Global – Page 18 – Earth First!

UPDATE: Full Invasion Force Arrives at Mi’kmaq Blockade

17th October 700 RCMP are currently reported at the scene of the Mi’kmaq blockade with an armored pe

17th October 700 RCMP are currently reported at the scene of the Mi’kmaq blockade with an armored personnel carrier. Talks have failed. Snipers with the RCMP have been seen pointing their scopes at groups of young supporters, drawing intense criticism from observers. In a statement, one RCMP officer declared, “the Crown land belongs to the government, not fucking Natives,” revealing the systemic contempt for treaty rights with First Nations and international agreements. RCMP are now lined up with riot shields, as the standoff continues to maintain the blockade that is currently keeping “thumper trucks” from destroying the land in Mik’maq territory. Chief Aaron Sock of the Elslipogtog has been released by the RCMP after being arrested while blockading the compound of Texas-based SWN Resources. However, over 40 Mi’kmaq warriors remain in custody, as the RCMP continue to use pepper spray, tear gas, and rubber bullets in attempts to break up the blockade. Canada is clearly in violation of international treaties with this war-like act against a peaceful nation engaged in lawful direct action against the theft and destruction of their land by a multinational energy company. According to Submedia, “During my short stay [at the two-week-strong blockade] I’ve witnessed the co-operation between natives and settlers, a partnership that has kept this blockade fully stocked and operational. Food, wood, hot coffee, tents and other supplies keep streaming all the while SWN berates the police in the media for not arresting the protesters.” In retaliation against the invasion, which comes one day before an international day of solidarity with the Mi’kmaq Blockade and two days away from a meeting set to continue peace talks, unknown persons have set six RCMP vehicles ablaze, hurled stones at the police line, and confiscated fracking equipment. In related news, SWN stock hit a sharp decline today on the New York Stock Exchange. As of this time, the RCMP is not letting media in. However, reinforcements continue to swell the numbers of supporters at the blockade. The Mi’kmaq have issued a call for continued international solidarity, and for increased support for the blockade.

Mi’kmaq Resist! 6 RCMP Cars Torched, Fracking Equipment Confiscated

Photo by Ossie Michel

Photo by Ossie Michelin

17th October

In retaliation against a violent police raid this morning on a peaceful First Nations blockade, Mi’kmaq warriors and supporters have fought back.

The RCMP appear to have arrested journalist Miles Howe, who has been reporting on the Elsipogtog struggle against the illegal gas grab on indigenous lands. More than 200 RCMP are participating in the raid, including snipers in fatigues. Ambulances have been prevented from treating protestors wounded by pepper spray, plastic bullets, and general brutality.

As of the time of writing this, six RCMP vehicles have been torched, and melees of stones have been hurled in response to tear gas, plastic bullets, and pepper spray from the RCMP (update: it is being claimed that the fires were started by an agent provocateur). Mi’kmaq allies have also confiscated fracking equipment in continued efforts to maintain the blockade against the gas company.

Blockades are reportedly springing up elsewhere throughout Mi’kmaq territory, as news has spread of police brutality and unnecessary use of force against peaceful protestors, including elders and children. Idle No More’s twitter account has called on all the Sacred Fires of the World, and solidarity demos in DC, NYC, Vancouver, BC, and Winnipeg have already been announced.

The Mi’kmaq Blockade has cost the gas company an estimated $50,000 per day, and has been ongoing for two weeks. Today’s crack down is a direct betrayal of a peace process ongoing between the Elsipogtog and the New Brunswick premier, and a violation of the rights of Indigenous Peoples as according to the UN. The government of Canada has instigated a major diplomatic incident, and global solidarity is coming in from countries around the world.

The whole world is watching!

Tense Standoff at Elsipogtog Blockade, Molotovs Thrown

17th October from Earth First! Newswire

A tense stand off is ongoing between 200 RCMP, Mi’kmaq blockaders, and about 200 supporters. According to the Stimulato r, the chief and tribal council personally blockaded gas company trucks behind barricades. Protesters have hurled rocks and a corporate news tripod at the RCMP. At the moment, RCMP are making mass arrests, SWN vehicles appear to be rolling out of the compound, and six RCMP vehicles have been set ablaze.

