Wilderness Defence – Page 89

Another 3 people from the Lappersfort Forest arrested

Around midnight on 21st April three people from the Lappersfort forest occupation in Brugge, Belgium were arrested.

They were on their way back to the forest on foot when they were sprung on by at least 6 pigs dressed in black & a police dog who were waiting on ambush. At the moment all we know is they are accused of damaging/vandalising a road being constructed through the forest.

Around midnight on 21st April three people from the Lappersfort forest occupation in Brugge, Belgium were arrested.

The road construction began in sept.08 and was met with large protest from the local community, as part of the Lappersfort forest by the canal was to be destroyed to make way for its construction. Activists managed to occupy the threatened trees on the first night of construction (sept. 2nd) despite a police cordon of some 250 piggies, and delayed work for some hours. Since then, throughout the 7 months of the occupation the construction company, police & media have accused the occupiers of sabotage against their pumps and cranes, without any proof or charges.

The arrests are part of an ongoing sequence of repression. Less than 2 weeks ago two people were finally released from Brugge prison after spending 10 days in the cell based on false charges and fabricated stories from the Brugge cops. On the day of the latest 3 arrests, undercover and uniformed piggies had been seen around the forest and talking with the construction workers, and the nature of the arrest shows that the cops here in Brugge are simply trying to find any excuse, real or not, to arrest as many people as possible.
We don’t know yet exactly what their charges are, or when the 3 people will be released, but they are already in custody for more than 12 hours, which means they are arrested juridically and will have to see a judge in the Brugge courthouse sometime tomorrow.

lappersfort occupiers – lappersfort@gmail.com

Skyr Thrown in the Heavy Industry Parties’ Election Offices

April 20 2009

April 20 2009
Today, green ’skyr’ (traditional Icelandic dairy product) was thrown at the election offices of three political parties, which are responsible for the invasion of the aluminium industry into Iceland. Skyr throwing is the Icelandic equivalent of pie throwing and has become a tradition in the environmental struggle; the last similar action took place only one and a half month ago.

At 11:00 this morning, people rushed into an office of Samfylkingin (the Social Democratic Alliance) in Hafnarfjörður, and threw the green liquid over the party’s propaganda, furniture and the floor. At a similar time Framsóknarflokkurinn (right wing) was targeted in Kópavogur. The windows of the election office were completely covered in green liquid, as well as advertisement signs outside the building.

Two hours later, green ’skyr’ was thrown inside an office of Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn (right wing conservatives) close to the center of Reykjavík. The whole office was covered; furniture, floors and propaganda.

Skyr Why these targets?
The targets are all understandable, since these three parties share the responsibility for the environmental and economical crisis Iceland is now facing.

Rio Tinto-Alcan operates an aluminium smelter in Hafnarfjörður and has wanted to enlarge it for several years. In a local referendum the majority of Hafnarfjörður inhabitants voted against the enlargement. But since then, RT-Alcan and the city council, lead by Samfylkingin, have tried to force the enlargement through, e.g. by claiming that the referendum’s issue was not the enlargement of the smelter, but only city planning. In continuation they have suggested that the smelter will be enlarged in the opposite direction; on a landfill in the sea. The energy needed for the increased production is supposed to come from Þjórsá and Tungnaá Rivers in the south of Iceland, where there is fierce local opposition to further dams.

Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn was in government for 17 years, until angry Icelanders rushed onto the streets of Reykjavík last January, protested and in the end toppled the government. During these years, Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn invited the aluminium industry to Iceland, promising “minimal environmental red tape” and cheap energy. To fulfill the party’s master plan, every major glacial river in Iceland would have to be dammed, as well as every active geothermal zone.

SkyrFramsóknarflokkurinn formed the other half of the first corrupt heavy industry coalition, holding the ministries of environment and industry. Now, when in parliamentary opposition, the party speaks and behaves like it had nothing to do with the economic collapse last fall. One of its main aims for the upcoming elections is (just like Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn) the continuation of the aluminium industry’s invasion.

Not for the first time
This is the second time in a short time period when green skyr is thrown in Iceland. Early in March this year, three people attacked the energy companies, while their representatives took part in green-washing days inside the University of Iceland. Read more about it here.

