Category: Rest of Europe

Rest of Europe

Phones and privacy at the camp for climate action.

Tra­di­tion­al­ly it has been the con­tent of com­mu­ni­ca­tion that has been the focus of gov­ern­ment sur­veil­lance but the police are increas­ing­ly inter­est­ed in data min­ing tech­niques to uncov­er pat­terns of asso­ci­a­tion. Sim­ple data, when stored, aggre­gat­ed and ana­lyzed using sophis­ti­cat­ed com­put­er algo­rithms, con­tains far more infor­ma­tion than is com­mon­ly appre­ci­at­ed.

Tra­di­tion­al­ly it has been the con­tent of com­mu­ni­ca­tion that has been the focus of gov­ern­ment sur­veil­lance but the police are increas­ing­ly inter­est­ed in data min­ing tech­niques to uncov­er pat­terns of asso­ci­a­tion. Sim­ple data, when stored, aggre­gat­ed and ana­lyzed using sophis­ti­cat­ed com­put­er algo­rithms, con­tains far more infor­ma­tion than is com­mon­ly appre­ci­at­ed. Col­lat­ing mobile phone num­bers, and the data retained by net­work providers, can pro­vide the police with a pow­er­ful incite into our net­works of asso­ci­a­tions. This is not only an inva­sion of our pri­va­cy but may also threat­en our abil­i­ty to work togeth­er effec­tive­ly.

At least years cli­mate camp the police were tak­ing peo­ple phone from them dur­ing stop and search. As well as brows­ing through peo­ple
phone­books and text mes­sages, they were typ­ing *#06# to get the phones unique ser­i­al num­ber (IMEI). They would then look up the reg­is­tered own­er of phone then threat­en the hold­er of the phone with being arrest­ed on sus­pi­cion of theft if they refused to prove that they were the own­er of the phone by reveal­ing their iden­ti­ty.

To reduce the abil­i­ty of the police to steal our iden­ti­ties and learn
more about our social net­works, please con­sid­er the fol­low­ing advice.

Mobile phones are use­ful tools for com­mu­ni­cat­ing and organ­is­ing — we do not advise you to leave them at home. You will find them essen­tial for stay­ing informed and inform­ing oth­ers. How­ev­er…

Copy the entries in your phone­book and leave it at home.

Delete from your phone­book all but the num­bers that will be essen­tial dur­ing the week.

Rename those con­tacts to remove sur­names, per­haps using code names instead.

Erase your sent and received call logs and text mes­sages and do repeat this reg­u­lar­ly.

Make use of the secu­ri­ty fea­tures of your phone so that a PIN code is required to access any of its fea­tures.

There are gen­er­al­ly two types of secu­ri­ty on mobile phones, the PIN that pro­tects the phone and PIN2 that pro­tects the SIM card so it can’t be used in anoth­er phone with­out the code. It may be a lit­tle incon­ve­nient to have to type in the num­ber each time but it’s bet­ter than allow­ing the cops to browse through your phone book, call logs and mes­sages.

If you can’t set your phone to require a PIN code each time it is used, sim­ply switch off your phone when it looks like a police stop and search is like­ly.

—-

Might be worth not­ing about mobiles:

* That the police are also able to retrieve phone calls and sent text mes­sages, both from the phone and the SIM. Once delet­ed off the phone they are NOT gone for good. If you have made a fool­ish phone call or sent some­thing dodgy, and you are at risk from hav­ing your phone tak­en, get a whole new phone and SIM card.

* Police can use your mobile as a track­ing device of your where­abouts, this evi­dence has already been used in cas­es — espe­cial­ly if mak­ing a call. This pin­points your exact loca­tion. So don’t take it any­where you’d rather the cops did­n’t know about. Dis­con­nect­ing the phone by tak­ing out the bat­tery appar­ent­ly can stop this as the phone is no longer con­nect­ed to any elec­tri­cal source.

* Police can bug a mobile and use it as a lis­ten­ing device… if you are say­ing some­thing you don’t want the cops to hear, and you want to be extra para­noid, remove the bat­tery from your phone or leave it else­where. Turn­ing it off will not nec­es­sar­i­ly work!

* If the cops ever get your phone and give it back to you… give it to some­one else not involved in any­thing you are, donate it to char­i­ty or burn it. Do not ever use it again!

—-

Your advice about hav­ing an alter­na­tive SIM is OK if police are search­ing the phys­i­cal phone for text mes­sages. How­ev­er if you are con­cerned about sur­veil­lance involv­ing your mobile phone com­pa­ny, you should be aware that text mes­sages (and phone calls too I would think) send a SIM ID *and* the phone IMEI. On that basis, send­ing a mes­sage using your con­tract phone but a PAYG SIM will still be eas­i­ly trace­able to you.

The best approach is to buy a PAYG phone with cash and only top it up with vouch­ers bought with cash, and use that along­side your reg­u­lar phone. How­ev­er you can’t get away from the fact that it is still a loca­tion-track­ing device. If you have spe­cial need to be care­ful — and that’s a per­son­al judge­ment — only put the bat­tery in when you are away from your house to col­lect mes­sages or to make calls. That said if you live in a high­ly pop­u­lat­ed area — such as flats in a city — then you have less rea­son to wor­ry — the loca­tion track­ing is not very sen­si­tive AFAIK and it’s a right roy­al pain for the author­i­ties to get the data. If you’re a Cli­mate Camp activist and not part of a ter­ror­ist cell then it’s prob­a­bly too much has­sle for them.

It should be obvi­ous but also be care­ful when send­ing per­son­al­ly-iden­ti­fi­able infor­ma­tion in text mes­sages — tele­phone num­bers, address­es, email address­es, account num­bers etc. In the­o­ry the same goes for voice con­tent as soft­ware now can tran­scribe voice con­tent quite reli­ably — how­ev­er this often can’t be avoid­ed and the best thing to do is not to wor­ry about it too much. Remem­ber: our wor­ry­ing is what some upper ech­e­lons of the police want!

Ulti­mate­ly for the activist there is a anti-sur­veil­lance/­con­ve­nience trade-off. Don’t get para­noid as this makes you less effec­tive in your cho­sen field. Be care­ful but, unless you are doing activism that is tar­get­ted for the harsh­est oppres­sion, tol­er­ate a bit of sur­veil­lance rather than re-organ­is­ing your habits com­plete­ly to avoid it.

—

DO BRING A PHONE TO CAMP!

If you can, bring a new PAYG phone, don’t fill it with your friends num­bers, don’t use it from home and don’t call your mum on it.

