s Getting Hot in Here:

“Following these projects, Council will continue on its six-day No Pipelines, No Tankers Speaking Tour, stopping in communities on or near the routes of the Pacific Trails, Enbridge Northern Gateway, and Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipelines.

” ‘The idea is to build solidarity between the different pipeline campaigns,’ says Harjap Grewal, Pacific Regional Organizer of the Council of Canadians. This includes campaigns to stop the pipelines at their source—in the Alberta Tar Sands and Fracking region in northeastern BC.”

Occupy the Pipeline activists in New York have been struggling against the Spectra Pipeline which will pump fuel hydraulically-fracked from Pennsylvania’s gas fields into New York City

Foytlin's arrest is the 32nd arrest since Tar Sands Blockade‘s actions began more than two months ago and today marks the 31st day of sustained protest at the Winnsboro tree blockade.

“This pipeline is a project of death. From destructive tar sands development that destroy indigenous sovereignty and health at the route’s start to the toxic emissions that will lay further burden on environmental justice communities along the Gulf of Mexico, this pipeline not only disproportionately affects indigenous frontline communities but its clear that it will bring death and disease to all in its path,” Foytlin declared.

Refusing to accept the Gulf Coast’s designation as the Nation’s Energy Sacrifice Zone, Foytlin, along with many Gulf Coast residents and indigenous activists are dismayed but not surprised to find the conversations regarding Keystone XL as a whole from national environmental groups to the Presidential campaigns have made little to no mention of the damage TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline will heap upon Gulf Coast communities like Houston and Port Arthur, TX, where Keystone XL will terminate. Already overburdened with oil refineries and other dirty energy related industry, this neglectful attitude dovetails neatly with TransCanada’s reckless disregard for the health and safety of families in the refinery communities and elsewhere along the pipeline’s route.

The Rayne, Louisiana resident, who in the Spring of 2011 walked 1,243 miles from New Orleans to Washington DC as a call for action to stop the BP Drilling Disaster, has been a constant voice speaking out for the health and ecosystems of Gulf Coast communities.

She continued, “This fight is also about the personal freedoms given to us through the blood of all of our combined ancestry. Conservatives believe government is too big, that they are choking out our freedoms. The Occupy Movement believes corporations have kidnapped those same rights in the pursuit of profit over humanity. I believe both groups are right, and this pipeline and the use of eminent domain by a foreign company to seize and lay claim to American land, aided by the silence of the government, is an epic example of those truths.”

Tar Sands Blockade is a coalition of Texas and Oklahoma landowners and climate justice organizers using peaceful and sustained civil disobedience to stop the construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

“From the Pacific Coast to the Gulf Coast, Tar Sands Blockade acts in solidarity with all communities and indigenous people rising up to defend their homes from toxic tar sands pipelines. The refinery communities of the Gulf Coast have historically been and continue to be treated as collateral damage by industry and now landowners from Canada to Texas are learning that reality, too,” stated Ramsey Sprague, a Tar Sands Blockade spokesperson born in Houma, Louisiana to a Chitimacha family. “From start to finish, tar sands development only further endangers communities already at far greater risk for death and disease from toxic environmental exposure to human-made chemical pollutants than communities further away from the petroleum refineries and the unconscionable mining operations that define their origins.”

Under the watchful eye of engaged youth, Pangea and the PLA’s “City Concept” plan was halted by tribal council

Sacaton, AZ- At the October 17, 2012 Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) Tribal Council session, Pangea, LLC and the Pecos Landowners Association (PLA) attempted to rush forward their plans pertaining to the construction of a city and freeway within the reservation. Pangea sought the tribal council’s approval for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which granted Pangea and its investors exclusive rights to develop over 5500 acres of tribal land on the reservation’s western end along the route of the proposed Loop 202 freeway, which GRIC voted against last February. The PLA attempted to pressure tribal council to approve the Pangea corporation’s initiative for yet another community vote on the Loop 202.

But to their surprise, Pangea and the PLA were confronted by young people wearing breathing masks and No Build 202 shirts who sought to hold both Pangea and the PLA accountable to last February’s Loop 202 vote. In that vote, GRIC voters voted in favor of the No Build option for the freeway. The Gila River youth, whose breathing masks symbolized the environmental toxins that freeways bring to the land and air, were at the tribal council meeting to demand that their elected officials uphold the No Build voice of the people.

“I can’t vote yet, but if I could, I would have voted No Build too. The people who want the freeway should think about what my generation will go through if all we have to inherit is freeway pollution”said 14 year old Lily Miles, of Komatke and Vah-ki, who was one of the twelve who wore medical breathing masks and No Build shirts in solidarity with the community’s No Build voice.

