Category: Global

Glob­al

Arson at National Institute of Forestry, Agricultural, and Livestock Research in Mexico

6 March 2011
anony­mous report (trans­la­tion by This Is Our Job):

6 March 2011
anony­mous report (trans­la­tion by This Is Our Job):

“We, the Earth Lib­er­a­tion Front, take respon­si­bil­i­ty for the arson at the Mex­i­can Val­ley Exper­i­men­tal Field in Tex­co­co, Mex­i­co State. The field belongs to the Nation­al Insti­tute of Forestry, Agri­cul­tur­al, and Live­stock Research (INIFAP), which is ded­i­cat­ed to the research and devel­op­ment of “improved tech­nol­o­gy” in the areas of agri­cul­ture, ani­mal hus­bandry, and for­est exploita­tion. For exam­ple, INIFAP has been respon­si­ble for the pro­duc­tion of over 100 new genet­ic vari­eties of plants since 2005, great­ly increas­ing the country’s crop pro­duc­tion and there­fore its demand for land to be defor­est­ed and pol­lut­ed with pes­ti­cides and her­bi­cides.

This year, INIFAP opened the Nation­al Cen­ter for Genet­ic Resources (CNRG), which is respon­si­ble for stor­ing genet­ic sam­ples of every species endem­ic to Mex­i­co and Latin Amer­i­ca.

The Sci­en­tists in this field argue that their project is ben­e­fi­cial to ecosys­tems, but if we ana­lyze it, these peo­ple are real­ly ded­i­cat­ing their lives to the cre­ation of new types of organ­isms in the name of progress. If we leave such a great vari­ety in their hands, will any­thing ever be out of their reach? INIFAP also car­ries out forestry research, which it uses to pro­mote the increased defor­esta­tion of wild habi­tats. For exam­ple, two weeks ago INIFAP pub­lished an arti­cle about the tim­ber indus­try, an insti­tu­tion that had devel­oped “eco­log­i­cal” (note the quotes) fur­naces for dry­ing logs in the moun­tains north of Puebla. In its arti­cle, INIFAP made its hopes clear that these fur­naces would lead to growth in the region’s forestry indus­try, thus threat­en­ing an envi­ron­ment in which all kinds of species coex­ist.

There­fore, we claim the fol­low­ing eco­tages inside and out­side this fed­er­al insti­tu­tion:

1. Leav­ing an incen­di­ary device—made from three litres of gaso­line, fus­es for det­o­na­tion, and air fresh­en­ing pel­lets as delays—among hun­dreds of sacks of her­bi­cide in a ware­house inside their facil­i­ty.

2. Leav­ing anoth­er incen­di­ary device—fueled by four liters of gasoline—at the entrance to the main build­ing near the exper­i­men­tal field.

3. Leav­ing two incen­di­ary devices inside two green­hous­es out­side and behind the facil­i­ty.

4. Also leav­ing behind declar­a­tive and threat­en­ing graffiti—like “THIS TIME IT WAS FIRE, NEXT TIME IT WILL BE BOMBS,” “ELF,” “INIFAP = DESTRUCTION OF WILD NATURE,” “FLT,” “MORE GMOS, MORE FIRE,” among others—on the win­dows, floor, and walls of the main build­ing; the walls of the oth­er build­ings; an INIFAP van; and the pow­er gen­er­a­tor.

We’ve struck again. We made use of months of thor­ough inves­ti­ga­tion to study the tar­get, tak­ing into account the shifts of the guards, who must have cer­tain­ly been sur­prised to find out we were there that morn­ing of Feb­ru­ary 27—leaping over their secu­ri­ty fence, run­ning through their park­ing lot, and turn­ing our exis­tence into a threat­en­ing aggra­va­tion to the projects of those who dream of total domes­ti­ca­tion. We infil­trat­ed the insti­tu­tion itself as well as its fields, where the green­hous­es were locat­ed. We shift­ed into action once again, our fire reignit­ing to dam­age and destroy the prop­er­ty of those who believe they own the plan­et on which we sur­vive as the degen­er­ate species of the tech­no­log­i­cal-indus­tri­al sys­tem.

Keep­ing our impris­oned anti­civ­i­liza­tion com­rades Adrián and Braulio in mind, we’re absolute­ly ready to make this type of attack a clear mes­sage to indus­tries and insti­tu­tions that imple­ment tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment.

In anoth­er sense, the attack was a sym­bol­ic act direct­ed at sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy. To us, the action may have been of very lit­tle or no impor­tance, but it was still nec­es­sary, since from our per­spec­tive it’s deplorable to sit around like mere pas­sive spec­ta­tors wait­ing for things to change. We don’t believe that this action is going to change real­i­ty right away, as that would make us either naive or over­ly prag­mat­ic. But it does func­tion as a des­per­ate act of expres­sion through which we sig­ni­fy that the real­i­ty we live in must be negat­ed in its total­i­ty, and that the best nega­tion is the destruc­tion of what­ev­er gives mean­ing to the estab­lish­ment: “social peace,” nor­mal­i­ty, insti­tu­tions, respect for prop­er­ty, etc. In this case, the destruc­tion was direct­ed at one of the major parts of modernity’s sys­tem of dom­i­na­tion: tech­no-sci­ence. This time, the attack was on a fed­er­al gov­ern­ment insti­tu­tion respon­si­ble for forestry research and biotech­nol­o­gy, among oth­er things. As a pre­text for its exis­tence, we’re told that it is seek­ing a bet­ter life for the human beings who live in this coun­try, cre­at­ing accep­tance of this kind of research among the pop­u­lace. But, as we all know, there are also neg­a­tive aspects, which to us have greater impact and are more unac­cept­able and than the ben­e­fits: the arti­fi­cial­iza­tion and dom­i­na­tion of wild nature, espe­cial­ly of poten­tial­ly free beings includ­ing human beings, plus the denial of the nec­es­sary auton­o­my for free human self-deter­mi­na­tion. On the one hand, the state grants itself the right and the oblig­a­tion to pro­vide its inhab­i­tants with the means for their sur­vival. On the oth­er hand, the state isn’t even nec­es­sary, since it caus­es alien­ation when­ev­er its sub­jects doesn’t find them­selves direct­ly immersed in activ­i­ties that serve to sat­is­fy their sur­vival needs. This leads to numer­ous psy­choso­cial prob­lems, and of course gen­er­ates the mar­ket as an inter­me­di­ary, which in turn func­tions through the stan­dard­iza­tion of the mas­sive present-day con­sump­tion that is dete­ri­o­rat­ing the envi­ron­ment. This is very much relat­ed to the insti­tu­tion we attacked, which attempts to make excus­es for con­tin­u­ing its sci­en­tif­ic bar­barism by cre­at­ing new technologies—in this case, biotech­nolo­gies that claim to solve the prob­lems that sci­ence itself caus­es, fos­ter­ing the idea that such ecosys­tem dete­ri­o­ra­tion doesn’t mat­ter as long as we have the sci­ence to fix it. Thus, a vicious cir­cle is cre­at­ed that attempts to solve prob­lems with more prob­lems, under the pre­tence of a “bet­ter life.”

Our pro­pos­al is to negate the arti­fi­cial real­i­ty that civ­i­liza­tion has con­struct­ed, not indi­rect­ly, but by seek­ing a way of life that doesn’t involve domination—the most autonomous way of life pos­si­ble with­in wild ecosys­tems and with­out inter­me­di­aries, espe­cial­ly those that are mere decep­tions like sci­ence and mod­ern dom­i­nat­ing tech­nol­o­gy. Of course, this pro­pos­al won’t be accept­ed by most peo­ple, which is fine and even desir­able, since among the prob­lems posed by forms of social orga­ni­za­tion are the dom­i­nat­ing struc­tures con­ceived by mass soci­eties. There­fore, we trust that peo­ple who have a tru­ly crit­i­cal and rad­i­cal con­science will reflect on the real prob­lems con­fronting us and act accord­ing­ly.

We con­tin­ue to be the burn­ing rage of a dying plan­et.

—Earth Lib­er­a­tion Front, Mex­i­co”

“FRIENDS OF THE EARTH” TORCH CARS, ARGENTINA

2 March 2011
anony­mous com­mu­nique (trans­la­tion):

“Arson attacks on vehi­cles in Buenos Aires, Argenti­na

Image: http://www.lahaine.org/b2-img11/arte.JPG

2 March 2011
anony­mous com­mu­nique (trans­la­tion):

“Arson attacks on vehi­cles in Buenos Aires, Argenti­na

Image: http://www.lahaine.org/b2-img11/arte.JPG

We were fed up with the futile crit­i­cisms of the domes­ti­cat­ed thugs who, under the guise of pro­mot­ing our well-being, have tak­en the life from us with their machines of dom­i­na­tion. We decid­ed it was much bet­ter to look at what actions a per­son can take to make each day a lit­tle more free.

Far from want­i­ng to debate and get our­selves involved in the absurd wel­farist demands required to be a part of the reformist strug­gle, we say to them that we shit on their cages, cars and police … and on every per­son who is sat­is­fied being a slave …
They should all feel unsafe because war has been declared on soci­ety by those who have respect for nature.

Free­dom for our com­rades impris­oned in the bomb case in Chile who are on hunger strike.
Greet­ings to those who spread word of our actions.

Arson attacks on auto­mo­biles dur­ing the last week of Feb­ru­ary 2011:
· 4x4 truck on Bahia Blan­ca and Melin­cue (Devo­to).
· Auto­mo­bile parked on Llaval­lol and Pedro Lozano, a block from the sta­tion, and at the door of the legal address of the pub­lish­er respon­si­ble for the dis­trict gov­ern­ment (VDP) web­site.