Don’t ever put your nor­mal SIM in your new phone or your new SIM in your nor­mal phone.
Use the phone at the cli­mate camp to:
keep the legal team informed about arrests and stop & search­es
keep the media team informed about protests and actions
keep your­self informed about things going on around camp and beyond
call for help in a med­ical emer­gency

http://www.activistsecurity.org/

Saving Iceland Blockades Century Aluminum Smelter and Elkem Steel Factory

Sav­ing Ice­land, July 21st 2008
Press Release

Century blockade 1Sav­ing Ice­land, July 21st 2008
Press Release
GRUNDARTANGI – Today 20 activists from Sav­ing Ice­land block­ad­ed the sin­gle sup­ply road to Cen­tu­ry Aluminum’s smelter on Hvalfjor­dur and Elkem – Ice­landic Alloys steel fac­to­ry. They have chained them­selves to each oth­er using arm tubes to form a human block­ade as well as using tri­pod for the first time in Ice­landic his­to­ry.

The action went on for three hours and nobody was arrest­ed. “We protest the envi­ron­men­tal and human health haz­ards Century’s baux­ite min­ing and refin­ing activ­i­ties in Jamaica, their plans for a new smelter and refin­ery in West Con­go. Both Century’s and Elkem’s expan­sion plans will also mean destruc­tion of unique geot­her­mal areas in Ice­land and pro­duce large amounts of green­house gas emis­sions,” says Miri­am Rose of Sav­ing Ice­land (1).

Cen­tu­ry in West-Con­go: open­cast baux­ite min­ing
In 2007 Cen­tu­ry Alu­minum Com­pa­ny signed a mem­o­ran­dum of under­stand­ing (MOU) with the Repub­lic of the Con­go (ROC) for the exclu­sive right to devel­op an alu­mini­um smelter, alu­mi­na refin­ery and a baux­ite mine (2). It spec­i­fies a min­i­mum com­mit­ment of 500 megawatts of gas-gen­er­at­ed elec­tri­cal ener­gy. Cen­tu­ry is sur­vey­ing where to mine the baux­ite and will start build­ing the smelter as soon as pos­si­ble (3).

“We believe that the Repub­lic of the Con­go has all of the ingre­di­ents nec­es­sary to sus­tain a prof­itable alu­minum indus­try,” said Cen­tu­ry CEO Logan W. Kruger (2).
“Kruger is right,” says Snor­ri Páll Jóns­son Úlfhildar­son of Sav­ing Ice­land. “Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al rat­ed the ROC as one of the most cor­rupt regimes in the world. Exact­ly the kind of regimes alu­mini­um cor­po­ra­tions like to deal with…” (4)

“It’s very unlike­ly the poor will have any ben­e­fit from this devel­op­ment but they will pay the price of the envi­ron­men­tal impact. Oil rev­enue in the coun­try has nev­er reached them, why would it be dif­fer­ent for baux­ite?” Úlfhildar­son con­tin­ues.
“Con­sid­er­ing the baux­ite reserves in West Con­go, it is clear that Cen­tu­ry is plan­ning large scale open cast min­ing there, in the same way oth­er cor­po­ra­tions are attempt­ing in Oris­sa and what has also hap­pened in Jamaica, Guyana and Guinea,” says Indi­an alu­mini­um expert and author Samaren­dra Das who will be talk­ing on this top­ic at Reyk­javik Acad­e­mia on Wednes­day (see note a.).

“All over the world, where baux­ite is mined the envi­ron­ment is being destroyed and people’s liveli­hoods and health tak­en away from them. Peo­ple in Ice­land need to know where the baux­ite that is refined and then smelt­ed into alu­mini­um comes from,” says Das.
Cen­tu­ry in Jamaica: envi­ron­men­tal and health haz­ards
Cen­tu­ry-owned St Ann Baux­ite, it’s pre­de­ces­sor Kaiser as well as the ALCOA, RioT­in­to-Alcan and Rusal (which owns 1/3 of Cen­tu­ry), are also active in Jamaica, have been held respon­si­ble for rain­for­est being destroyed and tox­ic pol­lu­tion of drink­ing water (5,6,7). Cen­tu­ry want to open up a sec­ond mine and refin­ery in a joint ven­ture with Chi­nese Min­metals. That com­pa­ny is asso­ci­at­ed with prison labour fac­to­ries and gross human rights abus­es in Chi­na and else­where (see note b.).

Elkem – Ice­landic Alloys: pol­lu­tion acci­dents every week
Elkem — Ice­landic Alloys wants to expand its facil­i­ty at Grun­dar­tan­gi on Hvalfjor­dur for pro­duc­ing fer­rosil­i­con for the steel indus­try. It is already one of Iceland’s largest con­trib­u­tors to green­house gas­es and oth­er pol­lu­tants; expan­sion of the smelter would lead to a sig­nif­i­cant increase in Iceland’s car­bon emis­sions (1).
In July 2007 it was report­ed (8) that Elkem ‘acci­den­tal­ly’ released a huge cloud of pol­lu­tion from their plant. Appar­ent­ly the acci­dent was due to human error. Thor­dur Mag­nus­son, an Elkem spokesman, then said that this human error “recurs sev­er­al times a week.” Sig­ur­b­jorn Hjal­ta­son, chair­man of Kjosarhrep­pur parish, said that Elkem usu­al­ly pro­duced the emis­sions at night through­out the year.

About Sav­ing Ice­land
Last Fri­day, Sav­ing Ice­land stopped work at the con­struc­tion site of Cen­tu­ry Aluminum’s planned new smelter in Hel­gu­vík. This is part of their fourth sum­mer of direct action against heavy indus­try in Ice­land. In July 2007 activists also block­ad­ed the smelter and steel fac­to­ry.
Sav­ing Ice­land was start­ed by Ice­landic envi­ron­men­tal­ists ask­ing for help to protest the Ice­landic wilder­ness, the largest remain­ing in Europe, from heavy indus­try. As well as Cen­tu­ry, oth­er alu­mini­um cor­po­ra­tions ALCOA and Rio Tin­to-Alcan want to con­struct new smelters. This would require exploita­tion of all the geot­her­mal areas in the coun­try, as well as damming all major glacial rivers (see note c.).

This year, the fourth action camp to pro­tect Ice­landic nature has been set up near the Hell­ishei­di geot­her­mal plant east of Reyk­javik, which is cur­rent­ly being expand­ed to pro­duce elec­tric­i­ty for Cen­tu­ry Alu­minum.

More infor­ma­tion
http://www.savingiceland.org

with a movie of the action
saving­ice­land at riseup.net

Notes

A.) On Wednes­day July 23, 19.30 h. Sav­ing Ice­land and Future­land will hold a con­fer­ence with the Indi­an writer, sci­en­tist and alu­mini­um expert Samaren­dra Das and ‘Dream­land’ author Andri Snær Mag­nus­son, on the influ­ence of the alu­mini­um indus­try in the third world. Also, the con­cept of alu­mini­um as a ‘green’ prod­uct will be exam­ined. It will take place at Reyk­javik Acad­e­mia, Hring­braut 121. Mr Das is avail­able for inter­views; please con­tact one of the Sav­ing Ice­land con­tacts above.