Molotov cocktails were thrown from the woods earlier this morning in defense of the land and peoples. The RCMP, some with long rifles, entered the woods. Shots were fired, and screaming was heard. There is an unconfirmed report that activist Steven Gould has been shot. (UPDATE: We are now receiving reports that less-than-lethal rounds have been fired at supporters, as well as tear gas. Pepper spray has been deployed against supporters attempting to get through police lines. The RCMP is currently unloading riot gear.)

Supporters broke through police lines to join the Mi’kmaq (video her e). The RCMP have erected a barrier on one side of the blockade, and appear to have the blockade surrounded. More people are coming to support with food and water.

Solidarity blockades have sprung up elsewhere in the Mi’kmaq territory. There are solidarity actions planned at the Canadian Consulate in NYC at 5pm and the Canadian Embassy in DC, as well as Vancouver and Winnipeg.

As of time of writing, arrests have been made, and there is at least one report of police brutality against Mi’kmaq warrior Suzanne Patles, an Ilnu woman and member of the Mi’kmaq Warrior Society. (UPDATE: It appears that mass arrests are currently being made.)

According to the New Brunswick, Anglophone North School District, the RCMP did not notify them of the raid as is legally required. Schools are currently on lock-down.

The Mi’kmaq are blockading Highway 132 near Rexton to halt the activity on the compound belonging to a gas company, SWN Resources Canada. SWN Resources has been illegally trying to frack the land of the Elsipogtog for months, and the tribe has been joined by other tribes of the Mi’kmaq and Wabanaki Confederacy peoples in attempts to take direct action against the gas company.

According to Ellen Gabriel of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation, “Forcible removal of Mi’kmaq on their traditional lands, [is] an illegal act by Police who should not enforce.”

Last week, a Canadian judge issued an injunction against the blockade, but the Elsipogtog have sought peaceful negotiation. Today’s raid must be seen as a preemptive action to prevent the October 18 day of action from taking place, which was called by the Mi’kmaq Warriors Society for physical support of the SWN blockade.

The demands of the Warriors Society are the following:

Produce all Bills of Sales, Sold, Ceded, Granted and Extinguished Lands for New Brunswick.
Produce documents proving Cabot’s Doctrine of Discovery.
Produce the Treaty of Peace and Friendship 1686.
Produce Treaty of Fort Howe 1768.
Produce consents for Loyalists to land in Nova Scotia/New Brunswick.
Produce records of Townships created and consents by Chiefs to allow this.
Produce agreements or consents by all New Brunswick Chiefs who agreed to Confereration of 1867.
Produce evidence of consents to The Indian Act by all Native Tribes.
Produce records of Trust Funds.
Produce agreements for 4% of all mineral shares of finished products in Canada, except coal.
Produce all correspondence letters pertaining to Numbered Treaties (Promises).
Produce all documents creating border divisions, that divide the Wabanaki confederacy.
Produce the Orders from the Lords of Trade to the Governor of the Colonies.

Indigenous Pipeline Protesters Harass Oil Tanker

B.C.

B.C. First Nation, the Tsleil-Waututh, were joined by environmentalists Oct 14, as they crossed Burrard Inlet in canoes to protest Kinder Morgan’s proposed pipeline expansion.

15th October The Tsleil-Waututh First Nation and environmentalists have crossed Burrard Inlet in traditional canoes to protest U.S. oil giant Kinder Morgan’s $5B plans to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline.

Protesters dodged tankers as they sailed close to the Westridge Marine Terminal, in a bid to stop Kinder Morgan nearly tripling the capacity of the pipeline, which carries crude oil from the Alberta oilsands to tankers in Vancouver.