Do it your­self, the­o­ry and prac­tice.

Friends of the Earth.”

Sinixt Slhu7kin-Perry Ridge Protection Camp Re-established

On March 1 2011, the Slu7kin – Per­ry Ridge Pro­tec­tion Camp was re-estab­lished by Slo­can Val­ley locals and sup­port­ers of the Sinixt Nation. The camp was first estab­lished by the Sinixt Nation and sup­port­ers on Octo­ber 26, 2010. The Sinixt recent­ly had their legal chal­lenge for their rights to con­sul­ta­tion dis­missed by BC Supreme Court Judge Will­cock.

On March 1 2011, the Slu7kin – Per­ry Ridge Pro­tec­tion Camp was re-estab­lished by Slo­can Val­ley locals and sup­port­ers of the Sinixt Nation. The camp was first estab­lished by the Sinixt Nation and sup­port­ers on Octo­ber 26, 2010. The Sinixt recent­ly had their legal chal­lenge for their rights to con­sul­ta­tion dis­missed by BC Supreme Court Judge Will­cock. This deci­sion is seen as a con­tin­u­a­tion of geno­cide against the Sinixt from the hands of the colo­nial gov­ern­ment of BC and Cana­da.

Sun­shine Log­ging Ltd, of Kaslo BC, respond­ed with­in a few days after the rul­ing by begin­ning to plow the snow from the road. Locals respond­ed quick­ly and moved in to pre­vent the machine from oper­at­ing. Jeff Mattes of Sun­shine Log­ging has been eager to get in and begin road build­ing. The Sinixt have yet to receive court doc­u­ments and are plan­ning an appeal, today they asked the Attor­ney Gen­er­al to pre­vent Mattes and com­pa­ny from road build­ing until they have had a chance to appeal.

Sun­shine log­ging did not show up to work Thurs­day.

The camp is grow­ing every­day. This is a com­mu­ni­ty action to pro­tect the com­mu­ni­ty water­shed. It is encour­aged for peo­ple to bring their fam­i­lies, friends, prayers, food, camp sup­plies, build­ing sup­plies, a love for the land and their hum­bled and hon­est war­rior spir­its. There is no threat of arrest by attend­ing the camp.

The camp is locat­ed just south of the town of Slo­can BC, 7km up the Lit­tle Slo­can South For­est Ser­vice Road. Take Hwy Six to Grav­el Pit Rd and fol­low the signs to the Lit­tle Slo­can Lodge. You can’t miss it.

http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=201748262749215460026.00049daae0331cd323924&ll=49.741233,-117.492428&spn=0.050586,0.169086&z=13

More info:

http://sinixtnation.org

http://perryridge.org

http://territoriesoffreedom.wordpress.com

Watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/v/rWkQ8MFVHU8?fs

Indigenous Protesters Blockading Mine Owned by Goldcorp Assaulted, Taken Hostage in Guatemala

Update:
they’ve since been released.

On Feb­ru­ary 28, 2011, approx­i­mate­ly 50 Indige­nous men and women from Mayan com­mu­ni­ties affect­ed by Gold­cor­p’s Mar­lin Gold mine in San Mar­cos, Guatemala, were attacked and tak­en hostage by a group of indi­vid­u­als said to have “strong ties” to the Van­cou­ver-based min­ing com­pa­ny.

Update:
they’ve since been released.

On Feb­ru­ary 28, 2011, approx­i­mate­ly 50 Indige­nous men and women from Mayan com­mu­ni­ties affect­ed by Gold­cor­p’s Mar­lin Gold mine in San Mar­cos, Guatemala, were attacked and tak­en hostage by a group of indi­vid­u­als said to have “strong ties” to the Van­cou­ver-based min­ing com­pa­ny.

For Imme­di­ate Release

San Miguel Ixtahua­can, San Mar­cos, Guatemala, Feb­ru­ary 28, 2011.
by San Miguel Ixtahua­can Defense Front

TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

THE SAN MIGUEL IXTAHUACAN DEFENSE FRONT

REPORTS

FIRST: Today, on Feb­ru­ary 28, 2011, com­mu­ni­ties took action to pres­sure the gov­ern­ment of Guatemala to car­ry out the Pre­cau­tion­ary Mea­sures MC-260–07 grant­ed by the Inter-Amer­i­can Com­mis­sion on Human Rights, which include the tem­po­rary sus­pen­sion of the Mar­lin mine. The action con­sist­ed in peace­ful­ly block­ing the main routes used by the com­pa­ny* in a way that respects the Con­sti­tu­tion of our coun­try, in which we have the right to protest.

SECOND: When the block­ade began, a group of approx­i­mate­ly 20 peo­ple assault­ed Miguel Bamaca, despite the fact that the Pres­i­den­tial Human Rights Com­mis­sion has grant­ed him pro­tec­tiv mea­sures. Miguel Bamaca was beat­en mer­ci­less­ly by a fam­i­ly known as the Mejia fam­i­ly, togeth­er with neigh­bours who work for the com­pa­ny. These peo­ple have strong ties to the com­pa­ny and also to ille­gal busi­ness activ­i­ties. This inci­dent occurred at four thir­ty in the after­noon in a loca­tion known as Siete Platos.

THIRD: On the way back, near the com­mu­ni­ty of San Jose Ixcaniche, approx­i­mate­ly 70 mem­bers of this com­mu­ni­ty inter­cept­ed the bus and began to assault var­i­ous peo­ple who were trav­el­ling in the bus. Among them, our com­rade Anise­to Lopez and oth­ers were beat­en with­out being able to defend them­selves. The attack­ers came armed with guns, stones, knives, sticks, and oth­er weapons. Right now, approx­i­mate­ly 50 peo­ple are kid­napped and being threat­ened by the com­mu­ni­ty of San Jose Ixcaniche and the Mejia fam­i­ly.

Day of Action against Extraction, April 19/April 20 — 2011

Com­mu­ni­ties around the world are under attack from extrac­tive indus­tries that poi­son our fam­i­lies, kill our loved ones on the job, and destroy the ecosys­tems we cher­ish. The BP oil spill was unfor­tu­nate­ly just one of an end­less string of dis­as­ters born of an eco­nom­ic sys­tem that must end­less­ly con­sume the Earth’s resources.

Com­mu­ni­ties around the world are under attack from extrac­tive indus­tries that poi­son our fam­i­lies, kill our loved ones on the job, and destroy the ecosys­tems we cher­ish. The BP oil spill was unfor­tu­nate­ly just one of an end­less string of dis­as­ters born of an eco­nom­ic sys­tem that must end­less­ly con­sume the Earth’s resources.

Extrac­tion is the act of tak­ing with­out giv­ing any­thing back. Extrac­tion takes work­ers lives so cor­po­ra­tions can make a few more bucks.
Extrac­tion takes clean water and air and gives us black­ened oceans and a cli­mate in chaos. Extrac­tion takes the nat­ur­al wealth of com­mu­ni­ties and ecosys­tems and leaves behind pover­ty and eco­log­i­cal waste­lands.

For a sta­ble cli­mate, clean air and water, we must stop the extrac­tion of fos­sil fuels and oth­er “resources.” From the tar sands of Alber­ta to the Gulf Coast, peo­ple are fight­ing back against the extrac­tive indus­tries that have declared war on our plan­et. Ris­ing Tide is call­ing for a day of direct action against extrac­tion on the 1 year anniver­sary of the BP oil spill. On April 20th take it to the point of pro­duc­tion.
Shut down a well site, occu­py a mine, take over an office, block­ade a bank. Nobody’s com­mu­ni­ty should be a sac­ri­fice zone. For cli­mate jus­tice and a live­able plan­et.

Ris­ing Tide (North Amer­i­ca)

October Minga Global/Week of Action for Climate Justice

6.12.10

6.12.10
On 12 — 16th Octo­ber, respond­ing to the Min­ga Glob­al mobil­i­sa­tion in defence of moth­er earth and the Week of Action for Cli­mate Jus­tice, peo­ple around the world came togeth­er to take action. From Havana to Helsin­ki, Essex to El Alto, Mon­tre­al to Men­doza, peo­ple block­ad­ed oil refiner­ies, marched for indige­nous rights, hung ban­ners above motor­ways, held pub­lic meet­ings, and shut down cor­po­rate head­quar­ters. Atten­tion was drawn to the ongo­ing strug­gles in all parts of the world, with calls
for cli­mate jus­tice, indige­nous sov­er­eign­ty, pub­lic trans­port, and an end to fos­sil fuel extrac­tion. The week of action was in sol­i­dar­i­ty with all the diverse move­ments who fight for social and eco­log­i­cal jus­tice.

The strug­gles con­tin­ue..

South Africa
— Sasol Day of Action
Earth­life Africa Jhb and part­ner organ­i­sa­tions held a day of action to high­light the con­tin­u­ing cli­mate and envi­ron­men­tal atroc­i­ties com­mit­ted by Sasol. There was a march on Sasol’s head­quaters to high­light the fact that Sasol is one of the worst emit­ters of GHG on the African con­ti­nent and pro­duces about 75.4 mil­lion tonnes of green­house gas­es annu­al­ly – about 21% of South Africa’s total green­house gas emis­sions per year.

