Category: Global

Glob­al

Tree sitting in the USA

21st July 2011
Tree sits Block Min­ing Oper­a­tions on Coal Riv­er Moun­tain

21st July 2011
Tree sits Block Min­ing Oper­a­tions on Coal Riv­er Moun­tain

The RAMPS Cam­paign put a cou­ple of tree-sit­ters up on Coal Riv­er Moun­tain to stop moun­tain­top removal coal min­ing. The tree-sit has stopped Alpha Nat­ur­al Resources strip min­ing oper­a­tions on Coal Riv­er Moun­tain. Cather­ine-Ann Mac­Dou­gal and Becks Kolins cur­rent­ly are sit­ting in trees 80 feet off the ground about 300 feet from active blast­ing oper­a­tions.

Their ban­ners read “STOP STRIP MINING” and “FOR JUDY BONDS.”

Judy Bonds was an Appalachi­an leader in the anti-moun­tain­top removal fight who died of can­cer ear­li­er this year.

Judy’s daugh­ter, Lisa Hen­der­son, said in sup­port of the tree-sit, “I hope that today’s actions serve as a sym­bol that the strug­gle to live peace­ful­ly and pol­lu­tion-free in the Coal Riv­er Val­ley did not end when my mother’s life did. My moth­er and I often com­pared the fight to sur­vive here on Coal Riv­er to the civ­il rights strug­gles of the 1960s. I am sure that gen­er­a­tions from now, our chil­dren will look back on this move­ment also and the actions of the peo­ple involved, and ask the ques­tion of their elders, ‘Whose side were you on?’”

Click here to read full sto­ry and full July 20, 2011 press release

The fol­low­ing is an excerpt from an Under­sto­ry post by Scott Parkin. Image of Judy Bonds via americanswhotellthetruth.org

UPDATE:

Alpha Nat­ur­al Resources halt­ed all work on the Bee Tree sur­face mine while WV State Police and mine secu­ri­ty spent over four hours attempt­ing to locate the posi­tion of the four young peo­ple – even with the com­pa­ny heli­copter. Upon dis­cov­er­ing them, Walk and Schewel, were arrest­ed, and Kolins and Mac­Dou­gal remain in their respec­tive trees. They plan to stay there as long as they are phys­i­cal­ly able, in order to pre­vent Alpha from con­duct­ing fur­ther sur­face min­ing oper­a­tions on Coal Riv­er Moun­tain. Blast­ing on the entire Bee Tree site was shut down for the whole day.

Kolins and Mac­Dou­gal sent peri­od­ic text mes­sages through­out Wednes­day to their sup­port­ers. Kolins report­ed that a heli­copter, owned by Alpha Nat­ur­al Resources, hov­ered dan­ger­ous­ly close to their tree. The two tree-sit­ters also con­firmed that a bull­doz­er is slow­ly grad­ing a road towards their loca­tion from the mine wall bench. Despite their iso­la­tion, these two, strong, brave young peo­ple, in the spir­it of the late Judy Bonds, have vowed, “We Won’t Stop Until They Do – Stop All Strip Min­ing!”

Walk and Schewel were released from South­ern Region­al Jail at around 9:45pm, each was held with a $1000 bail. As is evi­denced by the pic­ture below, they are in high spir­its, and are look­ing for­ward to a good night of sleep.

RAMPS would like to extend its grat­i­tude to the mul­ti­tude of peo­ple across the coun­try that have expressed their unwa­ver­ing sup­port for the tree sit­ters who have cho­sen to take a stand for moun­tains and com­mu­ni­ties. Please be assured that these words of encour­age­ment are being passed on to the young peo­ple in the trees, and will be ever more nec­es­sary with each pass­ing day they spend sit­ting and sweat­ing in the mug­gy West Vir­ginia heat.

If you are able, con­sid­er donat­ing $5, $25, $50 or more to the RAMPS’ cam­paign gen­er­al fund. All mon­ey in the gen­er­al fund goes towards feed­ing and hous­ing the large behind-the-scenes sup­port crew that is nec­es­sary to pull off an action of this nature safe­ly, secure­ly, and effec­tive­ly.

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Updates from the tree tops, coast to coast!

28 July
Eco-resis­tance from West Vir­ginia and west­ern Ore­gon

Coos Coun­ty , OR— Ear­ly Tues­day morn­ing a num­ber of activists with Cas­ca­dia For­est Defend­ers and Cas­ca­dia Earth First! unfold­ed a series of road block­ades in the Elliott State For­est clos­ing access points to tim­ber sales along the west fork of the Mil­li­co­ma Riv­er. The block­ades con­sist of an array of Tree-sits and ground lev­el lock­ing devices.

The sales are all slat­ed for clear-cut log­ging, and are areas of native for­est that have nev­er before seen a chain saw. They exist on steep slopes where ero­sion from log­ging threat­ens to fur­ther dam­age Salmon habi­tat, as well as dev­as­tate pro­tect­ed species includ­ing Mar­bled Mur­relet and North­ern Spot­ted Owl.

“For decades, activists in the north­west pushed the for­est ser­vice into chang­ing there ways for the bet­ter, and we have seen dra­mat­ic improve­ments in the types of projects fed­er­al agen­cies are work­ing on, The Ore­gon Depart­ment of Forestry has tak­en the oppo­site route, show­ing total dis­re­gard for life, and the health of these ecosys­tems, this is the begin­ning of a long term cam­paign that aims to see state lands man­aged for sus­tain­abil­i­ty, bio-diver­si­ty and the over­all health of the ecosys­tem, we will keep the pres­sure on in The Elliot, and all over the state of Ore­gon from this point for­ward” –Jason Gon­za­les, Cas­ca­dia For­est Defend­ers.

