Global – Page 74 – Earth First!

Community action in Mt. Roskill against the motorway in NZ

On Friday the 15th of May a dozen Mt.Albert/Roskill/Waterview community members and a dozen local anarchists crashed the official opening of the SH20 motorway extension through Roskill that will meet up with a new motorway through Mt. Albert and Waterview to form the proposed Western Ring Route.

Four of us anarchists arrived at the motorway overbridge at around 1pm after biking down Dominion Road. When we got to the Dominion Rd/SH20 overbridge some community members were holding signs and chanting “Shame on Joyce”. The opening party was being held in a marquee directly below the overbridge. We joined in the chanting, were given signs but 10 minutes into it one anarchists suggested a break away march down the motorway onramp and then back down the motorway towards the party. Another anarchist quickly piped up sure, but lets ask the locals first. They were only too keen and led by a Mt. Albert resident and her young daughter and Paul Davie, from the local community board we trotted off down the onramp chanting. “Hey, Hey. Ho, Ho. The Motorway has gotta go!”. A cop car with two cops raced in front of us and tried and failed to stop us marching down the onramp. Straight onto the motorway proper and into a more determined line of police the march went; backed up by another posse of anarchists who had just arrived.

At that point a paddywagon appeared and assumed a position directly behind the line of protestors, making this author scramble up the bank to the overbridge, (a bit worried at imminent arrest). However although I heard that a Crown car drove into the protestors down below, they stood and chanted for about half-an hour even while rain drove the crowd of journalists under cover.

After that protestors marched back up to the over bridge and continued to yell and chant, disrupting the ceremony going on below. Banksie’s apperance promoted chants of “shame” and “scum”.

After that we left and headed home, content in the knowledge that this motorway will be stopped by determined community resistance that all aucklanders should be part of.

Resistance Photography: SH20 Protest

Some facts:
$2.8 billion cost of building a tunnel and a $2.3 billion cost of building a motorway.

400-500 homes will be destroyed in the building of the motorway.
[ Costing the Waterview Option ]

In the year to June 2008 the Auckland Regional Transport Authority reported that farebox revenue on rail services was just $17 million and on the Northern Busway $3.42 million. So the cost of free public transport on the trains and the Northern Busway is around $20 million. 1/100 of the cost of the Waterview motorway. [ ARTA Annual Report ]

The right-wing dominated Auckland City Council last year cut more than $800 million from the city council’s budget. This is a third of the cost of the motorway and shows how upside down local and central government spending is. It included:

The Tamaki ward, the city’s poorest ward took $450 million of cuts to upgrades on essential community services like pools, libraries and arts centres made by a bunch of councillors who live in Remuera and Parnell. Meanwhile $60 million that would have been spent on upgrading Mt. Roskill and Otahuhu libraries, buying new library books and building new swimming pools in Avondale and Otahuhu was also cut.
[ Manukau Courier: “We can walk on broken footpaths but can’t swim in no pool.” ]

A $86 million cut in stormwater repairs means that Auckland beaches will continue to be washed in human waste during overflows.

The council also cut footpath,cycleway and walkway spending by $66 million, public transport spending by $20.8 million and new park-and-ride facilities by $5 million.

‘Mother Earth in climate crisis’ say indigenous people

12 May 2009
A statement by indigenous representatives from around the world describes ‘Mother Earth (as) no longer in a period of climate change, but climate crisis.’

The statement, known as the Anchorage Declaration, was released after indigenous people from the Arctic, North America, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean and Russia met in Anchorage, Alaska for the ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change’.

‘We are deeply alarmed by the accelerating climate devastation brought about by unsustainable development,’ the Declaration says. ‘We are experiencing profound and disproportionate adverse impacts on our cultures, human and environmental health, human rights, well-being, traditional livelihoods, food systems and food sovereignty, local infrastructure, economic viability, and our very survival as Indigenous Peoples.

‘Mother Earth is no longer in a period of climate change, but in climate crisis. We therefore insist on an immediate end to the destruction and desecration of the elements of life.’

