50 Turkeys Liberated For Sarah Whitehead

“Ani­mal lib­er­a­tion vol­un­teers are claim­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty for the direct inter­ven­tion in the ani­mal farm­ing indus­try, as an act of sol­i­dar­i­ty with Sarah White­head who is cur­rent­ly behind bars for doing the right thing.

“Ani­mal lib­er­a­tion vol­un­teers are claim­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty for the direct inter­ven­tion in the ani­mal farm­ing indus­try, as an act of sol­i­dar­i­ty with Sarah White­head who is cur­rent­ly behind bars for doing the right thing. While Sarah remains locked in her cell for free­ing ani­mals from pain and mis­ery, vol­un­teers suc­cess­ful­ly lib­er­at­ed 50 Turkeys from an East­ern fac­to­ry farm.

This action means these sen­tient beings were spared from con­stant suf­fer­ing, their lives des­tined to be cut short with the blade of slaugh­ter­house machin­ery. No longer will their exis­tence be to fill the mouths of a sali­vat­ing and greedy nation. They now exist as val­ued indi­vid­u­als, remain­ing hap­py and free.

Love and lib­er­a­tion for Sarah and all oth­er cap­tive indi­vid­u­als!
Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Front”

Anony­mous com­mu­nique report­ed by Bite Back Mag­a­zine

Camp for Climate Action: mass action promo video, Heathrow conference & newspaper

CLIMATE CAMP MASS ACTION PROMO VIDEO

How to take down the fences at Kingsnorth & have fun while you’re at it! Watch it & for­ward to your mates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVaUYVF-Cfk

CLIMATE CAMP MASS ACTION PROMO VIDEO

How to take down the fences at Kingsnorth & have fun while you’re at it! Watch it & for­ward to your mates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVaUYVF-Cfk

—-

Cli­mate Camp goes back to Heathrow
Heathrow Con­fer­ence
Sat­ur­day 26th July, 12 noon — 5pm,
Har­ling­ton Bap­tist Church,
High St, Har­ling­ton

All Wel­come

Last August thou­sands of peo­ple spent a week camp­ing in a field in the vil­lage of Sip­son, which would be destroyed if Heathrow expan­sion went ahead, to draw atten­tion to the threat of cli­mate change. The event trans­formed Heathrow expan­sion into a nation­al and even inter­na­tion­al debate on how we respond to cli­mate change.

While this year we are con­cen­trat­ing our efforts at Kingsnorth where ener­gy giant E.ON the Gov­ern­ment is propos­ing to build a new coal-fired pow­er sta­tion, we have not for­got­ten Heathrow. So, we decid­ed to organ­ise a con­fer­ence to dis­cuss with local res­i­dents and envi­ron­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions the next steps in the cam­paign to stop Heathrow expan­sion, titled:

“What do we do if the worst comes to the worst and the Gov­ern­ment says ‘yes’?

The con­fer­ence brings togeth­er the Camp for Cli­mate Action, local cam­paign groups HACAN and NoTRAG (No Third Run­way Action Group), and Green­peace to dis­cuss a broad strat­e­gy against expan­sion. This is the first time that local cam­paign groups and inter­na­tion­al envi­ron­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions have teamed up with the Camp for Cli­mate Action to stage an event. We see this cross-fer­til­i­sa­tion of ideas and expe­ri­ence as essen­tial parts of Cli­mate Camp strat­e­gy to devel­op a diverse social move­ment against cli­mate change and for social jus­tice.

The con­fer­ence will focus on fus­ing our dif­fer­ent ideas on how to stop expan­sion, from polit­i­cal lob­by­ing to mass direct action, so we can all sup­port each oth­ers efforts. More than that, we hope that we can learn from each oth­er and devel­op new ideas that can have broad appeal.

The day will begin at 12 noon with short intro­duc­to­ry talks on the lat­est state of play, on the impli­ca­tions of expan­sion for noise, cli­mate change and com­mu­ni­ty destruc­tion, and around ideas for effec­tive cam­paign­ing. After lunch, the bulk of the day will involve more struc­tured dis­cus­sions around mov­ing for­ward togeth­er, fol­lowed by a final ple­nary ses­sion.

We’ve had con­for­ma­tion that in addi­tion to many cli­mate campers and local res­i­dents, politi­cians and trade union­ists will be attend­ing, so it looks like being an excit­ing event!

The fol­low­ing day Camp for Cli­mate Action will set off in ‘a cli­mate car­a­van’ on their jour­ney to Kingsnorth in Kent where this year’s camp will be held.

Direc­tions to the Con­fer­ence are:

Heathrow Con­fer­ence
Har­ling­ton Bap­tist Church,
High St, Har­ling­ton

About 8 min­utes walk from Bath Road.
Take the 90 bus from Feltham, Hat­ton Cross or Hayes and Har­ling­ton Sta­tion;
Or take the 140 from Heathrow or Hayes and Har­ling­ton Sta­tion
Or the H98 from Houn­slow, Cran­ford or Hayes and Har­ling­ton Sta­tion.- all stop out­side the church.

NB there is only lim­it­ed park­ing avail­able.

The event is free but small dona­tions on the day towards lunch and venue hire will be wel­come!

Feel free to just turn up but it would be ide­al if you could let us know before if you will be com­ing. Email info@hacan.org.uk or call John Stew­art on 020 7737 6641

—-

Cli­mate camp news­pa­per [5.3MB] at http://climatecamp.org.uk/themes/ccamptheme/files/paper.pdf

Spirit of Freedom (July 2008)

Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“The whole expe­ri­ence has been tough, but all the kind and strength­en­ing words and wise thoughts from strangers made it much eas­i­er!” (For­mer Swedish Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Prisoner Solidarity 8Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“The whole expe­ri­ence has been tough, but all the kind and strength­en­ing words and wise thoughts from strangers made it much eas­i­er!” (For­mer Swedish Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Wel­come to the July 2008 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. As a num­ber of ELP sup­port­ers will be aware, ELP has tra­di­tion­al­ly ded­i­cat­ed our newslet­ters to fall­en friends, who have either been killed or seri­ous­ly injured as a result of their protest activ­i­ties. For the past few months ELP has­n’t car­ried any ded­i­ca­tion and we hoped that we would not have to ded­i­cate anoth­er newslet­ter to a fall­en friend again. How­ev­er last month, ELP received the heart­break­ing news about the death of Marie Vesco. Marie was a French activist liv­ing in Eng­land. She was involved with a num­ber of groups includ­ing ‘Food Not Bombs’. On Wednes­day the 4th of June 2008 Marie was cycling to the Car­ni­val Against the Arms Trade when a Four Wheel Dri­ve
vehi­cle (an SUV if your Amer­i­can) swerved across two lanes hit­ting Marie. A sec­ond vehi­cle then also hit Marie. Marie died instant­ly: she was just a few days away from her 20th birth­day. Marie is remem­bered as a warm, loud, fun, viva­cious fig­ure with an infec­tious laugh that was always ready to help oth­ers. ELP under­stands that at least two Crit­i­cal Mass cycle rides have already been ded­i­cat­ed to Marie. Like­wise in mem­o­ry of Marie ELP is ded­i­cat­ing this newslet­ter to her mem­o­ry. The loss of Marie is a blow for the move­ment and our thoughts are with her fam­i­ly and friends.

