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Happy J18 – Ten Year Anniversary – Pics + Links

June 18th 2009
Ten year’s ago today and a global Carnival Against Capital was erupting across the world with co-ordinated protests taking place in over 40 countries on June 18th 1999.

June 18th 2009
Ten year’s ago today and a global Carnival Against Capital was erupting across the world with co-ordinated protests taking place in over 40 countries on June 18th 1999.

Directly targeting financial centres the J18 day of International Action was stunning in its scale and ran alongside the G7/G8 meeting in Koln Germany. It followed the Global Street Party that had been held alongside the G7/G8 meeting in Birmingham in 1998 and co-ordinated through Reclaim The Streets.

To remember it, here’s a set of 23 pictures from London J18 courtesy of a photographer who was there for the morning and the party, but who missed the ensuing riot as police fought to regain control of the City of London.

The reasons for struggle are greater now than then, and climate change and economic meltdowns threaten the lives and livelihoods of us all.

There’s too much to mention about J18, from the sheer joy of taking the City to the full-on battles, from the dancing and the masks to the spoof FT paper to pirate radio broadcasts, from the bricking up and storming of the London International Financial Futures Exchange to the knocking out of CCTV cameras, from the electronic disturbance actions to the beginnings of Indymedia, from the exhaustion to the recriminations and the state backlash against RTS and everyone else protesting for a better world.

But most of all it was GLOBAL: “Our Resistance is as Transnational as Capital”

See this collection of 2 pages of web links to original reports, websites, analysis, pictures and video:

http://www.delicious.com/directmedia/j18

Enjoy.

Indigenous anti-infastructure protesters murdered in crackdown on months-long blockade in Peru

For seven weeks tens of thousands of Amazonian Indians blocked roads and rivers across eastern Peru. They seized hydroelectric plants and pumping stations on oil and gas pipelines to try to force the repeal of decrees facilitating oil exploration, commercial farming and logging in parts of the jungle. Petroperu, the state oil company, had to shut a pipeline that carries 40,000 barrels of oil each day. Amid threats of energy rationing in eastern towns, the government of President Alan García this month ordered armed police to clear a stretch of road and retake a pumping station near Bagua, in Peru’s northern jungle

—-

THE BACKGROUND

Early this morning (June 5th), Peruvian police launched a violent attack on a nonviolent road blockade held by Amazonian indigenous protesters opposing 10 laws that would open up their territory to increased mineral, oil, gas and timber exploitation. Police opened fire with live ammunition, killing at least 28 people.

FMI:
http://www.rootforce.org/2009/06/05/peruvian-police-murder-indigenous-protesters-take-action/

WHY TAKE ACTION

The first reason to take action, of course, is simply out of solidarity with our fellow warriors in the struggle for a just and sustainable world. But why are we sending out this action alert as Root Force?

For nearly two months, thousands indigenous protesters have nearly paralyzed Peru’s Amazon region with blockades of critical transportation and mining infrastructure. They have sparked a national discourse over the limits to development and who owns nature, and have made it clear that they will not surrender any of their ancestral homelands.

At the heart of the issue are 10 laws passed by presidential decree that would greatly facilitate industrial exploitation of the Amazon. THIS IS CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE, intended to supply new raw materials for the global market. THIS IS ONE OF THOSE WEAK POINTS OF THE SYSTEM that we are always talking about.

The indigenous warriors fighting for their lives have pushed this issue into the global eye, and the Peruvian government has placed itself in a position of weakness by murdering unarmed protesters. Even before the recent killings, a congressional panel had already declared 2 of the laws unconstitutional, and only through procedural tricks has the president’s party been able to stall debate on repealing one of those laws.

This is one of those rare cases where SUSTAINED INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE COULD TIP THE SCALES. If these laws are repealed, it will be a major setback for infrastructure expansion plans in a truly critical region of the hemisphere.

HOW TO TAKE ACTION

You can email critical people in the Peruvian government through this link, provided by Amazon Watch:

http://amazonwatch.org/peru-action-alert.php

You can also organize protests at Peruvian embassies or consulates, or take other actions that you think stand a good chance of making it back to the decision makers in Lima.

Make sure to express your outrage at the government’s strong arm tactics — even before the murders, the government had suspended civil liberties in 5 provinces and was calling indigenous people “terrorists” — and demand the repeal of the Free Trade laws and any law further opening the Amazon to mineral, oil, gas, timber, hydroelectric or agricultural exploitation.