“The clearcut­ting in the Elliot is the worst in the state. They would nev­er allow cuts like this on fed­er­al for­est.” —Mered­ith Cocks of Cas­ca­dia For­est Defend­ers.

Activists in the canopy have issued the fol­low­ing list of demands for the State Land Board and the Ore­gon Depart­ment of Forestry that they say must be met before they will will­ing­ly leave the for­est:

1) Cease all log­ging of native forests on pub­lic land in Ore­gon

2) Put a mora­to­ri­um on all log­ging and road con­struc­tion in the Elliot State For­est

3) Halt the export of raw logs from all Ore­gon for­est, pub­lic or pri­vate

4) Reject the Ore­gon Depart­ment of Forestry’s 2011 Imple­men­ta­tion Plan for the Elliot State For­est

5) Stop the use of her­bi­cides and the slaugh­ter of the native moun­tain beaver.

Con­tact ODF and tell them you sup­port the demands: information@odf.state.o… Phone: 503–945-7200 Fax: 503–945-7212

This action is a cul­mi­na­tion of last weekend’s For­est Defense Action Camp. Around 70 peo­ple from around Coos and Dou­glas coun­ty, as well as oth­er areas of Ore­gon and the coun­try gath­ered near the Elkhorn Ranch ORV Park in the Elliot for the three day camp. Atten­dants were edu­cat­ed on cur­rent threats to the Elliot State For­est as well as pro­vid­ed with train­ings to engage in direct action, climb­ing and more.

UPDATE: On Wednes­day Night, July 27th, Law Enforce­ment arrived at the Elkhorn Ranch Tim­ber Sale tree-sit and block­ade in the Elliot. Pro­test­ers at the site have been warned that Law Enforce­ment will attempt to forcibly extract any­one remain­ing at the block­ade at noon today, July 28th. Although a bull­doz­er plowed through the slash piles the pre­vi­ous evening, as of this report, road block­ades and canopy occu­pa­tions con­tin­ue.

Please see www.forestdefensenow.com for reg­u­lar updates on this devel­op­ing sit­u­a­tion.

Meanwhile in West Virgina…

Tree sitters at mine site celebrate 10 days of holding off the blasts

Pho­to from day one of the Coal Riv­er Moun­tain tree sit

While more ground sup­port peo­ple have been arrest­ed, the tree sit­ters are still hold­ing out and call­ing for end of strip min­ing in Coal Riv­er water­shed. Sup­port con­tin­ues to grow. Check out the new state­ment they released a yes­ter­day.

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New block­ades in the Elliot State For­est
27 July
Lives of block­aders threat­ened by rogue bull­doz­er oper­a­tor

“This is Cas­ca­dia For­est Defend­ers with an urgent call out for sup­port on the Treesit and road block­ade cur­rent­ly pro­tect­ing Native forests in the Elliott State For­est. We have a strong­hold that is hold­ing but near­ly lost 2 sit­ters at anoth­er site this morn­ing, when a rogue, still un-iden­ti­fied bull­doz­er plowed through the slash piles and anchors which were attached to the road and were hold­ing there plat­form in the trees, these brave indi­vid­u­als for­tu­nate­ly had good train­ing and sur­vived the inci­dent.

If you are trained and expe­ri­enced in for­est defense, we need your help. If you are able, Join us in the Elliott, we need you on the roads and in the trees, con­tact us if you can help out.

If you are not in the area, We would love to see some sol­i­dar­i­ty actions! If you are in a posi­tion to to do so, take action to let the Ore­gon Depart­ment of Forestry (ODF) and the State Land Board know that their behav­ior in our state forests is unac­cept­able and must stop now!

Please send this mes­sage along, spread the word, Make some noise, and RISE UP against ODF and their heinous ways!”

Find out more from the Cas­ca­dia For­est Defend­ers.
http://www.forestdefensenow.com/

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State­ment from Coal Riv­er Moun­tain tree sit­ter Cather­ine-Ann Mac­Dou­gal

23 July

UPDATE: Day 4 of the West Vir­ginia tree sit on Coal Riv­er Moun­tain. Reports from the direct action group RAMPS say the new canopy res­i­dents are stay­ing dry despite the rain and col­lect­ing rain­wa­ter with their tarp. Both sit­ters are very glad that the rain has brought some slight­ly cool­er weath­er. A mes­sage this evening from the sit­ters: ”Our first vis­it from a cop! He was nice. Not as cute as the baby bears though.” Appar­ent­ly he was “just mak­ing small talk. Want­ed to see us. Asked if we were in it for the long haul.”
Excerpt from Cather­ine-Ann MacDougal’s state­ment:

[T]he fab­ric of these ancient and diverse forests is being torn apart. There is no way that I can begin to detail the com­pre­hen­sive destruc­tion that sur­face min­ing and moun­tain­top removal wreak on the for­est ecosys­tem of the south­ern Appalachi­an moun­tains. Val­ley fills choke ephemer­al, inter­mit­tent, and oth­er head­wa­ter streams, elim­i­nat­ing their func­tion in pro­vid­ing organ­ic mat­ter down­stream, increas­ing the sed­i­ment load, and caus­ing flood­ing. Sul­fu­ric acid released dur­ing min­ing leach­es heavy met­als that poi­son aquat­ic life and humans. The forests that are clear-cut before a moun­tain­top is destroyed can­not begin to grow back on a reclaimed site; the geol­o­gy, hydrol­o­gy, topog­ra­phy, sub­strate, and chem­istry of a strip mined site can­not be manip­u­lat­ed to resem­ble those of the orig­i­nal for­est, mak­ing recla­ma­tion an emp­ty promise. The soils will take a cen­tu­ry to recov­er, and the moun­tain itself will be gone for­ev­er…

I feel, with the keen urgency of extinc­tion, that Alpha Nat­ur­al Resources can­not be allowed to tear apart Coal Riv­er Moun­tain and allow all those liv­ing below it to suf­fer for their prof­its. Legal resis­tance to strip min­ing has been fail­ing for decades; we can’t allow our­selves to be gulled into believ­ing that we should con­fine our­selves mild­ly to sanc­tioned chan­nels for change while those who prof­it from exploita­tion set the terms. We need to throw every­thing we can into the gears of big coal, cost­ing them as much mon­ey and shame as pos­si­ble. To this end, I am going to sit about fifty feet up in a tree for as long as I can.

