Eastern England – Page 10

Hot off the press and packed with Direct Action – the new Earth First! Action Update is out!

Rebellion, a spark in search of a powder keg – the new Action Update is out, the quarterly round-up of ecological direct action from the UK and beyond.

What’s in this issue?

Rebellion, a spark in search of a powder keg – the new Action Update is out, the quarterly round-up of ecological direct action from the UK and beyond.

What’s in this issue?
Old King Coal meets his Match, but the Nuclear Empire Strikes Back! Read tales of flotillas, bishop-bashing, blockades and occupations as the Rebel Alliance takes on the Empire. The rebels have also been hanging around in nets and on platforms, occupying and locking-on at coal terminals, and passionately attacking power station fences around the world, trying to shut ’em down. Mainshill protest camp continues to pro-actively resist open-cast mining – they climb, occupy, and by night, anonymous pixies sabotage. Who knows when they sleep – with a strong alliance with local villagers, they welcome YOU to come and play anytime, with a gathering at the end of October.

Want more? Radio-towers toppled, dams and trucks seized, naked oil streaks and green smears in defence of the wild, a shit dumped with shit…resistance to peat mining, genetic engineering, logging and Shell in Ireland, and for Vestas wind turbine factory and workers on the Isle of Wight.

Still not enough? Stopping Tesco, climate campaigning successes, runway invasions, more ecotage, and the EF! Winter Moot, plus contacts and upcoming dates.

To download your copy go to this website:

http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/efau/actionupdate_oct09.pdf

If you want paper copies to distribute, contact us at: actionupdate@earthfirst.org.uk or pick up a bunch from our stall at the Anarchist Bookfair in London. To print your own, download from http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/efau/actionupdate_oct09print.pdf

Wanted: We are very skint! Please send us some dosh to help us pay for the printing.
Cheques can be made out to Earth First! Action Update, and posted to The Basement, 78a Penny St, Lancaster LA1 1XN

Love and Rage
Your Action Update collective

Hit the Production of Climate Chaos – get involved – 13th December call for actions

The climate catastrophe has not happened by random chance and the melting glacier is not its place. Our economic system, the way it produces goods, and the way they are transported and finally consumed is the root of climate change.

We do not believe that this COP will solve the climate crisis. The delegates, NGOs and company representatives are stuck in an ideology of never ending economic growth and universal market solutions to all human-made problems, such as ecological destruction. Social justice issues are consequently ignored.

On December 13th we call for action on this economic system. We encourage affinity groups to take action on targets in Copenhagen, and abroad. In the Morning of December 13th we will also shut down the harbour of Copenhagen through a mass action blockade. The harbour is a key symbol of the global free-market economy. Here becomes visible what is usually hidden: ecological deterioration, economic and social exploitation, and utter injustice.

Since the dawn of colonialism the global shipping industry has been characterized by violence. What was once gold pillaged from the Incas is these days profit based on cheap resources and cheap labour – usually transported by ships. Today, container shipping is one of the foundations of capitalism. There are hardly any regulations: fuel is not taxed, emissions are not subject to control and borders are seemingly non-existent for container ships. At the same time, the never ending need for more cheap goods is almost limitless. The ‘free’ global flow of goods continues to grow – with benefits for only the few.

But whereas these flows of goods can enter the EU/ rich world freely, humans cannot. As soon as people do not have the right passport or enough money when entering rich countries, they are put in prisons, deported and deprived of the most basic human rights. And the militarisation of the seas is not just happening around the EU borders. It is also used to protect international shipping, like in Somalia where international fishing fleets have robbed Somali fishermen of the fundamental elements of their existence.

Finally, international shipping is more than just a method of transport for the global economy. It is in itself a primary cause of climate change. Approximately 5% of Global Greenhouse Emissions are produced by the shipping industry. Container ship fuel is basically toxic waste left over from petrol production, containing high amounts of sulphur and mercury. And like international flights, nobody is responsible for shipping industry emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.

Climate justice and real social change will not come from above. Effective change has to come from everyone – affected, responsible, and observer. True change has to be organized and realized by people all over the world – all people on the streets and in the fields. We say no to the power of governments, companies and so-called non-government organisations which are only interested in maintaining their power, influence and flows of capital.