In Solidarity,
Root Force

—–

Recent reports indicate as many as 84 people killed and 150 arrested in clashes stemming from an early morning violent raid by police on unarmed protesters on June 5. Police are reported to be burning the bodies of the dead and dumping them into the river.

Astonishingly — but not surprisingly — the government is accusing the protesters of using tactics reminiscent of the 1980s internal conflict. Deploying racist imagery painting indigenous protesters as spear-wielding savages, President Alan Garcia has vowed a tough “response.”

Following the early-morning massacre, protesters took 38 police hostage at a pumping station for the national oil company, PetroPeru. A police raid to free the officers resulted in the deaths of nine of them. An Argentinian oil company, Pluspetrol, has halted oil pumping in one unit and will soon halt pumping in another due to the unrest.

The government has since issued an arrest warrant for indigenous leader Alberto Pizango (who was elected to represent the indigenous coalition by the leaders of 1,200 communities), charging him with “sedition.” Pizango has gone into hiding.

Please take action and urge the Peruvian government to halt the violence and repeal the controversial free trade laws that would open up indigenous land in the Amazon to increased development. Contact the US government and international agencies as well, and encourage them to place pressure on Peru. The Peruvian government is in a serious position of weakness right now and trying to cover it up with violence, and this is one of those rare cases where international pressure could deal a major setback to infrastructure expansion plans.

Read the full Root Force action alert on this issue here.

——

Indigenous Leaders and Allies Call for an End to Violence on All Sides

BAGUA, Peru – June 8 – In the aftermath of Friday’s bloody raid on a peaceful indigenous road blockade near Bagua in the Peruvian Amazon, numerous eyewitnesses are reporting that the Special Forces of the Peruvian Police have been disposing of the bodies of indigenous protesters who were killed.

“Today I spoke to many eyewitnesses in Bagua reporting that they saw police throw the bodies of the dead into the Marañon River from a helicopter in an apparent attempt by the Government to underreport the number of indigenous people killed by police,” said Gregor MacLennan, spokesperson for Amazon Watch speaking.

“Hospital workers in Bagua Chica and Bagua Grande corroborated that the police took bodies of the dead from their premises to an undisclosed location. I spoke to several people who reported that there are bodies lying at the bottom of a deep crevasse up in the hills, about 2 kilometers from the incident site. When the Church and local leaders went to investigate, the police stopped them from approaching the area,” reported MacLennan.

Police and government officials have been consistently underreporting the number of indigenous people killed by police gunfire. Indigenous organizations place the number of protesters killed at least at 40, while Government officials claiming that only a handful of indigenous people were killed. Also the Garcia Government claims that 22 police officers were killed and several still missing.

“Witnesses say that it was the police who opened fire last Friday on the protesters from helicopters,” MacLennan said. “Now the government appears to be destroying the bodies of slain protesters and giving very low estimates of the casualty. Given that the demonstrators were unarmed or carrying only wooden spears and the police were firing automatic weapons, the actual number of indigenous people killed is likely to be much higher.”

“Another eyewitness reported seeing the bodies of five indigenous people that had been burned beyond identification at the morgue. I have listened to testimony of people in tears talking about witnessing the police burning bodies,” continued MacLennan.

At least 150 people from the demonstration on Friday are still being detained. Eye-witness reports also confirm that police forcibly removed some of the wounded indigenous protesters from hospitals, taking them to unknown destinations. Their families expressed concern for their well being while in detention. There are many people still reported missing and access to medical attention in the region is horribly inadequate.

The Organizing Committee for the Indigenous Peoples of Alto Amazonas Province issued this statement: “It is appalling that political powers have acted in such a cruel and inhuman manner against Amazonian Peoples, failing to recognize the fundamental rights and protections guaranteed to us by the Constitution. We express deep grief over the death of our indigenous brothers, of civilians and the officers of the National Police.”

The government expanded the State of Emergency and established a curfew on all traffic in the region from 3 pm to 6 am. Indigenous and international human rights organizations are worried about plans of another National Police raid on a blockade in Yurimaguas close to the town of Tarapoto where thousands are blocking a road.

President Alan Garcia is being widely criticized for fomenting a climate of fear mongering against indigenous peoples by drawing parallels to the brutal Shinning Path guerrilla movement of the 1980s and early 1990s, and by vaguely referring to external and anti-democratic threats to the country.

