Category: North East England

North East Eng­land

Mayo Shell blockade & 15–17th March London demo & action call-out

Block­ade of Shell site, thurs morn­ing, 24/1/8, approx 100 cars blocked for 45 mins

This morn­ing, local res­i­dents’ yet again braved the bit­ter­ly cold wind to show Shell that it will nev­er have their con­sent. Know­ing that only they can pro­tect the health and safe­ty of their com­mu­ni­ty and envi­ron­ment, peo­ple peace­ful­ly held ban­ners at the gates, shut­ting down the site and pre­vent­ing approx. 100 Shell cars from enter­ing. There were no Gar­dai for approx. 45 mins!

Block­ade of Shell site, thurs morn­ing, 24/1/8, approx 100 cars blocked for 45 mins

This morn­ing, local res­i­dents’ yet again braved the bit­ter­ly cold wind to show Shell that it will nev­er have their con­sent. Know­ing that only they can pro­tect the health and safe­ty of their com­mu­ni­ty and envi­ron­ment, peo­ple peace­ful­ly held ban­ners at the gates, shut­ting down the site and pre­vent­ing approx. 100 Shell cars from enter­ing. There were no Gar­dai for approx. 45 mins!
Yes­ter­day, peo­ple were stood by the side of gate 2, not block­ing the cars, but were forcibly removed by the Gar­dai, who refused to give a rea­son. As usu­al, there was dis­agree­ment between the Gar­dai them­selves on why we were being removed and some were clear­ly uncom­fort­able with their col­leagues’ unrea­son­able behav­iour (‘pub­lic order act’ ‘Tres­pass’ ‘mis­cel­la­neous hous­ing act’ and my per­son­al favourite, ‘you are caus­ing a destruc­tion’). The morn­ing pick­ets are still hap­pen­ing and there are fre­quent block­ades, so come and sup­port the Kil­com­mon Parish who are sim­ply call­ing for the gas to be refined at sea and to rene­go­ti­ate the deal to ben­e­fit the peo­ple of Ire­land. Shell to Sea!
Who’s cops?
It came as no sur­prise to see the recent Shell Project Mon­i­tor­ing Com­mit­tee prais­ing Supt Gan­non for his work in the local­i­ty.

»»»»»»»

hey all, hope you can join us in Lon­don to bring the pipeline back to Shell — 15–17th March.

Glu­aiseacht are mobil­is­ing peo­ple from all over Ire­land to trav­el to Shell Head­quar­ters in Lon­don on St Patrick­’s Day to protest the give­away and mis­man­age­ment of our nation­al resources. We will be car­ry­ing a 200ft pipeline to Shel­l’s front door.

The Irish peo­ple will not ben­e­fit from the Cor­rib Gas Project. We will have to buy back any gas that Shell will sell to us at the ever increas­ing full mar­ket val­ue. As well as this, Shell will destroy a pris­tine envi­ron­ment and the health and safe­ty of the local com­mu­ni­ty.

If you can’t get to Lon­don, there’s a call out for sol­i­dar­i­ty actions to hap­pen at St Pad­dy’s Day parades, Shell offices & garages and Irish Embassies all over the world dur­ing this week­end.

What is Glu­aiseacht?
Glu­aiseacht is a non-hier­ar­chi­cal envi­ron­men­tal and social jus­tice move­ment bring­ing togeth­er grass­roots organ­i­sa­tions, con­cerned indi­vid­u­als and stu­dent groups from all over Ire­land to take action on social, envi­ron­men­tal and polit­i­cal issues.

For more infor­ma­tion, please email back. many thanks!

http://gluaiseacht.nologic.org/

Biofuel week of action — 26th January-2nd February 2008

Bio­fu­el­watch are call­ing for a nation­al week of local action on agro­fu­els between 26th Jan­u­ary and 2nd Feb­ru­ary 2008. Rather than organ­is­ing one cen­tral protest, UK groups and cam­paigns are encour­aged to organ­ise local protests and actions – which could involve a ban­ner protest out­side a Tesco or BP petrol sta­tion or out­side an agro­fu­el refin­ery (click for map of bio­fu­el refiner­ies), leaflet­ing and/or street the­atre in the city cen­tre, a press release, a pub­lic film show, etc. Please email us at info[at]biofuelwatch.org.uk if you can help in any way, or if you would like to find out if any­thing is already planned in your area.

Acme Biofuel/palm oilBio­fu­el­watch are call­ing for a nation­al week of local action on agro­fu­els between 26th Jan­u­ary and 2nd Feb­ru­ary 2008. Rather than organ­is­ing one cen­tral protest, UK groups and cam­paigns are encour­aged to organ­ise local protests and actions – which could involve a ban­ner protest out­side a Tesco or BP petrol sta­tion or out­side an agro­fu­el refin­ery (click for map of bio­fu­el refiner­ies), leaflet­ing and/or street the­atre in the city cen­tre, a press release, a pub­lic film show, etc. Please email us at info[at]biofuelwatch.org.uk if you can help in any way, or if you would like to find out if any­thing is already planned in your area.

If you are plan­ning a local event and would like us to put the details on our web­site, then please email us at info[at]biofuelwatch.org.uk.

Click here for details of events in Lon­don, Tee­side, Chel­tenham and Aberdeen.

Click here for resources!

Saving Iceland Update 2008 — Mini-gathering — Friday 22nd February 2008, Sumac Centre, Nottingham

Sav­ing Ice­land Update 2008
Mini-gath­er­ing

A day of talks and film show­ings to pass on infor­ma­tion about the on-going inter­na­tion­al cam­paign and the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in Ice­land

Fri­day 22nd Feb­ru­ary 2008, Sumac Cen­tre, Not­ting­ham

Sav­ing Ice­land Update 2008
Mini-gath­er­ing

A day of talks and film show­ings to pass on infor­ma­tion about the on-going inter­na­tion­al cam­paign and the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in Ice­land

Fri­day 22nd Feb­ru­ary 2008, Sumac Cen­tre, Not­ting­ham

The event is aimed at:
Activists who have been involved with Sav­ing Ice­land in the past, have part­ed com­pa­ny for what­ev­er rea­son, but would like to know what’s hap­pen­ing now
UK-based Sav­ing Ice­land activists who were unable to make it to the recent organ­is­ing gath­er­ings abroad and would like an update
Peo­ple who are new to the issue but are inter­est­ed to find out about this great eco­log­i­cal threat to our rel­a­tive­ly local wilder­ness.
Any­one with ques­tions about the cam­paign

Please book in advance (email savingiceland@riseup.org, sub­ject head­ing “UK mini-gath­er­ing”) so we have some idea of cater­ing require­ments, and let us know if you need accom­mo­da­tion. We will be ask­ing for a small dona­tion to cov­er costs of food and venue.