ECO-DEFENCE PRISONERS

Tre Arrow, SWIS #640393, Mult­nom­ah Coun­ty Deten­tion Cen­ter, 1120 S.W. 3rd Avenue, Port­land, Ore­gon 97206, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing of six and a half years impris­on­ment hav­ing reached a non-coop­er­a­tion plea-bar­gain with the author­i­ties who accuse him of involve­ment in two arsons. 1) an arson on log­ging trucks 2) an arson on vehi­cles owned by a sand & grav­el com­pa­ny. (Tre is a raw ener­gy veg­an — He has asked that his let­ters of sup­port are writ­ten on scrap paper or tree-free paper).

Grant Barnes #137563, San Car­los Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty, PO Box 3, Pueblo, CO 81002, USA. Serv­ing 12 years for set­ting fire to a num­ber of SUV vehi­cles. The let­ters ELF were spray paint­ed onto all of the vehi­cles. (Grant is a veg­an).

Nathan Block, #36359–086, FCI Lom­poc, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, 3600 Guard Road, Lom­poc, CA 93436, USA. Serv­ing 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Diet unknown).

Mar­co Camenisch, Post­fach 3143, CH-8105 Regens­dorf, Switzer­land. Serv­ing 18 years. 1) Ten years for using explo­sives to destroy elec­tric­i­ty pylons lead­ing from nuclear pow­er sta­tions. 2) Eight years for the mur­der of a Swiss Board­er Guard whilst on the run. In ’02 Mar­co com­plet­ed a 12-year sen­tence in Italy for destroy­ing elec­tric­i­ty pylons in Italy. (Mar­co is a meat eater who encour­ages organ­ic liv­ing).

Daniele Casali­ni, Casa Cir­con­dar­i­ale, Via Burla 59, 43100 Par­ma, Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy. (Daniele is a veg­an).

Rod Coro­n­a­do — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Francesco Gioia, C.C. Sol­lic­ciano, Via Giro­lamo Min­ervi­ni 2/R, 50142 Firen­ze Sol­lic­ciano (FI), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy. (Francesco is a veg­e­tar­i­an and Straight Edge).

Pao­la Gori, Via delle Mac­chie 9, 57124 Livorno, Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of allow­ing her house to be used to plan ille­gal activ­i­ty. (Pao­la is a veg­an).

Jef­frey Luers, # 13797671, CRCI, 9111 NE Sun­der­land Ave, Port­land, OR 97211–1708, USA. Serv­ing 10 years for arson on a SUV deal­er­ship & the attempt­ed arson of an oil truck. The orig­i­nal sen­tence was 22 years & 8 months, but was reduced on appeal. (Diet unknown).

Eric McDavid, 16209–097. FCI Vic­torville Medi­um II, PO BOX 5700, Ade­lan­to, CA 92301, USA. Serv­ing 19 years & 7 months for plan­ning to destroy the prop­er­ty of the U.S. Forestry Ser­vice, mobile phone masts and pow­er plants. At the point of his arrest no crim­i­nal dam­age has actu­al­ly occurred. (Eric is a veg­an).

Daniel McGowan, Colum­bia Coun­ty Jail, 403 Jack­son Street, Portage, Wis­con­sin 53901, USA. Serv­ing 7 years for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an old growth log­ging cor­po­ra­tion. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Daniel is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

Jonathan Paul — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Bri­ana Waters, 36432–086, FDC — Seat­ac, Fed­er­al Deten­tion Cen­ter, P.O. Box 13900, Seat­tle, WA 98198, USA. Serv­ing six years for involve­ment in an ELF arson on a Uni­ver­si­ty. (Diet unknown).

Joy­an­na Zach­er, #36360–086, FCI Dublin, 5700 8th St.- Camp Parks- Unit F, Dublin, CA 94568, USA. Serv­ing 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted her role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Diet unknown).

ANIMAL LIBERATION PRISONERS
(All Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers fol­low a min­i­mum veg­e­tar­i­an diet and most are veg­an).

Jon Able­white TB4885, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA, Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion. (Jon is a veg­an).

Gregg Avery TA7450, HMP Win­ches­ter, Rom­sey Road, Win­ches­ter, SO22 5DF, Eng­land. On remand accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to his involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (Gregg is a veg­an).

Natasha Avery NR8987, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx. TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. Jailed for breach­ing her parole con­di­tions imposed on her for telling a fox hunt­ing mur­der­ing scum what she thought of them. Also await­ing tri­al accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to her involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (Nat is a veg­an).

Mel Broughton TN9138, HMP Wood­hill, Tat­ten­hoe Street, Mil­ton Keynes, Bucks MK4 4DA, Eng­land. On remand accused of involve­ment with an arson and black­mail cam­paign against an Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty vivi­sec­tion estab­lish­ment. (Mel is a veg­an).

Mar­tin Bal­luch, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Mar­tin is a veg­an)

Christoph, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Christo­pher does not wish to have his full name pub­lished.

Jacob Con­roy #93501–011, FCI Vic­torville Medi­um I Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, P.O. Box 5300, Ade­lan­to, CA 92301, USA. Serv­ing 48 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Jake is a veg­an).

Rod­ney Coro­n­a­do #03895–000, FCI El Reno, PO Box 1500, El Reno, OK 73036, USA. Serv­ing one-year impris­on­ment after he informed peo­ple how to make an incen­di­ary device dur­ing a speech at an ani­mal rights gath­er­ing. (Rod is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

Don­ald Cur­rie A3660AA, HMP Parkhurst, New­port, Isle of Wight, PO30 5NX, Eng­land. Serv­ing an Inde­ter­mi­nate Sen­tence, of not less than six actu­al years, for car­ry­ing out arsons against tar­gets asso­ci­at­ed the vivi­sec­tion indus­try includ­ing HLS. (Don is a veg­an).

Lau­ren Gaz­zo­la #93497–011, FCI Dan­bury, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, Route #37Danbury, CT 06811, USA. Serv­ing 54 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Lau­ren is a veg­an).

Sarah Gis­borne, LT5393, HMP Down­view, Sut­ton Lane, Sut­ton, Sur­rey, SM2 5PD, Eng­land. Serv­ing 5½ years for con­spir­a­cy to cause crim­i­nal dam­age fol­low­ing the dam­ag­ing of 8 vehi­cles owned by peo­ple linked to Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ence. Due for release at the end of July (Sarah is a veg­an).

Joshua Harp­er #29429–086, FCI Sheri­dan Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, P.O. Box 5000, Sheri­dan, OR 97378 USA. Serv­ing 36 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Josh is a veg­an).

Jan, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an ‘s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Jan does not wish to have his full name pub­lished.

Kevin Kroem­mer, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Kevin is a veg­an)

Leo, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Leo does not wish to have his full name pub­lished.

Sabine, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Sabine does not wish to have their full name pub­lished.

Sean Kirt­ley WC 6977, HM Prison Blak­en­hurst, Hewell Lane, Red­ditch, B97 6QS, Eng­land. Serv­ing four and a half years for run­ning an anti-vivi­sec­tion cam­paign web­site. (Sean is a veg­an).