The Declaration lists fourteen specific calls for action. These include reducing levels of global carbon emissions; indigenous participation in climate change debate; the recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights in schemes to ‘Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation’ (REDD); the abandonment of ‘false solutions’ to climate change such as nuclear energy, ‘clean coal’ and agrofuels; the recognition by governments of indigenous peoples’ rights; and the return and restoration of ‘lands, territories, waters, forests, sea ice and sacred sites’ taken from indigenous peoples by governments in the past.

The Declaration ends with an offer to ‘share with humanity our traditional knowledge. . . relevant to climate change, provided our fundamental rights. . . are fully recognized and respected. We reiterate the urgent need for collective action.’

Read the Anchorage Declaration

Wonthaggi Protest highlights Desalination Issue for Melbourne, Australia

One person was arrested when protesters carrying two banners walked onto the Desalination Plant proposed site near Wonthaggi on May 9. The occasion was a rally at the gates of the proposed site organised by Watershed Victoria and Melbourne supporters.

Photos on Flickr | Action: Get Real on Climate Change | FoE

“Last chance to have your say – if you build it, we won’t pay”

For over two years, anti-desal campaigners have organised rallies, meetings, film showings, debates and briefings, outlining the real costs of this project and putting forward the practical alternatives to an energy guzzling desalination plant on the Bass Coast. Despite the spiralling costs of the pilot plant itself, the scarcity of data, criticism of the project from experts inside and outside the government, as well as doubts about financing the project, the government continues to push ahead.

The Desalination Plant is beng designed to supply 150 Gigalitres per year for the Melbourne water supply and will be managed and operated through a public -private partnership (PPP) being extoled by the Brumby Labor Government. But many experts say deslaination should be the solution of last resort as it involves huge amount of (CO2 pollutng) power, and generates tonnes of solid waste and brine sludge which is pumped back out to sea where it can affect the coastal marine environment.

Alternative sources for water include recycled purified water from treatment plants (110 GL/y), stormwater capture (50 GL/y), rainwater tanks (25 GL/y), Flood Diversion (20 GL/y), and installation of dual flush cisterns (15 GL/y) all of which could be done for a fraction of the cost of a desalination plant.

The proposed Desal plant at Wonthaggi will cause 1.18 – 1.57 million tonnes of carbon emission equivalent to 365,000 extra cars on the road, discharge 8,800 litres of brine per second just 500 metres off the beautiful Bass coast, suck in and kill 380,000 small organisms per second into the plant. Operation of the plant will be for profit by a multinational infrastructure company, most likely Veolia who already run the Melbourne train system as Connex. The cost (and profits) of the plant will be passed on to consumers through increases in water rates. The people of Melbourne will pay!

In March Federal Evironment minister Peter Garrett gave conditional approval of the desalination plant in Victoria. Cam Walker from Fiends of the Earth criticised the ministerial decision saying “we believe that his assessment is flawed because it is based on information provided by the project’s proponent rather than independent studies,” he said. He also raised that the decision does not relate to or consider the full impacts on species that are not federally listed. “In particular there are serious concerns about the impacts on marine life posed by the plant, including to whale populations, which are not addressed in the Minister’s decision. Cam Walker said in a news release: Garrett fails Victoria on desalination plant approval.

The coastal zone and beaches nearby are a popular fishing spot that will be effectvely ruined. The effluent pipe for the concentrated brine will only take the sludge 500 metres out to sea to destroy the ecology of the rocky reef environment, when it should be extended 2 to 3 kilometres out to sea where the brine can be adequately dispersed by the currents in Bass Strait.

The Bunurong Land Council is concerned over the destraction of aboriginal cultural sites. Steve Compton, Cultural Officer with the Bunurong Land Council told the rally “Some of those sites on the property are the largest sites in the Bass Coast region … So basically the Bunurong community have asked me to say to you guys that they’re dead against the Desal. There is better options for getting water like putting rainwater tanks in Melbourne. Basically bugger off and leave the coast alone and stop trying to dish out big loads of money to foreign multinationals.” (Youtube Video Report: Bunurong people Oppose Desalination Plant)

Gareth Barlow, a councillor from Bass Coast Shire Council spoke about the council’s long standing opposition to the development. Bass Coast State MP for the Liberal Party spoke of his opposition to the plant, while acknowledging that the Liberals had proposed a smaller State owned Desalination plant at the last election which he had supported.

