Category: Wilderness Defence

Wilder­ness defence

Sinixt Slhu7kin-Perry Ridge Protection Camp Re-established

On March 1 2011, the Slu7kin – Per­ry Ridge Pro­tec­tion Camp was re-estab­lished by Slo­can Val­ley locals and sup­port­ers of the Sinixt Nation. The camp was first estab­lished by the Sinixt Nation and sup­port­ers on Octo­ber 26, 2010. The Sinixt recent­ly had their legal chal­lenge for their rights to con­sul­ta­tion dis­missed by BC Supreme Court Judge Will­cock.

On March 1 2011, the Slu7kin – Per­ry Ridge Pro­tec­tion Camp was re-estab­lished by Slo­can Val­ley locals and sup­port­ers of the Sinixt Nation. The camp was first estab­lished by the Sinixt Nation and sup­port­ers on Octo­ber 26, 2010. The Sinixt recent­ly had their legal chal­lenge for their rights to con­sul­ta­tion dis­missed by BC Supreme Court Judge Will­cock. This deci­sion is seen as a con­tin­u­a­tion of geno­cide against the Sinixt from the hands of the colo­nial gov­ern­ment of BC and Cana­da.

Sun­shine Log­ging Ltd, of Kaslo BC, respond­ed with­in a few days after the rul­ing by begin­ning to plow the snow from the road. Locals respond­ed quick­ly and moved in to pre­vent the machine from oper­at­ing. Jeff Mattes of Sun­shine Log­ging has been eager to get in and begin road build­ing. The Sinixt have yet to receive court doc­u­ments and are plan­ning an appeal, today they asked the Attor­ney Gen­er­al to pre­vent Mattes and com­pa­ny from road build­ing until they have had a chance to appeal.

Sun­shine log­ging did not show up to work Thurs­day.

The camp is grow­ing every­day. This is a com­mu­ni­ty action to pro­tect the com­mu­ni­ty water­shed. It is encour­aged for peo­ple to bring their fam­i­lies, friends, prayers, food, camp sup­plies, build­ing sup­plies, a love for the land and their hum­bled and hon­est war­rior spir­its. There is no threat of arrest by attend­ing the camp.

The camp is locat­ed just south of the town of Slo­can BC, 7km up the Lit­tle Slo­can South For­est Ser­vice Road. Take Hwy Six to Grav­el Pit Rd and fol­low the signs to the Lit­tle Slo­can Lodge. You can’t miss it.

http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=201748262749215460026.00049daae0331cd323924&ll=49.741233,-117.492428&spn=0.050586,0.169086&z=13

More info:

http://sinixtnation.org

http://perryridge.org

http://territoriesoffreedom.wordpress.com

Watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/v/rWkQ8MFVHU8?fs

Indigenous Protesters Blockading Mine Owned by Goldcorp Assaulted, Taken Hostage in Guatemala

Update:
they’ve since been released.

On Feb­ru­ary 28, 2011, approx­i­mate­ly 50 Indige­nous men and women from Mayan com­mu­ni­ties affect­ed by Gold­cor­p’s Mar­lin Gold mine in San Mar­cos, Guatemala, were attacked and tak­en hostage by a group of indi­vid­u­als said to have “strong ties” to the Van­cou­ver-based min­ing com­pa­ny.

Update:
they’ve since been released.

On Feb­ru­ary 28, 2011, approx­i­mate­ly 50 Indige­nous men and women from Mayan com­mu­ni­ties affect­ed by Gold­cor­p’s Mar­lin Gold mine in San Mar­cos, Guatemala, were attacked and tak­en hostage by a group of indi­vid­u­als said to have “strong ties” to the Van­cou­ver-based min­ing com­pa­ny.

For Imme­di­ate Release

San Miguel Ixtahua­can, San Mar­cos, Guatemala, Feb­ru­ary 28, 2011.
by San Miguel Ixtahua­can Defense Front

TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

THE SAN MIGUEL IXTAHUACAN DEFENSE FRONT

REPORTS

FIRST: Today, on Feb­ru­ary 28, 2011, com­mu­ni­ties took action to pres­sure the gov­ern­ment of Guatemala to car­ry out the Pre­cau­tion­ary Mea­sures MC-260–07 grant­ed by the Inter-Amer­i­can Com­mis­sion on Human Rights, which include the tem­po­rary sus­pen­sion of the Mar­lin mine. The action con­sist­ed in peace­ful­ly block­ing the main routes used by the com­pa­ny* in a way that respects the Con­sti­tu­tion of our coun­try, in which we have the right to protest.

SECOND: When the block­ade began, a group of approx­i­mate­ly 20 peo­ple assault­ed Miguel Bamaca, despite the fact that the Pres­i­den­tial Human Rights Com­mis­sion has grant­ed him pro­tec­tiv mea­sures. Miguel Bamaca was beat­en mer­ci­less­ly by a fam­i­ly known as the Mejia fam­i­ly, togeth­er with neigh­bours who work for the com­pa­ny. These peo­ple have strong ties to the com­pa­ny and also to ille­gal busi­ness activ­i­ties. This inci­dent occurred at four thir­ty in the after­noon in a loca­tion known as Siete Platos.