Kevin Kjon­aas #93502–011, FCI Sand­stone, PO Box 1000, Sand­stone, MN 55072 USA. Serv­ing 72 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Kevin is a veg­an).

Daniel McGowan — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

Heather Nichol­son VM4859, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx. TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. On remand accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to her involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (Heather is a veg­an).

Jonathan Paul, #07167–085, FCI Phoenix, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, 37910 N 45th Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85086, USA. Sen­tenced to 51 months for an ALF arson on a horse meat plant. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Jonathan is a veg­an).

Andrew Stepan­ian #26399–050, FCI But­ner Medi­um II Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, PO Box 1500, But­ner, NC 27509 USA. Serv­ing 36 months for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Andrew is a veg­an).

Ker­ry Whit­burn TB4886, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA, Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion. (Ker­ry is a veg­an).

Sarah White­head, VM7684, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx, TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. Serv­ing two years for: 1) res­cu­ing a pup­py from hor­rif­ic con­di­tions. 2) res­cu­ing over 100 ani­mals from a pet breed­er who was lat­er pros­e­cut­ed for ani­mal abuse. Also await­ing tri­al for SHAC activ­i­ty. (Sarah is a veg­an)

PLOUGHSHARES PRISONERS

Helen Wood­son, 03231–045, FMC Car­swell — Admin. Max. Unit, POB 27137, Ft. Worth, TX 76127, USA. Serv­ing 8 years 10 months for actions that focused on the inter­re­la­tion­ship of war & the destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al world. The actions includ­ed pour­ing red paint over the secu­ri­ty desk of a fed­er­al court and mak­ing threat­en­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions. Pre­vi­ous­ly Helen had served 20½ years for: 1) Using a ham­mer to dis­arm a nuclear mis­sile silo. 2) Burn­ing $25,000 on the floor of a bank whilst denounc­ing war, envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion & eco­nom­ic injus­tice. 3) Mail­ing warn­ing let­ters with bul­lets attached to Gov­ern­ment & cor­po­rate offi­cials. (Diet unknown).

THE LECCE FIVE
The Lec­ce Five have been charged with “sub­ver­sive asso­ci­a­tion” accused of dam­ag­ing Esso petrol pumps to oppose the War on Iraq; sab­o­tag­ing the cash machines of a bank which funds an immi­gra­tion cen­tre; and tar­get­ing the multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny Benet­ton in sup­port of Mapuche land rights activists in Chile. All of the defen­dants are cur­rent­ly either under house arrest or released on bail.

ANTIFA PRISONERS

Vah­tang Devitlidze, ul. Libbedo­va 42, UO 68/2, otryad 14, briga­da 142, g. Hagyshen­sk, Krasnodarskiy Kray, 352680 Rus­sia. Serv­ing 2½ years for stab­bing a neo-nazi in the leg whilst defend­ing him­self from attack. (Diet unknown).

Augustin Kraus, Vazeb­ni veznice, PP‑1, Lit­o­merice, 41 201, Czech Repub­lic. Serv­ing 14 months for his par­tic­i­pa­tion in attacks against local neo-nazis. His charge was “bod­i­ly harm”. He speaks Czech, Slo­vak and Pol­ish. You can
also write him short post­cards in Eng­lish. (Diet unknown).

Fabio Milan, C.C. via Pianez­za 300, 10151 Tori­no, Italy. On remand accused of fight­ing with the police after an anti-fas­cist protest. (Diet unknown).

Andrea Neff, Bnr: 746/07/2, Jus­tizvol­lzugsanstalt fur Frauen in Berlin, Arkonas­trasse 56, 13189 Berlin, Ger­many. Serv­ing 14 months for anti-fas­cist activ­i­ty. (Diet unknown).

Chris­t­ian Süm­mer­mann, Bnr: 441/08/5, JVA Plötzensee, Lehrter­str. 61, 10557 Berlin, Ger­many. Serv­ing 40 months for breach­ing the peace whilst serv­ing a sus­pend­ed sen­tence issued for anti-fas­cist activ­i­ties. (Diet unknown).

Tomasz Wiloszews­ki, Zak­lad Karny, Orze­chowa 5, 98–200 Sier­adz, Poland. Serv­ing 15 years for acci­den­tal­ly killing a neo-nazi whilst defend­ing him­self. (Tomasz is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

OTHER PRISONERS

Olga Alek­san­drov­na Nevskaya, UU163/5, 7 Otryad, pos. Dzerzhin­skiy, Mozhaysk 140090 Moskovskaya oblast, Rus­sia. Eco-activist serv­ing 6 years for arson, crim­i­nal dam­age and caus­ing explo­sions in protest at the war in Chech­nya. Due for release in 2009. (Diet unknown).

Vagge­lis Botzatzis, Komo­ti­ni Juridi­cal Prison (“Dikastikes Fylakes Komo­ti­nis”), T.K. 69100, Greece. On remand accused of set­ting fire to two com­pa­ny cars owned by a energy/power com­pa­ny. It is believed that the per­son or per­sons unknown who car­ried out the arson did so in protest at the destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment and in sup­port of two work­ers who
died at the pow­er plant. Vagge­lis is also accused of set­ting fire to a bank and start­ing a fire inside a car yard. (Meat Eater).

Michael W. Sykes, 100 East 2nd St, Mon­roe, Michi­gan 48161, USA. Youth held on remand accused of anti-sprawl arsons, crim­i­nal dam­age, spray-paint­ing an anar­chist sign and burn­ing the Amer­i­can flag. (Diet unknown)

Fran Thomp­son, #1090915 HU 1C, WERDCC, PO Box 300, Van­dalia, MO 63382, USA. Serv­ing Life for killing, in self-defence, a stalk­er who had bro­ken into her home. Before her impris­on­ment Fran was an eco, ani­mal & anti-nuke cam­paign­er. (Fran is a veg­an).

MOVE
MOVE is an eco-rev­o­lu­tion­ary group who car­ried out protests in defence of all life. All move pris­on­ers describe them­selves as veg­e­tar­i­ans. There are cur­rent­ly eight MOVE activists in prison each serv­ing 100 years after been framed for the mur­der of a cop in 1979. 9th defen­dant, Mer­le Africa, died in prison in 1998.

Deb­bie Simms Africa (006307), Janet Hol­loway Africa (006308) and Janine Philips Africa (006309) all at: SCI Cam­bridge Springs, 451 Fuller­ton Ave, Cam­bridge Springs, PA 16403–1238, USA.

Michael Davis Africa (AM4973) and Charles Simms Africa (AM4975) both at SCI Grater­ford, PO Box 244, Grater­ford, PA 19426–0244, USA.

Edward Good­man Africa (AM4974), SCI Mahanoy, 301 Morea Rd, Frackville, PA 17932, USA.

William Philips Africa (AM4984) and Del­bert Orr Africa (AM4985) both at SCI Dal­las Draw­er K, Dal­las, PA 18612, USA.

Mumia Abu Jamal, (AM8335), SCI Greene, 175 Progress Dri­ve, Way­nes­burg PA 15370, USA. In 1981 Mumia, for­mer Black Pan­ther and vocal sup­port­er of MOVE, was framed for the mur­der of a cop. He was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death but is cur­rent­ly await­ing re-sen­tenc­ing fol­low­ing a court hear­ing in 2001.