The Amazonian indigenous peoples’ mobilizations have been peaceful, locally coordinated, and extremely well organized for nearly two months. Yet Garcia insists on calling them terrorist acts and anti-democratic. Garcia has even gone so far as to describe the indigenous mobilizations as “savage and barbaric.” Garcia has made his discrimination explicit, saying directly that the Amazonian indigenous people are not first-class citizens.

“These people don’t have crowns,” Garcia said about the protesters. “These people aren’t first-class citizens who can say — 400,000 natives to 28 million Peruvians — ‘You don’t have the right to be here.’ No way. That is a huge error.”
Ironically, Peru was the country that introduced the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the floor of the General Assembly when it was adopted in September 2007.

A coalition of indigenous and human rights organizations will protest in front of the Peruvian Embassy in Washington D.C. on Monday, June 8 at 12:30 pm.

Indigenous peoples have vowed to continue protests until the Peruvian Congress revokes the “free trade” decrees issued by President Garcia under special powers granted by Congress in the context of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

Among the outpouring of statements condemning the violence in Peru were those from Peru’s Ombudsman’s office, the chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, a coalition of 45 international human rights organizations, Indigenous organizations from throughout the Americas, and the Conference of Bishops of Peru. Also famous personalities including Q’orianka Kilcher, Benjamin Bratt, Peter Bratt, and Daryl Hannah and Bianca Jagger called on the Peruvian Government to cease the violence and seek peaceful resolution to the conflict.

AIDESEP, the national indigenous organization of Peru has called for a nationwide general strike starting June 11th.

Amazon Watch is continually updating photographs, audio testimony, and video footage from Bagua on www.amazonwatch.org.

Newly released b-roll at http://amazonwatch.org/peru-protests-highres-photos.php

—–

The broadening influence of the indigenous movement was on display Thursday in a general strike that drew thousands of protesters here to the streets of Iquitos, the largest Peruvian city in the Amazon, and to cities and towns elsewhere in jungle areas. Protests over Mr. García’s handling of the violence in the northern Bagua Province last Friday also took place in highland regions like Puno, near the Bolivian border, and in Lima and Arequipa on the Pacific coast.

“The government made the situation worse with its condescending depiction of us as gangs of savages in the forest,” said Wagner Musoline Acho, 24, an Awajún Indian and an indigenous leader. “They think we can be tricked by a maneuver like suspending a couple of decrees for a few weeks and then reintroducing them, and they are wrong.”

The protesters’ immediate threat – to cut the supply of oil and natural gas to Lima, the capital – seems to have subsided, with protesters partly withdrawing from their occupation of oil installations in the jungle. But as anger festers, indigenous leaders here said they could easily try to shut down energy installations again to exert pressure on Mr. García.

Another wave of protests appears likely because indigenous groups are demanding that the decrees be repealed and not just suspended. The decrees would open large jungle areas to investment and allow companies to bypass indigenous groups to obtain permits for petroleum exploration, logging and building hydroelectric dams. A stopgap attempt to halt earlier indigenous protests in the Amazon last August failed to prevent them from being reinitiated more forcefully in April.

…

The authorities are struggling to understand a movement that is crystallizing in the Peruvian Amazon among more than 50 indigenous groups. They include about 300,000 people, accounting for only about 1 percent of Peru’s population, but they live in strategically important and resource-rich locations, which are scattered throughout jungle areas that account for nearly two-thirds of Peru’s territory.

So far, alliances have proved elusive between Indians in the Amazon and indigenous groups in highland areas, ruling out, for now, the kind of broad indigenous protest movements that helped oust governments in neighboring Ecuador and Bolivia earlier in the decade.

In contrast to some earlier efforts to organize indigenous groups, the leaders of this new movement are themselves indigenous, and not white or mestizo urban intellectuals. They are well organized and use a web of radio stations to exchange information across the jungle. After one prominent leader, Alberto Pizango [who explicity links the struggles there to global climate change everywhere], was granted asylum in Nicaragua this week, others quickly emerged to articulate demands.

Peru Indigenous Holding Strong in Standoff

June 3rd 2009
A massive indigenous mobilization in the Peruvian Amazon is nearing its second month, with no sign that the native protesters will allow themselves to be intimidated into giving up on their demands.