THIRD: On the way back, near the com­mu­ni­ty of San Jose Ixcaniche, approx­i­mate­ly 70 mem­bers of this com­mu­ni­ty inter­cept­ed the bus and began to assault var­i­ous peo­ple who were trav­el­ling in the bus. Among them, our com­rade Anise­to Lopez and oth­ers were beat­en with­out being able to defend them­selves. The attack­ers came armed with guns, stones, knives, sticks, and oth­er weapons. Right now, approx­i­mate­ly 50 peo­ple are kid­napped and being threat­ened by the com­mu­ni­ty of San Jose Ixcaniche and the Mejia fam­i­ly.

Day of Action against Extraction, April 19/April 20 — 2011

Com­mu­ni­ties around the world are under attack from extrac­tive indus­tries that poi­son our fam­i­lies, kill our loved ones on the job, and destroy the ecosys­tems we cher­ish. The BP oil spill was unfor­tu­nate­ly just one of an end­less string of dis­as­ters born of an eco­nom­ic sys­tem that must end­less­ly con­sume the Earth’s resources.

Com­mu­ni­ties around the world are under attack from extrac­tive indus­tries that poi­son our fam­i­lies, kill our loved ones on the job, and destroy the ecosys­tems we cher­ish. The BP oil spill was unfor­tu­nate­ly just one of an end­less string of dis­as­ters born of an eco­nom­ic sys­tem that must end­less­ly con­sume the Earth’s resources.

Extrac­tion is the act of tak­ing with­out giv­ing any­thing back. Extrac­tion takes work­ers lives so cor­po­ra­tions can make a few more bucks.
Extrac­tion takes clean water and air and gives us black­ened oceans and a cli­mate in chaos. Extrac­tion takes the nat­ur­al wealth of com­mu­ni­ties and ecosys­tems and leaves behind pover­ty and eco­log­i­cal waste­lands.

For a sta­ble cli­mate, clean air and water, we must stop the extrac­tion of fos­sil fuels and oth­er “resources.” From the tar sands of Alber­ta to the Gulf Coast, peo­ple are fight­ing back against the extrac­tive indus­tries that have declared war on our plan­et. Ris­ing Tide is call­ing for a day of direct action against extrac­tion on the 1 year anniver­sary of the BP oil spill. On April 20th take it to the point of pro­duc­tion.
Shut down a well site, occu­py a mine, take over an office, block­ade a bank. Nobody’s com­mu­ni­ty should be a sac­ri­fice zone. For cli­mate jus­tice and a live­able plan­et.

Ris­ing Tide (North Amer­i­ca)

ZAD, the story so far…

4 Novem­ber 2010

A com­mu­ni­ty fights on against the inva­sion of the bull­doz­er empire.…

And as the empire grows, the com­mu­ni­ty must also grow, and look for those to join the fight.…

4 Novem­ber 2010

A com­mu­ni­ty fights on against the inva­sion of the bull­doz­er empire.…

And as the empire grows, the com­mu­ni­ty must also grow, and look for those to join the fight.…

For over 40 years, a storm cloud has been gath­er­ing, 25km north of the city of Nantes, France, over a rur­al area of farms, fields, hous­es, marsh­lands and forests. As an inte­gral part of the mas­sive expan­sion of the so-called “eco metro­pole” of the grand-ouest, the local gov­ern­ment has been buy­ing up an area of over 1860 hectares of land to make way for the con­struc­tion of a so-called “high qual­i­ty envi­ron­men­tal” project a new air­port, high­way bypass and tgv train line. This zone is offi­cial­ly known as the “ZAD”, “Zone d’Ameneg­ment Dif­ferè, and by us who resist as the “Zone A Defendre”.

Since the announce­ment of the plans, local res­i­dents and farm­ers have organ­ised their resis­tance through peti­tions, demon­stra­tions and a trac­tor occu­pa­tion in the cen­tre of Nantes. In spring and autumn ’09, the area was in a state of mil­i­tary guard, as 150 mil­i­tary cops were sent out to pro­tect machines involved in the ear­ly works of core drilling and soil sam­pling. This is not a nor­mal course of action; rather it was the response of the local gov­ern­ment to acts of sab­o­tage that occurred ear­li­er on dur­ing the works.

In Sep­tem­ber ’09, after a cli­mate camp in the ZAD, a call was made to occu­py the aban­doned hous­es and threat­ened areas of the ZAD, with sup­port of local peo­ple in resis­tance to the air­port. This call has been answered, and already there are some 13 occu­pied areas on the ZAD, includ­ing emp­ty farm­hous­es, car­a­vans on aban­doned land, forests and col­lec­tive gar­dens. On July 15th 2010, author­i­ties deliv­ered papers to 5 occu­pied areas, warn­ing the occu­piers that they should vacate these places by the 30th July or face legal pro­ceed­ings and evic­tions. Ear­li­er that day, an agree­ment was signed by 5 unim­por­tant bureau­crats to finance the con­struc­tion of the air­port. On 29th July 2010, about 40 peo­ple occu­pied the coun­cil offices in Nantes. The next day, it was made pub­lic that the multi­na­tion­al con­struc­tion com­pa­ny Vin­ci had been award­ed the con­tract to build the air­port. Already the first works have begun on the Bar­reau Routi­er, a high­way bypass being built to serve the air­port. In August 2010 the city of Nantes made pub­lic their search for a secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny to be on con­stant guard on the con­struc­tion sites and areas around the ZAD.