We will try to stop this madness for a day. Fighting for climate justice means changing our economic system and this needs to happen here in the rich global north, which reaps the most benefits from the disaster. For the free flow of people and ideas, instead of flows of goods to benefit the few.

Contact htp@riseup.net to get involved with planning the action, or come to one of our next meetings: Berlin October 3-4 & Copenhagen October 18.

SHAC’s Operation Liberation – Open Letter to the Cops!

– VIDEO OF POLICE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgV8p1KavSk

An open letter to all police officers involved in the policing of SHAC’s Operation Liberation protest on 26th September 2009.

Dear Police,

– VIDEO OF POLICE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgV8p1KavSk

An open letter to all police officers involved in the policing of SHAC’s Operation Liberation protest on 26th September 2009.

Dear Police,

Yesterday protesters from around the country came together to take part in Operation Liberation a protest organized by SHAC as part of a campaign to close down Highgate Farm who breed rabbits and ferrets for animal testing.

The police on the day did not let the protesters go down to the farm and the protest was a static demo away from both the farm and the village. You used an unmanned drone to observe the demo as well as lines of cops and police vans all around us. While it has been argued in the past that drones would be used to limit police numbers the number of police was huge. You drew a line on the path and wouldn’t let anyone past it. One officer even move people back who’s shoes were slightly over the line another push someone back without even asking the protester to move!

The police seem intent on provoking another Newchurch by preventing effective peaceful protest and building up anger by antagonising the national animal rights movement. If you want to show people that keeping to cooperative protest is a good idea, putting them at the end of a lane away from their target and being totally inflexible isn’t a great way of going about it!

I know there are some police trying to avoid another Newchurch. However it seems you have been manipulated by a particularly extreme element in your ranks that needs to provoke the movement to keep its funding. NETCU and similar units seem to be in a very bad way in terms of resources and in this recession they need to manipulate you to keep the funds flowing away from your local policing priorities and to line the pockets of there cosy little number. They don’t want to see the movement cooperating with you because that will make them unnecessary.

Many of you may already be angry that money has in the past been wasted on such units. Do you really want funds to be taken from you and used to sent a car of two or more specialist officers from faraway to a small peaceful protest that could easily be dealt with by your beat bobby (or PCSO) in two minutes flat?

You have probably been told that the animal rights movement has been frozen by the SHAC trials, this is not the case. The movement is getting up, shaking itself down and deciding it’s direction. Where are you going to push it towards?

See you on the streets,

An activist.
—————-
This does not necessarily represent the views of everyone at Animal Rights Cambridge. Animal Rights Cambridge has no leaders.

Animal Rights Cambridge
http://animalrightscambridge.webs.com/

DSEi Arms Fair Exhibitor and SHAC Protests in Cambridge

On the 8th of September 2009 protesters headed to two Cambridge targets named in the map of DSEi arms fair exhibitors and the Cambridge office of BDO who have given a massive loan to the most exposed animal testing lab in the world Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).

The arms trade leads to the death of humans and non-human animals alike and the protesters want to show there cross movement solidarity with all movements fighting for a just and kind world. HLS test sweetener, GMOs and pesticides on animals and has a history of animal welfare violations and falsifying data.

Watch the protests here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPeHU8TBKNo

The small group of protesters headed to…

DESi Exhibitor: Mott MacDonald
Demeter House, Station Road Cambridge CB1 2RS

Arriving at reception protesters told the lady at the desk why they where there and asked to speak to the manager. But the manager didn’t want to talk.

Protesters decided to hold a protest in the reception area and unfurled a banner which the receptionist promptly folded over with protesters promptly re-opening it again! After a bit a staff member decided to drag the protesters out. He began dragging a protester across the floor ripping the protesters t-shirt. The staff member then stop to grabbed a female protester pushing her out the door. The remaining campaigners held on to each other staying in the office as the staff member tried to pull them across the floor.

The manager of the Cambridge office came down because of all the commotion and told the staff member to stop. The protesters sat down with him and have a long discussion with him about the arms trade. He apologised to us for the staff member who attacked us and admitted he wouldn’t have spoke to us apart from because of what happened. He said he would be filling in paperwork to inform the company about the protest.