Anton from the Clean Ocean Foundation highlighted the amount of water wasted in Melbourne from the Eastern Treatment Plant and Gunnamatta outfall and from stormwater runoff. (Youtube Video Report: Desal plant for Melbourne what a Waste)

Cam Walker from Friends of the Earth came down from Melbourne and spoke about the growing disquiet in the Melbourne suburbs on the Desalination Plant being pushed by the Brumby Labor Government, and the need for more grassroots activism on water issues in Melbourne.

There were also speakers who outlined the reasons for opposition to the Desalination Plant for Melbourne and its sitng near Wonthaggi. (Youtube Video Report: Why you should oppose a Desalination plant for Melbourne)

A speaker also covered the prospects and background of Infrastructure company Veolia who looks likely to be the only private contender for managing the plant under a public-private partnership. Veolia’s record in water management (they are also known as Vivendi) leaves much to be desired with community protests and outrage for their water management and pricing practices. (Youtube Video Report: Veolia set to run the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant supplying water to Melbourne)

Just as the speakers were finishing two groups of people entered the exclusion zone of the pilot plant near the dunes to display banners. (Youtube Video report – Protestors enter Desal plant exclusion zone) One person was arrested in the walkon, and was escorted back to the rally where he was released after showing the police identification. The banners said “Fuck off Brumby” and “Desal Costs the Earth”.

Songs were sun to popular tunes at the rally Opposing the Desalination plant near Wonthaggi. (Youtube Video Report: Desal Song: We don’t want to swim in your chemicals)

Lots of police were brought from around the region to “protect” the pilot plant, as well as the presence of private security company employees, but in contrast to Melbourne protests the police were pretty friendly. I guess they are part of the local community and probably know many of the people opposed to the plant. Indeed, some of the police probably also disagree with the plant being built.

Panama: Campesinos arrested over gold mine

June 5, 2009

Late last month, a group of demonstrators were violently arrested by police at a roadblock in the northern Panamanian province of Cocle.

June 5, 2009

Late last month, a group of demonstrators were violently arrested by police at a roadblock in the northern Panamanian province of Cocle.

The roadblock was first set up on May 9, 2009 to resist the Petaquilla Gold mine project, which is owned by the Panama company Minera Petaquilla, and developed by two others: the Vancouver-based junior company, Petaquilla Minerals and the Toronto-based company, Inmet Mining.

As a many as 24 local communities are opposed to the project because of the “aberrant predation and destruction of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, where hundreds of hectares of virgin jungle and forest have been cut down, and where the mountain passes and rivers that made the area one of the most important in the world due to its rich biodiversity have been destroyed and polluted,” notes a May 14 report by La Estrella.

The communities also say “they have never been consulted, but rather deceived, and their lands have been taken from them unfairly in many ways, including the destruction and burning of ranches of indigenous peoples, without even indemnifying the local residents and without any authority of the PRD government fulfilling its constitutional obligation to defend the communities.”

Also reporting on the arrests, La Estrella says 12 demonstrators were arrested in total (other reports say it was 30 demonstrators), “among them the Chiriqui environmentalist Carmencita Tedman. A peasant who did not want to be identified, said that he was really afraid, because policemen were hitting the protestors mercilessly, even women and children. He added that when all this was happening Petaquilla Gold helicopters were surveying the scene.”

The police used rods, and shot pellets and tear gas to subdue the demonstrators.

For background on the Petaquilla Gold mine and local efforts to stop it, visit miningwatch.ca

Perenco and armed forces break indigenous blockade (Peru)

6 May 2009
A gunboat belonging to Peru’s armed forces has broken through an Indian river blockade in the northern Peruvian Amazon.

The gunboat, together with at least one boat belonging to Anglo-French oil company Perenco, broke the blockade at 5:15 am on 4 May. The blockade, organised by local indigenous people, is on the Napo river, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon.