STATEMENT ON VIOLENCE
Some peo­ple list­ed in this newslet­ter have car­ried out vio­lent actions. ‘Spir­it of Free­dom’ does not con­done vio­lence. But we are also against cen­sor­ship & believe peo­ple can decide for them­selves who they wish to sup­port.

ABOUT E.L.P. SUPPORT NETWORK
ELP is an inter­na­tion­al eco-pris­on­er sup­port net­work found­ed, in Britain, in 1993 to sup­port jailed eco-activists. We sup­port the pris­on­ers by pro­duc­ing var­i­ous reg­u­lar pris­on­er lists:

Spir­it of Free­dom is ELP’s inter­na­tion­al month­ly pris­on­er list­ing which is cir­cu­lat­ed by e‑mail.

Urgent ELP! Bul­letin is an e‑mail ser­vice that dis­trib­utes the names of any new eco-pris­on­er as soon as ELP gets their details. For more info e‑mail ELP4321@hotmail.com

On-Line Newslet­ters — ELP has a num­ber of web­sites that pro­vide news, pris­on­er lists and addi­tion­al info about ELP & the pris­on­ers.

Eng­lish lan­guage ELP Web­site
www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk

Greek lan­guage ELP Web­site
http://greekelp.blogspot.com

North Amer­i­can ELP Web­site
www.ecoprisoners.org

Turk­ish lan­guage ELP Web­site
www.geocities.com/yesilanarsi/elp.htm

ELP Extra is an e‑mail group that cir­cu­lates the details of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, ELP learns about, who do not fall with­in the remit for sup­port by ELP. To sub­scribe to the list e‑mail ELP4321@Hotmail.com

Aus­tralian ELP.SN is our Aus­tralian con­tact. For more info e‑mail elp4321@hotmail.com

Bel­gium ELP.SN is our Bel­gium con­tact. For more info e‑mail elp_bel@hotmail.com

Ger­man ELP.SN is a pris­on­er led ini­tia­tive run by eco-pris­on­er Mar­co Camenisch. For more info con­tact Mar­co Camenisch, Post­fach 3143, CH-8105 Regens­dorf, Switzer­land.

Greek ELP.SN is our Greek con­tact. For more info e‑mail greekelp@yahoo.gr

North Amer­i­can ELP is our North Amer­i­can con­tact. For more infor­ma­tion e‑mail naelpsn@mutualaid.org

Turkey ELP.SN is our Turk­ish con­tact. For more info e‑mail yesilanarsi@yahoo.com

Camp for Climate Action: Great Rebel Raft Regatta update & newspaper launched

THE GREAT REBEL RAFT REGATTA UPDATE

RaftsTHE GREAT REBEL RAFT REGATTA UPDATE

Fol­low­ing a pro­fes­sion­al recon­nais­sance and Health and Safe­ty test trip by boat last Wednes­day, rebel rafters and expe­ri­enced sailors gave the thumbs up for the water borne dis­obe­di­ence on the Mass Day of Action, August 9th. Launch­ing with the tides and if the weath­er is not blow­ing a gale, the action was deemed total­ly do able and has the poten­tial to be a spec­tac­u­lar suc­cess. The key will be in the num­ber of rafts, the more rafts ( or any­thing that floats !) there are the more impos­si­ble it will be for the forces of dark­ness to stop the arma­da reach­ing it’s tar­get. So start pack­ing pad­dles, canoes,inflatables, rafts, dinghies, amphibi­ous vehi­cles etc.. with your tent. Try to encour­age any yacht or boat peo­ple, pirates or sailors you know to join in. All rebel rafters will be requit­ed to attend a water safe­ty work­shop that will be run dai­ly for the three
days lead­ing up to the day of action, and will have to wear life jack­ets ( if you don’t have your own, these will be pro­vid­ed by the camp). A write up is avail­able on the GRRR web­site.

Mean­while many groups across the coun­try are get­ting excit­ed by the GRRR bug and plan­ning to build rafts and get teams togeth­er. If your group has any news, pic­tures of rafts or ideas to share, then send it to the con­stant­ly updat­ed news feed on www.thegrrr.net . For any fur­ther enquiries email: pirates@thegrrr.net

CLIMATE CAMP NEWSPAPER HITS THE STREETS AND FESTIVALS

Last week 30,000 news­pa­pers, beau­ti­ful­ly designed in black and bright cyan and not look­ing any­thing like a bor­ing polit­i­cal paper, came off the print­ing press and began their jour­ney around the coun­try.

Pub­lished to inspire peo­ple to come to the camp it is filled with full pages images of last years events, por­traits of hot cli­mate campers, a stun­ning map of this years camp and texts that describe the pol­i­tics of rad­i­cal cli­mate activism. If you would like copies to hand out in the street, fes­ti­vals, drop off in cafe’s etc. con­tact distribution@climatecamp.org.uk with your address and how many you want, they will be sent out asap or ring Isa 07984158 108 to find out where you can pick some up. The pdf’s is now online here: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/node/23

Trial Set for McDonalds Protester!

Date for tri­al set for Cam­bridge pro­test­er. Sup­port appre­ci­at­ed!

The cam­paign­er who was arrest­ed under Sec­tion 5 of the Pub­lic Order Act in a McLi­bel anniver­sary protest in Cam­bridge (See http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401637.html for details and video) had his first hear­ing last Thurs­day. A tri­al date of the 15th Sep, 10.00 a.m. at Cam­bridge Mag­is­trates Court at 43 Haux­ton Road, Cam­bridge was set. The court set a full day tri­al for the case.

Date for tri­al set for Cam­bridge pro­test­er. Sup­port appre­ci­at­ed!

The cam­paign­er who was arrest­ed under Sec­tion 5 of the Pub­lic Order Act in a McLi­bel anniver­sary protest in Cam­bridge (See http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401637.html for details and video) had his first hear­ing last Thurs­day. A tri­al date of the 15th Sep, 10.00 a.m. at Cam­bridge Mag­is­trates Court at 43 Haux­ton Road, Cam­bridge was set. The court set a full day tri­al for the case.

The pros­e­cu­tion hand­ed over wit­ness state­ments and said they want­ed to use CCTV from McDon­alds as well as a Youtube video (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld3I4zVxc2A). Well, have a look and judge for your­self. What an evil dan­ger­ous protest, right?

The cam­paign­er is still await­ing his request for legal aid and so has no rep­re­sen­ta­tion at this time.

Sec­tion 5 of the Pub­lic Order Act basi­cal­ly is words or behav­iour like­ly to cause ‘harass­ment, alarm or dis­tress’ and as we all know hold­ing a plac­ard and express­ing your views in McDon­alds is very harass­ing, alarm­ing and dis­tress­ing and a ter­ri­ble crime!

Tri­al Date:
15th Sep, 10.00 a.m. at Cam­bridge Mag­is­trates Court at 43 Haux­ton Road, Cam­bridge – Sup­port Wel­come!

ARRESTED & CHARGED McLibel Protester!