But we won’t be moved so eas­i­ly. Busi­ly grow­ing food to sup­port us over the next years, look­ing for fur­ther areas to occu­py and build­ing defences with­in the ZAD, we are dig­ging our heels in even deep­er and prepar­ing for the fight.

If you would like to join, or even come and vis­it, we are always open. There are many hous­es, fields, trees, car­a­vans that are to be occu­pied and defend­ed when the time comes. If you have your own project to con­tribute, like set­ting up a new space, gar­den, action ideas, or any oth­er use­ful resources or tal­ents, even bet­ter. We are encour­ag­ing peo­ple to try and be as self suf­fi­cient as pos­si­ble with­in this space, as well as want­i­ng to be inspired to become part of this ever grow­ing strug­gle against the machine of progress. Or if you can’t come and vis­it us, maybe you feel the wish to vis­it some sites or offices of Vin­ci in your area.…..

Wish list / ideas of stuff to bring.… bicy­cles and trail­ers, tarps, tools, build­ing and bar­ri­cad­ing mate­ri­als, climb­ing mate­ri­als, com­put­er and tech­ni­cal skills, wheel­bar­rows, rope of all kinds, books, vans/trucks, media resources, ideas, inspi­ra­tion, fight­ing ener­gy, don­keys, drag­ons and den­tists.….

map/directions to the zad
email — zad@riseup.net
to sign up to our list, please email zad-occupation@lists.aktivix.org
Web­site com­ing soon

+ An update
This week (yes­ter­day the 2nd of Novem­ber) they start­ed the drilling for test­ing soil where the high­way is sup­posed to be build. Lets stop it!

Sinixt Nation Establishes a Protection Camp on Their Ancestral Land

The Sinixt Nation, declared extinct by the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment more than 50 years ago, has set up a pro­tec­tion camp on their ances­tral land, halt­ing all com­mer­cial log­ging in the area known to the Sinixt Nation as “Slhu7kin”.

The Sinixt Nation, declared extinct by the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment more than 50 years ago, has set up a pro­tec­tion camp on their ances­tral land, halt­ing all com­mer­cial log­ging in the area known to the Sinixt Nation as “Slhu7kin”.

On Octo­ber 26th 2010, the Sinixt Nation assert­ed their sov­er­eign­ty by ini­ti­at­ing the Sinixt Slhu7kin (Per­ry Ridge) Pro­tec­tion Camp on their ances­tral lands. The Sinixt, by dec­la­ra­tion, have estab­lished the “Sinixt Slhu7kin – Per­ry Ridge Wilder­ness Pre­serve to pro­tect the rich bio-diver­si­ty on Per­ry Ridge and the col­lec­tive domes­tic water­shed inter­ests of the Per­ry Ridge com­mu­ni­ty.”

Sinixt Nation mem­bers, local res­i­dents, and sup­port­ers are gath­ered at the begin­ning of the Per­ry Ridge For­est Ser­vice road near the town of Slo­can, BC. The camp has halt­ed all com­mer­cial log­ging in the area.

After a com­plete refusal to con­sult with the Sinixt Nation, BC Tim­ber Sales via BC Min­istry of Forests and Range sold the log­ging rights to 4 con­tro­ver­sial cut-blocks on Per­ry Ridge to Sun­shine Log­ging LTD of Kaslo, BC. Sun­shine Log­ging pur­chased the 2 year con­tract for approx­i­mate­ly $330,000 after BC Tim­ber Sales dropped the auc­tion bid­ding price because no com­pa­nies want­ed to touch the high­ly con­tentious con­tract with a ten foot pole.

This isn’t the first time peo­ple have tak­en a stand to pro­tect the area known as Slhu7kin to the Sinixt. In 1997 local res­i­dents, the Per­ry Ridge Water Users Asso­ci­a­tion, and Sinixt mem­bers took both legal and direct action and suc­cess­ful­ly halt­ed road build­ing on the ridge. Over 300 peo­ple blocked the road demand­ing pro­tec­tion for the area.

Known as the Arrow Lakes Indi­an Band under the Indi­an Act, Cana­da offi­cial­ly declared the Sinixt extinct in 1956. This left Sinixt mem­bers liv­ing on the Colville Reser­va­tion (in the USA) or scat­tered among oth­er nations in BC with­out recog­ni­tion.

Many Sinixt returned to the North­ern part of their ter­ri­to­ry to pro­tect their ances­tral bur­ial sites in Val­li­can, BC in the late 1980’s when a BC Min­istry of Trans­porta­tion road devel­op­ment project des­e­crat­ed their bur­ial sites, removed bones and arti­facts and placed them in muse­ums. After a tremen­dous amount of effort from the Sinixt and sup­port­ers, remains of their ances­tors were returned to them and were reburied at the site. The Sinixt to this day con­tin­ue to live peace­ful­ly and re-occu­py their land in Val­li­can mak­ing it the longest re-occu­pa­tion in Cana­di­an his­to­ry.

Sinixt ter­ri­to­ry spans from the head­wa­ters of the Colum­bia Riv­er north of Nakusp, to Kaslo in the West, Rev­el­stoke in the East, and down into what is now known as Wash­ing­ton State. Over 80% of the ter­ri­to­ry lies on the “Cana­di­an side” of the 49th par­al­lel.