Cleaning June 14th 2005, green skyr was thrown in an international aluminium conference in Reykjavík. This was one of the first Saving Iceland actions as well as one of the first direct actions taken against the government’s heavy industry policy. Read more here.

The tradition of throwing skyr as a protest originates from a militant atheist action that took place in Reykjavík, 1970, when one individual, carpenter Helgi Hóseason, threw ’skyr’ over the Icelandic bishop, president, the entire government and members of parliament. For years he had fought for the right to be de-baptized, but was repeatedly refused. Hence he took action.

Recent actions at Tara, Eire

planned action went ahead on monday 20.4.09 at the ardsallagh bridge project at the boyne… protestors entered site immediatly stopping all work but this did not last for long as within only five minutes the guards and nine jeeps from M3 workers had arrived on site. it was a total set up. perhaps this is proof of phone monitoring. protestors retreated to the public road where a blockade situation quickly unfolded. this stand off lasted well in excess of an hour as M3 workers had gardai investigate some ‘bent steel’ all activists were questioned all names were taken, meanwhile M3 workers continue to block public road infuriating locals. after all was said and done the guards escorted us back to the hill and waited in the carpark at maguires eating the tara special…

enjoy the video

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Fancy dress digger-diving, 25.3.09 – video

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Action 3.3.09 video

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action 12.2.09
THE NEXT DAY OF ACTION for Tara, this wednesday 18th feb. Meeting tuesday night
at Vigil Farm, for actions early and all day wednesday.
Come prepared – bring sleeping bag, torch, waterproof warm clothes, cameras,
banners, costumes, musical instruments etc etc

*All welcome, please tell literally everyone. Protests cannot continue
unless we have the numbers to support us.
*
If you cannot make it on wednesday but would like to help out, we need help
with:
Press releases
Banner making materials
Cameras
Food
Anything else you thing that could be helpful!
Tara is calling, the days are getting longer and warmer. Protesting is
great craic, it’s never to late for TARA
——–

Video of dangerous digger-diving action, 29.1.09

Protests continue…see youtube for more past actions…

Blue NG offices in Bath occupied by 13 members of Action Against Agrofuels (AAA)

AAA occupied Blue NG offices on Friday 17th, Via Campesina Day, in solidarity with millions of peasant land-workers demonstrating globally against agrofuels.

AAA occupied Blue NG offices on Friday 17th, Via Campesina Day, in solidarity with millions of peasant land-workers demonstrating globally against agrofuels. Blue NG are committing a crime against humanity and the planet by using misinformation* to win support for the new market of agrofuel power stations, when virtually all agrofuels have been shown to cause ecosystem destruction, accelerated climate change & food poverty.

* For more on Blue-NG misinformation see…
http://sites.google.com/site/foodnotfuelorg/Home/facts-on-biofuels/biofuels-for-electricity/BlueNGinconsistenciesApril2009.doc?attredirects=0

On 17th April 2009 13 climate and social justice activists occupied the head office of Blue NG, the company which is planning to build the UK’s first biofuel power plants. Banners were hung from the building and activists demanded that the company stops investing in biofuels.

BlueNG initially plans eight power plants which would run on virgin vegetable oil. Campaigners warn that those power plants will significantly boost the UK’s imports of palm oil, which is linked to deforestation and the displacement of rural communities, including indigenous peoples. Blue NG speaks about using rapeseed oil but has failed to rule out using palm oil. In Germany, 1.3 billion kWh of energy are produced from palm oil burning because this is the cheapest vegetable oil and German providers have found it impossible to afford rapeseed oil.

STATEMENT:

We are here to demand that you stop investing in agrofuels. We need truly renewable energy but calling pesticide-sprayed monocultures for biofuels renewable is obscene.

Already, small farmers and indigenous peoples are being evicted, far more people are going hungry and ever more forests and other diverse ecosystems are being destroyed in order to grow fuel for our cars. While hundreds of civil society groups and institutions, including he European Environment Agency, our Environmental Audit Committee, the UN Rapporteur for the Right of Food and even the OECD were against Europe’s biofuel targets for transport, your company was drawing up plans to further push up an already completely unsustainable demand for biofuels.

Soon after scientists published studies which unequivocally show that today’s agrofuels are disaster for the climate and that using land for agrofuels means less ecosystems and less food, you published your plans to build the first vegetable oil power plant in Beckton. It so happens that, in Beckton, asthma levels are already exceptionally high, almost certainly due to air pollution.