We will start at 10 a.m. with an intro­duc­tion to the issues. If you already know the basics, aim to arrive by 11a.m.

* * *

www.savingiceland.org

Climate Camp– Open invite to a UK wide decision making meeting – Leeds 26–27 Jan

The Cli­mate Camp on its own did­n’t stop cli­mate change — but it’s part of a grow­ing social move­ment that can! Come and take the next steps for­ward at the upcom­ing UK-wide meet­ing on Jan 26–27 in Leeds. Every­one is wel­come, whether you came to the camp, or were sim­ply inspired by it.

The Cli­mate Camp on its own did­n’t stop cli­mate change — but it’s part of a grow­ing social move­ment that can! Come and take the next steps for­ward at the upcom­ing UK-wide meet­ing on Jan 26–27 in Leeds. Every­one is wel­come, whether you came to the camp, or were sim­ply inspired by it.
Please spread this invite far and wide!

The Cam­p’s at Drax and Heathrow had 4 key aims: pop­u­lar edu­ca­tion, direct action, sus­tain­able liv­ing, and build­ing a social move­ment to col­lec­tive­ly tack­le cli­mate change. Region­al meet­ings have been hap­pen­ing up and down the coun­try, and the last nation­al meet­ing was in Oxford .We will meet in Leeds to col­lec­tive­ly share all our ideas for tak­ing our aims into 2008.

The meet­ing will start at 11am on Sat­ur­day morn­ing and end at 4pm on the Sun­day- although if you can’t stay for the whole week­end you are still wel­come!

If you are plan­ning to arrive on the Sat­ur­day morn­ing please head straight down to the venue which is The Com­mon Place, 23–25 Warf Street, LS2 7EQ
www.thecommonplace.org.uk – you can find a map at
http://www.multimap.com/maps/?hloc=GB|LS2%207EQ and you will notice that it is walk­ing dis­tance from the train and bus sta­tions.

If you are plan­ning on arriv­ing the Fri­day night – before the gath­er­ing- please email process@climatecamp.org.uk so we know! There will be accom­mo­da­tion avail­able for the Fri­day night – but at a com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre called Oblong ( http://oblongleeds.org.uk) rather than at the Com­mon Place.
Food will be served at the Com­mon Place over the week­end- so please bring about £10 to con­tribute towards the food and accom­mo­da­tion costs if you stay the whole week­end. Of course if you real­ly can not afford it then you are none the less very wel­come!

There will also be a trav­el pool (where­by peo­ple who live near­by and who have min­i­mal trav­el costs will be asked to make dona­tions to off set the expense for those who had to make much longer jour­neys to attend). Accom­mo­da­tion is sim­ply floor space- so please bring a camp­ing mat and sleep­ing bag. If you have par­tic­u­lar access needs, and/or if sleep­ing on the floor is not suit­able for you please email us as soon as pos­si­ble so we can make appro­pri­ate arrange­ments.

If you are plan­ning to bring chil­dren who will need child care facil­i­ties please let us at process@climatecamp.org.uk know as soon as pos­si­ble. The agen­da for this meet­ing has not yet been set — if you have any ideas about top­ics you think it is impor­tant for us to dis­cuss, please email
process@climatecamp.org.uk- by Fri­day the 19th Jan­u­ary
Hope to see you there!

camp for cli­mate action net­work­ing group
networking@climatecamp.org.uk
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk

CLIMATE ACTION NEWS SHEET 75, JANUARY 2008

CONTENTS:

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) FOSSIL FOOLS DAY — NATIONAL, 1.4.08
2) LONDON RISING TIDE BENEFIT — LONDON, 11.1.08

CONTENTS:

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) FOSSIL FOOLS DAY — NATIONAL, 1.4.08
2) LONDON RISING TIDE BENEFIT — LONDON, 11.1.08
3) NEWQUAY AIRPORT EXPANSION, PUBLIC DEBATE — CORNWALL, 12.1.08
4) RADICAL ACTION VS. CLIMATE CHAOS, NATIONAL MEET — NOTTINGHAM, 12.1.08
5) CLIMATE CAMP NATIONAL GATHERING — LEEDS, 26–27.1.08
6) BIOFUELWATCH WEEK OF ACTION — NATIONAL, 26.1.08 — 1.2.08
7) MANCHESTER CLIMATE FORUM — 1.3.08
8) DAY OF ACTION VS. GLOBAL AGRIBUSINESS — INTERNATIONAL, 26.1.08
9) LOW-IMPACT SMALLHOLDING — BUCKS, 11–13.1.08
———————————————-
RECENT HAPPENINGS:
———————————————-
1) NEWQUAY AIRPORT ROOFTOP OCCUPATION — 15.12.07
2) SANTAS AGAINST EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION — NORWICH & LONDON, 15.12.07
3) BRISTOL RISING TIDE TAKES ACTION VS. SHELL GREENWASH — DECEMBER 2007
4) SHELL TO SEA SCALE GOVERNMENT OFFICE — IRELAND, 19.12.07
5) NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE MARCH AND ACTIONS — 8.12.07
6) DUTCH COAL ACTION — 8.12.07
7) FLIGHT CENTRES SHUT FOR BUSINESS — MANCHESTER, 7.12.07
8) CHEADLE-HIGH-STREET AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE — DECEMBER 2007
9) SUBVERTISEMENTS IN LONDON AND MANCHESTER — DECEMBER 2007
10) WOMEN’S BLOCKADE OF DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT — 7.12.07
11) THE TIDE IS RISING! — 7.12.07
12) CLIMATE ACTIVISTS STOP WORK AT COAL MINE — SOUTH WALES, 5.12.07
13) INTERNATIONAL RT HOAX TARGETS BIG CARBON — 3.12.07
14) HOMELESS POLAR BEARS IN COURT — BRISTOL, 14.11.07
15) KEEP OIL UNDERGROUND — DECEMBER 2007
16) SIZEWELL NUCLEAR CLIMATE ACTION — 1.12.07
17) MANIAC MOTORIST MARS MASS — GLASGOW, NOVEMBER 2007
18) VIVA’S ‘HOT!’ CAMPAIGN — DECEMBER 2007
19) WHAT BETTER TIME? — DECEMBER 2007
20) BATH BOMB, ISSUE 5 — DECEMBER 2007
21) PACIFIC CURRENTS — DECEMBER 2007
22) A HOUSE OF CARDS — DECEMBER 2007
23) SOUTH WEST AIR ACTION — DECEMBER 2007
24) RISING TIDE LEAMINGTON SPA — DECEMBER 2007
25) RISING TIDE ON YOU TUBE