In BC alone, 15 dams were built on Sinixt Ter­ri­to­ry. In 1954, Kaiser Alu­minum pro­posed a dam on Arrow Lake. The Keen­ley­side Dam flood­ed 140 Sinixt cul­tur­al sites. The Com­in­co smelter at Trail built a dam on the Koote­nay Riv­er near the ancient Sinixt vil­lage of kp’itl’els. The zinc and lead smelter has since dumped over 13 mil­lion tonnes of tox­ic slag, includ­ing mer­cury, into the Colum­bia Riv­er.

“A vis­i­tor to the Colum­bia Basin will be unlike­ly to see any indi­ca­tion that there was ever a native cul­ture that thrived for so long in this region. Most of the Sinixt tra­di­tion­al vil­lages and bur­ial grounds were flood­ed with the damming of the Arrow Lakes. We know of only one mon­u­ment to the Sinixt. In the town of Edge­wood, there is a totem pole that was erect­ed in the late 1960’s. It was com­mis­sioned by B.C. Hydro as a com­mem­o­ra­tive to an extinct race.”

But the fact of the mat­ter is that the Sinixt nev­er had totem poles and they aren’t extinct.
What You Can Do

The Sinixt Nation and their sup­port­ers are encour­ag­ing peo­ple to help out any way they can.

Finan­cial dona­tions can be made payable to the Sinixt Nation Soci­ety. Mail well con­cealed cash, mon­ey orders and cheques to: The Sinixt Nation Soci­ety, RRI G‑I6 C‑2, Win­law, BC VOG 2JO.

Con­tact the Sinixt Nation:

Mar­i­lyn James (Offi­cial Appoint­ed Spokesper­son)
Bob Camp­bell (Head­man)
Phone: 250 226 6726
Fax: 886 685 7376

For more infor­ma­tion and back­ground, vis­it: http://sinixtnation.org, http://www.firstnations.eu/invasion/sinixt.htm, http://sinixt.kics.bc.ca, http://www.aaanativearts.com/colville-tribe/lake-indians.htm

More pho­tos and updates can be found on the Sinixt Nation’s Face­book page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sinixt-Nation/255421804460

Note sure how to say “Sinixt”? Want to know why the gov­ern­ment says they don’t exist? Lis­ten to the one-hour radio doc­u­men­tary: Keep­ing the Lakes Way: The Past and Future of the Sinixt

Update from Coal Action Scotland & THWAC

30th Octo­ber 2011
Hel­lo all,

Here’s a brief update of what’s been going on with Coal Action Scot­land and what’s com­ing up. There’s a week to go before the Autumn Gath­er­ing and lots has been hap­pen­ing!

1. New THWAC! short film
2. THWAC Gath­er­ing 6th-10th Novem­ber
3. Coal Action Scot­land Octo­ber Newslet­ter
4. Action Roundup
5. Recent News

*1. New THWAC! short film*

30th Octo­ber 2011
Hel­lo all,

Here’s a brief update of what’s been going on with Coal Action Scot­land and what’s com­ing up. There’s a week to go before the Autumn Gath­er­ing and lots has been hap­pen­ing!

1. New THWAC! short film
2. THWAC Gath­er­ing 6th-10th Novem­ber
3. Coal Action Scot­land Octo­ber Newslet­ter
4. Action Roundup
5. Recent News

*1. New THWAC! short film*

A short film about the Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp and fight­ing Scot­tish Coal in the Dou­glas Val­ley, and pub­li­cis­ing the gath­er­ing next week can be watched here: http://politube.org/show/3075 and http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2206

*2. THWAC Gath­er­ing 6th-10th Novem­ber*

The Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp (THWAC) was occu­pied on 12th Sep­tem­ber 2010 to resist the destruc­tion of the Dou­glas Val­ley by Scot­tish Coal and SRG Estates.

Join us for our five day autumn gath­er­ing in the woods!

As part of what they’re call­ing their “for­ward strat­e­gy”, Scot­tish Coal have begun the process of clos­ing the cir­cle of open cast mines around the com­mu­ni­ties of the Dou­glas Val­ley by announc­ing three new open cast appli­ca­tions.

For too long now Scot­tish Coal, (with the help of rich landown­ers and cor­rupt coun­cil­lors) have been shit­ting all over the Dou­glas Val­ley, caus­ing ill health to the local com­mu­ni­ties in the area and con­tribut­ing to cli­mate change. This has got to stop.

The evic­tion at Main­shill was not an end but just a begin­ning. We’re back to fin­ish what we start­ed. If Scot­tish Coal want to oblit­er­ate what’s left of the Scot­tish coun­try­side, we will oblit­er­ate them.

We’re call­ing for affin­i­ty groups to come to the site with ener­gy and ideas for action to destroy Scot­tish Coal’s plans.

There will also be the usu­al skill­shar­ing, includ­ing action work­shops, infor­ma­tion-shar­ing and oppor­tu­ni­ties to get involved in the cam­paign and day-to-day life on camp.

**WHAT TO BRING:**

* warm clothes, boots and water­proofs, a tent, sleep­ing bag and mat
* tools for build­ing work and action mate­ri­als if you can
* Most impor­tant­ly bring your­self and friends.