Thousands of indigenous protesters have blockaded critical infrastructure in Peru’s Amazon region since April 9, when they declared a national strike in protest of new laws that would facilitate increased industrial exploitation of their territories for timber, oil and gas. The laws were passed by decree under powers granted to President Alan Garcia to bring to country into compliance with a US-Peru free trade agreement. The 10 laws that protesters are demanding repealed were not part of the trade agreement, however, and were declared unconstitutional by a congressional commission in December.

So far, indigenous protesters have blockaded roads and waterways, forced a shutdown to the only crude oil pipeline in Peru, forced two oil companies to cease operation, blocked tourist access to the ruins of Machu Picchu (twice), and held protests that paralyzed the region’s biggest city, Iquitos. On May 31, several hundred protesters took over two valve stations on the only pipeline that transports natural gas from the controversial Camisea gas fields.

The protests are organized under the auspices of the Interethnic Development Association of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESP), which represents 1,200 different native communities. AIDESP’s elected leader, Alberto Pizango, insists that the mobilization will not end until Congress repeals the 10 objectionable laws, declares the state of emergency (martial law) declared in 5 Amazonian provinces since May 9, and enters a good-faith discussion with native communities over a different model for developing the Amazon.

One of the 10 laws has been tentatively repealed, but this action must be approved by the full Congress. The other 9 laws remain on the books.

ELF pays home visit to CEO of Australia’s dirtiest Coal Power Station

Following the Australian Rudd government’s refusal to act on reducing carbon emissions while paying into the hands of the country’s largest polluters, the E.L.F payed a home visit to the CEO of the dirtiest power station in the industrialised world, Hazelwood Power Station, in Melbourne, Australia. They hand delivered the following note to Graeme York’s home:

Graeme York
27 Rydaldene Way

Graeme York
27 Rydaldene Way
Berwick, Vic

Dear Graeme,

As the Chief Executive Officer of Hazelwood power station, you are responsible for the dirtiest power station in Australia and the most polluting in the Industrialised World.
You are causing irreversible environmental destruction which will go on to harm not only those living on the planet today, but your children’s children too.

We hold you personally accountable for this assault against our Earth. We do not take lightly to the perpetual destruction of our land-base for the selfish and short-term objective of fattening your bank account.

The irreplaceable and precious eco-systems of this Earth are worth much more than your manicured lawn, expensive car and opulent suburban house. Your property will not remain safe so long as Hazelwood continues to pollute at such an inexcusable level, swallow millions of litres of fresh water every hour and cough out hydrochloric and nitrogen acids in return.

This Earth does not exist for the profits of avaricious CEOs like you,

The Earth Liberation Front.

South American dam news

2 Arrests in Home Depot Dam Protest; Take Action!

May 27th, 2009

2 Arrests in Home Depot Dam Protest; Take Action!

May 27th, 2009
Two activists were arrested at a Home Depot in Glendale, CO, near Denver, after hanging a banner off the building that read, “Dam Home Depot, NOT Patagonia!” Home Depot is under pressure from International Rivers and allies for its ongoing financial involvement with the main Chilean interest promoting 5 dams in Chilean Patagonia.

Home Depot has a shareholders’ meeting coming up on Thursday, May 28 in Atlanta, Georgia. Contact them (before their May 28 shareholders’ meeting if possible, but certainly during or after as well) and tell them to cancel purchases of timber from the Matte and Angelini Groups (the companies CMPC and Arauco) for their involvement in plans to dam wild Patagonia, and to drop the charges against Earth First! protesters in Arapahoe County, Colorado. Call 1-800-553-3199 (press extension # 5), or send an email directly from this site.

For more background on the issue, visit International Rivers’ Patagonia page.

—

More South American Dam News

Chilean Patagonia: International Rivers deployed two large banners at Home Depot’s annual shareholder meeting in Atlanta, GA, USA, on May 28, demanding that the corporation sever ties with the two companies pushing plans to dam 5 rivers in wild Patagonia. Inside the meeting, protesters brought their demands directly to the company’s board.

The action came only a day after 2 Earth First! activists were arrested for dropping a similar banner off a Home Depot in Colorado. For more information on the campaign to Dam Home Depot and Save Patagonia, visit International Rivers’ Patagonia page.

Brazil: At least 7 people were killed when a water storage dam burst, flooding the city of Cocal da Estação, population 30,000. Thousands were left homeless or without electricity. Following the accident, a Brazilian dam expert estimated that 200 other dams in the country are at risk of failure.