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) FOSSIL FOOLS DAY — NATIONAL, 1.4.08
Just three months to go — are you out prac­tis­ing your rou­tines? rehears­ing your songs? build­ing your props yet? I should get out more over Christ­mas…
How­ev­er, it will soon be time to hatch your mis­chie­vous scheme, so get your friends round and start plot­ting!
http://www.fossilfoolsday.org/

2) LONDON RISING TIDE BENEFIT — LONDON, 11.1.08
In sup­port of Lon­don Ris­ing Tide, AMP is organ­is­ing a night of live music at The Oth­ers, Manor Road, Stoke New­ing­ton. Entrance £5.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=38074566

3) NEWQUAY AIRPORT EXPANSION, PUBLIC DEBATE — CORNWALL, 12.1.08
Organ­ised by Ris­ing Tide with speak­ers from Groundswell and Plane Stu­pid.
7pm St. Maw­gan Com­mu­ni­ty Hall, Nr. Newquay, Corn­wall. For more info. email; kernow@risingtide.org.uk

4) RADICAL ACTION VS. CLIMATE CHAOS, NATIONAL MEET — NOTTINGHAM, 12.1.08
11am — 6pm at The Sumac Cen­tre, 245 Glad­stone Street, For­est Fields, Not­ting­ham.
This meet­ing came out of the last Cli­mate Camp gath­er­ing in Novem­ber. It is focussed on grow­ing our move­ment — how can we encour­age more groups to form and more actions/campaigns to hap­pen? What things do we want to do to help build a vibrant net­work of region­al action groups doing actions local­ly and nation­al­ly?
For instruc­tion on how to get there: http://www.veggies.org.uk/sumac/map.html
Also, 11 peo­ple are going to tri­al in Not­ting­ham on Mon­day 14th for ‘shut­ting down’ the local coal pow­er sta­tion, If any­one wants to stay to sup­port them that would be great!

5) CLIMATE CAMP NATIONAL GATHERING — LEEDS, 26–27.1.08
The Cli­mate Camp on its own did­n’t stop cli­mate change — but it’s part of a grow­ing social move­ment that can! Come and take the next steps for­ward at the upcom­ing UK-wide meet­ing on Jan 26–27 in Leeds. Every­one is wel­come, whether you came to the camp, or were sim­ply inspired by it.
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/nextmeeting.php

6) BIOFUELWATCH WEEK OF ACTION — NATIONAL, 26.1.08 — 1.2.08
Bio­fu­el­watch are call­ing for a nation­al week of local action on agro­fu­els between 26th Jan­u­ary and 1st Feb­ru­ary 2008. We will short­ly update our web­site to pro­vide more back­ground infor­ma­tion about the UK agro­fu­el indus­try and poli­cies, as well as a draft leaflet and oth­er resources. If you would like to get involved or find out more, please email us at info[at]biofuelwatch.org.uk.
http://biofuelwatch.org.uk/

7) MANCHESTER CLIMATE FORUM — 1.3.08
Man­ches­ter Cli­mate Forum “Cli­mate Change: it’s time to pre­pare”
9.15am at the Methodist Hall, Old­ham St, Cen­tral Man­ches­ter
http://www.manchesterclimateforum.org.uk/index.html

8) DAY OF ACTION VS. GLOBAL AGRIBUSINESS — INTERNATIONAL, 26.1.08
On Jan­u­ary 26 self-orga­nized groups from all around the world will take cre­ative action in their com­mu­ni­ty. This will man­i­fest in many ways, from non­vi­o­lent direct action, civ­il dis­obe­di­ence, street the­atre, con­ver­gences, teach-ins and oth­er activ­i­ties and events. Grass­roots move­ments around the world are mak­ing their voic­es heard and say­ing “Anoth­er World is Pos­si­ble”. In coor­di­na­tion with the World Social Forum.
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/category/front-page/

9) LOW-IMPACT SMALLHOLDING — BUCKS, 11–13.1.08
Next course by the Low-Impact Liv­ing Ini­tia­tive;
http://www.lowimpact.org/courseoutlinelowimpactsmallholding.htm

———————————————-
RECENT HAPPENINGS:
———————————————-
1) NEWQUAY AIRPORT ROOFTOP OCCUPATION — 15.12.07
For the recent­ly formed Ker­now and Ply­mouth Ris­ing Tide groups, this action marked an esca­la­tion in their fight against cli­mate change and for envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice. How­ev­er the planned rooftop protest at Newquay air­port was giv­en an unlike­ly boost when builders at the air­port left a lad­der propped up!
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/248
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7146159.stm

2) SANTAS AGAINST EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION — NORWICH AND LONDON, 15.12.07
Sub­ver­sive Singing San­tas Spread Sea­son­al San­i­ty in Lon­don and Nor­wich On one of the busiest shop­ping days of the year. Ris­ing Tide activists in both Lon­don and Nor­wich dressed up as San­tas Against Exces­sive Con­sump­tion and hit the high streets to sing a dif­fer­ent tune to the usu­al buy, buy,
buy mad­ness of the hol­i­day sea­son.
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/247