In recent months Sasol has claimed to be con­cerned about the envi­ron­ment and its impacts on cli­mate change, propos­ing that the delay of Project Mafutha is about its GHG emis­sions and the recent suc­cess using Sasol’s fuel for avi­a­tion. In real­i­ty how­ev­er, the delay may be due to the cost of the project and the dif­fi­cul­ty to obtain the coal and not about Sasol’s envi­ron­men­tal con­cern. Sasol Chief Exec­u­tive was report­ed as say­ing that the project would require exten­sive “sup­port” from gov­ern­ment.

In addi­tion, if Sasol was tru­ly con­cerned about glob­al GHG emis­sions it would have not gone ahead with its plans to build CTL plants in Chi­na and GTL plant in Uzbek­istan.

Mako­ma Lekalakala, Pro­gramme Offi­cer for Earth­life Africa Jhb, states, “Sasol talks green but their actions show lit­tle regard for peo­ple and the plan­et. It is time for South Africans to hold com­pa­nies like Sasol account­able for the dam­age they are caus­ing to the envi­ron­ment and to our peo­ple.”

Sasol is South Africa’s biggest source of volatile organ­ic com­pounds which include ben­zene, toluene and xylene (all can­cer caus­ing sub­stances). In addi­tion, dust from coal, slag and ash heaps blow across neigh­bour­ing set­tle­ments. Earth­life Africa Jhb and part­ners will con­tin­ue to high­light the truths and hold Sasol account­able for the ongo­ing pol­lu­tion in Sasol­burg and the
sur­round­ing areas.

web­site:
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2010/10/14/protesters-march-for-environmental-justice

Cuba

- Sol­i­dar­i­ty day with Haiti and against mil­i­ta­riza­tion, the con­se­quence of cli­mate change and in sup­port of rights for Moth­er Earth.

12th. of Octo­ber in Havana, Cuba

For this activ­i­ty which occurred in the Mar­tin Luther King memo­r­i­al cen­tre, a net­work of pop­u­lar edu­ca­tors, groups of 100’s of peo­ple who work in diverse places and par­tic­i­pa­tive spaces in Cuba. We paid homage to Haiti with both songs and poet­ry. The idea for this was to inter­con­nect a day of sol­i­dar­i­ty with Haiti with the resis­tance in Quito, Ecuador and to join with the Glob­al Min­ga for Moth­er Earth, and to show our pres­ence for the COP-16 con­fer­ence in Can­cun. It is because of this that we invit­ed the ambas­sadors from the ALBA coali­tion coun­tries (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and var­i­ous oth­er Caribbean coun­tries) and the stu­dents from the Latin Amer­i­can school for the Amer­i­c­as.

Loca­tion: Casa de ALBA.

Guatemala

- March in Sup­port of the day of dig­ni­ty and the resis­tance of peas­ant farm­ers and native peo­ples

The Nation­al Coor­di­na­tion and Mayan con­ver­gence “Waqib’ Kej” and their orga­ni­za­tions, call on the Mayan peo­ples, the Gar­i­fu­na, and the Xin­ka in Guatemala to march on the 12th of Octo­ber 2010 to com­mem­o­rate the day of dig­ni­ty and of resis­tance of peas­ant farm­ers and native peo­ples.

The march has the fol­low­ing objec­tives: to demon­strate our resis­tance to 500 years since the Span­ish inva­sion, the geno­cide com­mit­ted against our peo­ple, the threat which comes from the mega-projects to dri­ve us from our land and ter­ri­to­ry.

The 12th of Octo­ber rep­re­sents an day to pay homage to and to salute our mar­tyrs, grand­fa­thers and grand­moth­ers, who gave their lives in the fight for the defence of our land and ter­ri­to­ry decid­ing not to nego­ti­ate, not to com­pro­mise nor to sell their dig­ni­ty.

Also the date com­mem­o­rates and cel­e­brates the vic­to­ries and the advances made in our resis­tance, oppos­ing the trans­la­tion cor­po­ra­tions (TNCs) and the Guatemalan state that ren­ders to them.

The mobi­liza­tion is being orga­nized by The Nation­al Coor­di­na­tion and Mayan con­ver­gence “Waqib’ Kej”, and as such we wish to clar­i­fy that we have no links with oth­er orga­ni­za­tions that are not direct­ly asso­ci­at­ed with us but which join with us in the mobi­liza­tion.

We know of anoth­er sim­i­lar action which takes place in our Cap­i­tal (Guatemala city) and in oth­er parts of the coun­try but we con­sid­er it impor­tant that we clar­i­fy that they are quite dif­fer­ent to our orga­ni­za­tion and as such not relat­ed to our move­ment.

That said, we invite our broth­ers and sis­ters to join with us in our march, in defence of Moth­er Earth and our Ter­ri­to­ry, which are being threat­ened by mega-projects, with the Guatemalan state’s com­pli­ance, and we invite the nation­al media and their cov­er­age of our march.

The Nation­al Coor­di­na­tion and Mayan con­ver­gence “Waqib’ Kej”

Ixim Ulew, Kajib´ I’x, Sej

Trans­lat­ed from the orig­i­nal, pub­lished in Guatemala, 7th of Octo­ber 2010
http://waqib-kej.org/portal/2010/10/convocamos-a-marcha-reivindicativa-del-12-de-octubre-de-2010/

UK
— Crude Awak­en­ing
500 Cli­mate activists block­ad­ed the UK’s busiest oil refin­ery. The action start­ed with an all woman affin­i­ty group lock­ing them­selves to immo­bilised vehi­cles, pre­vent­ing oil tankers
from leav­ing the refin­ery to deliv­er oil to Lon­don. They were joined by hun­dreds more who set up a fur­ther block­ade.

Ter­ri Orchard, who took part, said:
“We don’t have a hope of tack­ling cli­mate change if we don’t find a way to start mov­ing beyond oil. But Big Oil is relent­less. From the Gulf of Mex­i­co to the Arc­tic to the Cana­di­an tar sands, oil com­pa­nies are dev­as­tat­ing local envi­ron­ments, tram­pling the rights of local com­mu­ni­ties, and push­ing us over the edge to cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mate change.

We are here at the source of the prob­lem, at the UK’s busiest oil refin­ery, to stop the flow of oil to Lon­don. We’re here to put a span­ner in the works of the relent­less flow of oil and to say no more. This place, this whole indus­try, must become a thing of the past.”

The Crude Awak­en­ing is sup­port­ed by a spec­trum of direct action groups includ­ing the Camp for Cli­mate Action, Plane Stu­pid, Ris­ing Tide, Space Hijack­ers, Lib­er­ate Tate, Lab­o­ra­to­ry of Insur­rec­tionary Imag­i­na­tion, Earth First! and the UK Tar Sands Net­work.

web­site:
www.crudeawakening.org.uk

— Avon­mouth tar­get­ed by Bris­tol and Bath Ris­ing Tide Activists from Bris­tol and Bath Ris­ing Tide (1) dropped a ban­ner read­ing ‘IMPORT CO2AL: EXPORT POVERTY’ from Avon­mouth bridge near the docks, as part of a glob­al week of action for cli­mate and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice.

The Roy­al Port­bury Docks con­tains one of the largest coal import ter­mi­nals in the UK. Tra­cy Jones from Ris­ing Tide said “Fos­sil fuel extrac­tion dev­as­tates com­mu­ni­ties, from vil­lages destroyed by floods in Pak­istan to land grabs in Colom­bia, and is being resist­ed around the world. The fail­ure of the Copen­hagen cli­mate sum­mit shows that gov­ern­ments have their hands in the pock­ets of cor­po­ra­tions and can­not be trust­ed. It’s up to ordi­nary peo­ple to take direct action to stop cli­mate chaos.”

web­site:
risingtide.org.uk

— Action against RPS group Glas­gow in Sol­i­dar­i­ty with com­mu­ni­ties in Co. Mayo and South Lanark­shire
On Sat­ur­day the 16th, RPS Group’s offices in Glas­gow had its locks and sig­nage destroyed by peo­ple who are out­raged in their involve­ment with the Cor­rib Gas Pipeline in Co. Mayo Ire­land and the Open Cast Coal mines of the Dou­glas Val­ley, south Lanark­shire, Scot­land.

RPS is a large plan­ning, engi­neer­ing and envi­ron­men­tal con­sis­ten­cy that attempts to legit­imize these con­tro­ver­sial projects. Local resis­tance to these projects has arisen for many rea­sons, includ­ing their detri­ment to the envi­ron­ment. RPS claim to con­sult the local com­mu­ni­ties affect­ed and use plen­ty of envi­ron­men­tal rhetoric in their reports but in fact work with gov­ern­ments and big busi­ness to jus­ti­fy devel­op­ments that are ruin­ing peo­ples health, lifestyles and their envi­ron­ment.

web­site:
coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2185

— Action against Ayr­shire Pow­er and Peel Hold­ings
UK-wide coor­di­nat­ed direc­tion actions tar­get­ing the head­quar­ters of Clyde­port, Ayr­shire Pow­er, and the com­pa­ny that owns them, Peel Hold­ings. A 30-metre ban­ner has been unfurled from the icon­ic Clyde­port crane on the Riv­er Clyde, and the head­quar­ters of all 3 com­pa­nies have been shut down in Glas­gow and Man­ches­ter. These actions were tak­en in sol­i­dar­i­ty with com­mu­ni­ties resist­ing coal around the world.