I do this out of pas­sion, and I do it out of love. I do it as an act of anger and of penance. I do it out of oblig­a­tion and out of free­dom.

If you haven’t begun already, I invite you to join us in the fight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HpC_YFjjMw

GM wheat gets the chop, Australia

Update: offices raid­ed week after decon­t­a­m­i­na­tion / French sci­en­tist dis­cov­ers signs of tox­ic effects relate

Update: offices raid­ed week after decon­t­a­m­i­na­tion / French sci­en­tist dis­cov­ers signs of tox­ic effects relat­ed to eat­ing GM foods / action video

14 July 2011

Green­peace activists, includ­ing one moth­er who wants to pro­tect her fam­i­ly, have stopped a GM wheat exper­i­ment out­side Can­ber­ra this morn­ing.

Two women used whip­per snip­pers to remove a con­tro­ver­sial genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied (GM) wheat crop before day break.

The activists con­struct­ed a decon­t­a­m­i­na­tion area to safe­ly dis­pose of the untest­ed and poten­tial­ly unsta­ble GM organ­isms.

Safety in question

The activ­i­ty fol­lows the rev­e­la­tion that Australia’s peak sci­en­tif­ic body, CSIRO, is con­duct­ing the world’s first human feed­ing tri­als of GM wheat, with­out ade­quate safe­ty test­ing.

“This GM wheat should nev­er have left the lab,” said activist and moth­er, Heather McCabe. “I’m sick of being treat­ed like a dumb Mum who doesn’t under­stand the sci­ence. As far as I’m con­cerned, my fam­i­ly’s health is just too impor­tant. GM wheat is not safe, and if the gov­ern­ment can’t pro­tect the safe­ty of my fam­i­ly, then I will.”

CSIRO’s wheat exper­i­ment came under recent scruti­ny when eight inter­na­tion­al sci­en­tists and doc­tors ques­tioned the ethics and sci­en­tif­ic rigour behind it. In an open let­ter the sci­en­tists ques­tioned the safe­ty of human feed­ing tri­als planned for lat­er this year in which Aus­tralians would be fed GM wheat from the Can­ber­ra based tri­als.

Conflict of interest

On 30 June, CSIRO reject­ed a Free­dom of Infor­ma­tion request by Green­peace which request­ed fur­ther infor­ma­tion to ensure the safe­ty of the human feed­ing tri­als, along with trans­par­ent infor­ma­tion about the com­mer­cial part­ner­ships CSIRO has with for­eign biotech com­pa­nies to com­mer­cialise GM wheat.

In a July report – Australia’s Wheat Scan­dal Green­peace detailed a major con­flict of inter­est at CSIRO. Two direc­tors of the biotech giant Nufarm – the dis­trib­u­tor of Monsanto’s prod­ucts in Aus­tralia – also sat on the CSIRO board at the time of the wheat experiment’s approval. View the info­graph­ic detail­ing the con­nec­tions

GM wheat has already been reject­ed in Cana­da, North Amer­i­ca, Rus­sia and the EU. The CSIRO is being used as a front for for­eign biotech com­pa­nies; this has com­pro­mised its research and put Australia’s mul­ti-bil­lion dol­lar wheat indus­try at risk.

Inevitable contamination

All of the evi­dence shows that GM can’t be con­tained in the field. Green­peace has tak­en action to pro­tect our food sup­ply being con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed by exper­i­men­tal GM wheat. Now the Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment must step in and pro­tect the health of Aus­tralian peo­ple.

“We had no choice but to take action to bring an end to this exper­i­ment,” said Green­peace Food cam­paign­er Lau­ra Kel­ly. “GM has nev­er been proven safe to eat and once released in open exper­i­ments, it will con­t­a­m­i­nate. This is about the pro­tec­tion of our health, the pro­tec­tion of our envi­ron­ment and the pro­tec­tion of our dai­ly bread.”

Trials of potentially unstable GM wheat strains are currently planted in five states and territories across Australia

TAKE ACTION: Tell the gov­ern­ment to end its con­tro­ver­sial GM wheat tri­als

READ THE REPORT: The biotech takeover of our dai­ly bread

MORE INFORMATION: Fol­low the sto­ry so far

Another attack on mining interests in the Philippines

MANILA : Sus­pect­ed com­mu­nist rebels in the Philip­pines attacked a min­ing com­pa­ny com­pound, while in anoth­er inci­dent the rebels clashed with sol­diers, the mil­i­tary said on Thurs­day.

MANILA : Sus­pect­ed com­mu­nist rebels in the Philip­pines attacked a min­ing com­pa­ny com­pound, while in anoth­er inci­dent the rebels clashed with sol­diers, the mil­i­tary said on Thurs­day.