When completed, the proposed expansion is expected to increase capacity in Trans Mountain from the existing capacity of 300,000 barrels per day to 850,000 barrels per day.

The protest comes as cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats head to British Columbia as part of a major government push to mollify opponents of building oil pipelines to the West Coast.

The new Harper initiative follows a report from the prime minister’s special pipelines representative in British Columbia, David Eyford, who told Harper last month that negotiations with First Nations are a mess.

Sources say Eyford urged the federal government take the lead role in dealing with Indian bands on both the proposed expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline and Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project.

The Trans Mountain line stretches 1,150 kilometres between Edmonton and terminals in the Vancouver area and Washington State. It carries heavy and light crude oil, as well as refined products such as gasoline and diesel.

It has been involved in several recent spills including more 100,000 litres of light crude oil that was spilled at Kinder Morgan’s Sumas terminal in January.

Meanwhile, an Enbridge official says the company expects a decision from the federal government on its proposed Northern Gateway pipeline by mid-2014, meaning the pipeline could be moving oil by 2018.

The Northern Gateway pipeline proposed by Enbridge would deliver 525,000 barrels of petroleum a day to a tanker terminal in Kitimat, on the north coast of B.C.

Two La Parota Resisters Attacked With Machetes

14th October The Land is Not for Sale! A community in resistance to La Parota dam.

14th October The Land is Not for Sale! A community in resistance to La Parota dam.

UPDATE (10/15/2013): Although the attack happened on Oct 11, the federal Public Ministry (responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes) has yet to visit the men in the hospital to take any statement from them.

Two members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities in Opposition to La Parota Dam (CECOP) were attacked at their home with machetes on Friday, Oct 11, by supporters of the dam project. Both of the men, Rodrigo León Jacinto and Isidro Saligán Guadalupe, are still under medical supervision. Saligán may lose an eye. Both men and all five of their attackers (four men and a woman) come from the village of Huamuchitos.

The attackers are believed to have fled the area.

Massive Indigenous Rights Movement Launches Across Brazil

Tuesday 1st October, Brasilia, Brazil – Today hundreds of indigenous peoples representing Brazil’s native communities converged on government buildings in the nation’s capital to decry unprecedented and growing attacks on their constitutional rights and territories. The historic mobilization coincides with the 25th anniversary of the founding of Brazil’s constitution with its groundbreaking affirmation of indigenous rights and aims to preserve these rights in the face of powerful economic interests behind a spate of pending laws seeking access to resources on native territories.

Brazil’s Articulation of Indigenous People’s (APIB) called the mobilizations – staged simultaneously in various cities across the country such as São Paulo, Belém, Rio Branco – to protest the attack against territorial rights of native peoples. Emanating from the Brazilian government and backed by a powerful congressional bloc representing agribusiness known as the bancada ruralista as well as large mining and energy interests, a series of new proposed laws seek to undermine Article 231 of the Brazilian Constitution, which assures the indigenous right to an exclusive and permanent usufruct to resources on their ancestral territories.

“We are here because Congress wants to take our rights and extinguish our people,” said Chief Raoni Metuktire, a legendary Kayapó leader from the Amazon. “This assembly is important because it aims to unite our peoples against this threat.”

Hundreds of planned laws and constitutional amendments targeting the rights of indigenous and traditional communities are under debate in Brazil’s Congress and risk being passed this month before lawmakers go into recess, making this week’s mobilizations both urgent and timely.

Among the proposed changes are Proposed Complementary Law (PLP) 227 which would modify Article 231, eliminating the indigenous right to resources in cases of “relevant public interest,” clearing the way for industrial farming, dam-building, mining, road building and settlement construction on indigenous lands. Proposed Constitutional Amendment (PEC) 215 would roll back the demarcation of new indigenous territories by passing the authority to demarcate lands from the Executive to a Legislative branch that is increasingly hostile to indigenous rights.