On the 21st June 08, as part of the anniver­sary of the now famous 1997 McLi­bel court case in which two cam­paign­ers were sued by the McDon­alds Cor­po­ra­tion for dis­trib­ut­ing a leaflet crit­i­cal of the com­pa­ny, camp

Cambridge McDonaldsEarth hamburgurizedOn the 21st June 08, as part of the anniver­sary of the now famous 1997 McLi­bel court case in which two cam­paign­ers were sued by the McDon­alds Cor­po­ra­tion for dis­trib­ut­ing a leaflet crit­i­cal of the com­pa­ny, cam­paign­ers entered the McDon­alds in Rose Cres­cent, Cam­bridge.

After being removed from the restau­rant by police a cam­paign­er was approached and his details request­ed. He gave his name and address but was told if he did not give his date of birth he would be arrest­ed under Sec­tion 5 of the Pub­lic Order Act. He refused, as he believes that a per­son is only required to give their name and address for the pur­pose of a sum­mons and no addi­tion­al details. He was sub­se­quent­ly arrest­ed under Sec­tion 5 of the Pub­lic Order Act. The arrest got pub­lic atten­tion with peo­ple mak­ing use of their cam­eras and com­ing up to take leaflets.

He has been charged and bailed to attend Cam­bridge Mag­is­trates – Narey – Court 613 – Mag­is­trates Court at 43 Haux­ton Road, Cam­bridge on the 3rd July at 9.30 a.m. – ANY SUPPORT APPRECIATED.

The pro­test­ers hoped to high­light the issues that orig­i­nal­ly com­prised the leaflet that led to the court case rang­ing from ani­mal farm­ing to envi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion. Accord­ing to a cam­paign­er, “McDon­alds hasn’t real­ly changed. Whether it be the envi­ron­men­tal impact of ani­mal agri­cul­ture or the fact they con­tin­ue to mar­ket junk food to chil­dren in the mid­dle of an obe­si­ty prob­lem, McDon­alds still makes a lot of peo­ple very Mcan­gry.”

Many of the orig­i­nal leaflet’s crit­i­cisms of McDon­alds were vin­di­cat­ed in court. Accord­ing to the rul­ing of the High Court, Mcdon­alds had ‘exploit­ed chil­dren’, was ‘cul­pa­bly respon­si­ble for ani­mal cru­el­ty’ and used mar­ket­ing that had ‘pre­tend­ed to a pos­i­tive nutri­tion­al ben­e­fit which their food did not match’.

The cam­paign­ers are call­ing on the peo­ple of Cam­bridge to boy­cott the restau­rant chain. We can all make a state­ment about our val­ues by the way we spend our cash. We call on every­one to say no to this busi­ness in our city.

- You can learn more about the McLi­bel case at http://www.mcspotlight.org/

- An addi­tion­al video of the protest was tak­en by an inde­pen­dent cam­era man see http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401610.html (thanks!)

- Protester’s video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld3I4zVxc2A

COURT DATE:

Cam­bridge Mag­is­trates – Narey – Court 613 – Mag­is­trates Court at 43 Haux­ton Road, Cam­bridge on the 3rd July at 9.30 a.m.

arrest charges dropped — round-up: Fossil Fools Day & M1 Conspiracy

As with the major­i­ty of protest arrests (if you do a NO COMMENT inter­view), though there’s been a load of peo­ple arrest­ed recent­ly, they’ve released with­out charge, on bail to return to a police sta­tion.

This gives the CPS time to decide what to do, but also hin­ders protest because the police can dic­tate puna­tive bail restric­tions.

—-
M1 Con­spir­a­cy Case Thrown Out

1st May 2008

As with the major­i­ty of protest arrests (if you do a NO COMMENT inter­view), though there’s been a load of peo­ple arrest­ed recent­ly, they’ve released with­out charge, on bail to return to a police sta­tion.

This gives the CPS time to decide what to do, but also hin­ders protest because the police can dic­tate puna­tive bail restric­tions.

—-
M1 Con­spir­a­cy Case Thrown Out

1st May 2008
Sev­en cli­mate camp activists against the widen­ing of the M1(1*) had the case against them dis­missed from Sheffield Crown Court yes­ter­day. Charged with con­spir­a­cy to cause a pub­lic nui­sance Judge Robin­son said that: “there was not a jot of evi­dence” for a jury to infer an endan­ger­ment of any mem­ber of the pub­lic.

Sev­en cli­mate camp activists against the widen­ing of the M1(1*) had the case against them dis­missed from Sheffield Crown Court today. Charged with con­spir­a­cy to cause a pub­lic nui­sance Judge Robin­son said that: “there was not a jot of evi­dence” for a jury to infer an endan­ger­ment of any mem­ber of the pub­lic.

Arrest­ed over a year ago the pro­test­ers had their hous­es raid­ed with prop­er­ty such as com­put­ers and phones tak­en and held for the dura­tion of the inves­ti­ga­tion.

This rul­ing in the midst of a crack down (2*) on green protest sets a prece­dent for polic­ing of envi­ron­men­tal demon­stra­tions. The Judge resound­ing­ly reject­ed the pros­e­cu­tion’s argu­ment that the hang­ing of ban­ners over the motor­way would con­sti­tute a pub­lic nui­sance. He went on to say: “that all of the avail­able mate­r­i­al (pre­sent­ed to
the court) is con­sis­tent only with peace­ful protest.”

Cam­paign spokesper­son Dr Julie White, a GP from Sheffield, said: “this is vic­to­ry for the right to protest in the face of gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy of expand­ing roads, run­ways and coal-fired pow­er sta­tions in a time of cli­mate cri­sis.”

The activists say that the expe­ri­ence has not deterred them from tak­ing action against the root caus­es of cli­mate change and will be attend­ing the Camp for Cli­mate Action(3*) at Kingsnorth coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in Kent this August.

Con­tact Julie White on 0779851073.

NOTES FOR EDITORS
1*) The Depart­ment of Trans­port have decid­ed against widen­ing the M1 any fur­ther: http://www.nowideningm1.org.uk/

2*) this month the Sun­day Her­ald report­ed that pro­tes­tors in Scot­land had been harassed by police after peace­ful demon­stra­tions: http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2210574.0.protesters_police_treated_us_like_terrorists.php

3*)The Camp for Cli­mate Action went to Heathrow last sum­mer over the build­ing of a third run­way this year it will pitch up at Kingsnorth over the poten­tial build­ing of the UK’s first new coal-fired pow­er sta­tion for 30 years:
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/

—-

Bac­ton gas ter­mi­nal 19

On 1st April, EF!ers block­ad­ed the gas ter­mi­nal at Bac­ton to cel­e­brate Fos­sil Fools Day. The police tried to arrest every­one, and got 19 peo­ple. For a full report, see http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20420

Due to return to a rur­al Nor­folk police sta­tion, peo­ple were keen to phone up the police sta­tion to find out what was hap­pen­ing. The police had not tak­en any deci­sion, and a few days before decid­ed to drop charges against all but 3 peo­ple locked-on who got off with cau­tions.

—-

Police drop charges against Wun­der­man pro­tes­tors

The three activists arrest­ed fol­low­ing the inva­sion of Wunderman’s offices have had all charges against them dropped.

The envi­ron­men­tal­ists, from direct action group Lon­don Ris­ing Tide, had been charged with “bur­glary of pens, paper and phone calls”.