In better news, a federal judge has suspended the environmental permit for the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu river, due to insufficient consideration of the effects on indigenous people. The Xingu dams have drawn a great deal of opposition on both legal grounds and from indigenous nations whose territory would be flooded or degraded if they go through. They are part of a much larger plan to scale up Brazil’s energy infrastructure through the construction of massive hydroelectric and nuclear plants.

Peru: The Central Ashaninka del Rio Ene (CARE), representative of the indigenous Ashaninka communities of the Ene Valley, declared its unequivocal opposition to the planned Pakitzapango hydroelectric dam stating, that “the Ashaninka communities of the Ene river … Repudiate the use of the Ashaninka word Pakitzapango in light of its spiritual and cultural significance for the Ashaninka People of Peru [and] Demand that any activity such as research, promotions, reports, meetings or proposals that support or promote the construction of the Pakitzapango dam are immediately called off. The Ashaninka of the Ene valley will NOT permit the entry of any institution carrying out any of the mentioned activities.”

Read the full declaration.

UPDATE (June 4 2009): It appears that the dams planned for Ashaninka terriotry in Peru are intended to sell electricity to Brazil, primarily for mining, metal processing and industrial agriculture industries in the Eastern Amazon.

Philippines: New Peoples Army seizes guns from mining company

On the evening of May 29, 2009, a platoon of the 3rd Pulang Bagani Company-NPA disarmed another 1102nd Provincial Mobile Group-PNP squad assigned as a security force of the APEX Mining Corporation in Barangay Masara, Maco, Comval. Swiftly seized were five high-powered rifles consisting of four (4) M16 armalites and one (1) M14 rifle after being surprised by the raiding NPA unit that entered the company compound. Since the target PNP unit did not make any armed resistance, they did not have any casualty.

The mining firm which is owned by the London-based Crew Minerals Corporation was punished for the continuing environmental destruction its operation has caused. One such devastation was the landslide in Barangay Masara last year that caused deaths and displacement in two barangays. Also, the 1102nd PMG-PNP in Comval forms part of the Investment Defense Force (IDF) — the Arroyo regime’s armed component that directly protects the interests of large mining companies and big agribusiness, and violates the inherent rights of poor peasants and lumads to their livelihood and ancestral lands.

from….

http://www.philippinerevolution.net/cgi-bin/statements/stmts.pl?author=mac;date=090531;lang=eng

Eco-VIllage Occupation London 6th June Update + Other News.

Hello friends,

In this report:

News of the upcoming Eco-Village occupation taking place on a disused piece of land near Hammersmith starting on Saturday, 6th June (see attached e-flyer for details).

Hello friends,

In this report:

News of the upcoming Eco-Village occupation taking place on a disused piece of land near Hammersmith starting on Saturday, 6th June (see attached e-flyer for details).

The latest from the Tyting community farm occupation <--- information on how you can get involved and support the action.

And some interesting facts about the land in Britain.

ECO-VILLAGE OCCUPATION

The Eco village occupation begins on the 6th June. Meet at Waterloo Station at 10AM under the clock. Please try to be on time.

********Please Note**********

If you are coming for the opening stage of the eco-village occupation, you will need to bring a tent, water and food supplies. If you have access to kitchen equipment and other useful tat that you would be OK to loan, please bring it along too.

***************************

The Eco-Village Occupation is about to begin. Infinite possibilities lie ahead; what will happen depends on what we make it. By creating a sustainable community in the heart of the urban jungle, we have an opportunity to raise the consciousness of urban dwellers all around and shine a light on a way of living that goes far to solving the problem of the destruction of people and planet.

During the last public planning meeting, we had consensus on the following issues:

– A no vehicle on site policy. In order to maximize living space and encourage people to come to the village via sustainable means.

– Acoustic music only. So that we don’t make enemies of the neighbours.

– All major decisions in the eco-village to be decided via the consensual decision making of all the people in the eco-village.

Please come along and join us. Ideally, we are looking for committed people who share in the vision of the eco-village community and who are able to commit for an indefinite period, however if you simply want to stay for a night or two or even visit for a day, please feel free to come along.

This eco-village occupation is inspired by The Land is Ours which campaigns peacefully for access to the land, its resources, and the decision-making processes affecting them, for everyone, irrespective of race, gender or age. for more information, please visit:

www.tlio.org.uk

contact Carolyn on: 01727 812369 or Gareth on: 07515 166011 or

diggers360@yahoo.co.uk

Tyting Community Farm Occupation.