Coal min­ing and burn­ing dam­ages the social, envi­ron­men­tal and phys­i­cal health of com­mu­ni­ties in Scot­land and else­where. With plans to build a new coal-fired pow­er sta­tion at Hunter­ston to burn import­ed coal, Peel Hold­ings and its sub­sidiaries are under­min­ing coher­ent action on Scot­land meet­ing our cli­mate change oblig­a­tions. Coal import­ed by Clyde­port at Hunter­ston is also linked to human rights abus­es of min­ers attempt­ing to unionise in Colum­bia.

We are call­ing for an end for the indus­tri­al-scale burn­ing of coal for prof­it, whether import­ed or domes­tic, and we call for work­ers and com­mu­ni­ties to cre­ate a socialised renew­able ener­gy sys­tem for a fair and sus­tain­able future.

We have closed down these offices to open up a long-term strate­gic direct action cam­paign against all links in the indus­try chain lock­ing us into a car­bon-inten­sive future.

web­site:
coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2177

Uruguay

- Indige­nous Peo­ples Resis­tance Day

518 years after the start of the Euro­pean inva­sion, our Indige­nous Amer­i­ca resists.

For the defence of our “char­rue” land!
We meet on Cagan­cha square at 17 hs.
We share: procla­ma­tion, music and singing, artis­tic expres­sions and reflec­tions.
Artists: Oscar Mas­sit­ta, Pocho Per­al­ta, Iya Comu­na y Basquadé.
Who calls: Adench and Basquadé Inchalá (Coun­cil of the Char­rúa Nation) Mon­te­v­ideo, Plaza Cagan­cha, Uruguay

web­site:
http://www.servindi.org/actualidad/33624

France
— arret total!
A hun­dred of cli­mate activists gath­ered this after­noon in front of the Total refin­ery of Nor­mandy. The aim of the action, that had been planned since sev­er­al months, was to shut it down. The activists found an unex­pect­ed help in the work­ers of the refin­ery. On strike against the pen­sions reform, they have block­ad­ed the refin­ery and stopped pro­duc­tion. The activists tried to enter the site to show their deter­mi­na­tion to see it per­ma­nent­ly shut. They are accus­ing oil indus­try of con­tribut­ing dan­ger­ous­ly to cli­mate change. The activists have tried to get to the site, past the police lines that have cir­cled a 150 meters perime­ter around the refin­ery, for sev­er­al hours. Thir­teen pro­test­ers on bikes have man­aged to do so and have joined the strik­ers at the entrance of the refin­ery and made a bike bar­ri­er.

At the same time, three activists had entered the Le Havre site of the Chevron plant, the sec­ond largest oil com­pa­ny in the U.S, plan­ning to drop a ban­ner.

In the morn­ing, a demo had tak­en place in Le Havre and demon­stra­tors had lead sev­er­al protest activ­i­ties through­out the city (such as replac­ing adver­tise­ments with mes­sages against Total, a “gar­den­ing gueril­la” or veg­etable plan­ta­tions in the city, the reg­is­ter­ing of a com­plaint against Total…)

One of the par­tic­i­pants in the day of action, Emmanuel Verg­er, says: “We can’t solve the issue of cli­mate change with­out find­ing a way to move beyond our oil-depen­dent soci­ety.

“Oil com­pa­nies destroy local envi­ron­ments in extrac­tion zones, they tram­ple local and indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties rights, and they are push­ing us beyond the thresh­old of cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mate change.

“ We are at the source of the prob­lem, at the largest refin­ery in the coun­try, that is also one of the country’s major green­house gas emit­ter. We are here to put the brakes on oil pro­duc­tion and to say “enough”. We need to make this place and this indus­try become his­to­ry.”

The pro­test­ers also express their sup­port of the strik­ers of the oil refiner­ies that are cur­rent­ly strug­gling to keep a fair pen­sions sys­tem: “Envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice won’t hap­pen with­out social jus­tice, adds Emmanuel. “Those who exploit work­ers, threat­en their rights, and those who are destroy­ing the plan­et, are the same peo­ple. We need to move towards a soci­ety and ener­gy tran­si­tion and to do it coop­er­a­tive­ly with the work­ers of this sec­tor.

“The work­ers that are cur­rent­ly blockad­ing their plants have a cru­cial pow­er into their hands ; every liter of oil that is left in the ground thanks to them helps sav­ing human lives by pre­vent­ing cli­mate cat­a­stro­phes such as the recent floods in Pak­istan from hap­pen­ing.”

web­site:
www.campclimat.org/spip.php?article209

Cana­da
— Envi­ron­men­tal Jus­tice Toron­to ban­ner drop
Activists from Envi­ron­men­tal Jus­tice Toron­to risked arrest by walk­ing on to the Gar­diner Express­way to hang a ban­ner say­ing “Free Alex Hun­dert,” a com­mu­ni­ty activist who has been in jail since being re-arrest­ed after speak­ing at a pub­lic pan­el at Ryer­son Uni­ver­si­ty in mid-Sep­tem­ber.

“Alex Hun­dert is a strong voice for indige­nous sov­er­eign­ty and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice. His work with AW@L in Guelph is an inspi­ra­tion for all who are work­ing to build a bet­ter world,” says Envi­ron­men­tal Jus­tice Toron­to activist Brett Rhyno. “All charges against Alex should be dropped.These arrests, deten­tions, and false charges are part of a greater attempt to iso­late effec­tive and vocal com­mu­ni­ty activists, and to crim­i­nal­ize dis­sent against the vio­lent poli­cies of the G20, poli­cies that per­pet­u­ate envi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion, mil­i­ta­riza­tion, labour exploita­tion, and the theft of indige­nous lands.”

Octo­ber 12 is also the date of a glob­al call for actions in sup­port of Cli­mate Jus­tice, led by the Glob­al Min­ga and Cli­mate Jus­tice Action net­works. Glob­al­ly, envi­ron­men­tal and cli­mate jus­tice activists are mark­ing this day in 1492 as the land­ing of Christo­pher Colum­bus on what is now known as the Amer­i­c­as, mark­ing the begin­ning of cen­turies of colo­nial­ism. The exten­sion of Euro­pean greed into the West­ern Hemi­sphere glob­al­ized the exploita­tion of the Earth and its indige­nous peo­ples in the end­less pur­suit for growth and prof­it. Today this trans­lates to a neo­colo­nial sys­tem of over-con­sump­tion, over-pro­duc­tion, and over-extrac­tion of the Earth’s finite nat­ur­al resources.

“Only pow­er­ful cli­mate jus­tice move­ments can achieve the struc­tur­al changes that are nec­es­sary to con­front the cli­mate cri­sis,” says Julien Lalonde, also from EJ Toron­to. “All around the world today, cli­mate jus­tice activists are work­ing col­lec­tive­ly towards end­ing our addic­tion to fos­sil fuels, replac­ing indus­tri­al agri­cul­ture with local sys­tems of food sov­er­eign­ty and self-suf­fi­cien­cy, halt­ing sys­tems based on end­less growth, and address­ing the his­tor­i­cal respon­si­bil­i­ty of the glob­al elites’ mas­sive eco­log­i­cal debt to the glob­al exploit­ed.”

web­site:
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/environmental-justice-toronto-activists-drop-banner-gardiner-expressway-demanding-freedom-g20-

— Shell Sta­tion Bloack­ade, Cli­mate Jus­tice Lon­don Ontario and the Latin Amer­i­can-Cana­di­an Sol­i­dar­i­ty Asso­ci­a­tion (LACASA)
A Shell gas sta­tion in Lon­don Ontario Cana­da was closed down by activists from Cli­mate Jus­tice Lon­don Ontario and the Latin Amer­i­can-Cana­di­an Sol­i­dar­i­ty Asso­ci­a­tion:

“We rode and ral­lied in the streets, with a vision of live­able envi­ron­ments for every­one, every­where. Through these actions, we fol­lowed up the Thanks­giv­ing week­end by shar­ing our con­cerns about threats to native peo­ples across the world.”

The local ral­ly was orga­nized to join a day of action for indige­nous rights, cli­mate jus­tice, and Latin Amer­i­can sol­i­dar­i­ty. At the protest Jonathan O’Glaisne (pro­nounced O Glaw-shnee) spoke about cap­i­tal­ist and impe­ri­al­ist inter­ests invad­ing and abus­ing Coun­ty Mayo in Ire­land. Jonathan also talked about how cor­po­ra­tions like Shell are being met with wider oppo­si­tion, as these com­pa­nies try to exploit more and more peo­ple and envi­ron­ments, across the world. Shell to Sea, for exam­ple, has been chal­leng­ing Shell in west­ern Ire­land, and a Shell sta­tion protest in Kitch­en­er-Water­loo was anoth­er note­wor­thy case of resis­tance from south­ern Ontario. Oth­er sol­i­dar­i­ty protests with­in the last month (Sept-Oct 2010) have tak­en place in Bris­tol and in South Lon­don, Eng­land.

Jonathan has fam­i­ly from the area of Coun­ty Mayo that Shell has been tar­get­ing. His fam­i­ly had no choice but to leave Ire­land due to the pres­sures of cap­i­tal­ism and impe­ri­al­ism in Ire­land dur­ing the after­math of the Anglo-Irish trade war between Ire­land and Great Britain in the 1930s.”

web­site:
http://london.actforclimatejustice.org/events/october-12th-day-of-action/
http://withoutyourwalls.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/oct-12th-2010-global-day-of-action-for-climate-justice-protesters-close-down-a-shell-gas-station-london-canada/

— Cli­mate Jus­tice Mon­tre­al state­ment on indige­nous strug­gles
Cli­mate Jus­tice Mon­tre­al backed the call to action and issued a state­ment of sup­port, high­light­ing 10 indige­nous strug­gles tak­ing place in Cana­da:

“These ten Indige­nous strug­gles, which could eas­i­ly be twen­ty or thir­ty oth­ers, are chal­leng­ing the sta­tus quo of fos­sil-fuel addic­tion and resource pil­lage in this coun­try. Stand­ing up to gov­ern­ments and cor­po­ra­tions, strug­gling for their moun­tains, waters and cli­mate, Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties deserve the sup­port of every­one who cares about the health of our plan­et. As these com­mu­ni­ties bat­tle to regain con­trol over their lands, they strug­gle for us all.”