B.) In 2004 Min­metals attempt­ed a takeover of Cana­di­an min­ing com­pa­ny Noran­da but were declined in 2005 due to seri­ous con­cerns over human rights abus­es by the Chi­nese com­pa­ny. This report details Minmetal’s asso­ci­a­tion to forced labour:
Dhir, Aaron A. (2006). ’Of Takeovers, For­eign Invest­ment and Human Rights: Unpack­ing the Noran­da-Min­metals Conun­drum’, Bank­ing and Finance Law Review, 22, 77–104.
C.) For more details and an overview of projects in Ice­land, see: http://www.savingiceland.org/sos
Ref­er­ences
(1) Ice­landic Min­istry of the Envi­ron­ment (2006). Iceland’s fourth nation­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion on cli­mate change, report to the UNFCCC. http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/natc/isl… [Accessed 20–6‑08]
(2) AZ Mate­ri­als News (2007). Cen­tu­ry Alu­mini­um to Build Alu­mini­um Smelter in Repub­lic of Con­go. http://www.azom.com/News.asp?NewsID=7734 [Accessed 20–6‑08]
(3) Afrique en Ligne (2008). Con­go to build alu­mini­um smelter in Pointe-Noire. http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/africa-… [Accessed 20–6‑08]
(4) Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al (2006). Cor­rup­tion Per­cep­tions Index 2006. Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al, Berlin.
(5) Zadie Neufville, April 6, 2001, ’Baux­ite Min­ing Blamed for Defor­esta­tion’. See http://forests.org/archive/samerica/baux…. [Accessed 20–6‑08]
(6) Mines and Com­mu­ni­ties report,’Bauxite Mine Fight Looms in Jamaica’s Cock­pit Coun­try’, 24th Octo­ber 2006. http://www.minesandcommunities.org/artic…. [Accessed 20–6‑08]
(7) Al Jazeera (2008). Envi­ron­men­tal dam­age from min­ing in Jamaica, June 11, 2008 News. Avail­able through http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJa2ftQwf…. [Accessed 20–6‑08]
(8) MBL.is (2007). Reykur frá járn­blendi­verksmiðjun­ni Grun­dar­tan­ga. http://mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2007/07… [Accessed 20–6‑08]

Shell to Sea Update

Dear Friends,
Hope this email finds ye well. Here is a brief update on the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion:

Dear Friends,
Hope this email finds ye well. Here is a brief update on the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion:

1. Shell activ­i­ty in the area is ramp­ing up late­ly and if you are think­ing of vis­it­ing the area we would call on you to do it over the next few weeks as help in resist­ing the work that is list­ed below is need­ed. You are always more than wel­come to stay at the new camp house; email us (rossportsolidaritycamp@gmail.com) or phone 0851141170 to say when you can come. Check out our new web­site too: www.rossportsolidaritycamp.110mb.com

2. Shell plan to start off­shore pipeline lay­ing short­ly as the Soltaire (pipe lay­ing ship) is cur­rent­ly off the coast of Done­gal. Shell have also been vis­it­ing hous­es late­ly around Glen­gad where the pipeline is due to come ashore say­ing that there would be some dig­ging and noise dis­tur­bance in the area short­ly. How­ev­er they have hit a hitch with the Erris Fish­er­men as this week they had a protest to object to where Shell are plac­ing their waste out­flow pipe. Pat O Don­nell said “We’ve been fish­ing these waters for gen­er­a­tions and we all have licences to fish them. So let the Min­is­ter for Jus­tice and the Gov­ern­ment pro­tect our rights now the way they brought in the Gar­daí to pro­tect the work­ers on the gas refin­ery,”
He added that if Shell want­ed to remove his crab pots from the route of the pipeline, they would have to get a court order. “And I won’t heed the court order so they’ll have to send me and oth­er fish­er­men to jail”. Read a report of it here http://www.indymedia.ie/article/88366

2. Shell have begun work­ing on their com­pound in Glen­gad by start­ing to put in secu­ri­ty fences which are in order that work will be able to begin on some of the off­shore work. (See pic­tures here http://www.corribsos.com/index.php?id=1815). Most of this work occurs on a Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion with some of the fenc­ing only about 200m from where the camp was. This work is almost cer­tain­ly ille­gal as plan­ning per­mis­sion has still not been grant­ed for any of the onshore pipeline. But the pow­ers that be are ignor­ing all attempts to high­light the sit­u­a­tion and let­ting Shell oper­ate as they wish. Two peo­ple were arrest­ed in the last week on the site but were released with­out charge.

3. Shell secu­ri­ty: There is now a new secu­ri­ty firm oper­at­ing in the area on behalf of Shell. Over the last week Shell have got some seri­ous­ly bad press over the sur­veil­lance and inti­ma­tion of local res­i­dents which includ­ed the film­ing of fam­i­lies and chil­dren on glen­gad beach (see: http://www.corribsos.com/index.php?id=1820). Now any­one who vis­its the area and goes for a swim in the sea just beside where the camp used to be, the chances are you will be filmed. Today Shell were put under pres­sure on nation­al radio to iden­ti­fy the secu­ri­ty firm but refused to do so, mak­ing it obvi­ous that Shell have some­thing to hide as to who the firm is (it is rumoured local­ly that it is the Golan group). How­ev­er even these heav­ies need pro­tect­ing as evi­denced by how the gar­daí escort­ed them off when the full secu­ri­ty bus was stopped by locals for fail­ing to dis­play any tax or insur­ance but this infringe­ment was as usu­al ignored by the gar­daí.

4. Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil build­ing a road for Shell. The local author­i­ty is build­ing a road through the area specif­i­cal­ly for Shell against the wish­es of the local peo­ple. It shows how invid­i­ous the Shell men­tal­i­ty is, as now you have coun­cil employ­ees going around brib­ing and threat­en­ing local res­i­dents to give per­mis­sion for the coun­cil to widen the road. So far these bribes and threats have only swayed one or 2 of the landown­ers and the local res­i­dent are fight­ing the road upgrade through legal chan­nels. (See http://www.indymedia.ie/article/88317).

There is also alot of oth­er stuff going on, such as Shell being stopped from access­ing Ross­port com­mon­age late­ly, loads of sub­mis­sions gone into the plan­ning appli­ca­tions and a Euro­pean Peti­tions Chal­lenge. As always we need help with every­thing from direct actions, to ban­ner mak­ing, to help­ing out on the camp gar­den so please vis­it if you have time to spare. Also big thanks to the peo­ple in Leeds for the recent camp fundrais­er.

Any­way see all the lat­est cam­paign news on http://www.shelltosea.com

Hope to see some of ye soon.

Best wish­es from the Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Campers x

www.rossportsolidaritycamp.110mb.com

Saving Iceland Camp 2008 has Begun and First Action

The 4th Sav­ing Ice­land action camp has now begun in a beau­ti­ful threat­ened geot­her­mal val­ley beside Hell­isheiðisvirkjun in the Hengill area, where it will tar­get the expan­sion of the geot­her­mal pow­er sta­tion for the Grun­dar­tan­gi plant and oth­er South­west­ern heavy indus­try projects.