Six weeks ago a group of people (some fresh from the Raven’s Ait occupation in Kingston) asserting their common law right to live and grow food, commenced the occupation of Tyting Community Farm in Half Penny Lane Guildford. (a publicly owned site which has been vacant for several years).

Guildford council (the owner of the property) has been trying without success and with much local opposition to sell the community farm off by dividing it into smaller lots.

The council were granted an ‘interim possession order’ last Wednesday (27th May) and threatened to send in the police to remove anyone still on the site. On Friday morning, various contractors arrived and boarded up the farmhouse (but no police).

Far from denting their morale, the threat of forceful eviction has simply made those enjoying life at the farm more determined to stay their ground.

To see a video of what’s been happening at the farm please click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKe_uCHpokU

This occupation is open to anyone who would like to be part of the community, grow vegetables and live in a sustainable way, whilst helping to retain common rights to a valuable and beautiful piece of common land. If you want to get involved, simply grab a tent and some food (plus some seeds if you have them) and come along. Here is a map of the location of the farm.

Facts about the land in Britain

did you know that….

In Britain 70% of land is still owned by less than 1% of the population
Less than 8% of the country is under concrete
50% of the land in England and Wales remains unregistered
the Church of England has ‘mislaid’ 1.5 million acres it owned 100 years ago
the Royal Family now own or control the equivalent of an average-sized county in England.

* information courtesy of www.who-owns-britain.com

More Arrests on Coal River Valley as Actions Against Mountaintop Removal and Coal Sludge Dams Continue

Non-violent Civil Disobedience in Coal River Valley, WV: Seventeen Arrested in Three Separate Actions

May 23, 2009: Coal River Valley, WV More than seventy-five residents of the Coal River Valley and members of a coalition that includes Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero picketed the entrance to Massey Energy’s Marfork mining complex today at noon. Seven people were arrested. The actions were in protest of the company’s plans to blast 100 feet away from the Brushy Fork coal sludge impoundment.

The demonstration began with a prayer and sermon by Bob “Sage” Russo of Christians for the Mountains. Referencing the Sermon on the Mount, he called upon citizens to be stewards of the Earth and to move towards sustainable, stable jobs.

Protestors stood in front of the gates of the mine facility with signs including “7 billion spilled, 998 killed.”

“Passersby on Route 3 were overwhelming supportive with honks, waves, and thumbs up signs,” Rock Creek (Raleigh County) resident Julia Sendor said.

During the protest, seven people approached the entrance to the dam facility and the Whitesville detachment of the West Virginia State Police asked them to leave. When the seven refused, the State Police arrested them. Dispatchers say the activists were sent to the Southern Regional Jail near Beckley, but that information has not been confirmed. Bail was reportedly set at $2,000 per person.

After the arrests, former U.S. Congressman Ken Hechler, a longtime opponent of strip mining, gave a speech. He underscored the responsibility of citizens to safeguard their freedoms and stand up for their rights.

The protest came just hours after activists carried out two non-violent direct actions to protest mountaintop removal and coal sludge impoundments.

This morning, at the Marfork facility, two people wearing hazmat suits and respirators were arrested after boating onto the Brushy Fork impoundment and floating a banner that read, “No More Toxic Sludge.” State Police charged the activists with littering and misdemeanor trespass and transported them to the Southern Regional Jail. Their bail has been set at $2,000.

At another action, six activists hung a “Never Again” banner and chained themselves to a massive dump truck on a Patriot Coal-owned mountaintop removal mine on Kayford Mountain. State Police arrived on site to find three people chained to the main axle of the truck and three others chained outside the truck’s cab. The police removed the six activists, who, along with two others supporting them, were transported to the Madison County Courthouse, where they were reportedly processed and released.

The toxic lake at Brushy Fork dam sits atop a honeycomb of abandoned underground mines. Massey Energy’s own filings with the state Department of Environmental Protection project a minimum death toll of 998 should the seven-billion-gallon dam break. Floodwaters would reach 38.78 feet in height in the town of Peytona, 26.61 miles downstream, within three hours and fifteen minutes of breakage.

—–

May 26, 2009: BECKLEY, W.Va. – Seventeen mountaintop removal activists had no choice but to enforce the laws since all administrative remedies have been exhausted, said some of the activists and supporters at a press conference today. The four still-jailed activists were released on their own recognizance by Judge Burnside shortly after the press conference, which was held on the Raleigh County Courthouse steps.