3) BRISTOL RISING TIDE TAKES ACTION VS. SHELL GREENWASH — DECEMBER 2007
A series of actions is being tak­en against the organ­is­ers of the Wildlife Pho­tog­ra­ph­er of the Year Award and Bris­tol Muse­um, in protest at the spon­sor­ship of the event by Shell. A grumpy polar bear vis­it­ed the offices of BBC Wildlife mag­a­zine, then activists dis­rupt­ed Bris­tol Muse­um’s posh recep­tion to kick off the exhi­bi­tion with a Yes Men-style inter­ven­tion. And on the open­ing morn­ing, dozens of humans, polar bears, a snow leop­ard and a tiger gath­ered (com­plete with the Shell’s Wild Lie counter-exhi­bi­tion) in front of the muse­um. They hand­ed out leaflets and cre­at­ed quite a spec­ta­cle. Protests are expect­ed to con­tin­ue through Jan. 13th.
http://risingtide.org.uk/bristol

4) SHELL TO SEA SCALE GOVERNMENT OFFICE — IRELAND, 19.12.07
A spe­cial prayer and car­ol ser­vice was held on 16th Decem­ber at Bel­lan­aboy, Coun­ty Mayo, mark­ing the end of anoth­er year of com­mu­ni­ty strug­gle against Shel­l’s pro­posed raw gas pipeline and inland refin­ery.
On the 19th, a small group of Shell to Sea activists scaled the heights of the Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources to place a ban­ner read­ing PROTECT IRISH NATURAL RESOURCES on the bal­cony out­side Eamon Ryan’s office.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17942
http://www.corribsos.com/

5) NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE MARCH AND ACTIONS — 8.12.07
Over 10,000 cli­mate cam­paign­ers took to the streets to take part in march­es in Lon­don and Glas­gow over the week­end, despite pour­ing rain. Pro­test­ers braved the weath­er in one the biggest demon­stra­tions call­ing for cli­mate jus­tice the UK has ever seen.
http://www.campaigncc.org/
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/387497.html
Envi­ron­men­tal activists from direct action group Plane Stu­pid shut down trav­el agents and air­line offices along the route of the Cli­mate March in Lon­don.
http://www.planestupid.com/
Mean­while, in Man­ches­ter air­line bill­boards adver­tis­ing cheap flights to Euro­pean cities were sub­vert­ed.

6) DUTCH COAL ACTION — 8.12.07
A col­lec­tive of twen­ty Dutch Earth­First! activists blocked the coal con­vey­or- belt to a plant owned by the Ger­man ener­gy giant E.on on the Maasvlak­te near Rot­ter­dam.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17893

7) FLIGHT CENTRES SHUT FOR BUSINESS — MANCHESTER, 7.12.07
All Flight Cen­tre branch­es in Man­ches­ter city cen­tre were super-glued shut in time for Sat­ur­day trad­ing and to coin­cide with the cli­mate march in Lon­don. They were past­ed with notices say­ing: “Closed — we want your kids to have a plan­et” The UK’s only Hum­mer deal­er­ship, Bauer Mil­lett, was also D‑locked shut.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17887

8) CHEADLE-HIGH-STREET AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE — DECEMBER 2007
Activists from Chea­dle-High-Street Against Cli­mate Change held a “A plan­et is not just for Xmas” cam­paign for a sus­tain­able Xmas.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17917

9) SUBVERTISEMENTS IN LONDON AND MANCHESTER — DECEMBER 2007
Two adverts pro­mot­ing DVD’s by Top Gear’s Jere­my Clark­son now have large stick­ers stuck on declar­ing “This caus­es cli­mate change”. Also, Fly­Be appears to have spot­ted the errors of their ways and can­celled their short-haul sum­mer routes. Bra­vo Fly­Be!
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17937

10) WOMEN’S BLOCKADE OF DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT — 7.12.07
Women cli­mate activists block­ad­ed the Depart­ment for Trans­port pre­vent­ing staff from get­ting to work and car­ry­ing out their poli­cies which are cat­a­pult­ing us towards dan­ger­ous run-away cli­mate change. This action comes in response to the Trans­port Sec­re­tary Ruth Kel­ly con­firm­ing the gov­ern­men­t’s inten­tions to build a third run­way and a sixth ter­mi­nal at Heathrow and coin­cides with the open­ing of their first “con­sul­ta­tion”.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17883

11) THE TIDE IS RISING! — 7.12.07
A ban­ner with this warning/statement was dropped to wel­come all those enter­ing the city of Man­ches­ter on the Princess park­way.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17886

12) CLIMATE ACTIVISTS STOP WORK AT COAL MINE — SOUTH WALES, 5.12.07
More than thir­ty cli­mate activists, includ­ing mem­bers of the Ris­ing Tide net­work, joined with local res­i­dents from Merthyr Tyd­fil in stop­ping exca­va­tion work for a full day on Britain’s biggest ever open-cast coal mine at Ffos-y-fran in South Wales. Activists evad­ed police and secu­ri­ty before tak­ing over the 1,000 acre site on a hill­top near Cardiff. Dressed as clowns and polar bears, they chained them­selves to bull­doz­ers and oth­er heavy machin­ery to pre­vent work on the mine.
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/242

13) INTERNATIONAL RT HOAX TARGETS BIG CARBON — 3.12.07
Cli­mate activists with the inter­na­tion­al Ris­ing Tide net­work embar­rassed the U.S. Cli­mate Action Part­ner­ship (USCAP), a lob­by group com­posed of 33 promi­nent busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions, by dis­trib­ut­ing a spoof press release declar­ing that the consortium’s mem­bers had com­mit­ted to a 90
per­cent reduc­tion in their green­house gas emis­sions by 2050. In addi­tion, the spoof release called for an imme­di­ate mora­to­ri­um on the con­struc­tion of all new coal-fired pow­er plants.
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/240
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/03/oil.bp