You then made false and misleading claims to garner political support for those destructive plans. Many people liked what you said about combining geo-pressure and combined heat and power, yet your two published planning applications involve neither – as for CHP, you don’t even plan to supply heat to properties or industry. But even if those claims had not been false, the energy will still come from one of the most destructive and climate-damaging types of fuel.

You continue to make false statements about the fuel you will use. You tell media reporters you have a sustainable sourcing agreement – yet the party you claim to have that agreement with knows nothing about it. Just this month, you published claims that you could power your plants from half a million hectares of set aside land in the UK and that this would be climate-friendly. This is absurd – as anybody in the industry must know, most of that set aside land has already been ploughed up in what even Defra fears is a disaster for our biodiversity. And far from being climate-friendly, rapeseed oil is grown with so many fertilisers that it’s up to 70% worse for the climate than fossil fuel oil.

Your biomass policy boasts that you will minimise indirect impacts. Not surprisingly, you haven’t told anybody just how you plan to do that – after all nobody else has come up with any credible ideas for this either. Except for one study which makes it clear that the only way that could be done was by making sure less food was grown and more people went hungry. Is this what you mean when you say “If we are going to be successful in our fight against climate change in the context of an economic downturn and rising energy and food prices, we have to make some hard choices.”? Though the only success this project might bring is profits, no other benefits.

And finally, the reason we are here on this particular day is that we wish to support the International Day of Action called by Via Campesina, in memory of landless farmers killed in Brazil on the same day in 1996. Via Campesina and many other groups rightly demand policies which support food sovereignty, not monocultures to grow fuel for Europe, and rights and support for small farmers and for biodiverse, organic farming which truly helps to counter climate change. Biofuel companies like Blue NG are undermining our hopes for an agriculture system which can feed people, reduce climate change, safeguard biodiversity and support communities’ rights and livelihoods. Your choices are your responsibility and we demand that you stop all support for agrofuels. We will not stop campaigning until you stop your support for agrofuels.

Barrick and Argentine Officials Violently Assault Women at Roadblock

On April 14, a group of Argentine government officials and employees of Barrick Gold Corporation, carried out a violent assault against Women at the Famatina mining camp in the province of La Rioja, where a road blockade has stood for the past two years.

When the officials arrived, a group of Women from the “Self-Organized (Autoconvocados) Neighbors of Famatina for Life,” gathered at site and lowered a metal bar they installed to deny the company’s passage to the mine site.

The officials and Barrick employees then began to ram their trucks against the barrier, but “without any success,” explains an April 14 media alert.

The officials then exited their vehicles and carried out a violent assault against a handful of women, who had peacefully sat down in front the vehicles – first shoving them, and then kicking and striking the women with their fists.

“When the women did not budge,” the Barrick and government officials decided to leave the mining camp, and set out to the Famatina police station masquerading as victims with a plan to file charges against the Women.

However, “upon entering the police station, the aggressors encountered Famatina residents who had been alerted to what was taking place,” the alert states. “The Barrick and government officials then continued to verbally assault the community members in an arrogant manner, self-assured of their impunity.”

“This attitude did not fall well upon the community: Practically the entire population of Famatina immediately turned out in force, and has gathered to surround the police station. As of this moment, the Barrick and mining officials are now ‘trapped’ inside, afraid to exit the police station.”

Police forces from the city of Chilecito have since been contacted to support the Famatina police and the agressors.

Further updates (in Spanish) will be posted at http://www.noalamina.org/

‘A Wake for BP’, (ExCel 16.4.09; British Museum 6.5.09)

ART NOT OIL REQUESTS THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY AT ‘A WAKE FOR BP’ AT ITS CENTENARY PARTY, (BRITISH MUSEUM, 6-7PM, 6.5.09)

** dress rehearsal to take place at BP’s 100th AGM, Custom House DLR, 10.30am, 16.4.09 **

ART NOT OIL REQUESTS THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY AT ‘A WAKE FOR BP’ AT ITS CENTENARY PARTY, (BRITISH MUSEUM, 6-7PM, 6.5.09)

** dress rehearsal to take place at BP’s 100th AGM, Custom House DLR, 10.30am, 16.4.09 **

Oil goliath BP, already forced to postpone its centenary party at the British Museum on April 1st, (also known as Fossil Fools Day[1]), has rescheduled the event for May 6th. Art Not Oil[2], the group behind the original demonstration against its ‘tarnished centenary’, will be throwing ‘A Wake for BP’ as guests arrive at the British Museum between 6pm and 7pm on the new date.