HLS (animal lab) Finance: BDO Stoy Hayward – Cambridge
Clarendon House Clarendon Road Cambridge CB2 8FH

Protesters went to the doors of the office block BDO is located in and pushed the buzzer and told the company who they were. An assistant popped down and spoke to them and said he didn’t know anything about it and said he didn’t agree with the cruelty they described to him. He went back up to his office, but the protesters didn’t really feel there issue had been addressed so they went up as well.

A security guard stopped them and protesters explained they just wanted to speak to the people in the office. He didn’t let them go up but did let them wait in the reception area while the company phoned head office. One cop turned up and the security guard said the protesters had been peaceful and went to check about BDO who now said it was nothing to do with the Cambridge office but they didn’t know about the rest of the company! Protesters explained that wasn’t good enough and went outside to voice our opposition on the megaphone.

BDO’s Cambridge office now know about the issue and now have a chance to act and tell their bosses to withdraw the massive loan that is helping keep HLS afloat.

DESi Exhibitor: Atkins
5 Wellbrook Court Girton Road Cambridge CB3 0NA

Campaigners headed to the office of Akins to let them know they object to their company’s involvement in the arms trade. The site manager came and spoke to them and the protesters told him why they were there. His attitude didn’t seem great, but he listened. Protesters unfurled their banner and staff rang the police.

They explained to the manager that they wanted him to contact Head Office to let them know about their objections he refused at first, even referring to the protesters as terrorists at one point when they said trespass was a civil matter, but eventually phoned his head office.

The police arrived and told the manager to tell protesters to leave so they left. The police asked for protesters details but were denied them.

Animal Rights Cambridge
– Homepage: http://animalrightscambridge.webs.com/

GM Round-Up: Ready? Global sabotage the answer

Despite the European Food Safety Authority and of course Monsanto declaring MON 810 maize to be safe, Germany and France in Spring of this year banned the cultivation of this genetically modified crop. It was the only GM crop permitted in Germany. There are very active opposition movements in both countries – ripping up GM crops both at night and by day, occupying fields were it was due to be planted and other wide-scale protests.

In June in Germany, two hundred and seventy apple trees on a trial site owned by the Institute for Breeding Research on Horticultural and Fruit Crops of the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) in Dresden-Pillnitz were destroyed by unknown intruders. Most of the trees were genetically modified plants being grown in tubs in a special safety tent under field-like conditions. It is the first time that protesters have destroyed plants that were not being grown in the field.

According to a press release by the JKI, the tent fabric was cut open and all of the trees, which were about seven years old, were either snapped by hand or cut with pruning shears above the graft. The institute estimates the cost of the damage to be around EUR 700 000. Around ten years of research work has been destroyed.

Meanwhile, in Spain 80,000 hectares of GM maize are grown, mostly in Zaragoza and Catalonia. Thousands of people took to the streets this Spring to protest against Spain being the GM dustbin of Europe.

The UK government continues to spout recycled (from 10 years ago) industry nonsense claims about feeding the world, solving climate change and generally saving humanity. Scottish and Welsh politicians remain opposed to GM however.

In the UK BASF – who have been trying to grow GM potatoes over the last couple of years – didn’t bother this year. There have been critical reports over their antibiotic-marker GM potatoes, and the company is preparing itself for a hostile takeover bid. More info: decision not to plant this year | takeover threat

However, there are claims that a trial was grown in secret, and a Welsh GM industry-funded farmer continues to try to provoke through claiming to grow GM.

In April in Poland, anti-GM campaigners from GMO-Free Poland went on hunger strike for 3 weeks, wringing a minor concession out of the government.

Protest in India against GM corn led to a large number of arrests, with 35 arrested in other protests there against GM rice.

And on 19th August 2009 in Iceland, genetically-modified barley, which was being grown for experimental purposes in Gunnarsholt, south Iceland, by start-up company ORF Liftaekni, was damaged by a group of activists in the early hours of Wednesday. There will be no harvest this fall. The CEO said: “For a small company like ours, which is struggling in the difficult innovation environment, this is a serious matter.” The group of activists, which calls itself Illgresi (Weed), sent an anonymous email to the media, claiming responsibility for the sabotage.

EF! summer gathering – exact location, travel info & updated workshop programme announced; coal-blighted communities visit

Earth First! Summer Gathering, 18th-24th August 2009, Cumbria

Never has halting the destruction of our planet been so important… Learn how to make them stop!