Peru’s indigenous organisation, AIDESEP, condemned the use of a boat belonging to the armed forces, describing it as a ‘use and abuse of their power’. The blockade forms part of Amazon-wide protests by Peru’s indigenous people against government policies and the invasion of their territories by multinational companies. The protests have been going on for almost a month.

Perenco holds the licence to work in a remote part of Peru known as Lot 67, accessible via the Napo River. It is an area inhabited by at least two of the world’s last uncontacted tribes – the company is under increasing pressure to withdraw from the project.

Less than a fortnight ago Perenco’s chairman, Francois Perrodo, met Peru’s president, Alan Garcia, in the presidential palace in Lima, pledging to invest US$2 billion in Lot 67. Just days later the government passed a law declaring Perenco’s work a ‘national necessity’.

Mexico: Telmex van torched by Luddites and the ALF

During the early morning hours of April 23, in a municipality in the State of Mexico, the Luddites Against the Domestication of Wild Nature and the Frente de Liberación Animal joined together in an action, deciding to step up the fight against the biocidal company Telmex.

received anonymously by Bite Back Magazine (translation):

“During the early morning hours of April 23, in a municipality in the State of Mexico, the Luddites Against the Domestication of Wild Nature and the Frente de Liberación Animal joined together in an action, deciding that we should step up the fight against the biocidal company Telmex. This time we placed an incendiary device at one of the front tires of a van which was responsible for maintaining different phone lines; this incendiary device did the job for which it was made and left the truck owned by Telmex unusable; when we returned to the area of action only the burnt remains could be seen.

The direct action is now claimed by the LCDNS and the FLA; we have joined our efforts and have hit hard, for the liberation of animals and the earth, destructive sabotage.

We want to take the opportunity in this communique to send a greeting to the cells of the ALF and the ELF in Guadalajara, different individuals have decided on illegal action for the anti-speciesist offensive in Mexico which is a huge step for the movement, continue on!

‘And night by night when all is still / And the moon is hid behind the hill / We forward march to do our will / With hatchet, pike and gun!’
– Luddite Anthem

Against all that wants to dominate us LCDNS FLA – México”

Orissa Tribes stage mass protest against British mining company Vedanta – 25 April 2009

Several hundred tribespeople today staged a protest against FTSE-100 company Vedanta, as it bids massively to expand its controversial aluminium refinery in Lanjigarh, Orissa. The refinery occupies land belonging to the Majhi Kondh tribe, and lies at the foot of the Niyamgiri hills, home of the isolated Dongria Kondhs. Both tribes took part in the protests.

Over a hundred families lost their homes to their refinery. Many more lost their farm land and with it their food-security and self sufficiency.

Vedanta’s refinery expansion project is integrally linked to its plan to mine the Dongria Kondh’s mountain home. Vedanta’s mine is needed to provide the refinery with a nearby, and cost efficient, source of bauxite – the raw material for aluminium.

One Dongria Kondh man said, ‘Mining only makes profit for the rich. We will become beggars if the company destroys our mountain and our forest so that they can make money. We cannot give our mountain, it is our life. And other tribes will also suffer, those who live on the rivers that come from our mountain.’

Today’s protest is just the latest in a string of demonstrations against Vedanta’s activities.

More info: www.survival-international.org/tribes/dongria

Happy Valley update, New Zealand

SE dismantle Happy Camp – so we’re relocating to SE front lawn
The Happy Valley Occupation camp has been dismantled by Solid Energy and helicoptered out of the Valley. So we’re re-locating – to Solid Energy’s Front lawn!

Media Advisory
Save Happy Valley Coalition
7.00am Friday 24 April

Protesters sleep on coal company lawn

Media Advisory
Save Happy Valley Coalition
7.00am Friday 24 April

Protesters sleep on coal company lawn

Five Save Happy Valley Coalition members camped on the front lawn of state-owned coal miner Solid Energy’s Christchurch headquarters last night. Around 30 protesters helped set up a pup tent on the lawn at 2.00pm yesterday, as a response to the removal of a long-term occupation camp on the site of a proposed West Coast coal mine.

