Category: Rest of Europe

Rest of Europe

GM sunflowers — Faucheurs Volontaires in action

2 Sep­tem­ber 2012

Press release

In the ear­ly hours of 2nd Sep­tem­ber, a hun­dred Faucheurs Volon­taires (vol­un­tary reapers of GM) from all over France simul­ta­ne­ous­ly decon­t­a­m­i­nat­ed 8 test fields in the Isère region and 1 in the Drôme.

2 Sep­tem­ber 2012

Press release

In the ear­ly hours of 2nd Sep­tem­ber, a hun­dred Faucheurs Volon­taires (vol­un­tary reapers of GM) from all over France simul­ta­ne­ous­ly decon­t­a­m­i­nat­ed 8 test fields in the Isère region and 1 in the Drôme.

Par cette action que nous assumons pleine­ment, nous voulons : met­tre en évi­dence qu’une par­tie impor­tante des sur­faces de tour­nesol de la région a été semée avec des var­iétés mutées, issues de tech­nolo­gies brevetées, tolérantes à des her­bi­cides, véri­ta­bles OGM qui ne dis­ent pas leur nom. Dénon­cer le pas­sage en force des firmes semen­cières et des opéra­teurs de la fil­ière, qui cachent aux paysans la véri­ta­ble nature de ces var­iétés. C’est la poli­tique du fait accom­pli : on colonise les champs, ensuite on dis­cutera.

Par ailleurs, aucune traça­bil­ité ni éti­que­tage n’est exigée pour les pro­duits de con­som­ma­tion humaine (graines et huile de tour­nesol) et ani­males (graines et tourteaux) Les récoltes de ces par­celles seront mélangées avec les récoltes con­ven­tion­nelles et se retrou­veront donc dans nos assi­ettes

Nous atten­dons du min­istre de l’agriculture et des Ser­vices de l’Etat : qu’ils garan­tis­sent aux con­som­ma­teurs la lib­erté de con­som­mer sans OGM qu’ils agis­sent pour que ces tech­nolo­gies ne soient plus exclues du champ d’application de la direc­tive européenne 2001–18 sur les OGM (alors qu’elle les définit comme tels : art 2 et 3)

Ces var­iétés de tour­nesol muté con­stituent des impass­es tech­niques : tou­jours plus de pes­ti­cides, risques de résis­tance de l’ambroisie… Les pro­duc­teurs doivent les refuser et ne pas se laiss­er embar­quer dans cette spi­rale qui les ren­dent encore plus dépen­dants des firmes semen­cières agrochim­iques

PAS D’OGM DANS NOS CHAMPS ET NOS ASSIETTES QU’ILS SOIENT ISSUS DE TRANSGENESE OU DE MUTAGENESE

Les Faucheurs Volon­taires

Netherlands: destruction of potato GM trial site

Two GM pota­to tri­al fields at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wagenin­gen were destroyed by activists in July and August 2012. 

The pota­to tri­als were for mildew resis­tance.  They were in Lelystad and Valther­mond. It was only recent­ly, on 16th August, that the destruc­tion was dis­cov­ered.  The action has not been claimed. 

Two GM pota­to tri­al fields at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wagenin­gen were destroyed by activists in July and August 2012. 

The pota­to tri­als were for mildew resis­tance.  They were in Lelystad and Valther­mond. It was only recent­ly, on 16th August, that the destruc­tion was dis­cov­ered.  The action has not been claimed. 

Update in tunnel boring machine saga — community resistance strong

4.8.12 update: 150 Gar­dai to move TBM 5km; Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil begin cov­er-up

4.8.12 update: 150 Gar­dai to move TBM 5km; Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil begin cov­er-up

As those fol­low­ing the sto­ry may have heard by now, the TBM was moved yes­ter­day.

Aware that some­thing was going to hap­pen, cam­paign­ers spent the night at Gle­n­amoy sleep­ing in cars and vans, aware that some­thing was going to hap­pen. Two slept under the bridge. Local res­i­dents near­by told us how the road had sunk 4 inch­es in the last few days, while oth­er parts were ruined from the excep­tion­al traf­fic. We’re sure the Coun­cil will not be so quick to do those repairs…

At 4am, gar­dai began to swarm into the area. 150 IRMS secu­ri­ty also marched up the road. We ran up, but the sheer weight of num­bers kept us back. Ten man­aged to get into the field on the side where the truck was list­ing. Sud­den­ly, 40 IRMS came in and set up a fence. Dig­gers and trucks of stone came in and for the next ten hours, Shell filled in ditch­es and built up a road around the col­lapsed bank. The crane plan had been aban­doned and its seemed the field own­er had giv­en per­mis­sion. Thus, with­out warn­ing the cross­roads were closed to all traf­fic, caus­ing chaos yet again. Shell only lat­er offered its usu­al bland, ‘sor­ry for the incon­ve­nience’ shite.

Rumour is it that the crane stopped the pre­vi­ous day sim­ply turned around and went home after being stopped. And that Shell were des­per­ate­ly try­ing to find a replace­ment – offer­ing 15K for a crane dri­ver alone to do the job, and anoth­er 50K for a crane itself.

Those in the field, hav­ing been giv­en direc­tions to go there when the road was being cleared were told they were being detained there and phys­i­cal­ly pre­vent­ed from leav­ing by gar­dai. After watch­ing the spec­ta­cle close up for a cou­ple of hours, they made their way through oth­er fields to get out.

Mau­ra Har­ring­ton’s van was stopped at Bel­linaboy by Gar­dai and had its back win­dow delib­er­ate­ly smashed by Sgt Der­mot But­ler, the well known bul­ly of the pub­lic order unit – his for­mer part­ner now has a restrain­ing order against them, but in the dubi­ous ranks of May­o’s police, that prob­a­bly puts him in line for a pro­mo­tion. Mau­ra was arrest­ed and charged, though sub­se­quent­ly released and the van returned in what was a bla­tant occa­sion of pre­ven­ta­tive deten­tion.