GMA News report­ed that Major John Andra­da, spokesman for the Army’s 3rd Infantry Divi­sion, said about 40 New People’s Army (NPA) rebels on Wednes­day attacked the com­pound of Drill Corp., a sub-con­trac­tor of Philex Min­ing Corp., in Nab­u­lao vil­lage in Sipalay City in the cen­tral island of Negros. He said the rebels dis­armed a secu­ri­ty guard and burned the work­ers’ quar­ters as well as the per­son­nel car­ri­er truck.
Accord­ing to Andra­da, the rebels fled using a company’s vehi­cle, which was lat­er found burned.
The Visayan Dai­ly Star report­ed that the attack was an attempt to force the min­ing com­pa­ny to pay rev­o­lu­tion­ary tax­es. Priest-turned-rebel Frank Fer­nan­dez said in an ear­li­er state­ment that the rev­o­lu­tion­ary move­ment has been ordered to launch mil­i­tary and polit­i­cal strug­gles, aimed at stop­ping the ongo­ing min­ing explo­rations and oper­a­tions of sev­er­al min­ing com­pa­nies that have pend­ing min­ing rights appli­ca­tions in Negros.
He claimed that mas­sive min­ing oper­a­tions in the moun­tains of Negros Occi­den­tal and Ori­en­tal have already cov­ered 40 per­cent of the total land area of the island, or 80 per­cent of the total agri­cul­tur­al land, adding that there is a pos­si­bil­i­ty that Negros may soon be trans­formed into a desert.….

http://revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/philippines-communist-rebels-attack-mining-firm/

Activists Occupy Montana Capitol Building vs Tar Sands

Break­ing News: Activists Occu­py Mon­tana Capi­tol Build­ing Demand­ing Gov­er­nor Schweitzer Pub­licly Oppose Key­stone XL Pipeline and Tar Sands Mega­load Ship­ments

Activists from across the nation and around the world join Mon­tana and Ida­ho res­i­dents in demand­ing that Schweitzer final­ly stand up to “Big Oil.”

Break­ing News: Activists Occu­py Mon­tana Capi­tol Build­ing Demand­ing Gov­er­nor Schweitzer Pub­licly Oppose Key­stone XL Pipeline and Tar Sands Mega­load Ship­ments

Activists from across the nation and around the world join Mon­tana and Ida­ho res­i­dents in demand­ing that Schweitzer final­ly stand up to “Big Oil.”

On the morn­ing of July 12th, six activists from Earth First! and North­ern Rock­ies Ris­ing Tide have risked arrest by occu­py­ing Gov­er­nor Schweitzer’s office in an act of non-vio­lent civ­il dis­obe­di­ence. The activists have locked their arms in a mock oil pipeline made out of PVC plas­tic pipe. In the wake of the Sil­ver­tip spill, Gov­er­nor Schweitzer has pub­licly chas­tised Exxon Mobil, while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly con­tin­u­ing to pro­mote the con­struc­tion of the Key­stone XL pipeline, mega­load ship­ments bound for the Alber­ta Tar Sands and oth­er extreme fos­sil fuel projects through­out the state.

“If the Gov­er­nor has his way, Mon­tana will be trans­formed into what is essen­tial­ly an ener­gy extrac­tion colony for Big Oil. The Sil­ver­tip spill is sim­ply a short pre­view of what this would mean for the lives and liveli­hood of all Mon­tanans,” says Great Falls native Peter Dolan, one of the eight occu­py­ing the office.

Activists inside the Capi­tol are also demand­ing that Schweitzer stand up to Tran­sCana­da and oth­er inter­na­tion­al crim­i­nal orga­ni­za­tions by pub­licly oppos­ing Alber­ta Tar Sands expor­ta­tion. This project is wide­ly known as the most destruc­tive ener­gy process on the plan­et by lead­ing envi­ron­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions. Accord­ing to a recent report by Uni­ver­si­ty of Nebras­ka-Lin­coln engi­neer­ing pro­fes­sor John Stans­bury, nei­ther Tran­sCana­da nor the reg­u­la­tors eval­u­at­ing the pro­posed Key­stone XL pipeline have prop­er­ly con­sid­ered the risks. Stans­bury said Tran­sCana­da under­es­ti­mat­ed both the fre­quen­cy of spills on the pipeline and the sever­i­ty of the worst-case sce­nario spills.

“As the recent Exxon­Mo­bil pipeline dis­as­ter has made clear, Gov­er­nor Schweitzer is attempt­ing to turn Mon­tana into an extrac­tion state, while at the same time pub­licly pro­claim­ing his sup­posed sup­port for clean ener­gy, pro­tect­ing the envi­ron­ment and build­ing healthy com­mu­ni­ties. It’s one or the oth­er. You can’t be clean and dirty at the same time,” accord­ing to Bozeman’s Eri­ca Dos­sa, who also took part in the action.

Earth First! was named in 1979 in response to a lethar­gic, com­pro­mis­ing and increas­ing­ly cor­po­rate envi­ron­men­tal com­mu­ni­ty. Earth First! takes a decid­ed­ly dif­fer­ent approach towards envi­ron­men­tal issues by using all the tools in the tool­box, rang­ing from grass­roots orga­niz­ing and involve­ment in the legal process to civ­il dis­obe­di­ence. North­ern Rock­ies Ris­ing Tide is the Mis­soula based chap­ter off the inter­na­tion­al, decen­tral­ized, grass­roots move­ment Ris­ing Tide. They are an all-vol­un­teer net­work of groups and indi­vid­u­als who pro­mote local, com­mu­ni­ty-based solu­tions to the cli­mate cri­sis and take direct actions to con­front the root caus­es of cli­mate change.

North­ern Rock­ies Ris­ing Tide -

Fight­ing for things in the North­ern Rock­ies

www.NorthernRockiesRisingTide.org

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_vd4QC_rB4

HELENA, Montana—Check out this new short film from the Earth First! occu­pa­tion of the Mon­tana capi­tol against the Tar Sands and oth­er indus­tri­al ener­gy infra­struc­ture in the North­ern Rock­ies, fol­low­ing the 2011 Round Riv­er Ren­dezvous.