14) HOMELESS POLAR BEARS IN COURT — BRISTOL, 14.11.07
Four home­less polar bears appeared before Bris­tol Mag­is­trates Court on 14th Novem­ber. They were arrest­ed after blockad­ing the Roy­al Bank of Scot­land cor­po­rate offices on Avon St. dur­ing the Ris­ing Tide nation­al day of action. After plead­ing guilty to charges of “wil­ful­ly obstruct­ing the pub­lic high­way with a non motor vehi­cle” (i.e. a suit case) they were giv­en a con­di­tion­al dis­charge and went on to pick­et the RBS branch on Bald­win Street!
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/243

15) KEEP OIL UNDERGROUND — DECEMBER 2007
The only way to fight cli­mate change. A new report by Oil­Watch.
http://www.oilwatch.org/doc/documentos/Keep_oil_underground.pdf
http://www.oilwatch.org/

16) SIZEWELL NUCLEAR CLIMATE ACTION — 1.12.07
What else would you do at this time in the morn­ing at a nuclear pow­er sta­tion, oth­er than lay on the road, lock your­selves togeth­er, unfurl your ban­ner read­ing “nuclear pow­er is not the answer to cli­mate chaos” and wait 15 min­utes for the secu­ri­ty to notice you.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17868

17) MANIAC MOTORIST MARS MASS — GLASGOW, NOVEMBER 2007
Unbur­dened with fes­tive spir­it, a mid­dle-aged woman leant out of her car and pulled a cyclist off his bike.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17889

18) VIVA’S ‘HOT!’ CAMPAIGN — DECEMBER 2007
“Livestock’s con­tri­bu­tion to envi­ron­men­tal prob­lems is on a mas­sive scale. The impact is so sig­nif­i­cant that it needs to be addressed with urgency.” Unit­ed Nations Food and Agri­cul­ture Organ­i­sa­tion 2006
find out more at
http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/hot/index.php

19) WHAT BETTER TIME? — DECEMBER 2007
A free news sheet from the Scot­tish Cli­mate Activist Net­work.
http://whatbettertime.livejournal.com/

20) BATH BOMB, ISSUE 5 — DECEMBER 2007
Christ­mas edi­tion of the month­ly Bathon­ian rab­bler­ousi­ness.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17905

21) PACIFIC CURRENTS — DECEMBER 2007
For updates on the work of Pacif­ic Envi­ron­ment, a non-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion that pro­tects the Pacif­ic Rim’s wild places and wildlife, see;
http://www.pacificenvironment.org/article.php?id=2658

22) A HOUSE OF CARDS — DECEMBER 2007
From fan­ta­sy finance to glob­al crash.
Your guide to under­stand­ing the cri­sis that is sweep­ing through the glob­al finan­cial sys­tem and what it means for ordi­nary peo­ple.
Endorsed by Kevin Smith of Car­bon Trade Watch and film­mak­er Ken Loach.
http://www.aworldtowin.net/about/HouseOfCards.html

23) SOUTH WEST AIR ACTION — DECEMBER 2007
A new web­site.
http://www.swairaction.org.uk/

24) RISING TIDE LEAMINGTON SPA is born — DECEMBER 2007
The group had its first meet­ing on 3rd Jan­u­ary and is now swing­ing into action. If you live in the area and want to find out more or get involved con­tact becqke@riseup.net

25) RISING TIDE ON YOU TUBE
Ris­ing Tide action footage has been spring­ing up all over youtube — check out http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=RisingTideNetwork for some RT films, some of the lat­est actions and links to oth­er’s videos of RT actions.

———-

Please send any­thing you’d like includ­ed in this news sheet to:
newssheet@risingtide.org.uk

To view pre­vi­ous edi­tions of the Ris­ing Tide News Sheet, vis­it the News Sheet Archive at http://risingtide.org.uk/newssheet

This News Sheet was brought to you by Ris­ing Tide, a grass­roots net­work of groups and indi­vid­u­als com­mit­ted to tak­ing action and build­ing a move­ment against cli­mate change.

For more infor­ma­tion…
email: info@risingtide.org.uk
Phone: +44 (0)845 458 8923 / +44 (0)7708 794665
Address: 62 Fieldgate St, Lon­don, E1 1ES
Web site: http://risingtide.org.uk

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO A FRIEND AND INVITE THEM TO JOIN THE LIST

To sub­scribe or unsub­scribe vis­it:
http://risingtide.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/rt-news

END

National Squatters Meeting 9–10 February 2008 Leeds

So we are invit­ing peo­ple involved in all squat­ted autonomous spaces around the UK to meet and dis­cuss the squat­ting sit­u­a­tion and some prepa­ra­tion for the days of action in April.

Squat action days flierSo we are invit­ing peo­ple involved in all squat­ted autonomous spaces around the UK to meet and dis­cuss the squat­ting sit­u­a­tion and some prepa­ra­tion for the days of action in April.

So we are invit­ing peo­ple involved in all squat­ted autonomous spaces around the UK to meet and dis­cuss the squat­ting sit­u­a­tion and some prepa­ra­tion for the days of action in April. The idea for this meet­ing is inspired by the recent inter­na­tion­al meet­ing in Dijon.

Some of the ideas of what could be dis­cussed at this meet­ing are…
• Build­ing a stronger net­work between the squats/Autonomous spaces through­out the UK.
• Ini­tial plan­ning for the days of action.
• The repres­sion and resis­tance fac­ing Autonomous spaces in the UK.
• How we can make bet­ter use of Autonomous spaces in terms of con­nect­ing them to issues such as increased sur­veil­lance, hous­ing prob­lems, gen­tri­fi­ca­tion and the fun­da­men­tal issue of who owns and con­trols our land, space and lives.
• The impact of non squat­ted Autonomous spaces on the squat­ting move­ment.
• Break­ing out of the “squat­ting scene”.
• The impact of drugs on the move­ment.

This is just some ideas of what could come out of this meet­ing, obvi­ous­ly there is no set agen­da as this is decen­tral­ized so we want to make a col­lec­tive deci­sion about what will be dis­cussed at the start of the meet­ing.
We feel this could be a real­ly pos­i­tive week­end; we’d like to see loads of you there. We’ve cho­sen Leeds as a loca­tion even though not all of us live there, because although it might not feel like it to you down south but it’s a cen­tral loca­tion on this island!
Please get in touch if you’re gonna come along, our e‑mail is below. It is impor­tant for us to know how many peo­ple to expect. Please also get in touch if you want help set up or get involved in any oth­er way… Hope to see you all in Feb­ru­ary….