Indigenous protesters gather at the encampment outside the National Congress in Brasilia

“These amendments and new laws that the government wants to pass will destroy indigenous rights enshrined in the Brazilian Constitution and the international treaties of which Brazil is a signatory,” said Maíra Irigaray Castro of Amazon Watch. “If Brazil denies the rights of these traditional populations they risk extinction, something the world cannot afford. These are the guardians of the rainforests for the benefit of all humanity.”

“We’re not going to stand by and watch our territories being stolen, our houses being invaded and our rivers being destroyed,” said Sonia Guajajara, coordinator of APIB. “Rather than calling Congress the house of the people it should be called the house of agribusiness.”

In addition to presiding over this unprecedented assault on indigenous rights, the Rousseff government has demonstrated the worst record of indigenous territorial demarcation since the nation’s dictatorship era. Further undermining the integrity of these territories, the office of her Attorney General proposes Ordinance 303 in order to veto any expansion of demarcated lands while authorizing the construction of roads, energy transmission lines, and military installations within their borders when such projects are deemed relevant to “national security.”

These moves coincide with increasing government backing and finance for projects and industries, exemplified by Brazil’s dam-building boom in the Amazon, that are entirely at odds with indigenous rights.

Chants of ‘No Nukes’ Echo in Streets of Tokyo’s Shibuya and Harajuku Districts

With an eye to getting their message out to young people, demonstrators calling for a departure from nuclear power on Sept.

With an eye to getting their message out to young people, demonstrators calling for a departure from nuclear power on Sept. 29 changed course from their usual venue and took to the streets in Tokyo’s trendy Shibuya and Harajuku districts.

Protesters shouted slogans such as “We’ve got enough electric power” and “No nuke reactors on earthquake-prone islands” as they marched past Marui City Shibuya and other fashionable commercial establishments packed with trend-conscious youths.

The “No Nukes Demo” was the brainchild of the Metropolitan Coalition against Nukes, a civil advocacy group that organizes weekly anti-nuclear protest rallies outside the prime minister’s office on Friday evenings in Tokyo’s Nagatacho district. Organizers said they thought that the nation’s youths are not even aware that all 50 existing nuclear power reactors in Japan are currently offline, for maintenance and safety checks.

The march followed a rally in Nagatacho on Sept. 27 opposing Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s application to the Nuclear Regulation Authority for safety screening of two reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture, as a prelude to their possible restart.

Escalating Anti-Fracking Standoff in New Brunswick

$Members of the Mi'gmaw Warriors Society light fires at a road blockade designed to prevent exit of "thumpers" used in pre-fracking seismic testing$ 30th September, An ongoing standoff continues to escalate between

From Halifax Media Coop:

CMP have currently closed off automobile access to the Irving-owned compound that houses five of SWN Resource Canada’s seismic testing trucks, or ‘thumpers’. The police have closed off both north and south exits to highway 134 off the highway 11, as well as the 134 itself in both directions. Walk-in access to the compound is currently the only way in and out.

Seismic testing is the precursor to hydraulic fracturing [fracking].

Police aggression has already resulted in frivolous arrests and even injuries to the protesters who have converged on the site. The protesters have responded by setting up their own blockade:

Members of the Mi’gmaw Warriors Society, an independently-run group that self-describe themselves as a ‘Homeland Security’ force, have felled several pine trees and are in the process of lighting fires along the highway. One van and numerous pine trees now also block access to the Irving-owned, gated compound that currently houses five of SWN Resources Canada’s seismic testing trucks, or ‘thumpers’. The thumpers are perceived by the activists to be a key piece of SWN’s equipment, without which the Texas-based gas giant will be unable to continue seismic testing in New Brunswick.

Read the full articles here:

Breaking: More Arrests at Ongoing New Brunswick Anti-Fracking Stand-Off

Cop Block Turns to Road Block

GMO Papaya Trees Cut Down on Big Island

29 September, About 100 papaya trees were cut down with machetes overnight on Thursday in the Big Island’s Puna District, according to the Hawaii Police Department.