Anoth­er cam­paign­er also had their car impound­ed; while a third per­son was told their van could only leave the area if a gar­da drove it back to camp. There was quite a pat­tern were known pro­test­ers were being denied right of pas­sage along the road, while oth­er were stopped out­right or repeat­ed­ly harassed and searched. Those walk­ing had their own per­son­al gar­da escort, and every fifty meters from Gle­n­amoy to Bel­linaboy there was at least one gar­da stand­ing – some­one count­ed them and the total there alone came to 80. We heard of check­points set up as far as Ban­gor Erris.

But­ler con­tin­ued his cus­tom­ary inci­vil­i­ty when a local res­i­dent went to Bel­mul­let gar­da sta­tion to have his tax return signed – But­ler opened the hatch and said I’m not sign­ing that for the likes of you, before slam­ming the hatch shut.

Bet­ty Schults, a well known local cam­paign­er, and oth­ers were fol­low­ing the trail of who had giv­en per­mis­sion for the TBM trucks to go up to Gle­n­amoy in the first place. Hav­ing been told that doc­u­men­ta­tion was at the Castle­bar head­quar­ters of Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil, she made the 100km round trip only to receive a phonecall telling her that it was miss­ing from the file just as she arrived.

At 2pm we had news the TBM was mov­ing so we head­ed down to Ballyscel­ly junc­tion to wit­ness it. Vehi­cles were backed up all along it, one local res­i­dent unable to get to her elder­ly moth­er who was at home alone. As usu­al, gar­dai were hap­py to block the road entire­ly for Shell, caus­ing mas­sive dis­rup­tion as even the back­roads were closed off this time.

The twitch­i­ness of An Gar­dai Síochá­na was appar­ent. They were des­per­ate to see this go off with­out any hitch­es. As the tun­nel bor­ing machine came up the road, 38 gar­dai walk­ing in front of the truck alone. IRMS secu­ri­ty were also float­ing around. With such num­bers there was lit­tle that could be done. Punc­tu­at­ing all this was a thun­der­storm right over­head.

The sub­ject of such mas­sive oper­a­tion, which under­lines its impor­tance, it was clear that the TBM would be deliv­ered back to Bel­linaboy. Yet for five days it was stuck at Gle­n­amoy, a nation­al news sto­ry and galviniz­ing the sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties. Shell was at the cen­tre of the embar­rass­ment; An Gar­dai Síochá­na left red-faced, their abil­i­ty to respond reduced to sim­ple thug­gery; and the bla­tant crim­i­nal col­lu­sion of Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil becom­ing appar­ent once more. Iron­ic, as Fri­day was elven years to the very day that Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil signed their first agree­ment with Shell.

As we sat in a local pub, swap­ping sto­ries of the week, it was clear that there is hard­ly a local who does not believe Mayo coun­ty man­ag­er, Peter Hynes, has not sold his soul to Shell. The ques­tion is for how much. Cer­tain­ly he does not have the trust or respect of any­one up here.

The bat­tle is not over yet. The TBM has not got to where it is meant to, Aghoos. Before that can hap­pen, the road at Ballyscel­ly junc­tion has to be built up so it can turn. More pieces of it have still to arrive. Aghoos is not yet ready for it either, being plagued by flood­ing, while the weight of the TBM is not going to do the frac­tur­ing ground at Bel­linaboy refin­ery any good either.

Shell have shot them­selves in the foot sev­er­al times; not only a huge embar­rass­ment that made nation­al head­lines, it showed the ongo­ing strength of resis­tance com­ing from the com­mu­ni­ty here. As we sat in the pub last night we could hear the buzz of a peo­ple fight­ing back.

As ever the camp is open to all who want to come and sup­port, though you might have to mind the moat and draw­bridge…

Car­toon in Irish News on the sto­ry — http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/notanumber/irishnews030812-p16.jpg

———

2nd August 2012

Day three and things are still look­ing bad for Shell. Pro­test­ers and the Irish bog have the upper hand, with Shell receiv­ing flack and Gar­dai hum­bled as crane sent pack­ing.

Day Three in the TBM House
Some­where in Erris idiots at are work…

Most of the day was qui­et around the TBM itself. Fenc­ing was put up and IMRS formed a cor­don around it. We are able to walk up and around the TBM — in places you can reach out and touch the Fion­nu­ala. The turn­ing wheels have caused the tar­mac to scrunch up in quite a few places. The front of the truck has pushed the ditch out two foot, the back axles sit­ting in a pool of water and looks like one of them has buck­led. The road is pret­ty bad­ly dam­aged and it is easy to see why the dri­ver was not going any fur­ther. The load on the back is also push­ing the frame of the trail­er down onto the tires.

Most work was on fin­ish­ing bypass­es around the TBM so vehi­cles could get in and out of Ross­port. Cars are able to get to Ross­port, but the direct route is still not pos­si­ble, mean­ing the road through Gle­n­amoy vil­lage is still being used, caus­ing dam­age to locals gar­dens and the road sur­face is being destroyed by turn­ing lor­ries from Bar­retts & Lennons. Local coun­cil­lors moaned about it and asked for reports from Shel­l’s pet Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil.

How­ev­er, one of the Ross­port 5 and Gold­man Prize win­ner Willie Cor­duff did some­thing about the haulage trucks com­ing through the vil­lage, stand­ing in front of one truck com­ing through. Unfor­tu­nate­ly arrest­ed, but released with­out charge two hours lat­er.

Locals and campers mon­i­tored the sit­u­a­tion all day, every­one in good spir­its enjoy­ing the sight. Even though it under­lines Shel­l’s idio­cy in attempt­ing the whole project in the first place, it is awe­some to see the unbe­lie­ve­able.

Else­where, the two arrest­ed for the Cross­moli­na lock-on plead­ed guilty in Bal­li­na court. One was fined 200 euros on the spot and the oth­er had their pun­ish­ment deferred to the Sep­tem­ber hear­ing in Bel­mul­let, when many oth­ers arrest­ed on pre­vi­ous protests are also hav­ing their cas­es heard.