Squat Net­work
squatmeetup@googlemail.com

Fossil Fools Day, April 1st 2008

Ris­ing Tide Inter­na­tion­al is call­ing for a day of action against the fos­sil fuel indus­try on April 1st 2008…

Fossil Fools Day advance flierRis­ing Tide Inter­na­tion­al is call­ing for a day of action against the fos­sil fuel indus­try on April 1st 2008…
FOSSIL FOOLS DAY!

Roll up, roll up! The cli­mate cir­cus is in town. Cli­mate change threat­ens our very sur­vival, but the fools at the head of the fos­sil fuel empire con­tin­ue to plun­der the earth, with gov­ern­ments the will­ing court jesters at their side.

They would have us believe that we can escape cli­mate change with tech­no-fix­es, mar­ket mech­a­nisms and off­set schemes – all tech­no­crat­ic acro­bat­ics that dis­tract us from the truth: the only real solu­tion to cli­mate change is to keep fos­sil fuels in the ground.

For over a cen­tu­ry the fos­sil fuel indus­try has been fool­ing with our lives. From extrac­tion to com­bus­tion they have poi­soned our air, pol­lut­ed our water and ruined our cli­mate. On April 1st, 2008, we’re going to turn the tables and show them who the real fools are.

Find a local fos­sil fool – the coal-min­ing clown, the off­set con­tor­tion­ist, the avi­a­tor trip­ping on the high wire, the super­mar­ket food mile freak show, the oily strong man, or any oth­er fool that deserves your atten­tion – and join with thou­sands around the world in tak­ing one step clos­er to dis­man­tling the fos­sil fuel indus­try.

On Fos­sil Fools Day, bring the spir­it of car­ni­val and mis­chief to the fight for cli­mate jus­tice.

www.fossilfoolsday.org
www.risingtide.org.uk

(More info and resources com­ing soon… for now, put the date in your diary, spread the call-out above far and wide, and start schem­ing!)

300 on the streets of Helsinki for squat Elimäki — International Days Of Action For Squats & Autonomous Spaces — April 08

Helsin­ki, Fin­land: We get more time – 300 on the streets of Helsin­ki for squat Elimä­ki

Thurs­day was a day of vic­to­ry for the squat­ting scene in Helsin­ki. 300 peo­ple defied the real­ly shit­ty weath­er and gath­ered to demon­strate at the Youth Depart­ment of the city to show their sup­port to the social cen­tre Elimä­ki, aka squat E15.

Helsin­ki, Fin­land: We get more time – 300 on the streets of Helsin­ki for squat Elimä­ki

Thurs­day was a day of vic­to­ry for the squat­ting scene in Helsin­ki. 300 peo­ple defied the real­ly shit­ty weath­er and gath­ered to demon­strate at the Youth Depart­ment of the city to show their sup­port to the social cen­tre Elimä­ki, aka squat E15.

The Youth Depart­ment of Helsin­ki had gath­ered to decide on whether to rent the squat­ted house on Elimäenkatu (Elimäk­istreet) to be used as a social cen­tre for the youth of the city. This was the sec­ond time offi­cials from the city came togeth­er to decide on the issue. After post­pon­ing the deci­sion at their first meet­ing a month ago the board now unan­i­mous­ly decid­ed to inves­ti­gate the real con­di­tion of our house. The deci­sion can be under­stood as an offi­cial recog­ni­tion of the impor­tance to have an autonomous space in Helsin­ki.

The house on Elimäenkatu has been deemed in very bad con­di­tion by the offi­cials of the city. The state­ment has been sup­port­ed by no real mea­sure­ments or data what­so­ev­er and on the con­trary been proved wrong by the inves­ti­ga­tions we our­selves have made. This fact got rec­og­nized by the board of the Youth Depart­ment in their deci­sion to appoint a pri­vate con­struc­tion firm to inves­ti­gate fur­ther on the mat­ter.

The solu­tion that the squat­ters and some peo­ple from the city have been work­ing on is to have the house rent­ed by the Youth Depart­ment to be used as an autonomous social cen­tre. The house has been in this use since it was squat­ted in the begin­ning of August. After a long peri­od of bad events on our issue the out­look is now bet­ter. But it would be overt­ly opti­mistic to say that if the inves­ti­ga­tions on our house turn out to be good the city would sup­port us. Dur­ing the last months the politi­cians and offi­cials of the city have been chang­ing their state­ments on whether to legalise the house or not on a dai­ly basis. The Finnish media does not fol­low the game in the side-scenes where politi­cians and offi­cials are manip­u­lat­ing each oth­er to top­ple our project. We are far from secur­ing the only social cen­tre in Helsin­ki but much clos­er than before.

How­ev­er the sit­u­a­tion of Squat E15 devel­ops the squat­ting scene in Helsin­ki and oth­er Finnish cities is now stronger than ever before. We are con­stant­ly grow­ing in num­bers and a sup­port demo of 300 peo­ple (or more) is more than we ever could have mus­tered half a year ago. We now have recog­ni­tion for our needs and will not give up until we have this house or an equal­ly good place guar­an­teed to us. Last but not least the inter­na­tion­al sup­port we have been get­ting (Ghent, Copen­hagen, Ams­ter­dam, Tallinn and Malmö as far as we know) means a lot to a small
but grow­ing scene like ours. The strug­gle for free spaces con­tin­ues!

Love and sol­i­dar­i­ty
Social cen­tre Elimä­ki
www.valtaus.org

—————————-

Squat action days flierOn Fri­day the 4th and Sat­ur­day the 5th of April 2008, we call for two days of demon­stra­tion, direct action, pub­lic infor­ma­tion, street-par­ty, squat­ting… in defence of free spaces and for an anti-cap­i­tal­ist pop­u­lar cul­ture. Through these two days, we want to help cre­ate more vis­i­bil­i­ty of autonomous spaces and squats as a european/global polit­i­cal move­ment. We want to devel­op inter­con­nec­tions and sol­i­dar­i­ty between squats and autonomous spaces. We want to keep link­ing our spaces with new peo­ple and new strug­gles, and sup­port the cre­ation of autonomous spaces in places where there has not been a his­to­ry of this kind of action. We want to build, step by step, our abil­i­ty to over­come the wave of repres­sion falling on us.