The papaya trees, which were three to four feet tall and valued at $3,000, were on the J and L Papaya Farm off of Highway 132, according to Capt. Samuel Jelsma.

The incident comes as the Big Island community is considering the future of biotech on the island. Two bills are currently up for debate by the county council that would impose restrictions on biotech. One bill, introduced by Councilwoman Brenda Ford, would require that the island’s GMO papaya fields be cut down. Farmers or landowners growing GMO papaya would face jail and fines.

Almost all of the papaya grown on the Big Island is from seeds that were genetically altered in the 1990s to protect the crop from a devastating ringspot virus.

Jelsma has heard theories that anti-GMO protestors cut down the papaya trees, but said he wasn’t going to speculate. “At this point, we have nothing to show the motives,” he said.

This isn’t the first time that the Puna district’s lush papaya fields have been attacked with machetes.

In 2011, about 10 acres of trees were cut down on three adjoining papaya farms. The year before, some 8,500 papaya trees were cut down.

Some believed the incidents were the work of GMO protestors.

The police department never solved the cases, said Jelsma.

Bandung, Indonesia: ELF Torch Police and Military Bulletproof Vest Manufacturing Plant

26th September, The police are the enemy. This is our final statement that is not negotiable.

26th September, The police are the enemy. This is our final statement that is not negotiable. Police are not born to be friends, as individuals and as an institution, and can not be excluded from the list of enemies that must be addressed by for our attacks. As an institution and as individuals, the police goal is to protect civilization and the exploitation it is doing to the earth.

The objective of the police -as well as the other repressive instruments- is to secure the money and investment interests for the sake of the anthropocentric way of life as it is today. The police are not for representing our interests. Instead, the police are one of the thousands of faces of outrage alive today. Police must be attacked, as hard as possible.

For their loyal services as guard dogs for the domestication of life, they are equipped with combat equipment that is used against free will and the aspirations of wildlife where the judiciary and the rule of law are totally absent. They are equipped with weapons, armor and bulletproof vests. The devices are manufactured so that the pigs can act with confidence in the face of the war that is addressed to their masters.

But they were wrong. The pigs have a totally wrong idea if they think that we are not brave enough to send our attack right to their essential sectors. As of this moment, when we put two jerry cans containing 5 liters of petrol and 5 liters of diesel equipped with an automatic trigger. Triggers that we have prepared so that we can move away from the scene of the attack and make them not be able to catch any of us. Which is more than enough time for us to let nature protects us by removing all traces of our feets.

We tried a new step to radicalize our attacks and extend the effects of the damage from any blows that we direct to the enemy. Incendiary devices placed at a factory during the early hours on Monday, September 23, located on Canal Street Suryani, Babakan Village, District Babakan Ciparay, Bandung, West Java.

The reason? This factory manufactures bulletproof vests for cops and army. This plant is one of the sources for the production of war equipment for these pigs. Bullet-proof vests to protect police and soldiers when they open fire on the enemy, open fire on us and on our brothers. That’s why, this place is burning, charred, and this is the purpose of this action.

Together with these actions, we send our respectful salute to the combatants in other parts of the world and other places who without hesitation attack as much as possible. Salute to the joint actions undertaken by CCF Russia and the Russian ELF. Also the relentless attack from combatants Amigo de la Tierra – FAI in Argentina. Also the multiple attacks by the brave ones of CCF and ICR in Project Phoenix.

This action also is our warm greetings and hugs to the brave individuals who were abducted by the state but continue to wage war whilst their physical movements are limited. To Gabriel Pombo da Silva, Marco Camenisch, Hans Niemeyer, Walter Bond, the combatants of CCF Imprisoned Members Cell and the prisoners in Greece, Italy and Chile that we can not mention one by one, but they are always in our hearts.

Bring down the civilization
Wild Life, now!

ELF Indonesian Fraction

====

Link of the video of the action from local news:

http://tv.detik.com/readvideo/2013/09/24/182502/130924044/061009681/pabrik-rompi-anti-peluru-terbakar?nd771104fvt