Gar­dai were around all day, but in small num­bers. Amaz­ing giv­en how much was spent on escort­ing it a day or so ago that they’ve pret­ty much aban­doned it now. Def­i­nite­ly a ques­tion or two to be asked there about a colos­sal waste of mon­ey. Maybe they were get­ting the bol­lock­ing they tru­ely deserved as the trucks could only have been on that road with their per­mis­sion.

Some peo­ple did a bit of dig­ging and it turns out that not only was there a major fail­ure of judge­ment among expe­ri­enced peo­ple who should have known bet­ter about tak­ing a heavy load up a rur­al road through bog­land, but it may also been ille­gal. Accord­ing to the road traf­fic man­ag­ment plan, the approved haulage route ends at the Ballyscal­ly junc­tion to Aghoos. Peter Hynes, the Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil Direc­tor of Ser­vices / Coun­ty Man­ag­er who always bends over back­wards to help Shell, has said that Shell had all the nec­es­sary per­mis­sions, which, to put it polite­ly is dis­as­sem­bling some­what. Did he real­ly give per­mis­sion for Shell to go up to Gle­n­amoy? Maybe peo­ple should ring his office ((094) 90 24444) and ask to see the doc­u­ments. Heads need to roll on this one.

In answer to some­one’s ques­tion, the trucks came the des­ig­nat­ed route, on the main route past Bal­linaboy to the Aghoos com­pound. They failed to make the turn­ing at the Ballyscal­ly turn­ing where the ani­mal labs are, so con­tin­ued up to Gle­n­amoy / Ross­port junc­tion — to turn around and try from the oth­er direc­tion.

But back to the direct action bit. In the evening reports start­ed com­ing in (and this is the beau­ty of a com­mu­ni­ty wide cam­paign — eyes and ears every­where) that a crane was on its way. Shell were say­ing that the TBM was going to be moved. Mmmh, a lot of peo­ple thought oth­er­wise. Infact, some turned thought into action. Mau­ra was there with her car across the road at Bel­linaboy bridge, hold­ing it up. More sped down there to give sup­port, and before you could blink anoth­er pro­test­er was up on the crane.

The whole road was blocked. Shell work­ers from the refin­ery had to go the long way around, grid­lock­ing the road out from Pul­lath­omas — and, we are told, made to wait by some local res­i­dents none too hap­py at the sight of them.

Mau­ra’s car was pulled out of the way, but the gar­dai end­ed up crash­ing it into the side of the bridge, caus­ing them to aban­don the effort. After a while it was back in place, mak­ing sure the cher­ryp­ick­er to take down the per­son on the crane could not reach them.

Sev­er­al hours lat­er some­where between six­ty and hun­dred peo­ple came to enjoy the sight of the the crane stuck in the mid­dle of the road. While some might moan about the block­age or emer­gency ser­vices, the fact remains that these are the roads of the local com­mu­ni­ty and it is they who are mak­ing the deci­sions that Shell needs to be kicked out — and tak­ing action. This was not a local com­mu­ni­ty annoyed by the road being blocked, but hap­py to see Shell tak­ing anoth­er poke in the eye.

Gar­dai arrived — then called for back­up as they realised they were strug­gling to con­tain the sit­u­a­tion. You could see they were loos­ing it, drag­ging out var­i­ous old faces includ­ing Brett and oth­er faces famil­iar from baton charges sev­er­al years ago; some even thought push­ing young girls around with their heavy hands was appro­pri­ate. They were met with fury.

There was a stand-off, with the gar­dai iso­lat­ing Mau­ra and the crane. More scuf­fles. The cher­ryp­ick­er was tem­porar­i­ly occu­pied with the Gar­dai assault­ing a num­ber of peo­ple to get it back, includ­ing pres­sure-point­ing — the usu­al over-reac­tion from the likes of But­ler and Gill from the Pub­lic Order Cut­ting Team. At least one gar­dai had his pep­per spray out and Brett was try­ing to use his torch as a baton.

For pic­tures, see here http://shelltosea.com/content/pictures-last-night-blocking-tbm-crane

Mau­ra’s car was toed out of the way once more and the per­son from the crane arrest­ed — and giv­en a cheer. The cher­ryp­ick­er itself start­ed list­ing dan­ger­ous­ly as one of its tires deflat­ed.

Then as we read­ied our­selves for the crane to come through, it reversed and dis­ap­peared into the night, last seen some­where beyond Ban­gor… They gar­dai had lost the stom­ach for the fight, it seems. You could hear the hap­pi­ness in the voic­es of the peo­ple all around us. Eleven years on in this long fight, vic­to­ries were still pos­si­ble in the face of Shel­l’s inva­sion. This part of Erris remains free in the hearts of the peo­ple there.

After­wards, peo­ple went back up to Gle­n­amoy to keep vig­il there. Peo­ple con­tin­ue to arrive at camp. This is not over yet.

For a good video of some of the resis­tance of pre­vi­ous nights see http://shelltosea.com/content/youtube-videos-shell-sea-resists-shells-attempt-move-tunnel-boring-machine-rossport-31–7‑201

Some oth­er reports
http://shelltosea.com/content/councillor-appalled-over-shell-truck-blockage-glenamoy
http://shelltosea.com/content/rossport-farmer-arrested-jack-knifed-lorry

Shell humbled as protestors disrupt arrival of the Tunnel Boring Machine

31st July 2012

31st July 2012

The last twelve plus hours saw pro­test­ers in Erris take on one of the largest Gar­dai oper­a­tions Ire­land has seen in some time – and ran rings around it. The mam­moth oper­a­tion saw hun­dreds of Gar­dai and IRMS secu­ri­ty try­ing to escort the tun­nel bor­ing machine [TBM] to Aghoos. Yet Shell to Sea cam­paign­ers man­aged, in sep­a­rate inci­dents, two lock-ons and used a car to block­ade a bridge on the route of the TBM.