FOOD:
There’ll be com­mu­nal veg­an food for a dona­tion, so come pre­pared to help with chop­ping veg.

GETTING THERE:
>The camp is near junc­tion 12 of the M74, which runs from Carlisle to Glas­gow. The near­est train sta­tions are Lanark and Hamil­ton and there are fre­quent direct bus­es to near the site. Email us or call the sit phone if you need a lift from the train sta­tion.

MORE INFO AND CONTACT:
Email: con­tact [at] coalactionscotland.org.uk
Site phone: 07806926040
Post: Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp
Wolfcrooks Road
South Lanark­shire
ML11 9PA

Check out the brochure of coal tar­gets in Scot­land plus Dig­ger Div­ing for Begin­ners here http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?page_id=10>.

If you would like to do an info night in your area to pub­li­cise the camp and the gath­er­ing, get in touch and we’ll
send you our new film and action resources.

*3. Octo­ber Newslet­ter*

Down­load and dis­trib­ute the Coal Action Scot­land Octo­ber Newslet­ter!
Find it here:

front three pages:
http://coalaction.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Oct-10-first-three-pages.pdf

back page:
http://coalaction.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Oct-10-back-page.pdf

*4. Action Round-up*

Bore­hole Drilling Machine sab­o­taged in sol­i­dar­i­ty with The Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2202>

Action against RPS group Glas­gow in Sol­i­dar­i­ty with com­mu­ni­ties in Co. Mayo and South Lanark­shire http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2185>

“Nae Coal at Hunter­ston”: Action against Ayr­shire Pow­er and Peel
Hold­ings http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2177>

CON­sul­ta­tions by Scot­tish Coal marked by actions against the mines in Dou­glas Val­ley http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2166>

Begin­nings of a new wave of direct action in the Dou­glas Val­ley against Scot­tish Coal http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2160>

*5. Recent News*

Dead­ly Coal Tour Vis­its THWAC http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2197>

Scot­tish Coal giv­en a slap on the wrist for envi­ron­men­tal dam­age in Ayr­shire http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2189>

Vic­to­ry against Scot­tish Coal in Mid­loth­i­an!

Kayford Mountain, USA — dozens march onto “reclaimed” site and plant trees

KAYFORD MTN., W.Va.–Forty-four peo­ple risked arrest yes­ter­day on Kay­ford Moun­tain by tres­pass­ing on a Patri­ot Coal Com­pa­ny “recla­ma­tion” site to plant trees. “The coal com­pa­nies sure as hell aren’t going to do any­thing about it – someone’s got to,” said Junior Walk, 20, of the Coal Riv­er Val­ley.

KAYFORD MTN., W.Va.–Forty-four peo­ple risked arrest yes­ter­day on Kay­ford Moun­tain by tres­pass­ing on a Patri­ot Coal Com­pa­ny “recla­ma­tion” site to plant trees. “The coal com­pa­nies sure as hell aren’t going to do any­thing about it – someone’s got to,” said Junior Walk, 20, of the Coal Riv­er Val­ley. Once all the trees were plant­ed and the activists were not under arrest, they walked back off with their shov­els.

“The coal indus­try does not attempt to return the land­scape to its pre­vi­ous bio­di­ver­si­ty – leav­ing it up to the cit­i­zens to reclaim it them­selves. Fix­ing the ruined land­scape will pro­vide long term jobs for those put out of work by the abo­li­tion of moun­tain­top removal” said John John­son, a forester and envi­ron­men­tal­ist.

…

Peo­ple in the front of the march includ­ed Ken Hech­ler, Lar­ry Gib­son and two Colom­bian union coal min­ers, Nation­al Pres­i­dent of Sin­tramiener­get­i­ca Raul Sosa and Jose Brito of the Sin­traCar­bon union. The Colom­bian Net­work Against Transna­tion­al Large-Scale Min­ing sent let­ter of sup­port to Appalachi­an Ris­ing. The two Colom­bians joined the march to the mine’s edge as part of a sol­i­dar­i­ty tour that includ­ed a meet­ing with the Mate­wan local UMWA and peo­ple work­ing to save Blair Moun­tain. Free trade agree­ments such as the North Amer­i­can Free Trade Agree­ment (NAFTA) and Unit­ed States-Colom­bia Trade Pro­mo­tion Agree­ment (CTPA) hurt work­ers, com­mu­ni­ties and envi­ron­ments both here and in Colom­bia.

Lead­ers in their unions have been assas­si­nat­ed by para­mil­i­taries, and the union says Alaba­ma-based Drum­mond Co. is behind them. The tour is the result of work by Ken­tuck­ians for the Com­mon­wealth, and pos­si­bly oth­ers.

Don’t miss the video from the day!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Octo­ber 25, 2010

Hun­dreds ral­ly on Kay­ford Moun­tain; dozens march onto “reclaimed” site and plant trees

Con­tact:
Charles Sug­gs or Josh Grau­pera: 304.854.1937

NOTE: Infor­ma­tion, Pho­tographs, & Video will be updat­ed on www.climategroundzero.org. Ban­ners: Recla­ma­tion Fail; Over 500 Moun­tains Destroyed, Recla­ma­tion Jobs Now; EPA, We’re Doing Your Job

KAYFORD MTN., W.Va.–Forty-four peo­ple risked arrest yes­ter­day on Kay­ford Moun­tain by tres­pass­ing on a Patri­ot Coal Com­pa­ny “recla­ma­tion” site to plant trees. “The coal com­pa­nies sure as hell aren’t going to do any­thing about it – someone’s got to,” said Junior Walk, 20, of the Coal Riv­er Val­ley. Once all the trees were plant­ed and the activists were not under arrest, they walked back off with their shov­els.