They were held after stag­ing a four-hour sit-in over two of par­ent agency Y&R’s key clients – Land Rover and BAE Sys­tems.

The action was part of a world­wide cam­paign against cli­mate change, dubbed Fos­sil Fools Day. In the UK, the group also staged demon­stra­tions out­side Porsche deal­er­ships, the head office of E‑on, and a coal mine in Wales.

The three activists man­aged to get into the Y&R build­ing –Greater Lon­don House on Hamp­stead Road, NW1 – by pos­ing as exec­u­tives from a new­ly-pri­va­tised wing of the MoD called Har­rion­Pro­jects, a spoof com­pa­ny whose cen­tre­piece is the Har­rion, a civil­ian ver­sion of the Har­ri­er Jump-Jet.

Once inside, they bar­ri­cad­ed them­selves into the con­fer­ence room, oppo­site Wun­der­man EMEA chief exec­u­tive Mar­cus Starke’s office.

Ready Steady Skip: Trailer and website launched!

Ready Steady Skip — the game show where need­less­ly wast­ed food is recov­ered from the bin and turned into deli­cious dish­es before your very eyes!

Ready Steady Skip — the game show where need­less­ly wast­ed food is recov­ered from the bin and turned into deli­cious dish­es before your very eyes!

And now, the moment you’ve all been wait­ing for: http://www.readysteadyskip.org.uk/

Ready Steady Skip is a bit like “Scrapheap Chal­lenge” meets “Ready Steady Cook” — skip­ping for food and whip­ping up some tasty dish­es, with plen­ty of hilar­i­ty (and peo­ple div­ing into skips).

Every year over 17 mil­lion tons of food are put straight into land­fill sites, yet over 4 mil­lion tons of this is per­fect­ly edi­ble and still well with­in it’s sell-by date. A whop­ping 5 mil­lion tons of food are wast­ed annu­al­ly by con­sumers alone: that is, more than a quar­ter of all food we buy goes into the bin. It’s high time this insan­i­ty stopped!

Skip­ping (aka. “Free­gan­ism” or “Dump­ster Div­ing”) is all about reclaim­ing per­fect­ly edi­ble food “waste” from the jaws of an insane sys­tem found­ed on greed, and mak­ing good use of it.

We’ve launched the Ready Steady Skip trail­er and web­site to coin­cide with the Days Of Cli­mate Action food day (3rd June 2008), which is high­light­ing the fact that the food we eat con­tributes up to a third of the emis­sions that are poi­son­ing the plan­et. When you con­sid­er the amount of food that is just thrown away, it brings home how need­less this luna­cy is. Nobody ever need go hun­gry — yet peo­ple still starve every day.

The pro­gramme was shot here in Not­ting­ham at the begin­ning of March, and the full episode will be released online in July 2008. We’re also try­ing to organ­ise a screen­ing (and pos­si­bly even anoth­er con­test) at the Cli­mate Camp.

Keep an eye on our web­site for updates!

Pre­vi­ous Notts Indy­media piece: Ready, Steady, Skip!! — The Pic­tures 1

info@readysteadyskip.org.uk
http://www.readysteadyskip.org.uk/

Activists occupy labs associated with GM trials

2nd June 2008

Envi­ron­men­tal pro­tes­tors from Earth First! UK today staged a peace­ful protest at the lab­o­ra­to­ry and offices of the Nation­al Insti­tute for Agri­cul­tur­al Botany (NIAB), in Gir­ton, Cam­bridge. About a dozen activists invad­ed the site and hung ban­ners from build­ings in protest at a tri­al for genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied (GM) pota­toes being car­ried out at the Insti­tute by BASF, a Ger­man based com­pa­ny.

2nd June 2008
NIAB banner hang
Envi­ron­men­tal pro­tes­tors from Earth First! UK today staged a peace­ful protest at the lab­o­ra­to­ry and offices of the Nation­al Insti­tute for Agri­cul­tur­al Botany (NIAB), in Gir­ton, Cam­bridge. About a dozen activists invad­ed the site and hung ban­ners from build­ings in protest at a tri­al for genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied (GM) pota­toes being car­ried out at the Insti­tute by BASF, a Ger­man based com­pa­ny.

The protest was timed to coin­cide with a nation­al day of action on food and cli­mate change and with the Unit­ed Nations Food and Agri­cul­ture Sum­mit, being held this week in Rome.

Rosie Perkins, a spokesper­son for Earth First! UK said:

“Today’s protest was staged to send a clear mes­sage to sci­en­tists, com­pa­nies and politi­cians across the world; that mes­sage is that genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied food is not the answer to either cli­mate change or world food short­ages and we stand here today in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the many farm­ers and local food pro­duc­ers across the world who are speak­ing out against GM crops.

“In recent months, sci­en­tists have been push­ing and push­ing for more GM crops to be grown, claim­ing they are the solu­tion to many of the prob­lems we face today. How­ev­er, their claims con­sis­tent­ly ignore the social and envi­ron­men­tal impacts of GM crops, which include the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of crops to dis­ease as glob­al agri­cul­ture becomes more indus­tri­alised and less genet­i­cal­ly diverse, as well as the impact of tying food pro­duc­tion even clos­er in to big busi­ness and glob­al cor­po­ra­tions. We firm­ly belief that the increas­ing indus­tri­al­i­sa­tion of agri­cul­ture ben­e­fits nei­ther pro­duc­er nor con­sumer and we need to look to a future of low-input, diverse, local food pro­duc­tion.”

“The GM tri­al at NIAB is being con­duct­ed under siege-like con­di­tions with high lev­els of secu­ri­ty, includ­ing a per­ma­nent secu­ri­ty per­son­nel pres­ence, high met­al fences, alarms and flood­lights. The fact that this tri­al is tak­ing place under such con­di­tions clear­ly demon­strates the con­tempt in which the peo­ple of this coun­try hold the devel­op­ment of these crops.”

The BASF pota­to tri­al at NIAB is one of only 2 out­door field tri­als tak­ing place in the UK this year and is a tri­al for blight resis­tance in GM pota­toes; a fur­ther tri­al for nema­tode resis­tance is tak­ing place near Leeds, under the aus­pices of Leeds Uni­ver­si­ty and has also met with local oppo­si­tion.

Diddly squats reports — Cambridge, London & Brighton [updated — eviction threat]

Cam­bridge: for­mer Wilco build­ing squat­ted — to be turned into social cen­tre

Cam­bridge: for­mer Wilco build­ing squat­ted — to be turned into social cen­tre
Wilco squat 1 - police leaveWilco squat 2
On Mon­day night, 19 May, the for­mer Wilco build­ing on Mill Road (the very site where Tesco want to open a new super­mar­ket) was squat­ted. On Tues­day after­noon, act­ing on a ‘tip off’ from a neigh­bour, armed police entered the premised on the pre­text of look­ing for ille­gal drugs. There were a total of three police cars, a police van, and at least eight offi­cers. The premis­es were searched, but no ille­gal sub­stances (bar a super­mar­ket trol­ley that was already on site) were found. The build­ing is now being turned into a social cen­tre. Tonight (Tues­day) there will be a big clear up, before the space is spruced up with some fur­ni­ture. There are plans for a cin­e­ma cor­ner, an activ­i­ty cor­ner, and a space to hang out and drink cof­fee and tea.