The 4th Sav­ing Ice­land action camp has now begun in a beau­ti­ful threat­ened geot­her­mal val­ley beside Hell­isheiðisvirkjun in the Hengill area, where it will tar­get the expan­sion of the geot­her­mal pow­er sta­tion for the Grun­dar­tan­gi plant and oth­er South­west­ern heavy indus­try projects.

This year activists from Ice­land, Aus­tralia, Amer­i­ca, Den­mark, Ger­many, Britain, Hol­land, France, Bel­gium and Italy amongst oth­ers have joined the cam­paign as infor­ma­tion about the destruc­tion of Iceland’s wilder­ness has spread. This year the cam­paign will focus specif­i­cal­ly on the human­i­tar­i­an effects of alu­mini­um pro­duc­tion, from the geno­cides asso­ci­at­ed with min­ing in India, South Amer­i­ca, Jamaica and more, to the use of alu­mini­um for arms man­u­fac­ture and the defence indus­try.

A week of inter­na­tion­al Sav­ing Ice­land sol­i­dar­i­ty actions will take place from July 21st to 27th in dif­fer­ent Euro­pean coun­tries. A spe­cialised con­fer­ence with respect­ed Indi­an writer and alu­mini­um expert Samaren­dra Das and Andri Snær will exam­ine the idea of “green alu­mini­um” and the effects of the Alu­mini­um indus­try in the Third World, (July 23 at Reyk­javikur Akademia).
On Sun­day the 20th July Sav­ing Ice­land and mem­bers of Sól á Suður­lan­di and the Ice­landic Moun­tain Guides will team up to lead a pub­lic tour around areas of Þjórsá threat­ened by three planned dam projects. A coach will leave Reyk­javík at 12:00 noon and return by 18:00, cost­ing 500 kr for the whole tour. Of course, direct action can as well soon be expect­ed.

savingiceland@riseup.net
http://www.savingiceland.org

—–

Sav­ing Ice­land Stops Work at Cen­tu­ry Alu­mini­um Con­struc­tion Site

19.07.2008
HELGUVIK (ICELAND) – Ear­ly this morn­ing 40 activists from over 10 coun­tries occu­pied the con­struc­tion site where Cen­tu­ry Alu­minum are prepar­ing to build their Hel­gu­vík alu­mini­um smelter, and chained them­selves to machin­ery and cranes. The protest is aimed at dam­age to geot­her­mal areas in south­west Ice­land and Century’s envi­ron­men­tal and human rights abus­es in Jamaica and Africa.

The con­struc­tion of the Cen­tu­ry Hel­gu­vík plant depends on the expan­sion of geot­her­mal ener­gy in Hell­isheiði and Reyk­janes (1). Con­struc­tion began in June, with­out a valid Envi­ron­men­tal Impact Assess­ment, or a guar­an­tee of suf­fi­cient ener­gy (435 MW) for the smelter. (2)

’Just as with Alcoa Fjar­daal, the gov­ern­ment shows no inter­est in fol­low­ing the the legal process for these huge projects. Instead they act as if the smelter and pow­er projects are inevitable, cre­at­ing mass apa­thy. At the same time, Century’s human rights abuse record has large­ly gone unno­ticed.’, says Snor­ri Páll Jóns­son Ulfhildur­son from Sav­ing Ice­land.

Amer­i­can cor­po­ra­tion Cen­tu­ry Alu­minum is involved in a num­ber of projects in Africa and the Caribbean which are con­tend­ed by envi­ron­men­tal and human rights cam­paign­ers.

In Jamaica, Cen­tu­ry joint­ly owns a 4.8 mil­lion tonne baux­ite mine which is caus­ing large-scale defor­esta­tion of rain­for­est. (3,4,5) Cen­tu­ry are also involved in a joint ven­ture to open up a sec­ond mine and alu­mi­na refin­ery with Chi­nese com­pa­ny Min­metals, who are asso­ci­at­ed with prison labour fac­to­ries and gross human rights abus­es in Chi­na and else­where (6,7).

In Feb­ru­ary 2007 Cen­tu­ry Alu­mini­um signed a mem­o­ran­dum of under­stand­ing with the Repub­lic of Con­go for the exclu­sive right to devel­op a smelter, an alu­mi­na refin­ery and a baux­ite mine with a min­i­mum com­mit­ment of 500 megawatts of gas-gen­er­at­ed elec­tri­cal ener­gy in Pointe Noire.(8)

’Con­go is renowned for its hor­ren­dous human rights con­di­tions includ­ing ter­ri­ble mass rapes, unlaw­ful killings, tor­ture and cor­rup­tion. Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al has also rat­ed it one of the most cor­rupt regimes in the world. That’s usu­al­ly exact­ly the kind of regimes cor­po­ra­tions like Cen­tu­ry pre­fer to deal with…’, says Sav­ing Iceland’s Snor­ri. (9,10)

’The finan­cial scams orches­trat­ed by alu­mini­um com­pa­nies have cre­at­ed eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal ruin in many coun­tries, dra­mat­i­cal­ly affect­ing the lives of thou­sands of their cit­i­zens. In each case, a sus­tained and cost­ly PR cam­paign promis­ing a new age of pros­per­i­ty pre­ced­ed this con­struc­tion.’ Indi­an sci­en­tist, Alu­mini­um expert and writer Samaren­dra Dasexplains.(11) Das will be giv­ing a num­ber of talks in Ice­land in July, includ­ing a con­fer­ence with Andi Snær Mag­nus­son on the 23rd in Reyk­javikur Akademian.(12)

(1) Land­vernd report, Nóvem­ber 2007, ’Athugasemdir veg­na umhver­fisáhri­fa orkuöflu­nar fyrir álver í Hel­gu­vík, sbr. frum­matsskýrslur Orku­veitu Reyk­javíkur fyrir Bitru­virkjun og virkjun við Hver­ahlíð.’

(2) In the table below, the plan­ning agency details that the 435 MW required for the smelter will come from a num­ber of geot­her­mal sites in Reyk­janes and Hell­isheiði. With Bitravirkjun on hold and Reyk­janes not yet guar­an­teed, the ener­gy require­ments are far from filled. Land­vernd states that only 60% of required ener­gy had been found in 2007, before Bitravirkjun was sus­pend­ed. (see ref­er­ence 1)
For more infor­ma­tion on the lack of prop­er Envi­ron­men­tal Impact Assess­ment see The Ecol­o­gist, Octo­ber 2007,’ Alu­mini­um Tyrants’. Jaap Krater, Miri­am Rose and Mark Anslow.

(3) Cen­tu­ry Alu­mini­um web­site. http://www.centuryca.com/st_ann.html

(4) Zadie Neufville, April 6, 2001, ’Baux­ite Min­ing Blamed for Defor­esta­tion’. See http://forests.org/archive/samerica/baux….

(5) Mines and Com­mu­ni­ties report,’Bauxite Mine Fight Looms in Jamaica’s Cock­pit Coun­try’, 24th Octo­ber 2006 at http://www.minesandcommunities.org/artic….