“The coal indus­try does not attempt to return the land­scape to its pre­vi­ous bio­di­ver­si­ty – leav­ing it up to the cit­i­zens to reclaim it them­selves. Fix­ing the ruined land­scape will pro­vide long term jobs for those put out of work by the abo­li­tion of moun­tain­top removal” said John John­son, a forester and envi­ron­men­tal­ist.

The stan­dard recla­ma­tion prac­ticed by min­ing com­pa­nies is inad­e­quate, which involves regrad­ing high walls into gen­tle, high­ly-com­pact­ed slopes and seed­ing the rocky soil with grass. Some com­pa­nies plant trees but rarely return to tend them–most trees don’t sur­vive long. The extreme­ly diverse mixed mes­o­phyt­ic forests of Cen­tral Appalachia, which rely upon the micro-cli­mates cre­at­ed by the area’s fold­ed land, can­not regrow on reclaimed sur­face mines. Native plants like gin­seng require the steep north-fac­ing slopes of Appalachia that retain mois­ture, and will nev­er grow on the gen­tle slopes of a reclaimed strip mine.

The coal indus­try defends moun­tain­top removal by tout­ing the flat land of reclaimed mine sites as prime for devel­op­ment. Accord­ing to a recent report by the Nat­ur­al Resoures Defense Coun­cil, how­ev­er, “only about four per­cent of moun­tains in Ken­tucky and West Vir­ginia, where the vast major­i­ty of this min­ing is occur­ring, had any post-min­ing eco­nom­ic activ­i­ty.”

The day’s ral­ly began in the Stan­ley Heir’s Park, a small island of green sur­round­ed by 12,000 acres of moun­tain­top removal, much of which is in some state of recla­ma­tion.

Peo­ple in the front of the march includ­ed Ken Hech­ler, Lar­ry Gib­son and two Colom­bian union coal min­ers, Nation­al Pres­i­dent of Sin­tramiener­get­i­ca Raul Sosa and Jose Brito of the Sin­traCar­bon union. The Colom­bian Net­work Against Transna­tion­al Large-Scale Min­ing sent let­ter of sup­port to Appalachi­an Ris­ing. The two Colom­bians joined the march to the mine’s edge as part of a sol­i­dar­i­ty tour that includ­ed a meet­ing with the Mate­wan local UMWA and peo­ple work­ing to save Blair Moun­tain. Free trade agree­ments such as the North Amer­i­can Free Trade Agree­ment (NAFTA) and Unit­ed States-Colom­bia Trade Pro­mo­tion Agree­ment (CTPA) hurt work­ers, com­mu­ni­ties and envi­ron­ments both here and in Colom­bia.

Lead­ers in their unions have been assas­si­nat­ed by para­mil­i­taries, and the union says Alaba­ma-based Drum­mond Co. is behind them. The tour is the result of work by Ken­tuck­ians for the Com­mon­wealth, and pos­si­bly oth­ers.

“I am a 6th gen­er­a­tion West Vir­gin­ian from Mer­cer Coun­ty and I’m a grand­daugh­ter and great grand­daugh­ter of coal min­ers. And they’d be mad about moun­tain­top removal,” Wendy John­ston said. “The bat­tle of Blair Moun­tain lives on in my and my fathers’ spir­it.”

The ral­ly and action comes on the heels of the EPA’s rec­om­men­da­tion to veto the Spruce No. 1 mine’s per­mit and Appalachia Ris­ing, the largest nation­al gath­er­ing of peo­ple in oppo­si­tion to moun­tain­top removal coal min­ing to date. Appalachia Ris­ing cul­mi­nat­ed with a march to the White House of over 2,000 peo­ple and 114 arrests for non-vio­lent civ­il dis­obe­di­ence at the White House, PNC Bank, Depart­ment of Inte­ri­or and Army Corps of Engi­neers.

Ken Hech­ler, a long-serv­ing West Vir­ginia states­man said at the ral­ly, “I may be 96 but there’s a fire in my bel­ly. I’m here to help save these beau­ti­ful moun­tains of West Vir­ginia and put peo­ple back to work doing use­ful things.” Ken Hech­ler has been a vocal oppo­nent of moun­tain­top removal since the ear­ly 1970’s.

Appalachia Rising: end mountaintop removal mining!

22.9.10

Appalachia Ris­ing is a mass mobi­liza­tion in Wash­ing­ton, DC, Sep­tem­ber 25–27, 2010, call­ing for an end to the dev­as­tat­ing prac­tice of moun­tain­top removal min­ing.

22.9.10

Appalachia Ris­ing is a mass mobi­liza­tion in Wash­ing­ton, DC, Sep­tem­ber 25–27, 2010, call­ing for an end to the dev­as­tat­ing prac­tice of moun­tain­top removal min­ing.