As before, people wanting to come and say ‘BP – your party’s over!’ and wish the behemoth a happy last birthday are more than welcome. The British Museum’s main gate on Great Russell Street will find a contingent of the newly-formed Brazen Pranksters playing tunes to usher in a new era of climate justice and ecological sanity.

They will also be warming up between 10.30 and 11.30am outside BP’s 100th AGM at the ExCel Centre on April 16th. There, Art Not Oil hopes to present BP Chairman Peter Sutherland a special ‘I survived BP, but the planet might not’ T-shirt, to commemorate his last AGM with the company, to place alongside his £600,000 2007-8 pay packet. They also plan to wish him a happy low-carbon retirement.

‘This really is a case of “BP100 = World Plundered”, said Art Not Oil’s Jo Castell. ‘Throughout its history, BP has spread the curse of oil wherever it has operated, injuring (and sometimes killing) workers, tearing communities asunder and decimating wildlife. And that’s long before the CO2 from burning the stuff hits the upper atmosphere and wreaks havoc with the climate. Perhaps the most valuable lesson we could learn from the 20th century is that the 21st century will need to see us kick the fossil fuel habit, and pretty damn soon. Art Not Oil would prefer to be in this for the short haul, but either way we’re determined to see BP decommissioned as a central part of that oily cold turkey.’

Sam Chase added that ‘Any company that can boast that it’s replacing “2008 oil production by 121% and aims to grow annual output through to 2020”(4) needs to be decommissioned forthwith, if we’re to have a chance of avoiding climate catastrophe in the not-so-distant future. Fortunately, Art Not Oil is not alone in working for this to happen, as movements of resistance are gathering strength all over the world.’

Notes to editors:

(1) Fossil Fools Day was big and international in 2008 and 2009:
http://www.newint.org/columns/currents/2008/06/01/climate-campaigning;
www.fossilfoolsdayofaction.org

(2) Art Not Oil stands for ‘creativity, climate justice and an end to oil industry sponsorship of the arts’, and is part of Rising Tide UK. Look out for its nigh-on irresistible 2010 desk diary in September!
info@artnotoil.org.uk
07709 545116
www.artnotoil.org.uk
www.risingtide.org.uk

(3) The Carbon Town Cryer has now posted his BP paean ‘Celebrate This!’ here: www.myspace.com/carbontowncryer

(4) What’s Right With BP?
(An edited version of this text is now available on a free Art Not Oil postcard):
* Beyond Petroleum? ‘BP replaces 2008 production by 121% & aims to grow annual output through to 2020’; (BP press release)

* Fossil fuel-induced climate chaos hit Europe in August 2003, killing tens of thousands of mostly older people in record-breaking temperatures. 150,000 may have died worldwide.

* In 2007, BP bought 50% of the Sunrise oil tar sands field in Canada. Tar sands are most polluting of all the fossil fuels. ‘Fund managers attack BP over tar sands plan’, Times, 18.4.08; www.tarsandswatch.org

* ‘Exposed: BP, its pipeline, and an environmental time-bomb’, Independent (26.6.04) on BP’s Baku-Ceyhan oil & gas pipelines, which will produce over 150m tonnes of CO2 each year for 40 years, causing untold damage to the world’s climate; baku.org.uk

* ‘BP doubles corporate ad budget in $150m bid for greener image’, Times, 28.12.05; BP invests 2.6% of its annual budget in solar & other renewable energy sources, much less than it ploughs into advertising and PR like its sponsorship of the Olympics, Tate, NPG, NHM etc.

* ‘BP and Shell have discussed with the government the prospect of claiming a stake in Iraq’s oil reserves in the aftermath of war.’ Financial Times, 11.3.03.

* ‘BP slated for ‘systemic lapses’, FT, 18.8.05; 15 workers were killed and 500 injured in an explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery on March 23rd 2005.

* ‘Oil gushes into Arctic Ocean from BP pipeline’, (265,000 gallons, to be more exact.) Independent, 21.3.06.