Five peo­ple locked down, 20 danced on the governor’s table, 70 peo­ple occu­pied the office, busi­ness as usu­al was dis­rupt­ed! If you can, please con­sid­er donat­ing a bit of mon­ey to the arrestee’s legal fund HERE

Philippines anti-mining action

7.7.11 — 30 com­mu­nist rebels torch Philex Mining’s vehi­cles, bunk house

At least 30 com­mu­nist rebels raid­ed on Wednes­day after­noon the com­pound of Philex Min­ing Com­pa­ny in Barangay (vil­lage) Nab­u­lao, Sipalay City in Negros Occi­den­tal.

7.7.11 — 30 com­mu­nist rebels torch Philex Mining’s vehi­cles, bunk house

At least 30 com­mu­nist rebels raid­ed on Wednes­day after­noon the com­pound of Philex Min­ing Com­pa­ny in Barangay (vil­lage) Nab­u­lao, Sipalay City in Negros Occi­den­tal.

No shot was fired but the New People’s Army (NPA) rebels burned the firm’s three vehi­cles and bunk house and took six shot­guns of their secu­ri­ty guards, mil­i­tary and police offi­cials said.

This was the sec­ond time in three years that the NPA attacked Philex Min­ing. In 2008, com­mu­nist rebels torched mil­lions of pesos worth of mine drilling and heavy equip­ment as well as the bar­racks of the work­ers.

Lt. Col. Rodri­go Sos­me­na, 47th Infantry Bat­tal­ion com­man­der, said about 30 armed rebels swooped down on the min­ing com­pound, dis­armed guards of their ser­vice firearms and three hand held radios, at the their out­post locat­ed about three kilo­me­ters away from the com­pound.

The rebels, believed to be mem­bers of the Arman­do Sumayang Com­mand, also torched a car­go truck rent­ed by the min­ing firm, as well as a bunk house of the guards and work­ers.

The rebels also burned down a Kia Rio car and lat­er com­man­deered the company’s ser­vice pick­up vehi­cle, said Supt. Milko Lirazan, direc­tor of the 6th Region­al Pub­lic Safe­ty Bat­tal­ion.

The rebels lat­er with­drew towards the Philex air­port site and burned the pick-up before flee­ing in unknown direc­tions, he added.

The police had yet to deter­mine the extent of the dam­age, said Lizaran.

Sos­me­na said his troops were still track­ing down the per­pe­tra­tors as of Wednes­day night.

The rebels con­duct­ed the raid in line with the cam­paign of priest-turned-rebel leader Frank Fer­nan­dez to enforce a rev­o­lu­tion­ary pol­i­cy of com­plete­ly ban­ning “destruc­tive” min­ing oper­a­tions and explo­rations on Negros Island.

In late 2010, com­mu­nist rebels raid­ed the Mar­i­calum Min­ing Com­pa­ny com­pound in Barangay San Jose, Sipalay City, and took 20 firearms from secu­ri­ty guards and two police­men who respond­ed to the raid, police records showed.

But ILt. Rey Bal­ibagoso, 47th IB Civ­il Mil­i­tary Oper­a­tions offi­cer, said the NPA was just try­ing to project the raid as an anti-min­ing oper­a­tion to cov­er up for its motive to extort mon­ey from the min­ing firm.

He said the attack was aimed force the min­ing firm to pay rev­o­lu­tion­ary tax­es.

http://signalfire.org/?p=12134

More environment protests in Inner Mongolia

Chi­nese Mon­go­lians protest again, herders beat­en-rights group

BEIJING, June 30 (Reuters) – Chi­nese police beat up and detained eth­nic Mon­go­lian herders who protest­ed over the week­end against pol­lu­tion caused by a lead mine, an over­seas rights group said on Thurs­day, in the lat­est unrest to strike China’s remote Inner Mon­go­lia.

Chi­nese Mon­go­lians protest again, herders beat­en-rights group

BEIJING, June 30 (Reuters) – Chi­nese police beat up and detained eth­nic Mon­go­lian herders who protest­ed over the week­end against pol­lu­tion caused by a lead mine, an over­seas rights group said on Thurs­day, in the lat­est unrest to strike China’s remote Inner Mon­go­lia.

The New York-based South­ern Mon­go­lian Human Rights Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre said the protest was sparked this month in Inner Mongolia’s Bayan­nu­ur after a lead mine expand­ed onto a piece of graz­ing land.

“After repeat­ed­ly peti­tion­ing the (local) gov­ern­ments express­ing their con­cerns regard­ing the dan­ger to their envi­ron­ment and health with no sat­is­fac­to­ry response, on June 24 … frus­trat­ed herders marched to the area of the mine and shut down the mine’s water pump,” the group said in an emailed state­ment.

“On June 25, the (local) gov­ern­ment mobi­lized more than 50 riot police and attacked the pro­test­ers. Many herders were beat­en severe­ly and tak­en away by police. Their health con­di­tion and sta­tus are unknown as of the date of this report,” it added.

An offi­cial reached by tele­phone at the Bayan­nu­ur gov­ern­ment said he had not heard of any protests, and declined fur­ther com­ment. Calls to the lead mine went unan­swered.

Bayan­nu­ur, more than 400 km (300 miles) north­east of Bei­jing, has been home to a lead mine since 1978, accord­ing to the Inner Mon­go­lia gov­ern­ment.

The vast north­ern region of Inner Mon­go­lia was rocked by protests last month sparked by the death of an eth­nic Mon­go­lian herder who was hit and killed by a truck after tak­ing part in protests against pol­lu­tion caused by a coal mine.