Moun­tain­top removal has already destroyed over 500 of the world’s old­est moun­tains and more than 2,000 miles of streams, and has con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed our nation’s waters. Togeth­er, we will bring Appalachia’s cry to our nation’s cap­i­tal: We must end moun­tain­top removal and trans­form the economies of Appalachia away from destruc­tive min­ing prac­tices and toward clean-ener­gy jobs and a sus­tain­able and healthy future.

The week­end includes two full days of strate­giz­ing work­shops, learn­ing, fea­tured speak­er pan­els and dis­cus­sions, cul­tur­al events, and enter­tain­ment. On Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 27, we will march, ral­ly, and sup­port indi­vid­u­als tak­ing part in dig­ni­fied non-vio­lent civ­il dis­obe­di­ence against moun­tain­top removal min­ing.

Join thou­sands of Appalachi­an and nation­al lead­ers, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, coal­field res­i­dents and min­ers, con­cerned cit­i­zens, activists, moun­tain groups, envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice orga­ni­za­tions, and Amer­i­cans from coast to coast for this momen­tous move­ment-build­ing sum­mit, gath­er­ing, and call to action. Hear the voic­es of those most impact­ed by moun­tain­top removal coal min­ing, and let your voice be heard in this move­ment to offer Amer­i­ca hope for a bet­ter future.

Shell to Sea campaigners target Shell executives in Ireland

The folks in suits final­ly got a taste of the con­flict they’ve been orches­trat­ing in Co. Mayo, Ire­land for the past decade.

The folks in suits final­ly got a taste of the con­flict they’ve been orches­trat­ing in Co. Mayo, Ire­land for the past decade. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Shell and their team of expert wit­ness­es who are pre­sent­ing the plan­ning appli­ca­tion for the Cor­rib Gas onshore pipeline to the Irish plan­ning board were pre­vent­ed from leav­ing the oral hear­ing Thurs­day night by pro­test­ers from the Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp.

Thurs­day was a long day for Shel­l’s expert wit­ness­es, boss­es, and exec­u­tives. The plan­ning board­’s oral hear­ing into the Cor­rib Gas pipeline has been ongo­ing in Co. Mayo for the past four weeks, and local res­i­dents have been ques­tion­ing Shell experts on details sur­round­ing the pro­posed onshore pipeline.

At 10pm, exhaust­ed and with long jour­neys ahead of them Shell del­e­gates exit­ed the front doors of the hotel to dis­cov­er that pro­test­ers had board­ed their bus, hold­ing plac­ards and ban­ners with mes­sages read­ing “Ener­gy should­n’t cost the earth”and “Shell: destroy­ing the world, one com­mu­ni­ty at a time.”

At one stage when four high up Shell peo­ple tried to leave in a car, two pro­test­ers met them at the road and blocked their car with a ban­ner read­ing “Shel­l’s lies cost lives.” The annoyed dri­ver attempt­ed to dri­ve through the ban­ner and in the process ran over one per­son­’s foot. No seri­ous injury was sus­tained and the dri­ver refused to make any apolo­gies for his actions.

After delay­ing the Shell suits for over an hour, one mem­ber of the protest explained that “it was so sat­is­fy­ing to final­ly see these peo­ple at the top, who are nev­er held account­able sud­den­ly be con­front­ed with their own respon­si­bil­i­ty for this project and the dev­as­ta­tion it has caused to the com­mu­ni­ty”

Happendon Wood Occupied! New Direct Action Camp Against Scottish Coal

Ear­ly evening on Sun­day 12th Sep­tem­ber a group of autonomous indi­vid­u­als suc­cess­ful­ly occu­pied a new site in Hap­pen­don Wood, South Lanark­shire!

Ear­ly evening on Sun­day 12th Sep­tem­ber a group of autonomous indi­vid­u­als suc­cess­ful­ly occu­pied a new site in Hap­pen­don Wood, South Lanark­shire!

Coal Action Scot­land are invit­ing peo­ple to join The Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp (THWAC) to help defend the wood from destruc­tion by Scot­tish Coal, and to take action in sol­i­dar­i­ty with com­mu­ni­ties in the area resist­ing the expan­sion of the coal indus­try in the Dou­glas Val­ley.

You can find out more about the camp at http://happendon.coalactionscotland.org.uk — and more infor­ma­tion about why we’re at Hap­pen­don and what we’re doing there will be com­ing very soon.

In the mean­time, check our press advi­so­ry, for imme­di­ate release, below:

Con­tact:
Sam Mac­don­ald (Off-site Con­tact: Infor­ma­tion and Pho­tos) 07984706188
Jo Reed (On-site Con­tact: Vis­its and Inter­views) 07806926040
media@coalactionscotland.org.uk

Scot­tish Coal’s
Hap­pen­don Wood Occu­pied

Last night (12/9/10) a group of peo­ple occu­pied areas with­in Hap­pen­don Wood, South Lanark­shire (1) to defend it from destruc­tion by Scot­tish Coal, part of the Scot­tish Resources Group. They have begun to build shel­ters and defences on the site, with large ban­ners hung from trees at the front of the site that say: “Defend­ing the Dou­glas Val­ley” and “No Open­cast Here”. The Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp has come out of a long-term strug­gle by the local com­mu­ni­ty and Coal Action Scot­land (2) to halt coal expan­sion in the Dou­glas Val­ley which is already one of the most heav­i­ly mined areas in Europe.