(6) ’Cen­tu­ry Alu­minum in Jamaica min­ing deal’, Mon­day, May 15, 2006, Sil­i­con Val­ley / San Jose Busi­ness Jour­nal.

(7) In 2004 Min­metals attempt­ed a takeover of Cana­di­an min­ing com­pa­ny Noran­da but were declined in 2005 due to seri­ous con­cerns over human rights abus­es by the Chi­nese com­pa­ny. This report details Minmetal’s asso­ci­a­tion to forced labour.

Aaron A. Dhir, ’Of Takeovers, For­eign Invest­ment and Human Rights: Unpack­ing the Noran­da-Min­metals Conun­drum’, Bank­ing & Finance Law Review, Vol. 22, pp. 77–104, 2006.

(8) http://sec.edgar-online.com/2007/03/01/ … tion11.asp
and http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/africa … 83302.html

(9) Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al Report 2007, http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/africa/….

(10) Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al (2006). Cor­rup­tion Per­cep­tions Index 2006. Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al, Berlin.

(11) Samaren­dra Das, ’Min­ing sacred moun­tains to fuel the war on ter­ror’. June 2008. See https://savingiceland.puscii.nl/wordpres…

(12) On Wednes­day July 23, 19.30 h. Sav­ing Ice­land will hold a con­fer­ence with the Indi­an writer, sci­en­tist and alu­mini­um expert Samaren­dra Das and ‘Dream­land’ author Andri Snær Mag­nus­son, on the influ­ence of the alu­mini­um indus­try in the third world. Also, the con­cept of alu­mini­um as a ‘green’ prod­uct will be exam­ined. The evening is organ­ised joint­ly with Future­land. It will take place at the Reyk­javiku­rakademi­an house on Hring­braut 121.

More infor­ma­tion and back­ground: www.savingiceland.org

Swomp4 direct environmental action in Amsterdam

Swomp4 direct action in the Rusten­burg­er­straat in Ams­ter­dam squats piece of land and starts urban regen­er­a­tion per­ma­cul­ture project.

Swomp4 direct action in the Rusten­burg­er­straat in Ams­ter­dam squats piece of land and starts urban regen­er­a­tion per­ma­cul­ture project.

On Fri­day July 11 a group of squat­ters occu­pied this piece of land in the Rusten­burg­er­straat in de Pijp in Ams­ter­dam. Tech­ni­cal­ly they are wild campers, as the law in Hol­land only allows you to squat a build­ing that has been emp­ty for one year. With­in three days they already had run­ning water and had start­ed to plant veg­eta­bles and devel­op an urban per­ma­cul­ture project. This is direct action at its very best. The land was going to waste in the heart of the city, and these guys are try­ing their utmost to turn the sandy waste­land into a green oasis. This com­ing Sat­ur­day they are plan­ning a per­ma­cul­ture work­shop. Yes­ter­day it was inspir­ing talk­ing to them and lis­ten­ing to their plans. Their heart is in the right place and they care about how we use land in cities, the hous­ing sit­u­a­tion in a city that is becom­ing gen­tri­fied, and the envi­ron­men­tal issues of the day. Instead of hav­ing meet­ings and mak­ing plans, these guys took direct action to do some­thing pos­i­tive and show the local com­mu­ni­ty what is pos­si­ble in the field of urban regen­er­a­tion. So far most of the neigh­bors have react­ed in a pos­i­tive way. The campers are in a gold­fish bowl, and I admire their courage and deter­mi­na­tion. Some of them are old friends that I have known from protest actions in the past. These are peo­ple who stand by you when the going gets tough. So I wish them all the luck in the world and I’ll be back to take more pic­tures and get more news in the days ahead. Swomp4 is a cool action, for nature, the com­mu­ni­ty, and the future.

Communique on the arsons against the Agriculture Ministry of Cuprys

Arsons at the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture in Cyprus (Nicosia, 28/3/2008)

Around 3:30 a fire erupt­ed wreck­ing 4 cars and dam­ag­ing one more, under­neath witch were set incen­di­ary devices with gas can­is­ters, set on fire by cubes of sol­id oil. Police inves­ti­ga­tions tar­get the anti­au­thor­i­tar­i­an milieu.

Pho­to: http://bp2.blogger.com/_gNWmi4CTVNw/R_IaW_a_qPI/AAAAAAAAAI4/z6HCV8WTYys/s1600‑h/152771.jpg

Arsons at the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture in Cyprus (Nicosia, 28/3/2008)

Around 3:30 a fire erupt­ed wreck­ing 4 cars and dam­ag­ing one more, under­neath witch were set incen­di­ary devices with gas can­is­ters, set on fire by cubes of sol­id oil. Police inves­ti­ga­tions tar­get the anti­au­thor­i­tar­i­an milieu.

Pho­to: http://bp2.blogger.com/_gNWmi4CTVNw/R_IaW_a_qPI/AAAAAAAAAI4/z6HCV8WTYys/s1600‑h/152771.jpg

Com­mu­nique: http://directactiongr.blogspot.com/2008/07/communique-on-attack-at-agriculture.html

Com­mu­nique on the attack at the Agri­cul­ture Min­istry of Cyprus (Nicosia, 28/3/2008)

The fol­low­ing trans­la­tion is from a text pub­lished at: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=891829

“We feel unlim­it­ed rage for the sick envi­ron­ment we are forced to live in. On March 27, 2008 we attacked, giv­en its juris­dic­tion on this treaty, against 5 offi­cial vehi­cles of the MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE in Nicosia, with­out though sep­a­rat­ing it from the rest sta­tist-cap­i­tal­ist mech­a­nism in its total­i­ty.

The author­i­tar­i­an struc­ture of the sys­tem we live in, defends the inter­ests of the man­agers of the econ­o­my (tur­ism, indus­try, entre­pre­neur com­pa­nies etc). This, accord­ing to a causal­i­ty, leads to the destruc­tion of forests, water mis­usage, air and soil pol­lu­tion, destruc­tion of the reserves, extinc­tion of species and to a larg­er cli­max the green­house effect and the intense cli­mate changes.

The pseu­do-eco­log­i­cal sen­si­tiv­i­ties of the sta­tists we wit­ness every day man­i­fest through the press, is noth­ing more than des­per­ate attempts to put the “cit­i­zens” minds at rest. It is noth­ing more than the phe­nomeni­cal solv­ing of the prob­lems they ‑with our own com­plic­i­ty- cre­at­ed inside the con­text of the spec­ta­cle. In real­i­ty, not even the tini­est effort is done to solve them. Some­thing that can be proven by the total abs­cence of alter­na­tive ener­gy sources in a coun­try with very strong sun­light and also the spas­mod­ic actions for the recov­ery of water famine, since this sit­u­a­tion has reached a pick, while in the same time there are huge wastes for golf fields and for the tur­ist indus­try.

