Category: Rest of Europe

Rest of Europe

ELF SOLIDARITY WITH LUCIANO / “TORTUGA”

anonymous report, from BlackBlocg.info (visit the site for additional reports of ELF actions in Russia):

"ELF-Russia claims responsibility for firebombing of a Lexus/Toyota car dealership in Western Moscow on june the 21st.

anonymous report, from BlackBlocg.info (visit the site for additional reports of ELF actions in Russia):

"ELF-Russia claims responsibility for firebombing of a Lexus/Toyota car dealership in Western Moscow on june the 21st.

Four luxury cars (of them – 3 Lexus SUVs) were lost to a firebomb explosion (butane gas canisters, gasoline and a fuse), according to corporate media repors.

Best wishes to Luciano! The Struggle continues!

ELF-Russia, International Network of Action and Solidarity / International Revolutionary Front"

*Luciano "Tortuga" Pitronello is a Chilean activist who was seriously injured on June 1 when a device he was placing outside a bank in Santiago exploded prematurely.

Rossport Direct Action Training Weekend – 25-26 June

Come up for a weekend of direct action training, meet the community and see this incredible place.

If you came up for the Party Against the Pipe festival, this is a great chance to get more involved in the campaign.

Come up for a weekend of direct action training, meet the community and see this incredible place.

If you came up for the Party Against the Pipe festival, this is a great chance to get more involved in the campaign.

If you have ever wanted to take action and be part of the campaign, the time is now! All welcome, open to complete beginners-no experience necessary. Please try to arrive by the evening of Friday 24th if possible.

We are running direct action trainings here and around the country for people who want to take part in safe and effective protests. The training is aimed at complete beginners, covering your legal rights and different methods of protesting.

Get in touch if you would like us to give a direct action workshop in your area.

Food will be cooked communally, donations welcome.

Accommodation is available in the camp house or book in to the lovely Kilcommon lodge hostel http://www.kilcommonlodge.ie

The Shell to Sea campaign has successfully used direct action for the last 11 years to frustrate, delay and try to stop Shell’s destructive project. We take direct action because the Government has failed us and the authorities that are supposed to protect communities and the environment have refused to act. So we have no choice but to protect it ourselves. We also take action to inspire other communities to do the same. Whether it’s stopping Shell illegally drilling in a Special Area of Conservation or blocking the trucks carrying building materials for this experimental and dangerous project, using direct action works! So come along & get prepared…

Shell’s Corrib Gas Project is already decade late and 3 times over budget – impressive for a rural community fighting one of the biggest multinationals in the world!

There is a huge global history of direct action campaigns. Martin Luther King and Gandhi symbolise the most well known campaigns but there have been thousands of successful direct action campaigns in our history. Direct action was used during the anti-war campaign at Shannon airport, in the civil rights marches, during the amazing anti-nuclear campaign at Cansore Point and also to kick out dirty industries such as Raytheon, Merrell Dow and Raybestos Manhattan.

The Rossport Solidarity Camp has guidelines which state that all actions must be agreed by consensus at the camp. Direct action is used in parallel with other campaigning tools such as engaging in the planning process, lobbying, public meetings and taking legal challenges against Shell.

As Frederick Douglass, the US abolitionist orator said in 1857: “If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation…want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters…. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

http://www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org/content/direct-action-training-weekend-25-26th-june

Shell compound occupied for 9 hours – third action in two days

10th June 2011

10th June 2011
Wednesday and Thursday saw a serious of occupations and actions against the drilling compound at Aghoos in Mayo as part of the ongoing campaign against Shell. The events culminated in an eight-hour lock-on and a nine hour occupation of machinery which stopped all work for the day. Over thirty people were involved in the events. UK and other international campaigners joined Irish activist as part of the days of action.

Shell compound occupied for 9 hours – third action in two days

Yesterday, thirty activists, including an international presence, took the Shell compound at Aughoose where they are doing preparation work for the controversial pipeline that will run high pressure gas through communities in North Western Ireland. Three individuals managed to make it onto machinery while others closed the main gain with a lock-on. The result was no work done for the entire day. Five people were arrested, all of whom are now released though some have been charged.