Lubi­con Lake (Alber­ta): www.lubicon.org/
Grassy Nar­rows (Ontario): www.freegrassy.org
Pimi­cika­mak (Man­i­to­ba): www.pimicikamak.com/
Wet’suwet’en (British Colum­bia): http://on.fb.me/bekx2K
Gwich’in (North­west Ter­ri­to­ries): http://www.thebigwild.org/act/peel
Bak­er Lake (Nunavut)
Bar­riere Lake (Que­bec): www.barrierelakesolidarity.org
Innu (Quebec/Labrador): http://teztanbiny.ca/
Bear Riv­er (Nova Sco­tia): http://www.defendersoftheland.org/bear_river
Defend­ers of the Land (Nation­al): www.defendersoftheland.org
web­site:
http://global.climate-justice-action.org/reports/view/28

Philip­ines
— Philip­ine Move­ment for Cli­mate Jus­tice
The Philip­pine Move­ment for Cli­mate Jus­tice held Rally/Picket at Mala­canang, Men­di­ol

Web­site:
http://focusweb.org/philippines/content/view/395/52/

Fin­land
— Octo­ber 12: Green­wash action in Helsin­ki, Fin­land
On 12th Octo­ber 2010, the inter­na­tion­al day of cli­mate action, a group of activists spent the after­noon doing a pub­lic green­wash­ing action in the city cen­tre of Helsin­ki, Fin­land. The police arrest­ed sev­en peo­ple on sus­pi­cion of van­dal­ism.

The action con­sist­ed of “Green­Wash­Stream” com­pa­ny rep­re­sen­ta­tives strolling the cen­tral com­mer­cial streets in Helsin­ki, offer­ing passers-by free green­wash coupons which would allow peo­ple to cling to their over-con­sum­ing lifestyle with a clean con­science. On the back­side of the coupon, one would find a cri­tique against car­bon trad­ing, off­set­ting and oth­er false solu­tions to cli­mate change. While the dynam­ic mar­ket­ing team was hand­ing out coupons, a group of painters used water­buck­ets and sponges to give a shiny “green­wash­ing” to the bill­boards and win­dows of com­pa­nies with bad envi­ron­men­tal and social rep­u­ta­tions. Final­ly the police were called and the whole Green­Wash­Stream crew was tak­en to the police sta­tion for ques­tion­ing.

This action was aimed to remind peo­ple that while indus­tri­alised coun­tries bear the pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty for the cli­mate cri­sis, car­bon trad­ing com­pa­nies like Green­Stream are divert­ing our atten­tion away from real solu­tions to the cli­mate cri­sis, such as rapid­ly reduc­ing emis­sions in the indus­tri­alised North.

Fur­ther, pol­lut­ing com­pa­nies claim to reduce their car­bon foot­print by fund­ing “sus­tain­able” projects in devel­op­ing coun­tries. These projects are often relat­ed to ener­gy pro­duc­tion, such as mod­ern coal pow­er plants, wind farms or gigan­tic dam projects, which have a dev­as­tat­ing impact on local com­mu­ni­ties. Only by stop­ping the vicious cir­cle of unnec­es­sary pro­duc­tion, work and con­sump­tion can we curb cli­mate change.

web­site:
www.hyokyaalto.org

Ger­many
— “Berlin fährt frei” (Berlin rides for free)
With the mot­to “Think glob­al – Act local!” the Berlin based cam­paign “Berlin fährt frei” (Berlin rides for free) informed inter­est­ed Berlin­ers dur­ing its kick­off action on the glob­al action day for cli­mate jus­tice. The “Berlin fährt frei” cam­paign puts its action in the con­text of the glob­al action day for cli­mate jus­tice.

From 5 o’clock on Tues­day after­noon humor­ous small the­atre per­for­mances and var­i­ous infor­ma­tion mate­r­i­al enlivened the Berlin sub­way lines and sta­tions and many pas­sen­gers. The aim and focus of the action were to crit­i­cize the impact of pri­vate motorised trans­port on the one hand and the moti­vate a change to sol­i­daris­ti­cal­ly, demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly organ­ised free pub­lic trans­port that is not based on eco­nom­ic growth on the oth­er.

The cam­paign found much res­o­nance for its ideas: there was not only unan­i­mous sup­port that pub­lic trans­port in Berlin was too expen­sive and as first step we need to hin­der next year’s planned price hikes, but one pas­sen­ger doubt­ed that the CO² goals of the Berlin Sen­ate could be reached only with insu­la­tion and boil­er replace­ments. A young father remarked that free pub­lic trans­port would reduce traf­fic in Berlin and make the streets safer for his chil­dren. There was a par­tic­u­lar­ly good recep­tion of the colour­ful­ly clad cam­paign­ers in the S‑Bahn (the region­al train, which last had a major cri­sis due to dwin­dling secu­ri­ty stan­dards), with one pas­sen­ger assert­ing: “It can’t be that pub­lic ser­vices serve the prof­it inter­ests of large con­cerns.”

Dieter Hart­mann, active in “Berlin fährt frei” com­ment­ed on the pos­i­tive feed­back from pas­sen­gers dur­ing the action: “It is espe­cial­ly the link between envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, social jus­tice, demo­c­ra­t­ic con­trol of com­mon goods and the per­spec­tive of a live­able city excites peo­ple about the cam­paign. Only by rethink­ing our way of life and econ­o­my are we able to ful­fil our glob­al respon­si­bil­i­ty on a local lev­el. We’re quite hap­py about the start of the cam­paign and invite every­body to make Berlin a poster child for a tru­ly envi­ron­men­tal friend­ly free pub­lic trans­port.

web­site:
http://berlin-faehrt-frei.de/

Peru
Native orga­ni­za­tions pre­pare for the march on the 12th. of Octo­ber, Lima,

AIDESEP, 2nd of Sep­tem­ber 2010. The nation­al front for sov­er­eign­ty and for life — FRENVIDAS meets today in an ampli­fied meet­ing to coor­di­nate the nation­al march for the 12th. of Octo­ber and to dis­cuss the steps toward the orga­ni­za­tion for indige­nous protests; such as, form­ing into work com­mis­sions. Present at the meet­ing were social groups, stu­dents, wom­en’s groups, work­ers and col­lec­tives.

This protest is a response to the fact that the cur­rent Peru­vian gov­ern­ment has­n’t the slight­est inten­tion to change their pol­i­cy of attack­ing and dis­crim­i­nat­ing against indige­nous peo­ples; a pres­i­dent that sev­ers dia­logue and that only receives transna­tion­al cor­po­ra­tions work­ing in pri­ma­ry extrac­tive and envi­ron­men­tal­ly dam­ag­ing indus­tries into his pres­i­den­tial palace, but does­n’t even allow the indige­nous pro­tec­tors of life even to come close to him.

FRENVIDAS (The front in sup­port of life) was found­ed on the 4th of June 2009, as an off­shoot of the resis­tance of the Ama­zon­ian groups and a con­gre­ga­tion of var­i­ous social move­ments, work­ers, women, youth, stu­dents, vil­lage and city dwellers and var­i­ous col­lec­tives.

It has a nation­al exec­u­tive com­mis­sion made up from the fol­low­ing orga­ni­za­tions:
AIDESEP, CCP, CNA, CONACAMI, SUCHOCOP, COICA, GIU and the DESC Alliance.

— Mar­cha de los Pueb­los / March of the Peo­ples, Lima
The rat­i­fy­ing of an agree­ment of region­al fronts South Macrore­gion took place in Tac­na and then in Huan­cayo, around five thou­sand pro­test­ers marched in the cap­i­tal of the coun­try main­ly to demand that the Peru­vian gas is to sup­ply the domes­tic con­sump­tion. And also against the elec­toral fraud against the can­di­da­cy of Susana Vil­laran / Con­flu­ence of the Left under the name of “March of the Peo­ple”

PLATFORM OF STRUGGLE:

1.- In defence of Moth­er Earth.

2.- Con­stituent Assem­bly: Multi­na­tion­al and Inter­cul­tur­al Con­sti­tu­tion.

3.- Right to sov­er­eign con­sul­ta­tion for the peo­ples.

4.- No to the pri­va­ti­za­tion of nat­ur­al resources and indige­nous ter­ri­to­ries.

5.- No gas export, gas is for the Peru­vians.

6.- Repeal of Supreme Decree No. 003‑2006.PCM.

7.- No to the destruc­tion of the Nation­al Sanc­tu­ary of Megan­toni.

8.- For decent employ­ment, salaries and wages.

9.- No to the crim­i­nal­iza­tion of social protest and polit­i­cal per­se­cu­tion.

10.- No to pri­va­ti­za­tion of land up to 40,000 hectares

11.- No expro­pri­a­tion of land in the rur­al com­mu­ni­ties of Olmos.

12.- Defence of the Andean peo­ples’ lands against min­ing con­ces­sion.

13 .- No to hydro­elec­tric dams at Inam­bari Paquitza­pan­go, Salta Pucara, Lan­gui Lan­gu­na of Laius.