The ridicu­lous pro­gress­es and the green slide, can­not reas­sure us, they can only DISGUST us. The envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion com­bined with the sound-pol­lu­tion, the light-pol­lu­tion, stench and vul­gar aes­thet­ics of the city, as well as the unbear­able bore­dom of the duet work-con­sump­tion, destroy our men­tal and phys­i­cal health. We feel alien­ation in the internee life you offer us.
WE SHAL KEEP ON REMINDING YOU:
ATTACK, IT’S AN ONE WAY ROAD FOR US!

EVERGREEN RAGE”

Note: This com­mu­nique was pub­lished on July 12, 2008 at athens.indymedia.org

Spirit of Freedom (July 2008)

Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“The whole expe­ri­ence has been tough, but all the kind and strength­en­ing words and wise thoughts from strangers made it much eas­i­er!” (For­mer Swedish Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Prisoner Solidarity 8Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“The whole expe­ri­ence has been tough, but all the kind and strength­en­ing words and wise thoughts from strangers made it much eas­i­er!” (For­mer Swedish Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Wel­come to the July 2008 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. As a num­ber of ELP sup­port­ers will be aware, ELP has tra­di­tion­al­ly ded­i­cat­ed our newslet­ters to fall­en friends, who have either been killed or seri­ous­ly injured as a result of their protest activ­i­ties. For the past few months ELP has­n’t car­ried any ded­i­ca­tion and we hoped that we would not have to ded­i­cate anoth­er newslet­ter to a fall­en friend again. How­ev­er last month, ELP received the heart­break­ing news about the death of Marie Vesco. Marie was a French activist liv­ing in Eng­land. She was involved with a num­ber of groups includ­ing ‘Food Not Bombs’. On Wednes­day the 4th of June 2008 Marie was cycling to the Car­ni­val Against the Arms Trade when a Four Wheel Dri­ve
vehi­cle (an SUV if your Amer­i­can) swerved across two lanes hit­ting Marie. A sec­ond vehi­cle then also hit Marie. Marie died instant­ly: she was just a few days away from her 20th birth­day. Marie is remem­bered as a warm, loud, fun, viva­cious fig­ure with an infec­tious laugh that was always ready to help oth­ers. ELP under­stands that at least two Crit­i­cal Mass cycle rides have already been ded­i­cat­ed to Marie. Like­wise in mem­o­ry of Marie ELP is ded­i­cat­ing this newslet­ter to her mem­o­ry. The loss of Marie is a blow for the move­ment and our thoughts are with her fam­i­ly and friends.

ECO-DEFENCE PRISONERS

Tre Arrow, SWIS #640393, Mult­nom­ah Coun­ty Deten­tion Cen­ter, 1120 S.W. 3rd Avenue, Port­land, Ore­gon 97206, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing of six and a half years impris­on­ment hav­ing reached a non-coop­er­a­tion plea-bar­gain with the author­i­ties who accuse him of involve­ment in two arsons. 1) an arson on log­ging trucks 2) an arson on vehi­cles owned by a sand & grav­el com­pa­ny. (Tre is a raw ener­gy veg­an — He has asked that his let­ters of sup­port are writ­ten on scrap paper or tree-free paper).

Grant Barnes #137563, San Car­los Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty, PO Box 3, Pueblo, CO 81002, USA. Serv­ing 12 years for set­ting fire to a num­ber of SUV vehi­cles. The let­ters ELF were spray paint­ed onto all of the vehi­cles. (Grant is a veg­an).

Nathan Block, #36359–086, FCI Lom­poc, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, 3600 Guard Road, Lom­poc, CA 93436, USA. Serv­ing 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Diet unknown).

Mar­co Camenisch, Post­fach 3143, CH-8105 Regens­dorf, Switzer­land. Serv­ing 18 years. 1) Ten years for using explo­sives to destroy elec­tric­i­ty pylons lead­ing from nuclear pow­er sta­tions. 2) Eight years for the mur­der of a Swiss Board­er Guard whilst on the run. In ’02 Mar­co com­plet­ed a 12-year sen­tence in Italy for destroy­ing elec­tric­i­ty pylons in Italy. (Mar­co is a meat eater who encour­ages organ­ic liv­ing).

Daniele Casali­ni, Casa Cir­con­dar­i­ale, Via Burla 59, 43100 Par­ma, Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy. (Daniele is a veg­an).

Rod Coro­n­a­do — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Francesco Gioia, C.C. Sol­lic­ciano, Via Giro­lamo Min­ervi­ni 2/R, 50142 Firen­ze Sol­lic­ciano (FI), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy. (Francesco is a veg­e­tar­i­an and Straight Edge).

Pao­la Gori, Via delle Mac­chie 9, 57124 Livorno, Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of allow­ing her house to be used to plan ille­gal activ­i­ty. (Pao­la is a veg­an).

Jef­frey Luers, # 13797671, CRCI, 9111 NE Sun­der­land Ave, Port­land, OR 97211–1708, USA. Serv­ing 10 years for arson on a SUV deal­er­ship & the attempt­ed arson of an oil truck. The orig­i­nal sen­tence was 22 years & 8 months, but was reduced on appeal. (Diet unknown).

Eric McDavid, 16209–097. FCI Vic­torville Medi­um II, PO BOX 5700, Ade­lan­to, CA 92301, USA. Serv­ing 19 years & 7 months for plan­ning to destroy the prop­er­ty of the U.S. Forestry Ser­vice, mobile phone masts and pow­er plants. At the point of his arrest no crim­i­nal dam­age has actu­al­ly occurred. (Eric is a veg­an).

Daniel McGowan, Colum­bia Coun­ty Jail, 403 Jack­son Street, Portage, Wis­con­sin 53901, USA. Serv­ing 7 years for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an old growth log­ging cor­po­ra­tion. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Daniel is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

Jonathan Paul — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Bri­ana Waters, 36432–086, FDC — Seat­ac, Fed­er­al Deten­tion Cen­ter, P.O. Box 13900, Seat­tle, WA 98198, USA. Serv­ing six years for involve­ment in an ELF arson on a Uni­ver­si­ty. (Diet unknown).

Joy­an­na Zach­er, #36360–086, FCI Dublin, 5700 8th St.- Camp Parks- Unit F, Dublin, CA 94568, USA. Serv­ing 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted her role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Diet unknown).

ANIMAL LIBERATION PRISONERS
(All Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers fol­low a min­i­mum veg­e­tar­i­an diet and most are veg­an).

Jon Able­white TB4885, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA, Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion. (Jon is a veg­an).

Gregg Avery TA7450, HMP Win­ches­ter, Rom­sey Road, Win­ches­ter, SO22 5DF, Eng­land. On remand accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to his involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (Gregg is a veg­an).

Natasha Avery NR8987, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx. TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. Jailed for breach­ing her parole con­di­tions imposed on her for telling a fox hunt­ing mur­der­ing scum what she thought of them. Also await­ing tri­al accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to her involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (Nat is a veg­an).