Angry eth­nic Mon­go­lians took to the streets across Inner Mon­go­lia demand­ing bet­ter pro­tec­tion of the envi­ron­ment as well as their rights and tra­di­tions.

This month, a court in Inner Mon­go­lia ordered the exe­cu­tion of a man for mur­der­ing the herder.

Bei­jing, ever wor­ried by threats to sta­bil­i­ty, is try­ing to address some of the pro­test­ers’ broad­er con­cerns about the dam­age done by coal min­ing to tra­di­tion­al graz­ing lands.

The author­i­ties have launched a month-long over­haul of the lucra­tive coal min­ing indus­try, vow­ing to clean up or close pol­luters.

Eth­nic Mon­go­lians, who make up less than 20 per­cent of the rough­ly 24 mil­lion pop­u­la­tion of Inner Mon­go­lia, have com­plained that their tra­di­tion­al graz­ing lands have been ruined by min­ing and deser­ti­fi­ca­tion, and that the gov­ern­ment has tried to force them to set­tle in per­ma­nent hous­es.

http://signalfire.org/?p=11963

Latest Action Update

Climb­ing, block­ing, stink­ing, sab­bing earth defend­ers rock!
Roll on down to the EF! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing in mid-August.

Paint-throw­ing, blockad­ing, riot­ing, board­ing up offices and gath­er­ing hun­dreds of thou­sands togeth­er — all ways to try and defeat the Nuclear Behe­moth.

Climb­ing, block­ing, stink­ing, sab­bing earth defend­ers rock!
Roll on down to the EF! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing in mid-August.

Paint-throw­ing, blockad­ing, riot­ing, board­ing up offices and gath­er­ing hun­dreds of thou­sands togeth­er — all ways to try and defeat the Nuclear Behe­moth.

Blockad­ing coal in Bangladesh, cop­per min­ing in Peru, Ital­ian eco­tage against incin­er­a­tion, Greek fire­bombs oppos­ing land­fill, pro-rick­shaw car-smash­ing in India, actions and camp­ing to pro­tect the Tas­man­ian forests, and anti-min­ing trash­ing of many things in Indonesia…just a taste from around the world of how peo­ple cam­paign to stop the destruc­tion of the earth and it’s inhab­i­tants.

More news from the front lines: trav­ellers dig­ging in, mobile phone mast torch­ing, a first time hunt sabber’s diary, the lat­est from the GM ‘anti-lob­by’, and track­ing new devel­op­ments — UK frack­ing, FFS!

Plus with the lat­est advice from AUn­tie Miffy, con­tacts and dates to get you in the mood for Cap­tain Swing, down­load, dis­trib­ute, sub­scribe and get out there, and stuck in.

earthfirst.org.uk/efau
[- to sub­scribe & get the EF!AU as soon as it’s pro­duced, rather than when we put it up here!]

Five killed in Peru’s anti-mining clashes

25.6.11
At least five peo­ple have died and more than 30 were injured in clash­es between police and anti-min­ing demon­stra­tors in south­ern Peru, hos­pi­tal offi­cials say.

Vio­lence in the Puno region start­ed when about 1,000 peo­ple were pre­vent­ed from breach­ing a secu­ri­ty fence around the inter­na­tion­al air­port in Juli­a­ca.

25.6.11
At least five peo­ple have died and more than 30 were injured in clash­es between police and anti-min­ing demon­stra­tors in south­ern Peru, hos­pi­tal offi­cials say.

Vio­lence in the Puno region start­ed when about 1,000 peo­ple were pre­vent­ed from breach­ing a secu­ri­ty fence around the inter­na­tion­al air­port in Juli­a­ca.

The protest was part of a two-day strike over a sil­ver-min­ing con­tract giv­en to a Cana­di­an cor­po­ra­tion.

The gov­ern­ment can­celled the project as the protests were going on.

Demon­stra­tors feared that it would increase pol­lu­tion, while bring­ing few ben­e­fits to the local pop­u­la­tion.
Locals v multi­na­tion­als

Flights were can­celled dur­ing the protest, strand­ing hun­dreds of tourists who had been vis­it­ing the town on the shores of the world’s high­est nav­i­ga­ble lake, Lake Tit­i­ca­ca.

The pro­test­ers attempt­ed to storm Juli­a­ca air­port twice.

They lat­er attacked a police sta­tion in the near­by town of Azan­garo, Inte­ri­or Min­is­ter Miguel Hidal­go said, adding that police there were in a “dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion”.

The BBC’s Dan Col­lyns in Lima says the Puno region on the bor­der with Bolivia has been in the grip of a gen­er­alised protest against all min­ing activ­i­ty for more than a month.

In May, indige­nous Aymara pro­test­ers blocked roads between the two coun­tries for three weeks.

The dis­putes over nat­ur­al resources pit poor locals against multi­na­tion­al com­pa­nies, our cor­re­spon­dent says.

The social con­flicts have come to char­ac­terise the out­go­ing gov­ern­ment of Pres­i­dent Alan Gar­cia, with crit­ics say­ing he often took the side of the large com­pa­nies, he adds.

Incom­ing Pres­i­dent Ollan­ta Humala also has promised to bring an end to such dis­putes.

Four officials taken hostage by Indian anti-hydro-project villagers

June 22, 2011
Four gov­ern­ment func­tionar­ies asso­ci­at­ed with a mega hydropow­er project in Himachal Pradesh’s Kin­naur dis­trict [India] were tak­en hostage by vil­lagers protest­ing over envi­ron­men­tal issues and released after a day in cap­tiv­i­ty Wednes­day, offi­cials said.

June 22, 2011
Four gov­ern­ment func­tionar­ies asso­ci­at­ed with a mega hydropow­er project in Himachal Pradesh’s Kin­naur dis­trict [India] were tak­en hostage by vil­lagers protest­ing over envi­ron­men­tal issues and released after a day in cap­tiv­i­ty Wednes­day, offi­cials said.