14.- No to elec­toral fraud by region­al and munic­i­pal gov­ern­ments.

Organ­ised and sup­port­ed by the fol­low­ing:

CONACAMI, AIDESEP, CNA, CCP, FRENVIDAS, TAHUANTINSUYANOS, CGTP, CUT, UFREP, CONAFREP. FRENTE UNICO DE LOS PUEBLOS DEL PERU, FONAVISTAS, CORECAMIS DE AREQUIPA, TACNA, MOQUEGUA, PUNO, CUZCO, APURIMAC, JUNIN, PASCO, HUANCAVELICA, ICA, LIMA, ANCASH, PIURA Y LAMBAYEQUE, RONDAS CAMPESINAS- CUNARC Y CONARC, FRENTE DE DEFENSA DE LOS RECURSOS NATURALES-LIMA, etc.

web­site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinadelascoronas/5121363818/
http://www.conacami.org/site/

Catalunya/Spain

- Glob­al Min­ga for Moth­er Earth and her Peo­ples at Barcelona city

Who is the call from: Barcelona Tran­si­ció
Tues­day, 12th octo­ber, 17h: March for an ant­i­cap­i­tal­ist, antifas­cist and antiracist
12th of Octo­ber. Catalun­ya Square (Tele­fóni­ca)

“For com­mon strug­gles, sol­i­dar­i­ty and ten­der­ness between Peo­ples”

Tues­day, 12th of Octo­ber, 17 hs.. March from Catalun­ya Square (Tele­fóni­ca) to Ram­bla del Raval.

web­site:
http://repsolmata.ourproject.org/spip.php?article171
http://revoltaglobal.cat/article3149.html
http://barcelonaentransicio.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/minga-global/
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=145197678850368&ref=mf

USA
— Peo­ple Across the U.S. Cel­e­brate Indige­nous People’s Day Through Cli­mate Jus­tice Edu­ca­tion

Indige­nous people’s move­ments around the globe have called for a day of action for cli­mate jus­tice on Octo­ber 12, Indige­nous Peo­ples’ Day. “As we pre­pare for the next round of U.N. Cli­mate Nego­ti­a­tions in Mex­i­co next month, we are voic­ing our clear oppo­si­tion to false mar­ket-based cli­mate poli­cies,” said Jihan Gearon, Ener­gy Orga­niz­er for the U.S.-based Indige­nous Envi­ron­men­tal Net­work (IEN). “Our actions and those of our allies this Octo­ber 12 are part of the grow­ing momen­tum in favour of real sys­tem change.”

In response to the Octo­ber 12 call, many groups are engag­ing in edu­ca­tion­al work­shops to stim­u­late long-term action for cli­mate jus­tice. The Los Ange­les-based Bus Rid­ers’ Union and Labor/Community Strat­e­gy Cen­ter and the Black Mesa Water Coali­tion on the Nava­jo Nation in Ari­zona will hold work­shops on the Cochabam­ba Peo­ples’ Dec­la­ra­tion on Cli­mate Change and the Rights of Moth­er Earth; the San Anto­nio, Texas-based South­west Work­ers Union will host a com­mu­ni­ty gar­den work­day and ongo­ing edu­ca­tion link­ing Texas oil com­pa­nies Valero and Tesoro to California’s Propo­si­tion 23. The objec­tives of these edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties is to build grass­roots capac­i­ty to address the cli­mate cri­sis direct­ly.

These local strug­gles and oth­ers around the globe are linked by a com­mon com­mit­ment to glob­al well-being, human rights and the rights of nature, and the grow­ing aware­ness that efforts to mit­i­gate the cli­mate cri­sis must be root­ed in equi­ty, eco­nom­ic jus­tice, and the dig­ni­ty of all peo­ples.

The Octo­ber 12 events occur fol­low­ing anoth­er day of cli­mate action, the 10/10/10 Glob­al Work Par­ty. “How­ev­er,” says Jihan Gearon, “the call to action for Indige­nous Peo­ples’ Day is dis­tinct. Native peo­ple are not ‘just get­ting to work’ to stop glob­al warm­ing. We’ve been care­tak­ing the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment since the begin­ning of time. Only now that it’s almost too late, peo­ple out­side our com­mu­ni­ties are begin­ning to get the mes­sage.”

“Our approach is not sim­ply to address the symp­toms of the prob­lem,” adds Gearon, “but to attack the root caus­es.”

“We need deci­sive action, and not in the form of mis­lead­ing poli­cies like the U.N. REDD pro­gram (Reduc­tion of Emis­sions from Defor­esta­tion and Degra­da­tion), said Tom Gold­tooth, Direc­tor of IEN. “While it pre­tends to pro­tect forests, REDD and sim­i­lar car­bon-off­set schemes allow con­tin­ued destruc­tion of our atmos­phere and put our forest­land and indige­nous people’s homes, liveli­hoods, and cul­tures in con­tin­ued per­il.”

Indige­nous Envi­ron­men­tal Net­work is part of a grow­ing coali­tion of com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions across the U.S. who affirm that those who must lead the way to cli­mate sta­bil­i­ty are those who’ve been most direct­ly impact­ed, both by tox­ic indus­try and by his­toric appro­pri­a­tions of land and resources. Fol­low­ing the Cochabam­ba World People’s Con­fer­ence on Cli­mate Change and the Rights of Moth­er Earth con­vened by Boli­vian Pres­i­dent Evo Morales this past April, IEN and com­mu­ni­ty-based groups world­wide are pro­mot­ing the Cochabam­ba Dec­la­ra­tion, the pop­u­lar response to the wide­ly ill-regard­ed Copen­hagen Accord, as offer­ing the most real­is­tic approach to cur­rent eco­log­i­cal and social threats.

web­site:
http://climatevoices.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/people-across-the-u-s-celebrate-indigenous-peoples-day-through-climate-justice-education/

Bolivia
— March in Defence of Moth­er Earth, El Alto

Con­vened by the Nation­al Coun­cil of Qul­la­suyo Ayl­lus and Markas, the march called for the adop­tion of a Law of Moth­er Earth in the nation­al and inter­na­tion­al agen­da and fun­da­men­tal­ly affect the Multi­na­tion­al Leg­isla­tive Assem­bly for approval of a law to pro­tect and pre­serve Pachama­ma.

The mobi­liza­tion went to the Plaza Muril­lo in the city of La Paz and includ­ed the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the Nation­al Fed­er­a­tion of Peas­ant Women of Bolivia Indige­nous Native — “Bar­toli­na Sisa”-, the Inter­cul­tur­al Com­mu­ni­ties Con­fed­er­a­tion of trade unions of Bolivia (CSCIB), the farm work­ers sin­gle Con­fed­er­a­tion of trade unions of Bolivia (CSUTCB) and the Con­fed­er­a­tion of Indige­nous Peo­ples of Bolivia (CIDOB), among oth­ers.

The con­cen­tra­tion was on the Mul­ti­func­tion­al Herib­er­to Ceja Gutier­rez of the city of El Alto.

Web­site:
https://nacla.org/node/1460
http://www.cscbbol.org/
http://www.csutcb.org/
http://www.cidob.org/

Argenti­na
— Sec­ond Act in front of the con­sulate of Chile in Men­doza

Orga­nized by the Coor­di­na­tor of Native Iden­ti­ties and Field, was a demon­stra­tion because the 518 years of Euro­pean inva­sion of Chilean lands and a peti­tion with sig­na­tures demand­ing free­dom of the Mapuche Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers on hunger strike in Chile was deliv­ered.

web­site:
http://www.mapuche-nation.org/

— Infor­ma­tion share Argen­tine Group: Move­ment for the defence of Moth­er Earth
Here in Buenos Aires four peo­ple from the Cochabamba.org.ar group manned/womanned a stand in the con­trafeste­jo (Indige­nous move­ments against Colum­bus Day) in the Avel­lane­da Park.

The group spoke to about 100 peo­ple giv­ing them infor­ma­tion about Cli­mate Jus­tice and the People’s Move­ment for Defence of Moth­er Earth.

web­site:
Cochabamba.org.ar

Ecuador

- Glob­al march of peo­ple’s move­ments and peas­ant agri­cul­tur­al groups for peo­ple’s self-man­age­ment and the con­struc­tion of pluri­na­tion­al states

Call­out from Via Campesina, for the first time dif­fer­ent orga­ni­za­tions such as rur­al farm work­ers, migrants, refugees, agri­cul­tur­al work­ers, the land­less move­ments, and the dis­placed con­duct­ed a glob­al move­ment togeth­er to reaf­firm the iden­ti­ty of Abya Yala (Pre-Columbian term for the Amer­i­c­as).

Meet at Par­que El Arboli­to, in the city of Quito, Ecuador at nine AM.

web­site:
http://viacampesina.org/sp/

Farmers destroy DuPont transgenic rice

A trans­genic rice vari­ety, cur­rent­ly under tri­als at the Krishi
Vig­nan Kendra of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Agri­cul­ture Sci­ences (UAS) in Dodd­a­bal­la­pur taluk, near here, was destroyed by farm­ers on Wednes­day.

A trans­genic rice vari­ety, cur­rent­ly under tri­als at the Krishi
Vig­nan Kendra of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Agri­cul­ture Sci­ences (UAS) in Dodd­a­bal­la­pur taluk, near here, was destroyed by farm­ers on Wednes­day.