* ‘BP profits soar 148%’, Guardian, 28.10.08. ‘Oil giant BP today beat analysts’ forecasts as its reported a 148% surge in third-quarter profits to top $10bn (£6.5bn), boosted by record oil prices.’

* Community-controlled, post-capitalist renewable energy is already a reality; see for example www.escanda.org

…and by the way, Shell’s no better. In fact, they’re all up to no good!

Shell to Sea Good Friday Walk ends with net removal after battle with Shell security.

Shell to Sea supporters on the annual Good Friday Walk, walked to Glengad beach this morning to take action in defence of their community and environment by removing nets over the cliff face in the Special Area of Conservation, despite a battle with Shell Security.

Today, the traditional Good Friday walk took place in both Glengad and Rossport. Over 150 people attended in total. The first walk ended at the site of the Shell compound in Glengad. The group walked together to the Glengad cliff-face and removed netting, recently erected by Shell, intended to stop Sand Martins nesting in the area. This is the eighth time the netting has been removed in the last two weeks by local residents.

Although Eamon Ryan only signed the final consents for work at Glengad yesterday, there were already over 40 security personnel present on the site. They were wearing dark, military-style clothing with no visible identification badges. In scenes reminiscent of last year at Glengad, they used excessive force in dealing with the group, which included elderly people and children.

For around 45 minutes the group attempted to remove the net and the security attempted to stop them … Eventually, a pair of scissors was produced and the net was cut in two. After, everyone left together; there were no arrests.

The action taken today is a demonstration of resistance to come if Shell attempt to recommence work in Glengad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7ZHynY0sKw

Why climate camping & other protest? Ecological debt day for your city…coming soon!

Ecological debt: no way back from bankrupt

While most governments’ eyes are on the banking crisis, a much bigger issue – the environmental crisis – is passing them by, says Andrew Simms. In the Green Room this week, he argues that failure to organise a bailout for ecological debt will have dire consequences for humanity.

“Nature Doesn’t Do Bailouts!” said the banner strung across Bishopsgate in the City of London.

Civilisation’s biggest problem was outlined in five words over the entrance to the small, parallel reality of the peaceful climate camp. Their tents bloomed on the morning of 1 April faster than daisies in spring, and faster than the police could stop them.

Across the city, where the world’s most powerful people met simultaneously at the G20 summit, the same problem was almost completely ignored, meriting only a single, afterthought mention in a long communique.

World leaders dropped everything to tackle the financial debt crisis that spilled from collapsing banks.

Gripped by a panic so complete, there was no policy dogma too deeply engrained to be dug out and instantly discarded. We went from triumphant, finance-driven free market capitalism, to bank nationalisation and moving the decimal point on industry bailouts quicker than you can say sub-prime mortgage.

But the ecological debt crisis, which threatens much more than pension funds and car manufacturers, is left to languish.

It is like having a Commission on Household Renovation agonise over which expensive designer wallpaper to use for papering over plaster cracks whilst ignoring the fact that the walls themselves are collapsing on subsiding foundations.

Beyond our means

Each year, humanity’s ecological overdraft gets larger, and the day that the world as a whole goes into ecological debt – consuming more resources and producing more waste than the biosphere can provide and absorb – moves ever earlier in the year.

The same picture emerges for individual countries like the UK – which now starts living beyond its own environmental means in mid-April.

Because the global economy is still overwhelmingly fossil-fuel dependent, the accumulation of greenhouse gases and the prognosis for global warming remain our best indicators of “overshoot”.

World famous French free-climber Alain Robert, known as Spiderman, climbed the Lloyds of London building for the OneHundredMonths.org campaign as the G20 met, to demonstrate how time is slipping away.

Using thresholds for risk identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), on current trends, in only 92 months – less than eight years – we will move into a new, more perilous phase of warming.

It will then no longer be “likely” that we can prevent some aspects of runaway climate change. We will begin to lose the climatic conditions which, as Nasa scientist James Hansen points out, were those under which civilisation developed.

Small dividend

As “nature doesn’t do bailouts”, how have our politicians fared who ripped open the nation’s wallet to save the banks?

Not good.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the UK spent a staggering 20% of its GDP in support of the financial sector.

Yet the amount of money that was new and additional, announced in the “green stimulus” package of the Treasury’s Pre-Budget Report, added-up to a vanishingly small 0.0083% of GDP.