Since the historic Loop 202 vote, many GRIC members, especially the youth, have felt their tribal leadership has not fully upheld the community’s No Build stance. This suspicion is heightened since GRIC Governor Mendoza allowed Pangea to consult with GRIC’s Office of General Counsel for their City Concept and freeway plans. In addition, Governor Mendoza presented the PLA initiative that calls for another Loop 202 vote at the September 26th GRIC Legislative Standing Committee (LSC).

If approved by the GRIC Tribal Council, the massive Pangea City Concept, the size of over 5000 football fields, would be the largest construction project in the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Gila River Indian Community. The GRIC No Build supporters who attended the Wednesday council session were compelled to raise their voices against Pangea and the PLA in the tribal council chambers without saying one word. Their breathing masks and No Build 202 shirts, stating “Biohazard 202” spoke to the looming desecration of Muhadag Do’ag (South Mountain) and to the negative impacts the proposed freeway would bring to the environment and overall community health.

“Our tribal leaders must be held accountable for where their allegiances lie,” said Renee Jackson of Vah-ki, who was one of the No Build supporters who wore breathing masks and Biohazard 202 shirts during the meeting. “Our representatives must be transparent in where they stand on the issue of the freeway”.

While council went to executive session to decide the merit of Pangea’s MOU and the PLA voting initiative, the twelve youth engaged pro-freeway Gila River landowners in the hallways outside council chambers. The youth shared their concerns regarding the environmental, health and cultural impacts the City Concept would bring to their future while council was in executive session and closed to the public. The mere presence of these twelve helped give a voice to the 720 GRIC members who voted for No Build, and their breathing masks showed the potential danger the freeway would bring.

“Today we showed where the youth stand and we showed that there are youth who care. Pangea and the PLA’s city concept is a danger to our future and both are biohazards to the land and to the mountain,” said Andrew Pedro, 18 years old, from Sacaton, who printed the Biohazard shirts. “People were asking me for more t-shirts, and I believe that this is the first of more visual demonstrations to come.”

“I felt like it was my responsibility to be here and get informed about what is happening around me and in my community because I will be inheriting this land too.” said Karma Miles, 11 years old, from Komatke and Vah-ki.

Despite the differences the youth had with fellow GRIC landowners, the youth presented themselves in a respectful matter, and even helped PLA elders by setting up chairs during executive session.

After nearly an hour in executive session, Tribal Council decided that eleven key points needed to be met before any MOU regarding Pangea’s land use plans could be approved. The eleven points center around public safety, budgeting, jurisdiction, and land management issues that were not addressed within the MOU submitted by Pangea. Council clearly declared that all points must be met before Pangea’s MOU could be brought back before the council. Additionally, the misleading Save the Mountain initiative was held to standard GRIC Community Council Secretary’s Office (CCSO) procedure regarding signatures verification. The PLA submitted their Pangea-backed initiative to the GRIC Community Council Secretary’s Office (CCSO) on September 27 with the backing of 1,527 landowner signatures. Tribal council declared that each signature must be verified first before council would consider the initiative. As with the per capita initiative, a previous people’s initiative in Gila River, the signatures could take the CCSO four to six months to verify, especially with reports of missing tribal enrollment numbers with the signatures submitted, as reported by Community Council Secretary Linda Andrews at the council meeting. The Save the Mountain initiative, which Pangea and PLA deemed” first ever Peoples Initiative through the People’s rights under the GRIC Tribal Constitution”, does not save the mountain because it calls for the rejected freeway to be constructed on tribal lands along the foothills of Muhadag Do’ag (South Mountain).

Despite the steps that are legally required to approve a voter initiative, a Pangea representative pressured council to move forward and approve the pro-freeway initiative. GRIC member Joey Perez of Pangea attempted to have council set a much shorter time frame for approval, by citing the 14th amendment of the GRIC constitution, which declares council has 60 days to make a decision on any initiative bought forth to them. The Pangea corporation’s interpretation, as stated by Perez, was that the 60 days started on September 27, when the signatures were submitted, which would force council to possibly reconsider another Loop 202 vote by the end of the year. But Perez, Pangea and the PLA were soon confronted with standard GRIC procedures regarding initiatives: signatures must be verified before the initiative can be considered by the council.

The reason why the Pangea corporation and pro-build supporters disregard the No Build victory and are attempting to rush the tribal council to schedule another vote on the proposed freeway is because in 2013 federal land leasing regulations for tribal allotted lands become much more restrictive. Changes to Title 25 of the BIA’s Code of Federal Regulations will require 100 percent of landowner consents before the BIA will approve any new leases pertaining to the use of tribal allotted lands for businesses. This would make the Pangea City Concept, which is centered around the construction of the Loop 202, subject to heightened federal regulations.