A group of sick­le-wield­ing farm­ers, owing alle­giance to the Kar­nata­ka Rajya Raitha Sang­ha (KRRS), barged into the 30-acre KVK premis­es at Hadon­a­hal­li, where the hybrid rice Seed Pro­duc­tion Tech­nol­o­gy (SPT) devel­oped by DuPont is under­go­ing ‘event selec­tion tri­als’ on a one-acre area, and com­mit­ted the
act.

About 30 activists entered the fenced one-acre area around 8.40 a.m., and destroyed the crop in about an hour’s time before the Dodd­a­bal­la­pur Rur­al
police arrest­ed them.

75 p.c. loss

An offi­cial at KVK esti­mat­ed that the farm­ers destroyed about 75 per cent of the crop. Fol­low­ing the inci­dent, the UAS has decid­ed to destroy the remain­ing crop and can­cel the field tri­al.

“The UAS has under­tak­en the tri­al clan­des­tine­ly, and farm­ers in the neigh­bour­hood have been kept in the dark.

“We will not allow field tri­als of trans­genic crops devel­oped by
multi­na­tion­al com­pa­nies in our area,” KRRS leader and vet­eri­nar­i­an C.S. Srini­vas, told The Hin­du. For, there is always a fear of con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, he said.

The event selec­tion tri­als have been approved by the Genet­ic Engi­neer­ing Approval Com­mit­tee .

Accord­ing to a Green­peace activist, SPT tech­nol­o­gy is a pro­pri­etary tech­nol­o­gy of DuPont that allows increase of large quan­ti­ties of genet­i­cal­ly male ster­ile female inbred par­ent seed.

A top UAS offi­cial said that the project came to the uni­ver­si­ty through Union Depart­ment of Biotech­nol­o­gy for a peri­od of one year, and that the uni­ver­si­ty was only a facil­i­ta­tor and reg­u­la­tor of bio-safe­ty on field.

“It is unfor­tu­nate that the inci­dent took place when the pad­dy was ready for har­vest­ing over the next 7 to 10 days.”

Dis­play boards put up at the field on infor­ma­tion about the tri­als said that the pad­dy had been sown between July 20 and July 23, and trans­plant­ed on August 12.

The dura­tion of the crop is 140 days.

The tri­al is being mon­i­tored by Head, Depart­ment of Genet­ics and Plant Breed­ing at UAS Shaila­ja Hit­tal­mani, while N. Rajan­na is the Pro­gramme Coor­di­na­tor.

A few farm­ers own­ing land in close prox­im­i­ty to the research sta­tion also said that they had been asked not to grow pad­dy dur­ing this sea­son.

“I nor­mal­ly grow pad­dy, but the uni­ver­si­ty author­i­ties asked me not to raise pad­dy crop this sea­son. We were not told the rea­son,” N. Srini­vas, who owns two acres adjoin­ing the KVK, said and added that the author­i­ties had informed about the pos­si­ble cross­ing if he raised pad­dy dur­ing this sea­son.

Mean­while, vice-pres­i­dent fo the KRRS Venka­ta Red­dy said that the genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied rice field tri­als had major vio­la­tions and that the local pan­chay­at was not informed. Though the Hadon­a­hal­li Gram Pan­chay­at pres­i­dent H.A. Nagara­ju acknowl­edged that infor­ma­tion of the field tri­als had not been giv­en to the pan­chay­at, he, how­ev­er, said KVK had ben­e­fit­ed
farm­ers in the vicin­i­ty.

Six­teen farm­ers who were arrest­ed on charges of tres­pass­ing and destruc­tion of prop­er­ty were lat­er released on bail.

Video at http://qik.com/video/19140535/i‑say-no-to-gm-rice

Sinixt Nation Establishes a Protection Camp on Their Ancestral Land

The Sinixt Nation, declared extinct by the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment more than 50 years ago, has set up a pro­tec­tion camp on their ances­tral land, halt­ing all com­mer­cial log­ging in the area known to the Sinixt Nation as “Slhu7kin”.

The Sinixt Nation, declared extinct by the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment more than 50 years ago, has set up a pro­tec­tion camp on their ances­tral land, halt­ing all com­mer­cial log­ging in the area known to the Sinixt Nation as “Slhu7kin”.

On Octo­ber 26th 2010, the Sinixt Nation assert­ed their sov­er­eign­ty by ini­ti­at­ing the Sinixt Slhu7kin (Per­ry Ridge) Pro­tec­tion Camp on their ances­tral lands. The Sinixt, by dec­la­ra­tion, have estab­lished the “Sinixt Slhu7kin – Per­ry Ridge Wilder­ness Pre­serve to pro­tect the rich bio-diver­si­ty on Per­ry Ridge and the col­lec­tive domes­tic water­shed inter­ests of the Per­ry Ridge com­mu­ni­ty.”

Sinixt Nation mem­bers, local res­i­dents, and sup­port­ers are gath­ered at the begin­ning of the Per­ry Ridge For­est Ser­vice road near the town of Slo­can, BC. The camp has halt­ed all com­mer­cial log­ging in the area.

After a com­plete refusal to con­sult with the Sinixt Nation, BC Tim­ber Sales via BC Min­istry of Forests and Range sold the log­ging rights to 4 con­tro­ver­sial cut-blocks on Per­ry Ridge to Sun­shine Log­ging LTD of Kaslo, BC. Sun­shine Log­ging pur­chased the 2 year con­tract for approx­i­mate­ly $330,000 after BC Tim­ber Sales dropped the auc­tion bid­ding price because no com­pa­nies want­ed to touch the high­ly con­tentious con­tract with a ten foot pole.

This isn’t the first time peo­ple have tak­en a stand to pro­tect the area known as Slhu7kin to the Sinixt. In 1997 local res­i­dents, the Per­ry Ridge Water Users Asso­ci­a­tion, and Sinixt mem­bers took both legal and direct action and suc­cess­ful­ly halt­ed road build­ing on the ridge. Over 300 peo­ple blocked the road demand­ing pro­tec­tion for the area.

Known as the Arrow Lakes Indi­an Band under the Indi­an Act, Cana­da offi­cial­ly declared the Sinixt extinct in 1956. This left Sinixt mem­bers liv­ing on the Colville Reser­va­tion (in the USA) or scat­tered among oth­er nations in BC with­out recog­ni­tion.

Many Sinixt returned to the North­ern part of their ter­ri­to­ry to pro­tect their ances­tral bur­ial sites in Val­li­can, BC in the late 1980’s when a BC Min­istry of Trans­porta­tion road devel­op­ment project des­e­crat­ed their bur­ial sites, removed bones and arti­facts and placed them in muse­ums. After a tremen­dous amount of effort from the Sinixt and sup­port­ers, remains of their ances­tors were returned to them and were reburied at the site. The Sinixt to this day con­tin­ue to live peace­ful­ly and re-occu­py their land in Val­li­can mak­ing it the longest re-occu­pa­tion in Cana­di­an his­to­ry.

Sinixt ter­ri­to­ry spans from the head­wa­ters of the Colum­bia Riv­er north of Nakusp, to Kaslo in the West, Rev­el­stoke in the East, and down into what is now known as Wash­ing­ton State. Over 80% of the ter­ri­to­ry lies on the “Cana­di­an side” of the 49th par­al­lel.

In BC alone, 15 dams were built on Sinixt Ter­ri­to­ry. In 1954, Kaiser Alu­minum pro­posed a dam on Arrow Lake. The Keen­ley­side Dam flood­ed 140 Sinixt cul­tur­al sites. The Com­in­co smelter at Trail built a dam on the Koote­nay Riv­er near the ancient Sinixt vil­lage of kp’itl’els. The zinc and lead smelter has since dumped over 13 mil­lion tonnes of tox­ic slag, includ­ing mer­cury, into the Colum­bia Riv­er.

“A vis­i­tor to the Colum­bia Basin will be unlike­ly to see any indi­ca­tion that there was ever a native cul­ture that thrived for so long in this region. Most of the Sinixt tra­di­tion­al vil­lages and bur­ial grounds were flood­ed with the damming of the Arrow Lakes. We know of only one mon­u­ment to the Sinixt. In the town of Edge­wood, there is a totem pole that was erect­ed in the late 1960’s. It was com­mis­sioned by B.C. Hydro as a com­mem­o­ra­tive to an extinct race.”

But the fact of the mat­ter is that the Sinixt nev­er had totem poles and they aren’t extinct.
What You Can Do

The Sinixt Nation and their sup­port­ers are encour­ag­ing peo­ple to help out any way they can.

Finan­cial dona­tions can be made payable to the Sinixt Nation Soci­ety. Mail well con­cealed cash, mon­ey orders and cheques to: The Sinixt Nation Soci­ety, RRI G‑I6 C‑2, Win­law, BC VOG 2JO.

Con­tact the Sinixt Nation:

Mar­i­lyn James (Offi­cial Appoint­ed Spokesper­son)
Bob Camp­bell (Head­man)
Phone: 250 226 6726
Fax: 886 685 7376

For more infor­ma­tion and back­ground, vis­it: http://sinixtnation.org, http://www.firstnations.eu/invasion/sinixt.htm, http://sinixt.kics.bc.ca, http://www.aaanativearts.com/colville-tribe/lake-indians.htm

More pho­tos and updates can be found on the Sinixt Nation’s Face­book page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sinixt-Nation/255421804460

Note sure how to say “Sinixt”? Want to know why the gov­ern­ment says they don’t exist? Lis­ten to the one-hour radio doc­u­men­tary: Keep­ing the Lakes Way: The Past and Future of the Sinixt

Kayford Mountain, USA — dozens march onto “reclaimed” site and plant trees

KAYFORD MTN., W.Va.–Forty-four peo­ple risked arrest yes­ter­day on Kay­ford Moun­tain by tres­pass­ing on a Patri­ot Coal Com­pa­ny “recla­ma­tion” site to plant trees. “The coal com­pa­nies sure as hell aren’t going to do any­thing about it – someone’s got to,” said Junior Walk, 20, of the Coal Riv­er Val­ley.