The gathering this year will be held at Seathwaite in the beautiful Borrowdale. The site is right in the heart of the Lake District and surrounded by mountains, streams and tarns. The nearest train station is Penrith. More detailed directions, public transport, walks & cycle rides to the site

Workshop programme in a variety of formats

Earth First! Summer Gathering, 18th-24th August 2009, Cumbria

Never has halting the destruction of our planet been so important… Learn how to make them stop!

Workshop programme in a variety of formats

WHO
Earth First! is a network of people and campaigns who fight ecological destruction and the forces driving it. We believe in doing it ourselves rather than relying on governments or industry. Direct action is at the heart of what we do, whether we’re standing in front of a bulldozer, shutting down an opencast mine or ripping up a field of GM crops.

Join us for 5 days of workshops, networking and planning actions at a low impact eco-living camp organised non-hierarchically

WHAT
Planning actions and campaigns, meeting and sharing skills with others who care. Over 80 training workshops plus games and evening fun:
• Learn skills for direct action. Tree Climbing, Orienteering, Security for activists, Legal briefing, Escaping public order situations, street medics – first aid, self defence, Boat blockading using kayaks, radio procedures and rock abseiling.
• Network your campaign against ecological destruction. opencast mining, genetic engineering, agrofuels, dam-building, hunt-sabbing, climate actions, oil pipeline resistance, road stopping, anti-whaling, squatting, rainforest protection.
• Learn about ecology, ecocentric ethics and alternatives to the corporate world of exploitation.
• Practical skills for ecological restoration and sustainable living, field trips and hands-on work.

YOU
We are all crew! This is your gathering come prepared to help run the camp and contribute to the programme. Contact us in advance with ideas for workshops, help with organising the gathering, come early to help setup the site or stay on for a couple of days for takedown.
If you can help get in touch!

BRING
Bring tent and sleeping bag. You can either cook food for yourself or for £4 per day chip in with collective cooking of delicious vegan organic food. There’ll be quiet sleeping areas, toilets and running water, a children’s space and spaces for workshops and info stalls.
Veggies will provide vegan cake and snacks. Children and young adults welcome with subsidized meals.

Arrive Tues pm. Workshops from Wed am until Sun pm.

Loads of campaigns are taking to the water in defence of the planet, like at Rossport where Shell are trying to lay onshore pipelines and the Great Rebel Raft Regatta at last summers climate camp. This summer’s EF! gathering will be building on these tactics with training in water based actions.

An excursion to visit communities in the North East threatened by an expansion of coal mining on Monday 24th August. Visit beautiful valleys and strong spirited communities and make links for ongoing resistance.

We aim to make the site as accessible as we can please contact us in advance if you have special needs, questions or concerns.

WHERE
The site is near in the Lake District, Cumbria. The nearest train station is Penrith and there is a bus service to the site, there are car and living vehicle spaces outside the camp.

Dogs: We are fortunate this year to be able to accommodate well behaved owners with dogs on leads but think about whether your dog will feel comfortable in workshops. Please call beforehand so we know numbers.

Cost: £20 – £30 according to what you can afford. We are not for profit all extra cash goes to help fund next year. Under 14’s free.

For more info contact us at :
summergathering@earthfirst.org.uk
www.earthfirstgathering.org.uk

Latest EF! Action Update bursts forth

Car tyres deflate in the night, diggers halted in their tracks, buildings and MPs covered in slime…airports plagued by crazy golf, picnics, city gents and hostage-taking…eco-villages and other autonomous spaces sprout, as others are under threat…tree-sits, banks evicted, fake phone-masts and whaling ships sunk….it must be time for another Earth First! Action Update, bringing you a concentrated quarterly blast of inspiration and contacts to get out there and take direct action against the bastards threatening this planet and its inhabitants.

News from the front-lines – permanent protest camps old and new, and temporary gatherings in a field near you, all the dates and info you need for a summer of blistering action and torrential outpourings!

Successes here, across the pond and round the very other side of the world.

Successes here, across the pond and round the very other side of the world.

A report back from the Coal Caravan, plus info about the communities along its route.

Court news – what happened after protesters planned to shut a coal-fired power plant, and climbed atop a train, plus handy Security Tips for Going on Actions.