We call for decen­tralised and autonomous actions of all kinds, depend­ing on what peo­ple feel to be the most appro­pri­ate to their local con­text. You’ll find below the polit­i­cal con­tent we wish to give to these two days.

= We are every­where…

For cen­turies, peo­ple have used squats and autonomous spaces, either urban or rur­al, to take con­trol of their own lives. They are a tool, a tac­tic, a prac­tice, and a way for peo­ple to live out their strug­gles. For decades, squat move­ments across Europe and beyond have fought cap­i­tal­ist devel­op­ment, con­tribut­ing to local strug­gles against destruc­tion; pro­vid­ing alter­na­tives to prof­it-mak­ing and con­sumer cul­ture; run­ning social cen­tres and par­tic­i­pa­to­ry activ­i­ties out­side of the main­stream econ­o­my. Demon­strat­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ties for self-organ­is­ing with­out hier­ar­chy; cre­at­ing inter­na­tion­al net­works of exchange and sol­i­dar­i­ty. These net­works have changed many lives, break­ing out of social con­trol and pro­vid­ing free spaces where peo­ple can live out­side the norm.

Among oth­er things, these places pro­vide bases for meet­ings and projects, for the cre­ation and dis­tri­b­u­tion of sub­ver­sive cul­ture, for the non-mon­e­tary based exchange of goods, resources and knowl­edge, for exper­i­men­tat­ing with new ways of liv­ing, for col­lec­tive debates, for recy­cling and con­struc­tion, for agri­cul­tur­al activ­i­ties, for the pro­duc­tion of inde­pen­dant media.

Whether we speak of urban squats or of pur­chased land, of nego­ti­at­ed or re-appro­pri­at­ed rur­al land, of restored fac­to­ries or self-built build­ings, these spaces are refuges for rebels and out­laws, poor and home­less peo­ple, rad­i­cal activists, ille­gal immi­grants. Social cen­tres are cru­cial to us as part of a move­ment for social change.

= All over Europe, repres­sive agen­das are being pushed by gov­ern­ments

They are attack­ing long-stand­ing autonomous spaces such as the Ung­domshuset in Copen­hagen, Koepi and Rigaer Straße in Berlin, EKH in Vien­na and Les Tan­ner­ies in Dijon, squat­ted social cen­tres in Lon­don and Ams­ter­dam, Ifanet in Thes­sa­loni­ki, etc. In France, squats have become a pri­or­i­ty tar­get for the police after the anti-CPE move­ment and the wave of actions and riots that hap­pened dur­ing the pres­i­den­tial elec­tions peri­od. In Ger­many, many autonomous spaces have been searched and attacked before the G8 sum­mit. In Gene­va and Barcelona, two old and big squat­ting “fortress­es”, the author­i­ties have decid­ed to try to put an end to the move­ment. Where­as it is still pos­si­ble to occu­py emp­ty build­ings in some coun­tries, it has already become a crime in some oth­ers. In the coun­try­side, access to land is becom­ing hard­er and com­munes face increas­ing prob­lems from leg­is­la­tion on hygiene, secu­ri­ty and gen­tri­fi­ca­tion by the bour­geoisie and tourists. All over Europe, inde­pen­dent cul­tures are being threat­ened.

Sev­er­al months ago we saw run­ning bat­tles in the streets of Copen­hagen and actions every­where in Europe in an explo­sion of anger at the evic­tion of the Ung­domshuset social cen­tre. Since then, and with a few oth­er big resis­tance sto­ries that hap­pened over the last months, we’ve man­aged to renew the mean­ing of inter­na­tion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty.

We are moti­vat­ed by the same pas­sions, we feel the same deter­mi­na­tion, face a com­mon ene­my in repres­sion, and are unit­ed across bor­ders by our desire to build a world of equal­i­ty and self-deter­mi­na­tion. As unaligned and ungovern­able islands of uncon­trolled free­dom we want to con­tin­ue to act in sol­i­dar­i­ty, and strength­en our inter­na­tion­al links, no mat­ter how many kilo­me­tres there are between us.

= Issues beyond the actions

We also would like these days of actions to enable and inspire dis­cus­sion, to demon­strate var­i­ous pos­si­bil­i­ties & strate­gies, to be an occa­sion to share skills. These are some of the issues we would like to push:
* what do we expect from and under­stand by autonomous spaces?
* What is their role in the pur­suit of rad­i­cal social change?
* Where do they lie on the scale of’al­ter­na­tive’ to ‘con­fronta­tion­al’?
* share infor­ma­tion on the range of activ­i­ties that take place in autonomous social spaces along with ideas for how to make them work;
*ques­tion the pro­duc­tion of goods and ser­vices; and encour­age the exchange of knowl­edge par­tic­u­lar­ly between the town and the coun­try­side.
* share expe­ri­ences, inspire each oth­er, find out how oth­ers live col­lec­tive­ly, and their activ­i­ties, alter­na­tive eco­nom­ic exchange sys­tems…
* share var­i­ous ways of get­ting spaces all over europe: ille­gal occu­pa­tions, Do It Your­self con­struc­tions, wagen­burgs, buy­ing col­lec­tive­ly, free con­tracts…
* share prac­ti­cal resources and a feel­ing of sol­i­dar­i­ty between:
dif­fer­ent users of autonomous spaces (either cur­rent or poten­tial): co-oper­a­tives, peo­ple with­out papers, activists, trav­ellers, immi­grants, urban­ites, rur­al dwellers, small farms;
dif­fer­ent ways of using spaces; activ­i­ties for the com­mu­ni­ty, meet­ing area for groups, liv­ing spaces;
* enable the form­ing of com­mon strate­gies when faced with state repres­sion or evic­tion;

= Who are we, how can we col­lab­o­rate on this project, and make it hap­pen?