KAYFORD MTN., W.Va.–Forty-four peo­ple risked arrest yes­ter­day on Kay­ford Moun­tain by tres­pass­ing on a Patri­ot Coal Com­pa­ny “recla­ma­tion” site to plant trees. “The coal com­pa­nies sure as hell aren’t going to do any­thing about it – someone’s got to,” said Junior Walk, 20, of the Coal Riv­er Val­ley. Once all the trees were plant­ed and the activists were not under arrest, they walked back off with their shov­els.

“The coal indus­try does not attempt to return the land­scape to its pre­vi­ous bio­di­ver­si­ty – leav­ing it up to the cit­i­zens to reclaim it them­selves. Fix­ing the ruined land­scape will pro­vide long term jobs for those put out of work by the abo­li­tion of moun­tain­top removal” said John John­son, a forester and envi­ron­men­tal­ist.

…

Peo­ple in the front of the march includ­ed Ken Hech­ler, Lar­ry Gib­son and two Colom­bian union coal min­ers, Nation­al Pres­i­dent of Sin­tramiener­get­i­ca Raul Sosa and Jose Brito of the Sin­traCar­bon union. The Colom­bian Net­work Against Transna­tion­al Large-Scale Min­ing sent let­ter of sup­port to Appalachi­an Ris­ing. The two Colom­bians joined the march to the mine’s edge as part of a sol­i­dar­i­ty tour that includ­ed a meet­ing with the Mate­wan local UMWA and peo­ple work­ing to save Blair Moun­tain. Free trade agree­ments such as the North Amer­i­can Free Trade Agree­ment (NAFTA) and Unit­ed States-Colom­bia Trade Pro­mo­tion Agree­ment (CTPA) hurt work­ers, com­mu­ni­ties and envi­ron­ments both here and in Colom­bia.

Lead­ers in their unions have been assas­si­nat­ed by para­mil­i­taries, and the union says Alaba­ma-based Drum­mond Co. is behind them. The tour is the result of work by Ken­tuck­ians for the Com­mon­wealth, and pos­si­bly oth­ers.

Don’t miss the video from the day!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Octo­ber 25, 2010

Hun­dreds ral­ly on Kay­ford Moun­tain; dozens march onto “reclaimed” site and plant trees

Con­tact:
Charles Sug­gs or Josh Grau­pera: 304.854.1937

NOTE: Infor­ma­tion, Pho­tographs, & Video will be updat­ed on www.climategroundzero.org. Ban­ners: Recla­ma­tion Fail; Over 500 Moun­tains Destroyed, Recla­ma­tion Jobs Now; EPA, We’re Doing Your Job

KAYFORD MTN., W.Va.–Forty-four peo­ple risked arrest yes­ter­day on Kay­ford Moun­tain by tres­pass­ing on a Patri­ot Coal Com­pa­ny “recla­ma­tion” site to plant trees. “The coal com­pa­nies sure as hell aren’t going to do any­thing about it – someone’s got to,” said Junior Walk, 20, of the Coal Riv­er Val­ley. Once all the trees were plant­ed and the activists were not under arrest, they walked back off with their shov­els.

“The coal indus­try does not attempt to return the land­scape to its pre­vi­ous bio­di­ver­si­ty – leav­ing it up to the cit­i­zens to reclaim it them­selves. Fix­ing the ruined land­scape will pro­vide long term jobs for those put out of work by the abo­li­tion of moun­tain­top removal” said John John­son, a forester and envi­ron­men­tal­ist.

The stan­dard recla­ma­tion prac­ticed by min­ing com­pa­nies is inad­e­quate, which involves regrad­ing high walls into gen­tle, high­ly-com­pact­ed slopes and seed­ing the rocky soil with grass. Some com­pa­nies plant trees but rarely return to tend them–most trees don’t sur­vive long. The extreme­ly diverse mixed mes­o­phyt­ic forests of Cen­tral Appalachia, which rely upon the micro-cli­mates cre­at­ed by the area’s fold­ed land, can­not regrow on reclaimed sur­face mines. Native plants like gin­seng require the steep north-fac­ing slopes of Appalachia that retain mois­ture, and will nev­er grow on the gen­tle slopes of a reclaimed strip mine.

The coal indus­try defends moun­tain­top removal by tout­ing the flat land of reclaimed mine sites as prime for devel­op­ment. Accord­ing to a recent report by the Nat­ur­al Resoures Defense Coun­cil, how­ev­er, “only about four per­cent of moun­tains in Ken­tucky and West Vir­ginia, where the vast major­i­ty of this min­ing is occur­ring, had any post-min­ing eco­nom­ic activ­i­ty.”

The day’s ral­ly began in the Stan­ley Heir’s Park, a small island of green sur­round­ed by 12,000 acres of moun­tain­top removal, much of which is in some state of recla­ma­tion.

Peo­ple in the front of the march includ­ed Ken Hech­ler, Lar­ry Gib­son and two Colom­bian union coal min­ers, Nation­al Pres­i­dent of Sin­tramiener­get­i­ca Raul Sosa and Jose Brito of the Sin­traCar­bon union. The Colom­bian Net­work Against Transna­tion­al Large-Scale Min­ing sent let­ter of sup­port to Appalachi­an Ris­ing. The two Colom­bians joined the march to the mine’s edge as part of a sol­i­dar­i­ty tour that includ­ed a meet­ing with the Mate­wan local UMWA and peo­ple work­ing to save Blair Moun­tain. Free trade agree­ments such as the North Amer­i­can Free Trade Agree­ment (NAFTA) and Unit­ed States-Colom­bia Trade Pro­mo­tion Agree­ment (CTPA) hurt work­ers, com­mu­ni­ties and envi­ron­ments both here and in Colom­bia.

Lead­ers in their unions have been assas­si­nat­ed by para­mil­i­taries, and the union says Alaba­ma-based Drum­mond Co. is behind them. The tour is the result of work by Ken­tuck­ians for the Com­mon­wealth, and pos­si­bly oth­ers.

“I am a 6th gen­er­a­tion West Vir­gin­ian from Mer­cer Coun­ty and I’m a grand­daugh­ter and great grand­daugh­ter of coal min­ers. And they’d be mad about moun­tain­top removal,” Wendy John­ston said. “The bat­tle of Blair Moun­tain lives on in my and my fathers’ spir­it.”

The ral­ly and action comes on the heels of the EPA’s rec­om­men­da­tion to veto the Spruce No. 1 mine’s per­mit and Appalachia Ris­ing, the largest nation­al gath­er­ing of peo­ple in oppo­si­tion to moun­tain­top removal coal min­ing to date. Appalachia Ris­ing cul­mi­nat­ed with a march to the White House of over 2,000 peo­ple and 114 arrests for non-vio­lent civ­il dis­obe­di­ence at the White House, PNC Bank, Depart­ment of Inte­ri­or and Army Corps of Engi­neers.

Ken Hech­ler, a long-serv­ing West Vir­ginia states­man said at the ral­ly, “I may be 96 but there’s a fire in my bel­ly. I’m here to help save these beau­ti­ful moun­tains of West Vir­ginia and put peo­ple back to work doing use­ful things.” Ken Hech­ler has been a vocal oppo­nent of moun­tain­top removal since the ear­ly 1970’s.

Appalachia Rising: end mountaintop removal mining!

22.9.10

Appalachia Ris­ing is a mass mobi­liza­tion in Wash­ing­ton, DC, Sep­tem­ber 25–27, 2010, call­ing for an end to the dev­as­tat­ing prac­tice of moun­tain­top removal min­ing.

22.9.10

Appalachia Ris­ing is a mass mobi­liza­tion in Wash­ing­ton, DC, Sep­tem­ber 25–27, 2010, call­ing for an end to the dev­as­tat­ing prac­tice of moun­tain­top removal min­ing.

Moun­tain­top removal has already destroyed over 500 of the world’s old­est moun­tains and more than 2,000 miles of streams, and has con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed our nation’s waters. Togeth­er, we will bring Appalachia’s cry to our nation’s cap­i­tal: We must end moun­tain­top removal and trans­form the economies of Appalachia away from destruc­tive min­ing prac­tices and toward clean-ener­gy jobs and a sus­tain­able and healthy future.

The week­end includes two full days of strate­giz­ing work­shops, learn­ing, fea­tured speak­er pan­els and dis­cus­sions, cul­tur­al events, and enter­tain­ment. On Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 27, we will march, ral­ly, and sup­port indi­vid­u­als tak­ing part in dig­ni­fied non-vio­lent civ­il dis­obe­di­ence against moun­tain­top removal min­ing.

Join thou­sands of Appalachi­an and nation­al lead­ers, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, coal­field res­i­dents and min­ers, con­cerned cit­i­zens, activists, moun­tain groups, envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice orga­ni­za­tions, and Amer­i­cans from coast to coast for this momen­tous move­ment-build­ing sum­mit, gath­er­ing, and call to action. Hear the voic­es of those most impact­ed by moun­tain­top removal coal min­ing, and let your voice be heard in this move­ment to offer Amer­i­ca hope for a bet­ter future.