Mel Broughton TN9138, HMP Wood­hill, Tat­ten­hoe Street, Mil­ton Keynes, Bucks MK4 4DA, Eng­land. On remand accused of involve­ment with an arson and black­mail cam­paign against an Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty vivi­sec­tion estab­lish­ment. (Mel is a veg­an).

Mar­tin Bal­luch, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Mar­tin is a veg­an)

Christoph, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Christo­pher does not wish to have his full name pub­lished.

Jacob Con­roy #93501–011, FCI Vic­torville Medi­um I Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, P.O. Box 5300, Ade­lan­to, CA 92301, USA. Serv­ing 48 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Jake is a veg­an).

Rod­ney Coro­n­a­do #03895–000, FCI El Reno, PO Box 1500, El Reno, OK 73036, USA. Serv­ing one-year impris­on­ment after he informed peo­ple how to make an incen­di­ary device dur­ing a speech at an ani­mal rights gath­er­ing. (Rod is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

Don­ald Cur­rie A3660AA, HMP Parkhurst, New­port, Isle of Wight, PO30 5NX, Eng­land. Serv­ing an Inde­ter­mi­nate Sen­tence, of not less than six actu­al years, for car­ry­ing out arsons against tar­gets asso­ci­at­ed the vivi­sec­tion indus­try includ­ing HLS. (Don is a veg­an).

Lau­ren Gaz­zo­la #93497–011, FCI Dan­bury, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, Route #37Danbury, CT 06811, USA. Serv­ing 54 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Lau­ren is a veg­an).

Sarah Gis­borne, LT5393, HMP Down­view, Sut­ton Lane, Sut­ton, Sur­rey, SM2 5PD, Eng­land. Serv­ing 5½ years for con­spir­a­cy to cause crim­i­nal dam­age fol­low­ing the dam­ag­ing of 8 vehi­cles owned by peo­ple linked to Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ence. Due for release at the end of July (Sarah is a veg­an).

Joshua Harp­er #29429–086, FCI Sheri­dan Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, P.O. Box 5000, Sheri­dan, OR 97378 USA. Serv­ing 36 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Josh is a veg­an).

Jan, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an ‘s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Jan does not wish to have his full name pub­lished.

Kevin Kroem­mer, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Kevin is a veg­an)

Leo, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Leo does not wish to have his full name pub­lished.

Sabine, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Sabine does not wish to have their full name pub­lished.

Sean Kirt­ley WC 6977, HM Prison Blak­en­hurst, Hewell Lane, Red­ditch, B97 6QS, Eng­land. Serv­ing four and a half years for run­ning an anti-vivi­sec­tion cam­paign web­site. (Sean is a veg­an).

Kevin Kjon­aas #93502–011, FCI Sand­stone, PO Box 1000, Sand­stone, MN 55072 USA. Serv­ing 72 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Kevin is a veg­an).

Daniel McGowan — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

Heather Nichol­son VM4859, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx. TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. On remand accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to her involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (Heather is a veg­an).

Jonathan Paul, #07167–085, FCI Phoenix, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, 37910 N 45th Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85086, USA. Sen­tenced to 51 months for an ALF arson on a horse meat plant. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy. (Jonathan is a veg­an).

Andrew Stepan­ian #26399–050, FCI But­ner Medi­um II Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, PO Box 1500, But­ner, NC 27509 USA. Serv­ing 36 months for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Andrew is a veg­an).

Ker­ry Whit­burn TB4886, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA, Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion. (Ker­ry is a veg­an).

Sarah White­head, VM7684, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx, TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. Serv­ing two years for: 1) res­cu­ing a pup­py from hor­rif­ic con­di­tions. 2) res­cu­ing over 100 ani­mals from a pet breed­er who was lat­er pros­e­cut­ed for ani­mal abuse. Also await­ing tri­al for SHAC activ­i­ty. (Sarah is a veg­an)

PLOUGHSHARES PRISONERS

Helen Wood­son, 03231–045, FMC Car­swell — Admin. Max. Unit, POB 27137, Ft. Worth, TX 76127, USA. Serv­ing 8 years 10 months for actions that focused on the inter­re­la­tion­ship of war & the destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al world. The actions includ­ed pour­ing red paint over the secu­ri­ty desk of a fed­er­al court and mak­ing threat­en­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions. Pre­vi­ous­ly Helen had served 20½ years for: 1) Using a ham­mer to dis­arm a nuclear mis­sile silo. 2) Burn­ing $25,000 on the floor of a bank whilst denounc­ing war, envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion & eco­nom­ic injus­tice. 3) Mail­ing warn­ing let­ters with bul­lets attached to Gov­ern­ment & cor­po­rate offi­cials. (Diet unknown).

THE LECCE FIVE
The Lec­ce Five have been charged with “sub­ver­sive asso­ci­a­tion” accused of dam­ag­ing Esso petrol pumps to oppose the War on Iraq; sab­o­tag­ing the cash machines of a bank which funds an immi­gra­tion cen­tre; and tar­get­ing the multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny Benet­ton in sup­port of Mapuche land rights activists in Chile. All of the defen­dants are cur­rent­ly either under house arrest or released on bail.

ANTIFA PRISONERS

Vah­tang Devitlidze, ul. Libbedo­va 42, UO 68/2, otryad 14, briga­da 142, g. Hagyshen­sk, Krasnodarskiy Kray, 352680 Rus­sia. Serv­ing 2½ years for stab­bing a neo-nazi in the leg whilst defend­ing him­self from attack. (Diet unknown).

Augustin Kraus, Vazeb­ni veznice, PP‑1, Lit­o­merice, 41 201, Czech Repub­lic. Serv­ing 14 months for his par­tic­i­pa­tion in attacks against local neo-nazis. His charge was “bod­i­ly harm”. He speaks Czech, Slo­vak and Pol­ish. You can
also write him short post­cards in Eng­lish. (Diet unknown).

Fabio Milan, C.C. via Pianez­za 300, 10151 Tori­no, Italy. On remand accused of fight­ing with the police after an anti-fas­cist protest. (Diet unknown).

Andrea Neff, Bnr: 746/07/2, Jus­tizvol­lzugsanstalt fur Frauen in Berlin, Arkonas­trasse 56, 13189 Berlin, Ger­many. Serv­ing 14 months for anti-fas­cist activ­i­ty. (Diet unknown).

Chris­t­ian Süm­mer­mann, Bnr: 441/08/5, JVA Plötzensee, Lehrter­str. 61, 10557 Berlin, Ger­many. Serv­ing 40 months for breach­ing the peace whilst serv­ing a sus­pend­ed sen­tence issued for anti-fas­cist activ­i­ties. (Diet unknown).

Tomasz Wiloszews­ki, Zak­lad Karny, Orze­chowa 5, 98–200 Sier­adz, Poland. Serv­ing 15 years for acci­den­tal­ly killing a neo-nazi whilst defend­ing him­self. (Tomasz is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

OTHER PRISONERS

Olga Alek­san­drov­na Nevskaya, UU163/5, 7 Otryad, pos. Dzerzhin­skiy, Mozhaysk 140090 Moskovskaya oblast, Rus­sia. Eco-activist serv­ing 6 years for arson, crim­i­nal dam­age and caus­ing explo­sions in protest at the war in Chech­nya. Due for release in 2009. (Diet unknown).