Globally, the green shade of economic stimulus measures has varied enormously. For example, the shares of spending considered in research by the bank HSBC to be environmental were:

* the US – 12%
* Germany – 13%
* South Korea – 80%

The international average was around 15%. HSBC found the UK planned to invest less than 7% of its stimulus package (different from the bank bailout) in green measures.

Comparing the IMF and HSBC figures actually reveals an inverse relationship – proportionately, those who spent more on support for finance had weaker green spending.

So here we are, faced with the loss of an environment conducive to human civilisation, and we find governments prostrate before barely repentant banks, with their backs to a far worse ecological crisis.

Extreme markets

On top of low and inconsistent funding for renewable energy, the shift to a low carbon economy is being further frustrated by another market failure in the trade for carbon seen, for example, in the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme.

Bad market design, feeble carbon reduction targets and the recession have all conspired to drive down the cost of carbon emission permits, wrecking economic incentives to grow renewable energy.

Worse still, the difficulty of accounting to ensure that permits represent real emissions has led both energy companies and environmentalists to warn of an emerging “sub-prime carbon market”.

Relying on market mechanisms is attractive to governments because it means they have less to do themselves. But they will fail if carbon markets are just hot air.

There seems to be a hard-wired link between memory failure and market failure.

As the historian E J Hobsbawm observed in The Age of Extremes: “Those of us who lived through the years of the Great Slump still find it almost impossible to understand how the orthodoxies of the pure free market, then so obviously discredited, once again came to preside over a global period of depression in the late 1980s and 1990s”.

Perhaps the greatest failure is one of imagination.

Some people alive today lived through those past recessions and depressions. They know they can be nasty and need averting.

But the last time the Earth’s climate really flipped was at the end of the last Ice Age, more than 10,000 years ago. No one can remember what that felt like.

Lessons of history

Looking forward, the IPCC’s worst case scenario warns of a maximum 6C rise over the next century.

Looking back, however, indicates that an unstable climate system holds worse horrors.

Work by the scientist Richard Alley on abrupt climate change indicates the planet has previously experienced a 10C temperature shift in only a decade, and possibly “as quickly as in a single year”.

And, around the turn of the last Ice Age, there were “local warmings as large as 16C”.

Imagine that every day of your life you have taken a walk in the woods and the worse thing to happen was an acorn or twig falling on your head.

Then, one day, you stroll out, look up and there is a threat approaching so large, unexpected and outside your experience that can’t quite believe it, like a massive gothic cathedral falling from the sky.

In tackling climate change we need urgently to recalibrate our responses, just as governments had to when they rescued the reckless finance sector.

Then officials had to ask themselves “is what we are doing right, and is it enough?”

They must ask themselves the same questions on the ecological debt crisis and climate change.

The difference is, that if they fail this time, not even a long-term business cycle will come to our rescue. If the climate shifts to a hotter state not convivial to human society, it could be tens of thousands of years, or never, before it shifts back.

Remember; nature doesn’t do bailouts.

Andrew Simms is policy director of the New Economics Foundation (nef), and author of Ecological Debt: Global Warming and the Wealth of Nations

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One Planet Living http://www.oneplanetliving.org

Your city’s Ecological Debt Day:

Using the latest data available WWF has calculated when residents of British cities will have consumed their fair share of natural resources for 2008 – or when their ecological debt day is.

City Ecological debt day

Winchester 10 April
St Albans 13 April
Chichester 14 April
Brighton & Hove 14 April
Canterbury 17 April
Oxford 17 April
Southampton 21 April
Durham 22 April
Cambridge 23 April
Portsmouth 23 April
Edinburgh 23 April
Chester 24 April
Aberdeen 24 April
Ely (East Cambs) 26 April
Hereford (County of Herefordshire) 28 April
Stirling 28 April
London 29 April
Lichfield 29 April
Lancaster 30 April
Newcastle upon Tyne 30 April
Wells (Bath and NE Somerset) 1 May
Bath (Bath and North East Somerset) 1 May
Ripon (Harrogate) 2 May
Manchester 2 May
Inverness (Highland) 2 May
Preston 2 May
Norwich 2 May
Peterborough 2 May
Dundee City 3 May
Leeds 3 May
York 3 May
Sheffield 3 May
Derby 4 May
Carlisle 4 May
Leicester 4 May
Worcester 4 May
Bangor (Gwynedd) 4 May
St Davids (Pembrokeshire)4 May
Nottingham 4 May
Liverpool 4 May
Bristol 5 May
Birmingham 5 May
Lincoln 5 May
Bradford 5 May
Glasgow 6 May
Cardiff 6 May
Exeter 6 May
Coventry 7 May
Swansea 8 May
Salford 8 May
Wolverhampton 8 May
Truro (Carrick) 8 May
Sunderland 8 May
Wakefield 9 May
Gloucester 9 May
Stoke on Trent 10 May
Kingston upon Hull 10 May
Salisbury 10 May
Plymouth 11 May
Newport 11 May