Fol­low­ing on from Sun­day night’s dis­cov­ery of the arrival of the TBM into Dublin Port (see http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102198 & http://www.wsm.ie/c/garda-deployed-protect-shells-machine-people-ireland ), pro­test­ers from Sli­go met it at its overnight rest­ing place, while oth­ers mobilised with peo­ple com­ing from across the coun­try. We were told that there would be an armed response unit and oth­er pieces would be join­ing the con­vey, hav­ing come in from Killy­begs and Belfast.

Despite short notice a call out for a protest at Bal­li­na 9pm, Mon­day night, was quick­ly picked up and spread. Local radio sta­tions spread the word, and the six­ty or so pro­test­ers were joined by many from Bal­li­na and sur­round­ing areas – some to see the TBM itself, but often offer­ing sup­port as well.

Ban­ners were held call­ing for an end to Shel­l’s occu­py­ing army, point­ing out that not only were Shell col­o­niz­ing Erris for its own needs, not and they were doing it with the con­nivance of the Irish state – who had sup­plied armed Gar­dai to add to their many insults. There were many plain-clothes cops cir­cling around, some of them dis­play­ing remark­able faith­ful­ness to 1970s stereo­types…

Just after mid­night the first of the lock-ons went into place out­side of Cross­moli­na. Despite a strong Gar­dai pres­ence in this town, it caught them com­plete­ly on the hop. The con­voy was halt­ed on the out­skirts of Bal­li­na, with the Sli­go road being blocked by Gar­dai, while the pub­lic order team raced to deal with the lock-on. Pro­test­ers and oth­ers from Bal­li­na attempt­ed to reach the con­voy but were turned back.

The lock-on last­ed a lit­tle under an hour with two arrest­ed. Reac­tion from the Gar­dai, nev­er the most pleas­ant from the pub­lic order unit’s cut­ting team of But­ler and Gill was sour­er than usu­al.

Pro­test­ers, unde­terred, left Bal­li­na and regrouped at Bel­la­cor­rick. After a few hours wait, top­ping our­selves up with refresh­ments, the con­voy came into sight (4.30am). One well known local cam­paign­er prompt­ly blocked the bridge with her van, park­ing it diag­o­nal­ly across a nar­row spot bring­ing things once again to a halt. Yet again despite there being sev­er­al van loads of Gar­dai with us.

A trac­tor from Carey’s Tool and Plant Hire of Ban­gor (097–83018 / 086–8236018) was brought up to haul it out – the com­pa­ny are well known for doing this for Shell over the years. Resis­tance was put up by the 30 or so pro­test­ers there, lead­ing to a bat­tle for the bridge. Though over­whelmed sev­er­al times over by Gar­dai num­bers, it took them time to clear us out of the way, ket­tling us next to the old pub. It was easy to see that it was start­ing to affect them.

Just as that was fin­ish­ing and the con­voy was on its way again, lat­er than ever, news came through that a sec­ond lock-on was in place on the Ban­gor road (6am). Cue enraged Gar­dai as the care­ful­ly planned oper­a­tion to move the TBM became far­ci­cal. Anoth­er hours worth of delay with anoth­er two arrests.

The whole of the sur­round­ing area was sealed off, though some pro­test­er vehi­cles man­aged to get back to camp to the great irri­ta­tion of local Gar­dai. To top it off, the TBM, now many hours lat­er than it should have been, was unable to make the turn­ing at Aghoos which would take it down to its final rest­ing place. Thus forc­ing it to go to Gle­n­amoy in order to turn and try again.

Where it prompt­ly got stuck at 8am. One local cou­ple were told to park their van up in a spe­cif­ic place by Gar­dai. Who then said they that was wrong and dragged it away to a new place. Where the turn­ing truck crashed into it… adding insult to all of this, the l van dri­ver was assault­ed by Gar­dai. Then got stuck as the road began to cave in under the weight of the 162 ton seg­ment; the dri­ver refused to get back into the truck in case it top­pled down the side of the embank­ment.

Mean­while the tail­backs grew. Dri­vers, under­stand­ably irate irate dri­vers were threat­ened with arrest­ed; an indi­vid­ual on McGrath’s truck on their way to dial­y­sis was sent home.

As it stands, the trucks are still there, one tied to the oth­er to stop it slip­ping more. For a good image see http://www.shelltosea.com/sites/default/files/images/TBM_truck_stuck_at_Glenamoy.jpg Thhe main road to Ross­port is cut off and might be for the fore­see­able future as they try to find solu­tions. Word is that cranes might be brought in, but they come with their own sets of prob­lems. The rain has final­ly start­ed. We will wait and see, and prob­a­bly have a few good laughs. The TBM, offen­sive­ly, has been named Fion­nu­ala from the Chil­dren of Lir, and like that leg­end may it be stuck there for 300 years…

It is fair to say peo­ple here are pleased. At short notice as great response was organ­ised and the mul­ti-mil­lion euro oper­a­tion made a mock­ery off. Shell and the Irish state thought they were going to sneak the TBM in under every­one’s noses. Instead they got a rapid­ly mobilised set of protests that used it to bring the cam­paign mes­sage to peo­ple who had not encoun­tered it before. The farce it became was giv­en the air­time it deserved, Shel­l’s dirty secret­ly received a pub­lic wash­ing. It was real­ly spir­it­ing to learn that a group of young lads had come down from Sli­go to oppose it, hav­ing only just heard about it on the radio.

We thought that at best it would be high­ly sym­bol­ic, we nev­er thought that we could make such a laugh­ing stock of a mul­ti-mil­lion euro oper­a­tion. The icing on the cake though, came from Shell. The farce at Gle­n­amoy shows them up for what they were. If they cant, with all that plan­ning, get the TBM in, how can there be any trust that they can run the pipeline safe­ly. As one sleep-deprived but cheer­ful camper said, if they cant even get the tun­nel bor­ing machine turned on the road, how the hell are they going to get it up the estu­ary…

Update: Right, a quick update from camp. The Tun­nel Bor­ing Machine is still stuck. Shel­l’s con­trac­tors Road­bridge have been try­ing sev­er­al dif­fer­ent meth­ods, but none work­ing. Cur­rent­ly, it is believed the plan is to build up the road so local res­i­dents can get past, then use the main road to bring in cranes that can lift the truck in sec­tions. How­ev­er, there is resis­tance in the air…

Fol­low­ing on from pre­vi­ous sto­ries…

Ini­tial­ly the Gar­dai closed off the entire road, mak­ing local res­i­dents and tourists sit in their cars with­out infor­ma­tion — reach­ing us many tales of out­right lies being told to peo­ple by Gar­dai who refuse to acknowl­edge it was any­thing to do with Shell. The peo­ple of Erris are not stu­pid.