The pro­test­ers were demand­ing accep­tance of their demands by state-run Himachal Pradesh Pow­er Cor­po­ra­tion Lim­it­ed (HPPCL) exe­cut­ing a mega run-of-the-riv­er hydropow­er project on a Satluj trib­u­tary.

“All the four gov­ern­ment func­tionar­ies, includ­ing three senior offi­cials of the HPPCL who were kept under house arrest by vil­lagers since Tues­day, were released on the HPPCL’s assur­ance that most of their demands would be accept­ed,” Sub-Divi­sion­al Mag­is­trate Naresh Thakur told IANS over phone.

He said the vil­lagers demands includ­ed grant of con­struc­tion con­tracts to locals and steps to pre­vent dete­ri­o­ra­tion of envi­ron­ment.

The project of 130 MW is called Kashang hydropow­er project. It is being made on Kashang rivulet, some 275 km from state cap­i­tal Shim­la, and is being fund­ed by the Asian Devel­op­ment Bank.

HPPCL Gen­er­al Man­ag­er S.P. Gup­ta said the released hostages includ­ed project’s Exec­u­tive Engi­neer C.L. Dhi­man along with a senior research fel­low of the Himachal Pradesh Uni­ver­si­ty. They had been kept in cap­tiv­i­ty at the ‘pan­chay­at ghar’ in Pan­gi vil­lage, the sec­ond largest in the dis­trict with a pop­u­la­tion of over 2,500 peo­ple.

The min­istry of envi­ron­ment and forests has already grant­ed an envi­ron­men­tal clear­ance to the project.

Police used excessive force on San Francisco Peaks defenders

19.6.11
Protest Halts Snow­bowl Waste water Pipeline Con­struc­tion End Destruc­tion and Des­e­cra­tion of Holy San Fran­cis­co Peaks

19.6.11
Protest Halts Snow­bowl Waste water Pipeline Con­struc­tion End Destruc­tion and Des­e­cra­tion of Holy San Fran­cis­co Peaks

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Nava­jos and oth­ers defend­ing sacred San Fran­cis­co Peaks said police used exces­sive force on those tak­ing action to defend the Peaks from the use of sewage water for snow­mak­ing on the moun­tain. Native Amer­i­can med­i­cine men con­duct cer­e­monies on the moun­tain, and gath­er herbs for heal­ing cer­e­monies, on the Peaks, long sacred to 13 area Amer­i­can Indi­an Nations.

“Those who cut us out endan­gered our well being ignor­ing the screams to stop. They treat­ed our bod­ies the way they’re treat­ing this holy moun­tain. If they had their way, we wouldn’t even exist. There is more dan­ger in doing noth­ing. To idly stand by and allow this destruc­tion and des­e­cra­tion is to allow cul­tur­al geno­cide,” said one of the young woman who locked down.

At sun­rise on Thurs­day, June 16, 2011, more than a dozen peo­ple stopped ski area con­struc­tion on the Holy San Fran­cis­co Peaks. Six indi­vid­u­als used var­i­ous devices to lock them­selves to heavy machin­ery and to each oth­er inside the waste water pipeline trench, the six arrest­ed said in a state­ment released Sun­day, June 19.

Kristo­pher Bar­ney, Dine’ (Nava­jo) and one of the six who locked him­self to an exca­va­tor stat­ed, “This is a con­tin­u­a­tion of years of prayers and resis­tance. It is our hope that all Indige­nous Peo­ples, and all oth­ers, through­out the North, East, South and West come togeth­er to offer sup­port to the San Fran­cis­co Peaks and help put a stop to Snow­bowl’s plan to fur­ther destroy and des­e­crate such a sacred, beau­ti­ful and pris­tine moun­tain!”

“What part of sacred don’t they under­stand? Through our actions today, we say enough! The destruc­tion and des­e­cra­tion has to end!” said Mar­lena Tere­sa Gar­cia, 16, a young Diné woman and one of the six who chose to lock down. “The Holy San Fran­cis­co Peaks is home, tra­di­tion, cul­ture, and a sanc­tu­ary to me, and all this is being des­e­crat­ed by the Ari­zona Snow­bowl Ski Resort. So now I, as a young Diné woman, stand by Dook’o’osliid’s side tak­ing action to stop cul­tur­al geno­cide. I encour­age all indige­nous youth to stand against the des­e­cra­tion that is hap­pen­ing on the Holy San Fran­cis­co Peaks and all oth­er sacred sites,” said Gar­cia after being arrest­ed and released.

Those arrest­ed decribed the action and exces­sive police force in their state­ment released Sun­day:

A ban­ner was hung on the side of the trench that read “Defend the Sacred!” where two pro­test­ers were locked togeth­er. Over the half mile of open con­struc­tion, the group chant­ed, “Pro­tect Sacred Sites, Defend Human Rights!”, “No des­e­cra­tion for recre­ation!” “Stop the cul­tur­al geno­cide! Pro­tect the Peaks!” and “Human health over cor­po­rate wealth.”

“This waste water pipeline will poi­son the envi­ron­ment and to chil­dren who may eat snow made from it. Snow­bowl plans to spray mil­lions of gal­lons of waste water snow, which is filled with can­cer caus­ing and oth­er harm­ful con­t­a­m­i­nants, as well as clear-cut over 30,000 trees. The Peaks are a pris­tine and beau­ti­ful place, a frag­ile ecosys­tem, and home to rare and endan­gered species of plants and ani­mals,” said Evan Haw­bak­er, one of the pro­test­ers who locked them­selves to the exca­va­tor.