At the moment, we are a group of peo­ple involved with var­i­ous autonomous spaces around Europe, who decid­ed to start dis­cussing this call. We’ll meet var­i­ous col­lec­tives in the com­ing months and see how peo­ple feel about this pro­pos­al for euro­pean days of action, and how they want to get involved. Its suc­cess depends a lot on our capac­i­ty to cre­ate a big­ger inter­na­tion­al work­ing group. This would mean every­body who want­ed to take part into it would try to start disc­ss­ing the idea in var­i­ous spaces, cre­at­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing some pro­pa­gan­da mate­ri­als and net­work­ing infor­ma­tion about what’s going on near them dur­ing those days. We would also like to orga­nize a phys­i­cal meet­ing about all this in the upcom­ing months. Get in touch!

= Mate­ri­als

Fly­ers etc can be found on our web­site. Please down­load the PDF file, print it and spread it around squats and autonomous spaces in your area.

= Prepa­ra­tion meet­ing

The suc­cess of this call now depends upon our capac­i­ty to cre­ate a big­ger inter­na­tion­al work­ing group. The whole event will hap­pen with­out any “cen­tral com­mi­tee”, and will be made of a var­i­ous autonomous decen­tralised actions. Still, we think it is impor­tant to have a phys­i­cal meet­ing, in order to exchange ideas and strate­gies, dis­cuss the con­tents of the call, see how to cre­ate com­mon infor­ma­tion tools around that project, how to con­nect and help the var­i­ous local ini­tia­tives.
Thus, we’re call­ing for an inter­na­tion­al prepa­ra­tion & coor­di­na­tion meet­ing on Novem­ber 24th & 25th 2007, in the autonomous space “Les Tan­ner­ies”, locat­ed in Dijon, France. It is a squat­ted social cen­tre in a post-indus­tri­al envi­ron­ment, occu­pied since 1998. Thanks to years of strug­gle against the city coun­cil own­ing the build­ings, the project has reached a cer­tain degree of sta­bil­i­ty. It hosts a col­lec­tive house, a gig room, a hack­lab, a free shop, an infos­hop, a col­lec­tive gar­den, a library…

We hope that many of you will be able to join. Please tell us a bit in advance if you’re plan­ning to come, so that we get an idea of the num­ber of peo­ple we have to acco­mo­date and plan food for. You’re very wel­come to pass this invi­ta­tion to squats and autonomous spaces that you know.

= Get­ting in touch & help­ing out

Please get in touch, by writ­ing to april2008 at squat dot net. Any help with trans­la­tions in what­ev­er lan­guages is great­ly appre­ci­at­ed.
http://april2008.squat.net/

Autumn EF! Action Update out — and advance notice of the Winter Moot, 22–24 February (gathering of eco-activists), Nottingham

The lat­est issue of the quar­ter­ly EF!AU was dished up at the Anar­chist Book­fair — burst­ing at the seams, it had to be turned into a bumper issue, with a round-up of the actions around the time of the Camp for Cli­mate Action, plus loads of action reports from around the world since then — from pieing oil exec­u­tives, blockad­ing garages & air­ports, polar bears lock­ing-on, sab­o­tage, pris­on­ers, occu­pied spaces, dig­ger-div­ing, GM crop-trash­ing, to cake and the cun­ning use of mung beans (oh, and of course, much much more).

The lat­est issue of the quar­ter­ly EF!AU was dished up at the Anar­chist Book­fair — burst­ing at the seams, it had to be turned into a bumper issue, with a round-up of the actions around the time of the Camp for Cli­mate Action, plus loads of action reports from around the world since then — from pieing oil exec­u­tives, blockad­ing garages & air­ports, polar bears lock­ing-on, sab­o­tage, pris­on­ers, occu­pied spaces, dig­ger-div­ing, GM crop-trash­ing, to cake and the cun­ning use of mung beans (oh, and of course, much much more).

Down­load it to print out and share here. Do get in touch with the edi­to­r­i­al col­lec­tive to let them know if you’re dish­ing it up round your way, or need paper copies, or want to give them one of the rar­er ingre­di­ents, dosh (to send it to pris­on­ers, protest camps and far beyond) — their con­tact details and more are here

########################

The EF! Win­ter Moot will hap­pen from 22nd — 24th Feb­ru­ary 2008, in Not­ting­ham — more details near­er the time, as this is just advance notice.

It’s a gath­er­ing for envi­ron­men­tal activists — in the past, it’s been a chance for peo­ple involved in all kinds of eco­log­i­cal direct action to get togeth­er for a week­end indoors to chat about where things are at in the UK, and so improve all aspects of how we work togeth­er, in order to take direct action in defence of the earth.

Con­tact 0845–0223 5254 for more info

Activist Film Festival is seeking submissions

Under­cur­rents is call­ing for sub­mis­sions of short videos and ani­ma­tions on the theme of the fes­ti­val: social jus­tice and envi­ron­men­tal action.

Beyond TV 8 flierUnder­cur­rents is call­ing for sub­mis­sions of short videos and ani­ma­tions on the theme of the fes­ti­val: social jus­tice and envi­ron­men­tal action.

Sub­ject: Polit­i­cal Activist videos want­ed
From: under­cur­rents

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS OF FILMS

FOR BEYONDTV FESTIVAL NOVEMBER 2007

What is BEYONDTV?
From Novem­ber 28 to Decem­ber 2, 2007, Rad­i­cal media char­i­ty, Under­cur­rents will host the 8th annu­al BEYONDTV fes­ti­val of polit­i­cal doc­u­men­taries, ani­ma­tions and music videos from inspir­ing media direc­tors.

Under­cur­rents is call­ing for sub­mis­sions of short videos and ani­ma­tions on the theme of the fes­ti­val: social jus­tice and envi­ron­men­tal action.

Impor­tant Note: We do not screen dra­mas using actors

BEYONDTV will be host­ed at the Dylan Thomas Cen­tre and Tal­iesin Cin­e­ma Swansea from Novem­ber 28 — Decem­ber 2, 2007

More details at http://www.beyondtvfestival.info
beyondtv@undercurrents.org

Under­cur­rents
Old Exchange
Pier st
Swansea
SA1 1RY
UK