The vast Gar­dai num­bers which had been escort­ing the TBM van­ished entire­ly from the area, pre­sum­ably utter­ly exhaust­ed from a whole night of being giv­en the run around. They left four of their num­ber to try and man­age the traf­fic, which was by the after­noon slow and backed up, most­ly as lor­ries from Lennon and Bar­retts quar­ries had start­ed turn­ing up with stone for the road build­ing. Locals res­i­dents, already furi­ous at the dis­rup­tion and gar­dai rude­ness towards them, came out of their hous­es and stopped the trucks, say­ing the TBM was sim­ply not want­ed.

The four Gar­dai were not up to the job, and most­ly did what Road­bridge told them to — so when Road­bridge’s fore­man demand­ed the lor­ries come through side by side, grid­lock ensued. Res­i­dents had to sort the Gar­dai’s mess, redi­rect­ing traf­fic and lor­ries to clear the block­age.

More and more peo­ple start­ed com­ing as radio and word of mouth car­ried the sto­ry, with peo­ple com­ing from across Mayo to stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with friends and fam­i­ly. Doors were opened by the peo­ple of Gle­n­amoy to those who came to stand in the rain against Shell.

Mean­while, Mayo coun­ty coun­cil is bend­ing over back­wards to help Shell clear up their mess — all those grants seem to be com­ing use­ful after all. Coun­ty man­ag­er Peter Hynes is not going to hold Shell respon­si­ble, so yet again the peo­ple are pick­ing up Shel­l’s bill. How­ev­er, Shell did have to eat hum­ble pie as the sto­ry spread, with the head of Shell Ire­land hav­ing to issue an apol­o­gy, or rather regret­ting the incon­ve­nience. Not as much as the res­i­dents do.

Shel­l’s secu­ri­ty IRMS are now con­trol­ling a pub­lic road and decid­ing where res­i­dents can walk. This was chal­lenged lead­ing to some peo­ple being put in the ditch. Of course the Gar­dai stood in line with IRMS — real­ly was impos­si­ble to tell them apart, but res­i­dents made it very clear that the road did not belong to Shell or its lack­eys.

As ever, with these things, it is great to be in the midst of such com­mu­ni­ty spir­it and resis­tance.

It appears that Road­bridge are going to resume work after mid­night, with the aim of shift­ing the list­ing truck tomor­row and tak­ing it to Bel­linaboy refin­ery (a change from going direct to the Aghoos com­pound), until more work can be done to strenght­en the roads. We think the mighty Irish bog may be a bit trick­er than that…

Camp is tak­ing a rest — its been a long 36 hours for many peo­ple, though some are going to main­tain a pres­ence at the site of the fias­co. Oth­er good news is that the two peo­ple arrest­ed for the sec­ond lock-on have been released with­out charge. The first two are up in court in Bal­li­na tomor­row.

One twit­ter cap­tured it:  http://pic.twitter.com/55lYSNpB

For images see  http://www.shelltosea.com/content/pictures-tunnelling-machine-stuck-glenamoy and http://photos.independent.ie/gallery/Shell_to_Sea_protest/slideshow/Shell_to_Sea_activists_protest/05mI7xq7Oxakf

Olkiluoto Blockade Sat 11 Aug and Nuclear Camp 6–13 Aug, 2012 in Finland!

From uranium mining to nuclear waste storage, nuclear power poses a health

risk to current and future generations alike. We refuse to be part of this

costly and dangerous experiment which mainly serves the interests of big

industry. We therefore demand a nuclear power phase-out.

On August 11, people are going to block the roads to Olkiluoto nuclear



From uranium mining to nuclear waste storage, nuclear power poses a health
risk to current and future generations alike. We refuse to be part of this
costly and dangerous experiment which mainly serves the interests of big
industry. We therefore demand a nuclear power phase-out.


On August 11, people are going to block the roads to Olkiluoto nuclear
power plant in Eurajoki. Previous years have seen people blocking the
roads using banners, drumming, performances and non-violent direct action.



You can join the demonstration in any way you like, with no obligation to
participate in civil disobedience. Make sure not to bring with you
anything that could be classed as a weapon. No alcohol or drugs in the
demonstration. Everyone is asked to refrain from any form of violence,
sexism, racism and provocations.



This year the action day is preceded by an international anti-nuclear
camp, held at a local farmhouse. The camp program includes practical and
informative workshops, such as the current situation of Japan's nuclear
disaster and introducing the movement against mining in Finland. The guest
speakers, documentaries and workshops during the week will illustrate the
international anti-nuclear movement and provide skills and tools for local
campaigning.



There will be a special program for children, and babysitting help
available. As well as yummy vegan food, sauna, crafting, live bands and
sharing struggles for a nuclear free future!



Welcome!



See full program here: http://olkiluotoblockade2012.wordpress.com/english/



Sign up for the camp at olbcamp (at) riseup.net
You will get driving instructions upon signing up.
Ask more from the info number: + 358 40 461 9154



Recommended prices:
Whole camp 7 days: 30-60 EUR
Includes three meals per day, program and basic accommodation in
tents/indoors



Alternatively
1 day: 5-8EUR
1 meal: 3-5EUR
Children under 10 years for free.