Leaving it All in the Ground – news of global fights against the mining of gold, copper, bauxite and aluminium – blockading, torching and night-time pixieing.

A View from the Trees – a story from our eco-centric cousins. And indigenous Peruvians fight on against the wholesale onslaught on our world.

And a round-up of your favourite public order situations – G20, SmashEDO and Athenian rubbish dumps!

Read, download and print it here, subscribe so you get it direct to your door, or look out for it at a climate camp near you.

If you want to be listed or get a bunch of them to distribute, please get in touch.

Share your inspirational news at EF! Action Reports, and it’ll find it’s way into your very own printed EF!AU, in good old black and white print.

Local Writer Stops Council Hedge Cutting

This small, local action was carried out on the spur of the moment, but worked and probably saved the lives of hundreds of nesting birds and other inhabitants of the hedgerow ecology. Just goes to show that anyone can do it if they care enough – you don’t always need chains and tubes.

———-

NATURE-LOVING Keith Farnish stood in front of tractors to stop them getting to birds nesting in hedges.

And Keith’s defiance has managed to halt a council hedge-cutting project in his local park.

Keith, 38, sprung into action when he spotted council contractors lopping two foot off the top of hedgerows, as he walked home through Sweyne Park, Rayleigh.

It stopped workers in their tracks, and Rochford District Council has now decided to call off the whole project until the end of the nesting season.

Writer and dad-of-two Keith, who lives in nearby Eastcheap, is delighted.

He said: “That’s brilliant news.Obviously, the council needs to review its policy so it won’t happen again.

“It’s so important the council takes into accounts patterns of nature.

“It was about three miles of hedgerow they would have massacred and it would have destroyed nesting birds. Sweyne Park is the only green lung that Rayleigh has.”

Keith said the hedges are used by sparrows, blackbirds and robins, and about 20 metres had been cut down by the time he arrived after dropping off his children at school.

He said: “It’s just pure chance I happened to be there and saw them. I said to the contractors that I will just stand in front of your machinery until you go.

“These guys seemed OK though I got their goat a bit. The manager told me they will just have to pack up and go somewhere else.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever stood in front of machinery. It’s just something I had to do.

“I felt empowered because it was the right thing to do. I didn’t feel threatened at all.”

(from http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local_news/rayleigh/4431250.Keith_makes_a_stand_to_protect_bird_nests/)

New Social Centre/Ecovillage To Be Occupied In Suffolk/Essex Area

Want to get involved?

This weekend we will be occupying a property in the Suffolk/Essex area in order to start an ecovillage. It’s got many acres of land attached, and various groups will hopefully be coming to give workshops on climate change, sharing various skills and activism.

Want to get involved?

If you want to get involved in the occupation, would like to come and live there, get in any of the activities, or have something you would like to teach, please email cocklehorsecrab@googlemail.com

McLibel McVictory Protest: Sunday 21st June

Put this in your diary and be there if you are against McDonalds for any reason! Health! Globalisation! Human Rights! The Environment! Animals! Freedom to Protest!

United against McDonalds! One Struggle, One Fight!

McLibel Anniversary Protest:
Sunday 21st June 09′
Meet 12 noon, McDonalds Rose Crescent Cambridge.
All welcome!

Put this in your diary and be there if you are against McDonalds for any reason! Health! Globalisation! Human Rights! The Environment! Animals! Freedom to Protest!

United against McDonalds! One Struggle, One Fight!

McLibel Anniversary Protest:
Sunday 21st June 09′
Meet 12 noon, McDonalds Rose Crescent Cambridge.
All welcome!

Why?
Victory #1: In 1997 activists won the now famous McLibel victory after the company sued 2 campaigners for handing out leaflets about the company’s controversial corporate practices. The Court found that McDonald’s marketing has “pretended to a positive nutritional benefit which their food did not match”; that they “exploit children”; are “culpably responsible for animal cruelty” and “pay low wages”.

More: http://www.mcspotlight.org/

Victory #2: This year in a much smaller local case, an activist was cleared after a walk in protest at McDonalds for the 2008 anniversary of the McLibel case. Police arrested the activist under the Public Order Act. But the court found that the campaigner did not break the criminal law and was exercising freedom of speech. A small McVictory for protest!

More: https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/cambridge/2009/04/429034.html