The action was done from the Rossport Solidarity Camp which currently occupies a field on the other side of the road from where Shell are working. Planning started the night before, people wanting to build on the regular actions that have been taking place over the last few months since the camp has been in place.

On Wednesday, there had been another, shorter occupation of the site during the day. However, in the wonderful way these things happen, a second visit to the site to do reconnaissance for Thursday’s protest turned into an action in its own right…

So, Thursday, 7.30am – a large group of people move across the field to the road and begin breaching the compound at numerous places. They found a large, frankly scary looking lock-on dropped off in front of the main gates, despite the presence of fifteen security guards from IRMS trying to secure the access. Two people, “Bread” & “Jam” promptly made use of this gift to attach themselves to it.

People swarmed everywhere, making good use of their access as security locked themselves down in their central compound behind lines of harris fencing, though that was no obstacle. Indeed, the only work that Shell did today was building a sorry pile of mangled fences.

Numerous people made it through the lines of guards to occupy various machinery and structures, including the roof of the portakabins. Three clambered onto the drilling and digging machinery that the days’ work would have depended on. Of these, one was lied to about not being arrested on coming down so other two, who were on the sampling drill and the large digger, remained there for the next nine hours. By that time victory was clearly in the hand of the protesters and they came down of their own accord.

In all this exuberance, all bar one of the windows of the house Shell own down the road decided to shatter in solidarity.

Meanwhile, back at the main road, the campers provided support to those locked-on. Police blocked off the road. The cutting team turned up at 10.15am and after a lot of head-scratching started cutting at 11am. The god of lock-on’s had provided them a fair headache and it took another four hours before they managed to extract Jam. By the time that Bread was cut-out the lock-on had been in place for eight hours.

All five people arrested were taken to Belmullet Gardai station. The two who were locked on were charged with not following police instructions and for obstruction. The other three who were on the machinery were let go without charge for that, though one was subsequently re-arrested for a previous action. Support will continue.

In all, a fantastic day out, especially with the rain holding off until the action was over.

For more information on the Rossport Solidarity Camp and the campaign against Shell see
www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org

Trash to the beet, Germany

During the night of 31 May 2011, despite the fence and 24-hour security, a KWS field was destroyed in Wetze, Germany. KWS is a German genetic engineering company; the field trial was genetically modified beet H7-1, resistant to the herbicide Round-Up.

During the night of 31 May 2011, despite the fence and 24-hour security, a KWS field was destroyed in Wetze, Germany. KWS is a German genetic engineering company; the field trial was genetically modified beet H7-1, resistant to the herbicide Round-Up.

We have destroyed this field to directly attack an industry that makes us dependent on plant and animal patents. This is only possible in a capitalist system, in which new technologies are not created for need, but to maximize profit and to obtain power.

We see this action not only as an action against genetically engineered crops, but against the entire capitalist order.

This system – with its various implications and manifestations – is vulnerable on many levels with many resources …

ELF SABOTAGE, ARSON ATTACK TARGETS OIL COMPANY, ITALY

1 June 2011
MARINO LAZIALE (ROME)

– Six nozzles cut and taken away from the pumps
– Self-service booth sealed with liquid metal
– Retail shop set on fire using two five-litre jerrycans of napalm
– Banner left, ‘ENI – by wars and environmental disasters, they profit (A)’

1 June 2011
MARINO LAZIALE (ROME)

– Six nozzles cut and taken away from the pumps
– Self-service booth sealed with liquid metal
– Retail shop set on fire using two five-litre jerrycans of napalm
– Banner left, ‘ENI – by wars and environmental disasters, they profit (A)’

Solidarity with anarchists affected by the recent wave of state repression.
Silvia, Costa, Billy and Marco.

Long live the Earth Liberation Front!”

400 peasants, clowns, and reapers liberate Belgian GM potato field

The “battle of the potato” field in Wetterem, near Ghent, Belgium, was a resounding victory for anti-GM activists on Sunday (29 May) as members of a crowd of around 400 people broke through police lines and barbed wire fences to destroy an experimental Genetically Modified potato crop.

The “battle of the potato” field in Wetterem, near Ghent, Belgium, was a resounding victory for anti-GM activists on Sunday (29 May) as members of a crowd of around 400 people broke through police lines and barbed wire fences to destroy an experimental Genetically Modified potato crop.