Shared rides:



We also recommend to take your own car/bike/minibus to the camp and
demonstration. If you need a ride or can offer one, notify us at:
olkiluotoblockade (at) riseup.net



From Tampere: a minibus leaves to the camp on Monday Aug 6 at 18.00 and on
Friday 10 Aug at 12:00. You can reserve seats at olkiluotoblockade (at)
riseup.net



From Helsinki: The Union of Conscientious Objectors organises a bus on
Friday Aug 10, starting at 11.30. from Rauhanasema, the Peace Station in
Pasila. Reserve seats at toimisto (at) akl-web.fi or by calling +358 (0)40
836 27 86.
More info on the bus from Helsinki:
http://akl-web.fi/tapahtumat/olkiluotoblockade2012



From Turku this same bus leaves on Aug 10 at 14.00 in front of the Railway
station.  Reserve seats from toimisto@akl-web.fi or call  +358 (0)40 836
27 86 More info: http://akl-web.fi/tapahtumat/olkiluotoblockade2012



                        ****** SEND THIS FORWARD! ******

That’s the way to do it! Climate action camps across the Channel

CLIMATE ACTION CAMP 2012, BELGIUM, 3-8 AUG

If the climate was a bank...


... Then it would have been saved already (Hugo Chavez)

... Then I wouldn’t be getting a bonus (Jean-Luc Dehaene)

... Then the ratings agencies would have gone bust (Mario Draghi)

... Then it would need to look for a new name (Belfius!!!)



CLIMATE ACTION CAMP 2012, BELGIUM, 3-8 AUG


If the climate was a bank...



... Then it would have been saved already (Hugo Chavez)
... Then I wouldn’t be getting a bonus (Jean-Luc Dehaene)
... Then the ratings agencies would have gone bust (Mario Draghi)
... Then it would need to look for a new name (Belfius!!!)
... Then you’d read even more rubbish about it than you do today!
..  Then it would be popular with businesses
... Then it wouldn’t change so quickly
... Then I would campaign just as much about it!!!



We’ve been organising climate action camps for three years. During a
climate action camp activists come together to share experiences, live
together peacefully and sustainably, and self-organise to make plans and
carry out actions. They set up the most beautiful campsite in the Northern
hemisphere and spend a  week letting the air out of the tyres of the
capitalist landrover... Climate action camp is  a week full of action,
exciting workshops, relaxation and vegan food. Every year lots of children
come too. They have a great time in the kids barrio with activities to
suit all ages.



The next climate camp will take place from 3rd to 8th August somewhere in
Leuven



If you want to steal money, then steal a lot all at once. Then they will
call you a dynamic entrepreneur or who knows, a banker... Banks can gamble
with people’s savings, we know that already. But they also gamble with the
climate, the planet and farmers in the south: Banks like BNP-Paribas, KBC
or ING invest heavily in tar sands, the most environmentally destructive
way to extract oil from the ground.  A recent report revealed that these
same banks are involved land-grabbing, the large scale acquisition of more
and more agricultural land in the South by financial institutions. The
World Bank invests climate funds in the biggest fossil fuel energy
projects in the world. Lastly, banks speculate on carbon emission
allowances. Banks aren’t only gambling our money away but are also playing
with the planet.  It’s time to take action. Now!



The exact location of the camp will be announced on the websites on the
2nd of August...



Join our Facebookevent: http://www.facebook.com/events/337275796321385/



Information & Contact:



http://www.climaxi.be
http://www.climate-justice-action.be



Camp-phone? +32(0)478.07.98.58



info[at] climate-justice-action.be
info[at] climaxi.be



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



TWO CLIMATE ACTION CAMPS IN GERMANY - August



Just a shout out to see if you might be interesting in coming over to
Germany for some climate action this summer?



There are 2 camps going on, one in the West from the 3-12th August:
http://www.ausgeco2hlt.de/klimacamp/en/



and the other in the East from the 11-19th August
http://www.lausitzcamp.info/international-information/english/



There's also in the West camp an ongoing Forest Occupation:
http://hambachforest.blogsport.de/



Both camps are dealing with open cast mining and plans for new coal power
plants. I'm more familiar with the East camp so a bit about that: The main
days of action are on the 17th and 18th--coal plant blockade. We could
def. use more people here! We're also still open for more workshops,
especially practical ones and skill sharings, but also anything you're
dealing with over there... It would be great to connect... see below for
contact details.



Action: aktion@lausitzcamp.info
Finances: finanzen@lausitzcamp.info
Logistics: logistik@lausitzcamp.info
Mobilsation: mobi@lausitzcamp.info
Programme: programm@lausitzcamp.info

Squat Milada brutally evicted after an attempt to make a one-off commemorative gig

The Prague’s renowned squat Vila Mila­da, which was evict­ed three years ago after being one of the most impor­tant places for Czech autonomous under­ground scene, had been occu­pied by approx­i­mate­ly 30 peo­ple on Sat­ur­day July 30th to com­mem­o­rate the bleak anniver­sary by an impro­vised hard­core punk gig.

The Prague’s renowned squat Vila Mila­da, which was evict­ed three years ago after being one of the most impor­tant places for Czech autonomous under­ground scene, had been occu­pied by approx­i­mate­ly 30 peo­ple on Sat­ur­day July 30th to com­mem­o­rate the bleak anniver­sary by an impro­vised hard­core punk gig. Even though the author­i­ties were informed that this is a one-off event which is not an attempt to reocup­py the squat for good but a sym­bol­ic point­ing out of a pas­sive approach of a Czech state to take care of unused build­ings and of the oppres­sion against alter­na­tive cul­ture, the police react­ed with a mas­sive police oper­a­tion includ­ing an aggres­sive attack against the non-vio­lent con­cert-goers, which result­ed in many bloody injuries and in a tem­po­rary arrest of tens of peo­ple. At least 20 peo­ple were bru­tal­ly beat­en up and psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly humil­i­at­ed inside the build­ing out of reach of cam­eras and wit­ness­es and the remain­ing 7 activists hid behind the chim­neys on the roof of the build­ing, fear­ing for their health and risk­ing their lives over a 4‑storey gap direct­ing to ground. After a day-long nego­ti­a­tions and a cou­ple of stu­pid attempts of the Czech police to harass tens of sup­port­ers in front of the build­ing, the squat­ters decid­ed to climb down if the Police lets them to gath­er their belong­ings from the low­er parts of the house. In the ear­ly evening of Sun­day July 1st, they real­ized all of their equip­ment, includ­ing lap­tops, loud­speak­ers, gui­tar com­bos and elec­tric gui­tars, were smashed up by the inter­ven­ing Police riot squad. The own­er of the house is going to bring a law­suit against the activists and more seri­ous offens­es are actu­al­ly threat­en­ing them.