“The U.S. Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture, the U.S. For­est Ser­vice, the City of Flagstaff May­or and Coun­cil, and the Ari­zona Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Qual­i­ty are all respon­si­ble for per­mit­ting Snow­bowl to endan­ger pub­lic health, destroy the envi­ron­ment, and des­e­crate the Holy Peaks,” said Nadia del Calle­jo, one of the pro­test­ers who locked them­selves in the trench.

“Through­out his­to­ry, acts of resis­tance and civ­il dis­obe­di­ence have been tak­en by young and old against injus­tices such as this. This action is not iso­lat­ed but part of a. con­tin­ued resis­tance to human rights vio­la­tions, to colo­nial­ism, to cor­po­rate greed, and destruc­tion of Moth­er Earth,” added Del Calle­jo.

A sep­a­rate group of sup­port­ers, some wear­ing haz­mat suits, “quar­an­tined” the entrance to Snow­bowl Road. Ban­ners were stretched across the road that read “Pro­tect Sacred Sites” and “Dan­ger! Health Haz­ard — Snow­bowl.”

Short­ly after ini­ti­at­ing the action, a Snow­bowl secu­ri­ty guard spot­ted two peo­ple locked to an exca­va­tor. By 6:00 a.m. more than 15 armed agents, includ­ing the Coconi­no Coun­ty Sheriff’s Depart­ment, City of Flagstaff Police, and the FBI stormed the moun­tain.

At approx­i­mate­ly 7:30 a.m., the Flagstaff Fire Depart­ment, assist­ed by Coun­ty Sher­iffs, start­ed aggres­sive­ly cut­ting two peo­ple from the exca­va­tor.

“We took every pos­si­ble mea­sure to ensure our safe­ty. Our actions were tak­en to safe­guard Indige­nous Peo­ples’ cul­tur­al sur­vival, our community’s health and this sen­si­tive moun­tain ecosys­tem. Those who cut us out endan­gered our well being ignor­ing the screams to stop. They treat­ed our bod­ies the way they’re treat­ing this holy moun­tain. If they had their way, we wouldn’t even exist. There is more dan­ger in doing noth­ing. To idly stand by and allow this destruc­tion and des­e­cra­tion is to allow cul­tur­al geno­cide,” said one of the young woman who locked down.

“The police’s use of exces­sive force was in com­plete dis­re­gard for my safe­ty. They pulled at my arms and forced my body and head fur­ther into the machine, all the while using heavy duty pow­er saws with­in inch­es of my hand,” said Haw­bak­er.

After being cut out, the two were treat­ed by para­medics and arrest­ed for tres­pass­ing. The police, fire­fight­ers, and para­medics then pro­ceed­ed to cut two peo­ple locked in a near­by trench.

Extrac­tion took about forty min­utes and the two were imme­di­ate­ly seen by para­medics after being unlocked. One of the indi­vid­u­als sus­tained injuries to their arm from abu­sive force. Both were charged with tres­pass­ing, with an added charge of “con­tribut­ing to the delin­quen­cy of a minor,” for one of the indi­vid­u­als. Police pro­ceed­ed to unlock the last group who was also inside the trench near­by.

“Our only offense was resis­tance; resis­tance of the impli­ca­tions that’s Snow­bowl’s devel­op­ment exudes. The police’s defense was to imple­ment tac­tics of fear to reach a goal, essen­tial­ly to con­tin­ue con­struc­tion as soon as pos­si­ble. Our safe­ty was pri­or­i­tized sec­ond to Snow­bowl’s demands. I was one of the demon­stra­tors in the trench, locked at the neck with a part­ner. I was not aggres­sive. My lock was sawed through, inch­es away from both of our heads, secured sole­ly and reck­less­ly by the hands of a deputy. Dur­ing the process, we were repeat­ed­ly asked to chant to reaf­firm our con­scious­ness. The police’s response was hasty, tak­ing about ten min­utes in total–it was dehu­man­iz­ing,” said Haley Sher­wood, one of the last pro­test­er to be cut out.

Both women were also seen by para­medics. One was sent to the hos­pi­tal for heat exhaus­tion although she denied feel­ing dehy­drat­ed. She start­ed to faint dur­ing the extrac­tion when police, EMTs, and fire­fight­ers attempt­ed to force the pair to stand and move them from their loca­tion. Both women repeat­ed­ly expressed that they were being hurt and choked by law enforce­ment offi­cers and fire­fight­ers. Both of the pro­test­ers were arrest­ed for tres­pass­ing, with addi­tion­al charges to one of them for “con­tribut­ing to the delin­quen­cy of a minor” and “endan­ger­ment.”

Four of the pro­test­ers were tak­en to Coun­ty Jail. The two young peo­ple were tak­en to Coconi­no Coun­ty Juve­nile Deten­tion Cen­ter. FBI agents attempt­ed to ques­tion four of those arrest­ed.

As word spread about the demon­stra­tion to pro­tect the Peaks, over­whelm­ing sup­port and sol­i­dar­i­ty poured in from through­out the com­mu­ni­ty and inter­na­tion­al­ly.

Bail was raised short­ly after the arrests. All demon­stra­tors were released by 3:30 p.m. Three of the pro­test­ers, includ­ing Mar­lena Tere­sa Gar­cia, imme­di­ate­ly filed a report for exces­sive use of force after being released.

“How can we be tres­passers on our Holy Site?” ques­tioned Bar­ney. “I do not agree with these and the oth­er charges, we will con­tin­ue our resis­tance.”

—————-
Press con­tact for those defend­ing San Fran­cis­co Peaks:
Con­tact: Beth Lave­ly Tel: 928.254.1064 protectpeaks@gmail.com

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Back­ground — http://www.indigenousaction.org/