Please come and help with the clear up or donate some fur­ni­ture, rugs, etc.

The squat or the social cen­tre are not con­nect­ed to the No Tesco on Mill Road cam­paign, but will cre­ate a more use­ful, pos­i­tive role for the build­ing.

http://millroadsocialcentre.wordpress.com/
——

Womin­Space Evic­tion, the sto­ry of a squat­ted social cen­ter in East Lon­don

The short-lived but infa­mous Womin­Space Social Cen­ter by Mare Street was, after a suc­cess­ful resis­tance, and some weeks of ten­sion, even­tu­al­ly evict­ed on the 9th of May.

For the past three months the Womin­Space social cen­ter has host­ed amongst oth­er things, weld­ing, sten­cil-mak­ing, herbal skill-share, fem­i­nist singing work­shops, pho­to­shop and pira­cy, and a women’s direct action group. There has been a DIY Womin’s Health week­end, reg­u­lar café and kids space. The space has been open to all self-iden­ti­fied women and trans peo­ple and aimed to be respect­ful to each individual’s auton­o­my and expe­ri­ence.

Although we man­aged to resist the first evic­tion with wider sup­port from friends and the North East Lon­don Squat­ters Net­work, we have now lost our house by the canal in East Lon­don.

Out of expe­ri­ences with the Womin­Space it was decid­ed to form an anar­cha-fem­i­nist col­lec­tive, open to all self-iden­ti­fied women and trans peo­ple. If you want to be part of the ear­ly stages of form­ing this col­lec­tive, get in touch: womenorganise@yahoo.co.uk

New Name, New Web­site, Old Threat
Bowl Court
Lon­don’s lat­est social cen­tre has final­ly giv­en itself a name, set up its own web­site and received a vis­it from the own­ers say­ing “get out!”

Squat­ted over the long Ester week­end in March the new social cen­tre opened its doors on the 11th April for the Inter­na­tion­al Days of Action For Squats and Autonomous Spaces.

Among the activ­i­ties over that week­end was a Squat­ters Estate Agency which attract­ed the atten­tion of the main­stream media.

Oper­at­ing with an open col­lec­tive in the style of the ram­pART social cen­tre that pro­ceed­ed it, the new social cen­tre took some time to reach con­sen­sus on a name. Among those in the run­ning were Two Point Two (indi­cat­ing only its lin­eage and lega­cy in rela­tion to the ram­pART), Front Line (indi­cat­ing it’s strate­gic posi­tion between Shored­itch and the expand­ing devel­op­ments of the city), The Lib­er­ty of Nor­ton Fol­gate (a ref­er­ence to a his­toric ‘free­space’) and Sod The Rich (a handy ana­gram of Shored­itch). How­ev­er in the end the name Bowl Court was agreed, which sim­ply and unor­rig­i­nal­ly refers to the lit­tle cob­bled street the build­ing is locat­ed in.

Finaly giv­en a name a new web­site was set up (see http://bowlcourt.co.nr) but no soon­er than the site cre­at­ed, the own­ers of the build­ing put a down­er of things by drop­ping round to say ‘get the fuck off my land’.

Need­less to say, this is far from the end of the sto­ry, per­haps just the begin­ning, and now is the time to get involved.

The loca­tion is amaz­ing and offers an unre­peat­able oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with the local com­mu­ni­ty against the mas­sive wave of devel­op­ment threat­en­ing to sweep away much of Shored­itch.

The col­lec­tive meets every mon­day at 7pm. You will find Bowl Court off Plough Yard which is next to the Drunk­en Mon­key at the junc­tion of Shored­itch Hight St and Great East­ern Street. (See the map here http://tinyurl.com/4xeq2q)

If you need to con­tact us, email bowlcourt@riseup.net or phone 0208 8192596

Free Skool event this thurs­day

thurs­day 22nd from 7pm onwards peo­ple will be com­ing togeth­er at bowl court social cen­tre to dis­cuss the con­cept of a free skool and how this could be put into prac­tice with­in the space.

so, this is a call for peo­ple who want to share knowl­edge and skills to come and get involved. through the insti­tu­tion­al­i­sa­tion of edu­ca­tion, knowl­edge is tak­en out of the hands of the mass­es. a free skool aims to reclaim that edu­ca­tion for all through shar­ing the­o­ret­i­cal and prac­ti­cal knowl­edge. this can involve any­thing from a one off work­shop on build­ing a bicy­cle pow­ered wash­ing machine to indi­vid­u­als with shared inter­ests meet­ing on a reg­u­lar basis. come along to bowl court social cen­tre (6 bowl court, off plough yard, next to the great east­ern street/shoreditch high street junc­tion) at 7pm on thurs­day if you are inter­est­ed. if you cant make it but would like to get involved email us at bowlcourt@riseup.net

Bowl Court social cen­tre under threat

21.05.2008
the new social cen­tre in shored­itch was served papers today for a court hear­ing on the 4th june. the own­ers ham­mer­son have no imme­di­ate inter­est in the build­ing which they have yet to secure plan­ning con­sent to demol­ish for their huge rede­vel­ope­ment plans for the area. the devel­op­ments are the biggest in lon­don since the cre­ation of dock­land and canary warf.

the social cen­tre which was opened last month for the days of action for squats and autonomous spaces is plan­ning to fight this threat loud­ly through the main­stream media and to con­tribute as much as pos­si­ble to the cam­paigns against the bish­ops place devel­ope­ment dur­ing the time left in the build­ing.

ham­mer­son is a mas­sive prop­er­ty com­pa­ny con­cen­trat­ing most­ly on retail and office parks. they are partcu­lar­ly active in the uk, france and ger­many.

more info soon.…

if you can help the social cen­tre go on the offen­sive on this, please get in touch

bowl­court at rise­up dot net
http://bowlcourt.co.nr

East Lon­don Against Gen­tri­fi­ca­tion: Two Events this week

Both Wednes­day the 21st and Sat­ur­day the 24th will see two events held in East lon­don host­ing inter­na­tion­al activists from the Van­cou­ver Anti Pover­ty Com­mit­tee, (Cana­da) and the Move­ment for Jus­tice in El Bar­rio (Harlem, NYC) both fight­ing gen­trif­ca­tion and dis­place­ment. See details below.

Van­cov­er Anti Pover­ty Com­mit­tee Fight the Olympics: Pub­lic Talk on Wednes­day the 21st of May 8pm

Action Eas­t­end and Lon­don Coali­tion Against Pover­ty (LCP) are organ­is­ing a joint pub­lic meet­ing for a Cana­di­an com­rade involved in the Anti Pover­ty Com­mit­tee in Cana­da and anti-olympic sol­i­dar­i­ty there, she is going to be in Lon­don on the Wednes­day 21st May
and is going to intro­duce the ‘Five Ring Cir­cus’ film about the trav­es­ty of the 2010 Win­ter Olympics and is will­ing to dis­cuss and answer any ques­tions peo­ple have.
Please feel wel­come to attend and please dis­trib­ute as wide­ly as pos­si­ble.