Earth First! Summer Gathering Update — programme, directions, website and more

It’s only weeks until the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing begins.
Five days of work­shops, info shar­ing and learn­ing new skills, 1–5 August.

It’s only weeks until the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing begins.
Five days of work­shops, info shar­ing and learn­ing new skills, 1–5 August.

The Earth First Sum­mer Gath­er­ing takes place each year to pro­vide a space in which the rad­i­cal ecol­o­gy move­ment can share skills and plan for future cam­paigns and actions.

Dis­cus­sions around the impor­tance of com­mu­ni­ty build­ing in inner cities, the state of the anar­chist move­ment and patri­archy in activism.

Skill shares includ­ing wom­en’s self-defence, research­ing cor­po­ra­tions and nav­i­ga­tion.

Cam­paign round ups from Frack Off! Smash Edo and Lud­dites 2000 amongst oth­ers.

If you have work­shops you like to run or dis­cus­sions you’d like to facil­i­tate then email us at earthfirstsummergathering@riseup.net

Full pro­gramme.

Camp­ing is on a slid­ing scale of £30 to £15, pay what is gen­uine­ly appro­pri­ate.

Food will be from Anar­chist Teapot and meal tick­ets will be £5 a day.

Kids can have sep­a­rate meals if they want for £3 a day.

There will be a cou­ple of kids spaces, and spe­cial work­shops being ran for kids. If you’d like to run any kids work­shops get in touch at earthfirstsummergathering@riseup.net.

If you want you dog to come along then you’re going to have to email us at earthfirstsummergathering@riseup.net

And of course there will be enter­tain­ment and a bar open in the evenings.

The camp is ½ mile from the Berring­ton vil­lage, and 1 mile from the larg­er vil­lage of Cross Hous­es.

We encour­age non-cycling campers to use pub­lic trans­port if pos­si­ble as Cross Hous­es is on a bus route.

BY TRAIN
The near­est train sta­tion is Shrews­bury. You can then get the bus to Cross Hous­es (see below). If com­ing from a long dis­tance it can some­times be cheap­er to get a tick­et to a large sta­tion such as Birm­ing­ham, Wolver­hamp­ton, Man­ches­ter or Crewe and then a sep­a­rate tick­et on to Shrews­bury. Check nation­al rail for train times and prices. If com­ing from the Lon­don direc­tion, it’s gen­er­al­ly cheap­er to buy a Super Off­peak Return, spec­i­fy­ing “Lon­don Mid­land & Arri­va only”.

BY BIKE
See here for direc­tions and a map to the camp from Shrews­bury for cyclists and dri­vers.

BY BUS
When you arrive at Shrews­bury train sta­tion, ask some­one to point you to the bus sta­tion. It’s only a few min­utes walk from the train sta­tion. The bus ser­vice that runs from town to with­in a mile of Crabap­ple is the 436 towards Bridg­north. It runs every hour from 7.40am to 5.40pm with a “late” one at 7.40pm. The jour­ney to Cross Hous­es is approx 15 mins. You will need to press the stop but­ton when you see the sign for Cross Hous­es. Some of the ser­vices on this route are low-floor acces­si­ble bus­es. Please note that the last bus leaves Shrews­bury at 7.40pm, Mon­day to Sat­ur­day and there are no Sun­day bus ser­vices. For the bus timetable see here http://shropshire.gov.uk/bustimes/timetable.jsc?timetable=436mfi0412.
The camp itself is about 1 mile from the bus stop. From the bus stop at Cross Hous­es, walk back towards Shrews­bury past the petrol sta­tion (on your right) and take the first left turn signed “Berring­ton”. After about ½ mile, the road forks at the edge of the vil­lage. Take the right turn sign­post­ed “Bet­ton Abbots” and we’re about ¼ mile up the road on the right.
If you intend to come by bus but need help get­ting to and from the bus stop, you can arrange a pick up with us: details will be avail­able near­er the time.

BY TAXI
There is also a taxi rank just out­side Shrews­bury train sta­tion. Acces­si­ble taxis can be got from here.- but it is MUCH cheap­er to book a cab from a local com­pa­ny – Comet Cabs 01743 344444, or Vin­cent Cabs 01743 367777. Vin­cents also have a book­ing office just across the road from the sta­tion, which is handy if you don’t have a phone to book a cab in advance.

USEFUL LINKS
See here direc­tions and a map to the camp from Shrews­bury for cyclists and dri­vers.
See a map of where the site is here
See the bus timetable
Direc­tions from places oth­er than Shrews­bury

Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing Col­lec­tive
earthfirstsummergathering@riseup.net

http://earthfirstgathering.weebly.com

Agriculture Action Camp 5–10 July Den Bosch NL

From the 5th till 10th of July in Den Bosch in the Nether­lands, ASEED will orga­nize a 6 days long camp. The camp will involve work­shops, train­ings, dis­cus­sions, and action, for good eco­log­i­cal ini­tia­tives, an alter­na­tive food chain, alter­na­tives to indus­tri­al farm­ing, and against gen­tech and meat indus­try, and more.. 

From the 5th till 10th of July in Den Bosch in the Nether­lands, ASEED will orga­nize a 6 days long camp. The camp will involve work­shops, train­ings, dis­cus­sions, and action, for good eco­log­i­cal ini­tia­tives, an alter­na­tive food chain, alter­na­tives to indus­tri­al farm­ing, and against gen­tech and meat indus­try, and more.. 