“I’ve lived in West Virginia most of my life. I’m sick and tired of big business and the corrupt government telling us what to do,” began Sid Moye of Mercer County, who participated in the Picket at Pettus. “They come in and they can take our land, they can ruin our water and they can take our resources. It’s not right and somebody has to do something about it so we do the little things that we can.”

Eric Blevins, also arrested in the Pettus action, said, “I asked the officer arresting me if Massey is going to be allowed to blast near the dam and he didn’t want to talk about it. I asked him, doesn’t he have a responsibility to enforce the law, and he said ‘Not those laws.'”

“We locked down on the Kayford mountaintop removal site with mud from Mingo County on our boots,” Ashlee Henderson said in a statement from the Kayford 8, “After we were arrested we had the dust remains from Kayford Mountain added to that mud.”

“Just because a mining permit is applied for,” Debbie Jarrell of Rock Creek, Raleigh County asked the crowd, “Is there a law that states that it has to be granted? If there’s a cleaner way to develop energy, such as the Coal River Wind Project, should we not take advantage of it?”

Matt Louis-Rosenberg pointed out the absurdity of the littering charges for the two individuals on the Brushy Fork Dam and the $2,000 bail for each of the protesters. He contrasted the bail rate with the $1,800 fine Massey paid in 1999, when 14.5 miles of the Coal River were blackened with slurry and the $15,000 A & G Coal paid for the death of three year old Jeremy Davidson outside of Appalachia, Virginia in 2004.

“It was extremely unjust that the magistrate illegally posted such a high bail, when our maximum fine was only one hundred dollars,” said Laura Steepleton of the Pettus 7, who was released this afternoon. “He justified his statement by telling us that we had no ties to the area. As a human being and a citizen of this country I do not only have a tie to this area, but a responsibility to ensure security for these mountains and the safety for the people of this beautiful community.”

Otaraua hapu save wahi tapu from oil pipeline in Aotearoa

28th May 2009
The Otaraua hapu in Taranaki began packing up their occupation camp today after finally protecting their wahi tapu, from Greymouth Petroleum’s new pipeline.

After occupying the entrance to the well site and disrupting work on the new well for more than two months, the hapu’s request to have Tikorangi Pa officially identified as a wahi tapu by the New Plymouth District Council, was approved for an independent review last night.

After previously demanding a written agreement from GMP, the hapu informed Greymouth Petroleum via fax yesterday, stating it was willing to accept a verbal statement by CEO Mark Dunphy that GMP would not drill a pipeline through Tikorangi Pa. The hapu seem confident that the District Council review, due out in a few months, will provide the protection they need for their pa.

Mr Doorbar said while the occupation had brought the hapu together and closer to achieving a common goal, the fight was “not over”.

“It is important oil companies who work in our communities understand the impact they have, not just on tangata whenua but on the wider farming community … for ourselves we feel we have achieved the outcomes of why we undertook this occupation. Greymouth Petroleum did not drill through Tikorangi Pa. It remains to be seen whether or not we have to return to any form of peaceful occupation in the future.”

Updates: Day 11 | Day 17 | Day 55

Peru Indigenous In Standoff With Government

May 22nd 2009
For more than a month, indigenous groups in the Peruvian Amazon have been maintaining blockades of roads, rivers, airports and oil and gas pipelines to protest a series of new laws that would lead to increased industrial exploitation of their territories. The decrees were passed in accordance with the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement.

An estimated 13,000 people from 65 tribes and 1200 communities are taking part in the protests.

In response, President Alan Garcia declared a state of emergency, suspended civil liberties and dispatched the army to the affected regions. The Peruvian and Argentinian national oil companies have both been forced to cease operations in the region.

The police, military and extraction companies have used violence to attempt to break the blockades, resulting in injuries and disappearances — but the indigenous groups are refusing to back down. Despite Garcia’s insistence that none of the laws will be revisited, the Peruvian legislature has repealed one of the 10 laws and opened negotiations about the other nine.

The Peruvian government’s response to the crisis has sparked outrage among indigenous people and their allies worldwide, and the Peruvian mission to the United Nations was recently met with protests in New York.

For links to more news stories, visit Intercontinental Cry.

For more information, updates and photos/video of police brutality at the protests, visit Amazon Watch.