Genetic modification of food crops is currently banned in the French-speaking Wallonia region of Belgium, and in the Brussels area, but the regional government of Flanders had given the go-ahead for this trial planting. People from across Belgium and further afield, including many “faucheurs volontaires” (volunteer reapers) from the established French anti-GM farming movement, came together under the banner of the “Field Liberation Movement” to put the experiment to an end.

The day started with setting up of a farmer’s market and communal kitchen in a sympathetic field across the motorway from the target site. There were briefings, discussions, infostalls, and some interaction with members of a “Save Our Science” counter demo by GM supporters, who came to argue their case that only more agribusiness supercrops can save the hungry of the world from crises of poverty and malnutrition. At 2pm the crowd started moving, led by a big international samba band, across the motorway footbridge to the field of destiny on the other side. The organisers had called for “non-violence” and not to provoke the cops, and the crowd was colourful, noisy, with small children and grown-up clowns in abundance. Truly Luddite in spirit (in all positive sense of that maligned term) it had the flavour of a peasants’ revolt confronting the high-tech forces of empire. Around 50 Flemish robocops waited, batons in hand, surrounding the field (only about the size of a basketball court), which was also ringed by sturdy fences topped with barbed wire, cameras and motion sensors.

As the sun broke through the clouds at 3pm a siren sounded and the action was underway. About half the crowd hopped the first low fence into the intervening meadow and ran towards the experimental enclosure. It was soon clear that the police were outnumbered, with many gaps in their lines through which protesters swarmed. (A major local football match may certainly have helped the protestors here.) The fencing was tough and attempts to pull it down with ropes proved unsuccessful. But it wasn’t high enough to keep out climbers who carried strips of carpet to get over the barbed wire. Once inside the compound the security measures then worked to the reapers’ advantage as the cops could only clamber after them, too late to stop potatoes flying everywhere. Organic seeding potatoes were hurled by others from outside the fence to replace the modified strain.

There were around 15 arrests, all those who had made it inside the compound were stuck and worthily sacrificed themselves to the law in the best pacifistic tradition. The police then had to dig a tunnel under the fence to get them out again, and they were immediately released after giving ID details. It is not clear yet what charges will be brought, but the consortium behind the field, which includes the university of Ghent, threatens to sue for damages. There were quite a few injuries including hospitalisations from barbed wire cuts and truncheon blows.

To quote from the Field Liberation Movement’s press release: “To sum up, the day of action was very successful. This action points out three paths to follow: the “peasant market” offered a platform for farmers with a real alternative, the demonstration gave the public the occasion to show solidarity with this campaign, and the action of civil disobedience effectively liberated a public space. The debate is now open. From today, biotechnology has to demonstrate that its research is in the service of an agricultural model which is sustainable, ecological, and just.”

http://fieldliberation.wordpress.com

Belgian Climate Action Camp, 6-11 July 2011

Capitalism is a system in crisis. Social injustice is increasing, the
banks and multinationals keep investing in fossil fuels. But there is also reason to be optimistic: the global climate movement is growing and getting more active. “System change, not climate change” is a message sounding louder and louder!

Capitalism is a system in crisis. Social injustice is increasing, the
banks and multinationals keep investing in fossil fuels. But there is also reason to be optimistic: the global climate movement is growing and getting more active. “System change, not climate change” is a message sounding louder and louder!

In the past, Climate Justice Action (Belgium) organized of a series of direct actions and two climate action camps. At the opening day of the UN Conference in Cancún, we occupied the offices of IETA, a lobbygroup for emission trading.

This year we chose to link the climate action camp to the local struggle in Antwerp against the ‘Oosterweel’ bridge/tunnel plans. In cooperation with GroeNoord and other partners (Ademloos, Climaxi, Climat et Justice sociale, Masereelfonds and others), there will be a new climate action camp in Antwerp. Our main focus will be on the the consequenses of road infrastructure for the quality of life in Antwerp.

We’ll also work around other climate-related themes: from nuclear energy, to vegan cooking, from ‘cap and trade’ to ‘how feminism can save the planet?’