Do you know where your food comes from? Do you want to take food in your own hands and make the food chain short­er between the farm­ers and con­sumers? Do you also want to know more about the strug­gle against GMOs and indus­tri­al farm­ing that is dom­i­nat­ed by big com­pa­nies? Do you want to orga­nize actions against the meat indus­try and the imports of ani­mal feed? But you are also inter­est­ed in pro­duc­ing your own food on a sus­tain­able, cli­mate neu­tral, autonomous and social way? Are you not afraid of get­ting your hands dirty in a work­shop? All of these and more will be cov­ered dur­ing the camp. We invite activists, slow-food­ies, farm­ers, gar­den­ers, stu­dents, ani­mal friends and peo­ple who want to learn and share skills on sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture to come to the camp. Mark your agen­das and join in! 

Landbouwactiekamp-9-ah-spandoek-450-medium

Landbouwactiekamp-medium

Last year the first Agri­cul­ture Action Camp in The Nether­lands took place in the Flevopold­er with 70 par­tic­i­pants camp­ing on an organ­ic farm for three days. We had a pro­gram full of work­shops and dis­cus­sions, and two actions close to the camp against GM crops and soy green­wash­ing. The par­tic­i­pants opt­ed for a replay, so here comes the sec­ond camp once again with an inter­est­ing pro­gramme of work­shops, train­ings, action and nice atmos­phere.

Hel­lo every­body, 
We are get­ting clos­er to the date it is all going to start, the loca­tion will be in the city of Den Bosch (or ‘s Her­to­gen­bosch) in and around a squat­ted com­mu­ni­ty gar­den project Graafse Hof in a res­i­den­tial area in the East of the city. The work­shop pro­gram is get­ting more and more con­crete. Con­firmed are amongst oth­er things: GMO update by Green­peace, GMO field lib­er­a­tion move­ments by FLM Bel­gium (more contributions/examples 
from sim­i­lar move­ments in oth­er coun­tries wel­come!!), intro­duc­tion into dif­fer­ent forms of sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture sys­tems (bio­dy­nam­ic, agroe­col­o­gy, per­ma­cul­ture), seed sav­ing, worm com­post­ing, get­ting to know your gar­den­ing tools, action train­ings by Vre­desac­tie, trac­tor dri­ving, talks with and work­ing with farm­ers, food sov­er­eign­ty: what does it mean, Euro­pean move­ment, con­crete exam­ples, and more to come. The pro­gram starts on Thurs­day 5th in the evening and goes on till Mon­day 9th July. 

Give a Work­shop? 
Want to come and give a work­shop your­self? Great! We are in par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed to hear about reclaim the fields land occu­pa­tion actions, or sim­i­lar campaigns/initiatives going on, as well as the Reclaim the fields move­ment in gen­er­al. Also look­ing for some­one who can tell more about the Euro­pean Cam­paign for Seed Sov­er­eign­ty. But any­thing rel­e­vant, you’re wel­come to pro­pose. 

Info stall @ mini alter­na­tive agro fair on Sat­ur­day 7 July, 13.00? 
Sat­ur­day we want to focus on get­ting more main­stream peo­ple to par­tic­i­pate in the camp. The work­shops are more intro­duc­to­ry and their will be a small fair. Want to have stall to spread mate­ri­als from your project or action group? Let us know. 

Net­working @ World­cafe on Sat­ur­day 7 July, 20.00 
Sat­ur­daynight we will turn a tent into a nice cafe, where every­one can come to exchange ideas and exam­ples. Organ­i­sa­tions, Ini­tia­tives and Indi­vid­u­als have the oppor­tu­ni­ty for reser­vat­ing a table, where peo­ple can sit around to have infor­mal con­ver­sa­tions. Want to have a table your project/initiative/campaign? read more here: 
 http://landbouwactiekamp.contrast.org/?page_id=181 

Action 
Mon­day July 9 will have a focus on doing one or more actions. Pos­si­ble targets/topics are men­tioned in the call out from before. The camp will decide col­lec­tive­ly what it will become at the begin­ning of the week­end. 

Finances & trav­el costs reim­burse­ments 
We have some fund­ing for the camp but not enough to cov­er all costs, so we would ask a par­tic­i­pants for a con­tri­bu­tion of 7,50 if you come 1 day, less per day if you stay longer (see the web­site under prac­ti­cal­i­ties). 
We have some lim­it­ed pos­si­bil­i­ties to (par­tial­ly) cov­er trav­el costs from peo­ple com­ing from abroad, AND com­ing on the 4th of July (help build up) and/or stay till 11th (help break down). Let us know if you want to come, and trav­el costs are an issue. If you can trav­el on one of these dates, we can prob­a­bly reim­burse (some) costs. 

Want to reserve a work­shop slot, info stall or world­cafe table, or just know more about  the camp, con­tact us via  landbouwactiekamp@aseed.net. 

We still need peo­ple to; 
-make the kids pro­gram and orga­nize the kids area in the camp 
-help us with the infra­struc­ture prepa­ra­tions of the camp, & be there on the 4th to set up the camp, 
-trans­la­tion and edit­ing texts,(NL, ENG, DE main­ly) 
-help us out with pro­gram con­tent, 
-facil­i­tate work­shops, trans­la­tion dur­ing the work­shops etc.. 

Cheers and hope to see some of you @ Den Bosch. 

ASEED

http://www.landbouwactiekamp.net/

Sabotage Action in Mayo

June 13, 2012

June 13, 2012

Last week a stone crush­ing machine cen­tral to the oper­a­tion of Bar­retts Quar­ry in Ban­gor, Coun­ty Mayo was decomis­sioned. Bar­retts Quar­ry was tar­get­ed because it sup­plies mate­ri­als cru­cial to the con­struc­tion of Roy­al Dutch Shel­l’s dan­ger­ous and destruc­tive raw gas pipeline in Broad­haven Bay.

This action was tak­en in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the local com­mu­ni­ty who have been in strug­gle against Roy­al Dutch Shell for the past ten years, and should serve to demon­strate that any com­pa­ny com­plic­it in sup­port­ing Roy­al Dutch Shel­l’s activ­i­ties in Mayo, and beyond, can and will be tar­get­ed.