The Scot­tish Resources Group have applied for plan­ning per­mis­sion for a mixed use devel­op­ment (3) on this land (which is in an area of Great Land­scape Val­ue) in the Dou­glas Val­ley, but they intend to open­cast the area first. The South Lanark­shire min­er­als plan high­lights areas with­in the new devel­op­ment as hav­ing recov­er­able coal deposits that can be exca­vat­ed dur­ing the cur­rent local plan. Scot­tish Coal actu­al­ly wouldn’t be allowed to build on the land with­out open cast­ing it first, oth­er­wise this would be “ster­il­is­ing the nations asset” and there­fore ille­gal. (4)

Scot­tish Coal have not yet pub­licly declared their inter­ests in open­cast­ing Hap­pen­don Wood but many mem­bers of the local com­mu­ni­ty have expressed deep con­cerns that they will be blight­ed with yet anoth­er open­cast coal mine. In a recent meet­ing about the devel­op­ment, MSP for Clydes­dale Karen Gillon told local res­i­dents that she did not doubt that they would remove the coal, in spite of the fact that the area that SRG wish to devel­op takes in the open­cast work­ings at Poniel, which are cur­rent­ly due to be restored. Local res­i­dent and Dou­glas and Gle­spin Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil Chair­per­son Lind­say Addi­son is enraged by the behav­iour of Scot­tish Coal in South Lanark­shire:

“We have seri­ous con­cerns that this is an excuse for anoth­er open­cast. We do not want this devel­op­ment, let alone anoth­er mine. We will fight it all the way and sup­port the efforts of the wider com­mu­ni­ty in its oppo­si­tion to new coal in the Dou­glas Val­ley.”

SRG’s appli­ca­tion for plan­ning per­mis­sion for this devel­op­ment is ongo­ing; the deci­sion by the coun­cil will like­ly be made in the com­ing months. Ques­tions have been raised about the close rela­tion­ship between Scot­tish Coal and South Lanark­shire Coun­cil (SLC) result­ing in SLC issu­ing each mem­ber of the Dou­glas and Gle­spin Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil legal notices stat­ing that pro­ceed­ings against them are to begin at Lanark Sher­iff Court over alleged libel claims. This move is seen by the com­mu­ni­ty as an attack on their free­dom of speech. (5)

Notes to Edi­tors:

1. Loca­tion: In South Lanark­shire, about 30 miles south of Glas­gow, Hap­pen­don Wood is an area just off the B7078, sur­round­ing the Dew­ers ware­house site and Poniel Open­cast work­ings. To reach the site, dri­ving south along the B7078 from Les­ma­hagow (run­ning along­side the M74), take the first left after Hap­pen­don Ser­vices onto the C‑road; the site front is on your left after about half a mile. A map is avail­able at http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?page_id=1974#Where

2. Work­ing with and sup­port­ing com­mu­ni­ties across Scot­land, the Coal Action Scot­land col­lec­tive exists to chal­lenge the advance­ment of coal as an ener­gy source by inform­ing peo­ple about the dan­gers posed by new coal, pro­mot­ing alter­na­tives, work­ing with those involved, and direct­ly chal­leng­ing new coal exploita­tion from source to point of use. Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp was set up just along the road from Hap­pen­don Woods last year where peo­ple stayed for over sev­en months, end­ing in a five day evic­tion and a total of 45 arrests. See: http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/

3. This appli­ca­tion is Poniel / Hap­pen­don Mixed Use Devel­op­ment appli­ca­tion from the Scot­tish Resources Group (Scot­tish Coal). It is for “Mixed use devel­op­ment com­pris­ing indus­tri­al and stor­age and dis­tri­b­u­tion ware­hous­ing, busi­ness units/office accom­mo­da­tion, hotel with con­fer­ence and com­mer­cial leisure facil­i­ties, retail/restaurant floor­space, land­scap­ing, open space and asso­ci­at­ed infra­struc­ture (plan­ning per­mis­sion in prin­ci­ple)”, but it is expect­ed that once they get per­mis­sion for this they will actu­al­ly be bound to open­cast the area for coal. The plan­ning ref­er­ence for the appli­ca­tion is: CL/10/0180.

4. The Coal Author­i­ty issue licences to coal com­pa­nies. The fol­low­ing was dis­cov­ered in cor­re­spon­dence between them and Scot­tish Coal:
‘Where devel­op­ment is pro­posed over areas of coal and past coal work­ings at shal­low depth, The Coal Author­i­ty is of the opin­ion that appli­cants should con­sid­er wher­ev­er pos­si­ble remov­ing the rem­nant shal­low coal. This will enable the land to be sta­bilised and treat­ed by a more sus­tain­able method; rather than by attempt­ing to grout fill any voids and con­se­quent­ly unnec­es­sar­i­ly ster­il­is­ing the nation’s asset.’

5. For arti­cles and quo­ta­tions on the legal threats to the Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil see:
http://www.lanarkgazette.co.uk/news/South-Lanarkshire-Council-copyright-threat.6526004.jp
http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=1966
http://www.jonathanmitchell.info/2010/09/02/whats-wrong-with-south-lanarkshire/