Lappersfort forest occupation – ongoing Repression in Brugge – 2 people in prison

In the early hours of Wednesday 30th of march, two occupants of the Lappersfort forest protest site were arrested cycling back to the camp. Based on the fact that they had a screwdriver on them and a bike trailer full of food, they are accused of breaking a fence in order to take food from a skip that they never actually visited.

They are currently in prison awaiting a hearing on Friday morning 9:00. There will be a noise demo tomorrow before the court house; those who wish to come, meet us at the train station at 8:00 or come to the forest tonight. In case they don’t get released, there will be another demo in Brugge on Saturday, meeting at 13:00 at the front of the train station. BRING YOURSELF AND YOUR FRIENDS, BRING YOUR NOISE AND WHATEVER YOU WISH!

These arrests are the latest development in the ongoing campaign of repression against the occupants of the protest site. In February one person was arrested for skipping food and was held for 15 days in a high-security prison after refusing to identify himself in court. After the judge in Gent ordered his release, the Lappersfort lawyer is expecting the judge in Brugge to flex his little muscles and try to make an example of the two people in prison.

Other ‘offences’ occupants have been arrested for in the last five months include: Taking scrap wood from a bin, carrying wood chips in wheelbarrows in the street, handing out flyers at a market in the city centre and putting up posters on a legal postering spot.

The Lappersfort occupants see this as an ongoing campaign of repression to try to force them out of the woods and discover as many of their identities as possible. It is also seen as a criminalization of environmental activism, skipping and generally increasing the power of the police state. THIS IS NO LONGER A FIGHT ONLY FOR THE FOREST, BUT ALSO FOR PERSONAL FREEDOM, SELFDETERMINATION AND THE RIGHT TO RECYCLE.

Lappersfort forest has been occupied since September 2008 to prevent it from being cut down to build warehouses, office buildings and a car park. The owner of the land, FABRICOM GTI, entity of energy-giant GDF SUEZ, has until now offered little contact to the occupiers except to say that they insist on going ahead with their destructive project.

The site is under constant eviction threat. People who want to come and live with us to defend the forest are welcome, and visitors too!

Directions from Brugge Train Station: Exit at the back – where all the construction is going on – turn left and follow the road for a while until the roundabout, turn left under the railway bridge. You’ll see the forest soon on your right!

0032 (0) 471 658 544
(For information in dutch – not yet translated nor updated – www.lappersfort.tk)
lappersfort@gmail.com

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update – 3/4/2009
A trial was held today in the Brugge courthouse for the two Lappersfort occupiers, Sophie and Pitree, who were arrested on tuesday night while riding their bicycles back to the forest. Occupiers and other folk went along to the courthouse to make some noise and show solidarity with their friends.

The judge decided they must be detained longer to give the police/repressive scum more time for “further investigation”. They are maintaining their accusation that the two girls had been skipping at the Delhaize in Assebroek, which is obviously made up and is simply being used as an excuse to hold them longer in prison. The only evidence they claim to have is some footprint on the wall by the skip in question.
As this is being written an appeal process is going on, to request a second opinion from another judge. We cant say yet what the results are, but if the appeal is unsuccesfulk the two will have to wait ANOTHER MONTH WITHOUT TRIAL to receive their next judgement….

The developments of police repression against the Lappersfort occupiers in Brugge could not only threaten the action camp and the forest, but may also set precedents for further arrests and charges involving skipping/dumpster diving…WE SEE THIS AS A CLEAR AND ROTTEN ATTEMPT TO CRIMINALISE A WAY OF LIFE, TURN PUBLIC OPINION AGAINST US,TO WEAKEN SUPPORT AND DEMORALISE THE SPIRIT OF THE ACTION CAMP ITSELF….