The climate action camp will be a week full of interesting workshops, encounters, direct action, and an ecological way of living. But most of all, it’ll be fun! Make sure to write down the dates in your agenda. We are also still looking for people who want to help with the preparation of the camp. You can reach us at info@klimaatactiekamp.org.

Program and more information:

* The provisional program
* The subject of the camp
* Practical information (what to bring and what to leave at home, ?)

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

Register and help us:
Do you want to join us at the camp? Let us know at info@klimaatactiekamp.be!
Do you want to help making the camp possible? We still need help for the following:

* medical team
* garbage and recycling experts
* plumbers
* drivers
* people who know something about electricity
* handymen who can help building the camp (sanitary, composttoilets, showers, putting up tents etc.)
* people who can help facilitate meetings
* people to help breaking down the camp and cleaning the location
* translators (Dutch-French-English)
* mobilisation: spreading the flyers, sending mails etc.!
* child care

Send us a mail at info@klimaatactiekamp.org

Climate and Energy Camp 2011, Germany

Stop CCS, fight for climate justice and energy sovereignty!

When and where?
The Climate and Energy Camp 2011 is taking place from Aug. 7th – 14th in Janschwalde/Brandenburg (close to Cottbus).

What’s a climate camp anyway?

Stop CCS, fight for climate justice and energy sovereignty!

When and where?
The Climate and Energy Camp 2011 is taking place from Aug. 7th – 14th in Janschwalde/Brandenburg (close to Cottbus).

What’s a climate camp anyway?
A climate camp is a space for networking, knowledge exchange and debate on the one hand, but also a space to show practical resistance and implement direct action. As a result, the camp represents a field of experimentation for a different kind of life: the fundamental features are a resource-efficient lifestyle and a grass-roots way of self-organizing the camp. The first camp called “Camp for Climate Action” took place close to the english town of Drax. The climate camp movement spread to the European mainland. Further camps were organized in Belgium, France and Ukraine, but also in Canada and Australia.

Why Brandenburg?
This year the decision for or against the new CCS technology will be made. Energy companies are using the spurious argument to achieve “clean coal” with CCS to be able to stick with their established structures of energy production through lignite, which is extremely harmful to the climate. In the last decades solely in the Lausitz region more than 30,000 people had to leave 136 villages to the excavators that dug up new mining pits. The intended expansion of the lignite strip mining site Janschwalde-Nord would make the next three villages –
Kerkwitz, Grabko and Atterwasch – disappear. Further, clinging to
lignite as an energy source makes it hard to push through the transition to a decentralized democratic energy supply from renewables. Read more in our call…

How can I contact you?
Please write us an email to info@lausitzcamp.info.

http://www.lausitzcamp.info/international-information/english/

anti-GM action at Tesco Belfast

Gathering Momentum for the fight against biotech in our food chain

Tesco Metro, on Belfast?s Royal Avenue, had its labelling improved by anti-GM protestors on Saturday morning (23rd April). The additional labels warned consumers about the potential Genetically Modified content of meat and dairy products in store.

Gathering Momentum for the fight against biotech in our food chain

Tesco Metro, on Belfast?s Royal Avenue, had its labelling improved by anti-GM protestors on Saturday morning (23rd April). The additional labels warned consumers about the potential Genetically Modified content of meat and dairy products in store.

GM produce has been thoroughly rejected by the general public – however, it is still entering our food chain and being sold in shops across the UK. Dairy and meat products on our shelves today have been produced using GM animal feeds. There are no measures in place to trace these products, there is no labelling to warn consumers – none!

The protestors surreptitiously stickered dozens of meat and dairy
products, then (less surreptitiously) donned white bio-hazard suits, handed out leaflets and talked to shoppers in the aisles. This riled the somewhat irksome security guard, who helped the protestors safely find their way to the exits. (Perhaps he was a little tetchy following the successful fire-bombing of a Tesco Metro in Bristol on Thursday night??).

This simple and easy protest action reminds us that the GM issue has not gone away. Monsanto and other agri-business corporations want to own our stomachs. We need to be aware of which food products are made using Genetic Modification so that we can avoid them ? with no legislation to warn of GM animal feeds, we are vulnerable to consuming food that is potentially (seriously) harmful.

See also http://www.stopgm.org.uk