“It certainly wasn’t as peaceful as a night in Happy Valley,” says Front Lawn Protester Anna-Clair Hunter. “We heard cars and trucks instead of weka and kiwi.”

Media are invited to a community breakfast at the Front Lawn site from 7.30-8.30am on Friday morning.

The group has spent the past five years protesting the plans of the state-owned company to destroy a pristine area north of Westport, home to 13 endangered species including /roroa/, great spotted kiwi.

ENDS

—-

7.5.09
Solidarity for Happy Valley in Tauranga
Banner Hung to Highlight Climate Crimes

Solid Energy and Genesis continue to profit from coal mining in New Zealand despite their “million dollar” greenwash marketing campaigns.

Happy Valley is a pristene native wetland near Westport, on the west coast of the South Island. Solid Energy plan to extend their already massive open-cast coal mine at Stockton into Happy Valley.

Two years ago a group of people concerned about climate change and the native ecosystems set up an occupation camp to protect Happy Valley. On the 21st April this year the camp was forcibly removed by Solid Energy.

Tauranga port is a key location for the trafficking of coal in and out of New Zealand by Solid Energy and Genesis. This banner was hung on a mega billboard (bearing a poignant message!) along a major road and railway used for transporting coal, in order to highlight the continued climate crimes committed by Solid Energy and Genesis in this time of global and ecological emergency.

http://www.savehappyvalley.org.nz

Indians blockade main Amazon tributary – 24 April 2009

A large number of Indians have blockaded one of the Amazon’s main tributaries, the Napo River, in response to the violation of their rights by oil companies and Peru’s government.

The protesters have blockaded the Napo with canoes and a cable to stop oil company vessels getting upriver. According to sources, two boats, including one from the Anglo-French company Perenco, have managed to break through the blockade. Three shots were allegedly fired at the Indians who chased after them.

The blockade of the Napo River is just one of many protests currently taking place across the Peruvian Amazon. Coordinated by Peru’s Amazon Indian organisation, AIDESEP, the protests are in response to government policies seen by the Indians as discriminatory and threatening to their communal lands. AIDESEP is lobbying for the repeal of several laws they claim violate their rights, and for the creation of new reserves for uncontacted tribes.

The government has responded by sending police and soldiers to areas where protests are taking place. AIDESEP has criticised these measures, calling them ‘intimidation’ and saying that the protests are peaceful.

Perenco is working in a part of the Amazon inhabited by two of the world’s last uncontacted tribes. The company does not acknowledge the tribes exist.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘All over the world tribal peoples are being forced to resort to blockades to try and protect their remaining land. We’re seeing this in India and Malaysia as well as South America.’

www.survival-international.org

Barrick and Argentine Officials Violently Assault Women at Roadblock

On April 14, a group of Argentine government officials and employees of Barrick Gold Corporation, carried out a violent assault against Women at the Famatina mining camp in the province of La Rioja, where a road blockade has stood for the past two years.

When the officials arrived, a group of Women from the “Self-Organized (Autoconvocados) Neighbors of Famatina for Life,” gathered at site and lowered a metal bar they installed to deny the company’s passage to the mine site.

The officials and Barrick employees then began to ram their trucks against the barrier, but “without any success,” explains an April 14 media alert.

The officials then exited their vehicles and carried out a violent assault against a handful of women, who had peacefully sat down in front the vehicles – first shoving them, and then kicking and striking the women with their fists.

“When the women did not budge,” the Barrick and government officials decided to leave the mining camp, and set out to the Famatina police station masquerading as victims with a plan to file charges against the Women.

However, “upon entering the police station, the aggressors encountered Famatina residents who had been alerted to what was taking place,” the alert states. “The Barrick and government officials then continued to verbally assault the community members in an arrogant manner, self-assured of their impunity.”

“This attitude did not fall well upon the community: Practically the entire population of Famatina immediately turned out in force, and has gathered to surround the police station. As of this moment, the Barrick and mining officials are now ‘trapped’ inside, afraid to exit the police station.”

Police forces from the city of Chilecito have since been contacted to support the Famatina police and the agressors.

Further updates (in Spanish) will be posted at http://www.noalamina.org/