SO… AS SOPHIE AND PITREE SIT IN PRISON, WE WILL GATHER TOMORROW (SATURDAY) AT 13:00 AT BRUGGE TRAIN STATION AND NOISILY WALK TO THE BRUGGE PRISON, TO SHOW OUR SOLIDARITY WITH OUR FRIENDS, WITH DUMPSTERDIVERS EVERYWHERE, AND AGAINST THE ONGOING REPRESSION BY THE POLICE STATE…..THE FIGHT FOR THE LAPPERSFORT FOREST WILL NOT BE STOPPED BY STUPID ARRESTS AND POINTLESS REPRESSION BY POLICE ANYWHERE…….
after the demo all are invited back to the Lappersfort forest for some yummy hot soup, campfire and all the rest of it, and are welcome to stay as long as they wish…

RE-CYCLE, CREATE, FUCK THE STATE!!!
RED HET BOS!!

Shell to Sea Update from Erris – Shell Nets and Boats at Glengad

Shell has returned to Glengad beach to install nets over the cliff face. This cliff is a sand martin nesting area, and the sand martin nesting season is beginning this month.

Shell has returned to Glengad beach to install nets over the cliff face. This cliff is a sand martin nesting area, and the sand martin nesting season is beginning this month. Birds have been spotted in the area, and although there are some sections of cliff not covered by the nets, the nesting area is severely restricted. The surface of the cliff face is markedly different from years past, after being destroyed last fall during Shell’s failed attempt to bring their raw gas pipeline onshore. For a report on the destruction done to the beach last fall, you can read the Solidarity Camp’s November update here on Earth First! Action Reports.

Two boats were present in Broadhaven Bay today from at least 10am until 4pm. The larger boat moved all around the bay, while the smaller boat mostly stayed close to the green buoy. It is possible that they are carrying out survey works to prepare for the offshore pipe laying. According to Shell’s Environmental Management Plan, Shell may be planning to begin offshore pipe laying in May of this year, using an alternative “wet start” option. From the Environmental Management Plan:

“Alternative “wet start” option
If the dredging of the trench for the nearshore section of the pipeline has not been completed and the pipelay vessel is available to start work an alternative sequence of installation maybe undertaken.
The pipelay vessel will install a marine anchor on the pipeline route in approximately 20 to 25m of water. A wire between this anchor and the leading end of the pipeline will maintain tension in the pipeline and the vessel will start to lay pipe towards the Corrib Field as outlined previously.
Depending upon the progress of the dredging operation, the pipelay vessel may continue and lay all of the line to Corrib. Alternatively, it may suspend its operations part way and return to Broadhaven Bay to complete the pull-in of the landfall section and then pick up the previously laid section before continuing to the field.
If a “wet start” is undertaken, it will be necessary to join the two sections of pipeline together within Broadhaven Bay by lifting the pipe ends above water and welding them together, or completing the weld on the seabed using divers.”

As expected, Shell seems to be gearing up for another attempt at forcing their project ahead without community consent again in 2009. The struggle against Shell continues, following a spirited weekend in Dublin outside Mountjoy Prison in solidarity with Maura Harrington. Maura has been imprisoned for 20 days and has another 8 days yet to serve in her sentence. Another People’s Forum will take place this weekend, with talks on the upcoming US case against Shell’s actions Nigeria, Climate Change, and Corrib Gas Permissions.

The Forum will take place in the Inver Community Center on Saturday, April 4th from 10.30am – 3.30pm. As always, the Solidarity Camp is open to anyone who wants to visit Erris to support the campaign. Contact the Rossport Solidarity Camp: 085 1141170 rossportsolidaritycamp at gmail dot com

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April 2nd, 2009

The netting over the cliff face at Glengad was taken down yesterday by two members of Pobal Chill Chomain, in the presence of a NPWS manager.

Attempts are being made by Belcross contractors this morning (Thursday, 11am) to put the nets back up. They are currently being prevented from finishing this work.

Sand martins and Brent geese are present on the beach.

Two boats, possibly survey boats, are in Broadhaven Bay.

Beautiful day on the beach!