The decision by Council to hold Pangea and the PLA transparent and accountable to the process was a long overdue first step in reversing its nine months of inaction regarding the No Build vote. Pangea and the PLA were expecting to walk out of the tribal council meeting with another Loop 202 vote scheduled, and their land development plans to be unopposed. But Pangea and the PLA left the October tribal council session in defeat when confronted with the gaping holes of their fraudulent campaign to bulldoze over 5500 acres for a Pangea city, and by the faces of the young people whose future health depends on the preservation and protection of Muhadag Do’ag, and their lands.

“It was a wonderful day, a small victory once again,” said Lori Thomas, of Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment. “The youth who were present were awesome. It was good to see them engage in the issue. A small battle was won but the fight still rages on.”

For the youth who attended this round of the bigger fight to completely stop the Loop 202, it showed that their involvement will be crucial for the future of the community, and that a new form of expression is needed so that their voices can be heard by the Pangea corporation, the PLA, as well as by the GRIC tribal council and Governor Mendoza.

“We made an impact by representing all the No Build supporters who can’t be here, to go to these meetings and be heard,” said Ana Morago, 18 years old, of Stotonic. “We aren’t bused in, like the way Pangea brings in their people. And even though we didn’t speak, our actions and how we presented ourselves spoke louder”.

For more information regarding the struggle against the Loop 202, please contact us at: gricagainst202(at)gmail.com or at our Facebook page: Gila River Against the Loop 202

More clashes with riot police in Greece over gold mine

Hundreds of protesters in Thessaloniki have been in involved another battle with riot police over plans for a gold mine in northern Greece’s Halkidiki peninsula. One policeman and three protesters were hurt, while 21 protesters have been detained. Clashes between protests and local residents on one side and police and mine workers on the other side have become a regular occourance since March when plans for the mine were approved. A multimillion-dollar gold mining project in a nearby area was cancelled a decade ago after similar protests.

Below is a translation of a recent report about the situation from Indymedia Athens:

In the mountains of Halkidiki is a huge disaster at the expense of Mother Nature. The Greek state has sold the rights to exploit the gold beneath the primordial forests of dark in the company Eldorado-Greek Gold. That is why the company has already started the despicable work: intensive deforestation of 4,000 hectares of forest and mineral processing plant construction between villages Olympiad, Stan, Mary and Great Ierissos. The state and the company with the work will take away the life of the forest itself but also by the thousands of animals that live in it, clean groundwater and soil will be contaminated by toxic substances such as cyanide. In simple words, a whole living world would exterminated for the profit of multinational corporations and government leaders, leaving behind contaminated land and death.

Residents not complacent to the disaster, from passages such as the Olympics and the Great Panagia for decades have been struggling against mining. This year saw the final authorization from the government and the project has now started. From March there have been on going conflicts with residents and defenders of the forest on one side and the police and workers of the company on the other.

This dominant behavior of culture over nature is a result of the authoritarian mentality of anthropocentrism, arbitrary belief that man is greater than the natural element surrounds him. This concept is the result of the alienation of man from the natural world. With the mediation of the process of civilization, the building of cities, states and power relations people ignore the earth-animal-nature, which is directly tied to the existence and development of the natural world.

Habitats are threatened today directly from the mines not only in Halkidiki but other parts of northern Greece such as Kilkis and Alexandroupolis. But let's not fool ourselves, the technocracy and capitalism in today's world are expressed through a global system of striking any part of the world over sea or land. But especially in countries of the so-called third world, plunder of nature and poor people is unthinkable. Giant multinational corporations with the help of state and international organizations extorting indigenous populations by any means (war, food crises, financial measures) to accept investments and work with them in exchange for a meager salary and a short and miserable life. With modern engines cut forests, disembowel the earth, pollute the air, water and soil. This hunt for "treasure" whether minerals such as gold or energy (oil, gas, coal) is totally deadlocked and destructive. The so-called progress of civilization and the ideology of development only serve the temporary existence of the world's authoritarian system that dissolves cultures but tens of thousands of years, primeval forests, animal communities and ecosystems that promises dystopia.

The destruction of the natural world not only in Greece but also at the global level does not leave us time tolerances of this situation. Needs as living creatures to deny us the system dominates and fight for its destruction. To redefine our relationship with the natural world and to resist that prevents us from living in harmony with it. The state, the industrial system and mazopoiisi cities need to be destroyed to flourish in the debris an indomitable life for people, animals and nature.

AGAINST THE RAPE OF THE NATURAL WORLD
ANYPOCHORITOS STRUGGLE FOR LIBERATION AND FOR TOTAL ANARCHY