Venue is at
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=bowl%20court%2C%20shoreditch&ie=UTF‑8&oe=utf‑8&client=firefox&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&um=1&sa=N&tab=wl

Film Trail­er
http://www.thefiveringcircus.com/

Anti Pover­ty Com­mit­tee
http://apc.resist.ca/

Move­ment for Jus­tice in El Bar­rio: Gen­tri­fi­ca­tion from Harlem to Dal­ston
Pub­lic Talk Sat­ur­day the 24th of May

Juan Haro, a speak­er from Move­ment for Jus­tice in El Bar­rio will talk in Dal­ston, about their strug­gle against dis­place­ment by gen­tri­fi­ca­tion in Harlem, New York city. On Sat­ur­day the 24th of May @ Pass­ing Clouds, on Rich­mond Rd, just off Kings­land road in Dal­ston, 10 mins from Dal­ston Kings­land Sta­tion. Bus­es: 149, 242, 243, 67.Free or dona­tion entry to talk from 7.00pm.

Fol­lowed by Latin bands and DJs host­ed by Movimien­tos at around 9pm “From folk­loric to elec­tron­ic Movimien­tos is the sound of Lon­don’s Latin alter­na­tive”. (£5 entry)

Dal­ston, like many oth­er parts of Lon­don is under­go­ing devel­op­ment that will mean rent ris­es for ten­ants already strug­gling to pay extor­tion­ate Lon­don rents. When an area becomes appeal­ing for investors and “regen­er­a­tion” it’s those peo­ple with mon­ey who end up enjoy­ing the new hous­ing, expen­sive cafes and shops, and the peo­ple with less mon­ey who end up hav­ing to move fur­ther away from the cen­tre of the city or who, if they stay, lose the shops, cafes and resources they rely on. Move­ment for Jus­tice, the orga­ni­za­tion of ten­ants in Harlem, New York that have been strug­gling against the land­lords that want to price them out of their area say;

“This dis­place­ment is cre­at­ed by the greed, ambi­tion and vio­lence of a glob­al empire of mon­ey that seeks to take total con­trol of all the land, labor and life on earth. Here in El Bar­rio (East Harlem, New York City), land­lords, mul­ti-nation­al cor­po­ra­tions and local, state and fed­er­al politi­cians and insti­tu­tions want to force upon us their cul­ture of mon­ey, they want to dis­place poor fam­i­lies and rent their apart­ments to rich peo­ple, white peo­ple with mon­ey. They want to change the look of our neigh­bor­hood, with the excuse of “devel­op­ing the com­mu­ni­ty.”

The talk will explore issues around resist­ing gen­tri­fi­ca­tion and the mod­el of orga­ni­za­tion that Move­ment for Jus­tice have used to work with each oth­er – an inspir­ing and edu­ca­tion­al exam­ple from across the Atlantic that we could learn from in Lon­don.

“Togeth­er, we make our dig­ni­ty resis­tance and we fight back against the actions of cap­i­tal­ist land­lords and multi­na­tion­al cor­po­ra­tions who are dis­plac­ing poor fam­i­lies from our neigh­bor­hood. We fight back local­ly and across bor­ders. We fight back against local politi­cians that refuse to gov­ern by obey­ing the will of the peo­ple. We fight back against the gov­ern­ment insti­tu­tions that enforce a glob­al eco­nom­ic, social and polit­i­cal sys­tem that seeks to destroy human­i­ty.”

Talk orga­nized by Hack­ney Sol­i­dar­i­ty Net­work, Hack­ney Inde­pen­dent, Haringey Sol­i­dar­i­ty Group and Lon­don Coali­tion Against Pover­ty.

Con­tact: hackneysolidarity@hotmail.co.uk

Also for news on what’s hap­pen­ing at the Spike squat­ted cen­tre in South Lon­don, see http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20636
——

Free Kaff in Brighton
88 London Road free food stall
Res­i­dents and sup­port­ers of 88 Lon­don Road, Brighton — the for­mer Methodist church where a recent evic­tion attempt was suc­cess­ful­ly resist­ed — have been hold­ing fre­quent free food stalls like this one on Sun­day.

For a report on the attempt­ed evic­tion, see: http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20653

LOCAL SUPPORT

Since the events of a week ago, when a large num­ber of Brighton res­i­dents wit­nessed the day-long attempt­ed evic­tion of the squat­ters and the sto­ry was fea­tured on the front page of the local evening paper, sup­port for the squat­ters has been grow­ing, with a lot of pos­i­tive feed­back, offers of help and dona­tions of food from local res­i­dents and shops.

METHODISTS — A DODGY CORPORATION

Few peo­ple seem to be con­vinced by the Methodist Church’s posi­tion that it ‘needs’ the build­ing back again, espe­cial­ly as it has been left emp­ty for sev­er­al years already. The Methodist Church is now so rich and prof­itable that it has been forced to reg­is­ter as a cor­po­ra­tion rather than a char­i­ty and the job of the trustees is to make as much prof­it for the cor­po­ra­tion as they can, which they do by mak­ing the usu­al dodgy invest­ments with a few lame excus­es for fail­ing to drop these. Of its invest­ments in Nes­tle, for instance, it says: “[Nestle’s] oper­a­tions are not uneth­i­cal in a way to pre­clude invest­ment.” Since it also invests in Rio Tin­to and BP, one won­ders just what a com­pa­ny might have to do to be con­sid­ered unsuit­able for Methodist invest­ment. A quick look at the make-up of the Cen­tral Finance Board of the Methodist Church sheds some light on the sit­u­a­tion — the board includes for­mer man­ag­ing direc­tor of BAE Sys­tems Pen­sions fund, John Gib­bon, along with accoun­tants, tax experts and oth­er finan­cial high-fly­ers from a range of pri­vate com­pa­nies.

NEW LONDON ROAD — BRIGHT OR BLIGHT?

It seems like­ly that the Methodist Church hopes to cash in on invest­ment pro­pos­als for ‘revi­tal­is­ing’ the healthy mix of local shops along Lon­don Road by demol­ish­ing them and cre­at­ing a so-called ‘Bright New Lon­don Road’, http://www.brightnewlondonroad.co.uk. The only non-nego­tiable part of this plan appears to be a Tesco super­store and car park. See http://www.transitionbrightonandhove.org.uk/2008/05/friday-9th-may-at-7pm-community-base.html for more infor­ma­tion on these pro­pos­als. Many of the local peo­ple and shop­keep­ers who have giv­en their sup­port to the Lon­don Road squat­ters have also expressed seri­ous con­cerns about these devel­op­ment plans.

COMMUNITY BUSINESS AS USUAL

While the res­i­dents of 88 Lon­don Road remain in the church, they plan to con­tin­ue to use it as a com­mu­ni­ty space and to run their ‘free kaff’ with sur­plus food which would oth­er­wise have end­ed up as methane-pro­duc­ing land­fill.

PRE-EVICTION CALL-OUT

If you’re in the Brighton area, please keep an eye on http://www.indymedia.org.uk for news of fur­ther evic­tion attempts. If you can get your­selves down to the church to assist and resist when it’s need­ed, this would be much appre­ci­at­ed.

Cheers!

http://www.myspace.com/88londonroadsquat
our e‑mail is 88londonroad@live.co.uk. please get in touch if you wan­na get involved in any way, shape, or form!