Vagge­lis Botzatzis, Komo­ti­ni Juridi­cal Prison (“Dikastikes Fylakes Komo­ti­nis”), T.K. 69100, Greece. On remand accused of set­ting fire to two com­pa­ny cars owned by a energy/power com­pa­ny. It is believed that the per­son or per­sons unknown who car­ried out the arson did so in protest at the destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment and in sup­port of two work­ers who
died at the pow­er plant. Vagge­lis is also accused of set­ting fire to a bank and start­ing a fire inside a car yard. (Meat Eater).

Michael W. Sykes, 100 East 2nd St, Mon­roe, Michi­gan 48161, USA. Youth held on remand accused of anti-sprawl arsons, crim­i­nal dam­age, spray-paint­ing an anar­chist sign and burn­ing the Amer­i­can flag. (Diet unknown)

Fran Thomp­son, #1090915 HU 1C, WERDCC, PO Box 300, Van­dalia, MO 63382, USA. Serv­ing Life for killing, in self-defence, a stalk­er who had bro­ken into her home. Before her impris­on­ment Fran was an eco, ani­mal & anti-nuke cam­paign­er. (Fran is a veg­an).

MOVE
MOVE is an eco-rev­o­lu­tion­ary group who car­ried out protests in defence of all life. All move pris­on­ers describe them­selves as veg­e­tar­i­ans. There are cur­rent­ly eight MOVE activists in prison each serv­ing 100 years after been framed for the mur­der of a cop in 1979. 9th defen­dant, Mer­le Africa, died in prison in 1998.

Deb­bie Simms Africa (006307), Janet Hol­loway Africa (006308) and Janine Philips Africa (006309) all at: SCI Cam­bridge Springs, 451 Fuller­ton Ave, Cam­bridge Springs, PA 16403–1238, USA.

Michael Davis Africa (AM4973) and Charles Simms Africa (AM4975) both at SCI Grater­ford, PO Box 244, Grater­ford, PA 19426–0244, USA.

Edward Good­man Africa (AM4974), SCI Mahanoy, 301 Morea Rd, Frackville, PA 17932, USA.

William Philips Africa (AM4984) and Del­bert Orr Africa (AM4985) both at SCI Dal­las Draw­er K, Dal­las, PA 18612, USA.

Mumia Abu Jamal, (AM8335), SCI Greene, 175 Progress Dri­ve, Way­nes­burg PA 15370, USA. In 1981 Mumia, for­mer Black Pan­ther and vocal sup­port­er of MOVE, was framed for the mur­der of a cop. He was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death but is cur­rent­ly await­ing re-sen­tenc­ing fol­low­ing a court hear­ing in 2001.

STATEMENT ON VIOLENCE
Some peo­ple list­ed in this newslet­ter have car­ried out vio­lent actions. ‘Spir­it of Free­dom’ does not con­done vio­lence. But we are also against cen­sor­ship & believe peo­ple can decide for them­selves who they wish to sup­port.

ABOUT E.L.P. SUPPORT NETWORK
ELP is an inter­na­tion­al eco-pris­on­er sup­port net­work found­ed, in Britain, in 1993 to sup­port jailed eco-activists. We sup­port the pris­on­ers by pro­duc­ing var­i­ous reg­u­lar pris­on­er lists:

Spir­it of Free­dom is ELP’s inter­na­tion­al month­ly pris­on­er list­ing which is cir­cu­lat­ed by e‑mail.

Urgent ELP! Bul­letin is an e‑mail ser­vice that dis­trib­utes the names of any new eco-pris­on­er as soon as ELP gets their details. For more info e‑mail ELP4321@hotmail.com

On-Line Newslet­ters — ELP has a num­ber of web­sites that pro­vide news, pris­on­er lists and addi­tion­al info about ELP & the pris­on­ers.

Eng­lish lan­guage ELP Web­site
www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk

Greek lan­guage ELP Web­site
http://greekelp.blogspot.com

North Amer­i­can ELP Web­site
www.ecoprisoners.org

Turk­ish lan­guage ELP Web­site
www.geocities.com/yesilanarsi/elp.htm

ELP Extra is an e‑mail group that cir­cu­lates the details of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, ELP learns about, who do not fall with­in the remit for sup­port by ELP. To sub­scribe to the list e‑mail ELP4321@Hotmail.com

Aus­tralian ELP.SN is our Aus­tralian con­tact. For more info e‑mail elp4321@hotmail.com

Bel­gium ELP.SN is our Bel­gium con­tact. For more info e‑mail elp_bel@hotmail.com

Ger­man ELP.SN is a pris­on­er led ini­tia­tive run by eco-pris­on­er Mar­co Camenisch. For more info con­tact Mar­co Camenisch, Post­fach 3143, CH-8105 Regens­dorf, Switzer­land.

Greek ELP.SN is our Greek con­tact. For more info e‑mail greekelp@yahoo.gr

North Amer­i­can ELP is our North Amer­i­can con­tact. For more infor­ma­tion e‑mail naelpsn@mutualaid.org

Turkey ELP.SN is our Turk­ish con­tact. For more info e‑mail yesilanarsi@yahoo.com

Arsonist hit car dealership (Athens, 5/7/2008)

A fire erupt­ed at 03:22, inside a car deal­er­ship, on Kala­makiou street, 97, at Alimos, wreck­ing 5 cars and dam­ag­ing 14 oth­ers and also the build­ing.

Source: http://www.naftemporiki.gr/news/static/08/07/05/1535490.htm

A fire erupt­ed at 03:22, inside a car deal­er­ship, on Kala­makiou street, 97, at Alimos, wreck­ing 5 cars and dam­ag­ing 14 oth­ers and also the build­ing.

Source: http://www.naftemporiki.gr/news/static/08/07/05/1535490.htm

Products expropriation from supermarket (Athens, 1/7/2008)

“Anoth­er nov­el rob­bery of foods was realised at Marinopou­los super­mar­ket on Evdok­sos street, Neos Kos­mos. Unknown per­sons entered the super mar­ket as mere cus­tomers, filled their trol­leys with foods and left the store with­out pay­ing. Con­tin­u­ous­ly, they dis­trib­uted the foods at the peo­ple shoop­ing in a near­by open mar­ket, throw­ing leaflets with slo­gans against cost­li­ness…”

“Anoth­er nov­el rob­bery of foods was realised at Marinopou­los super­mar­ket on Evdok­sos street, Neos Kos­mos. Unknown per­sons entered the super mar­ket as mere cus­tomers, filled their trol­leys with foods and left the store with­out pay­ing. Con­tin­u­ous­ly, they dis­trib­uted the foods at the peo­ple shoop­ing in a near­by open mar­ket, throw­ing leaflets with slo­gans against cost­li­ness…”

Trans­la­tion from: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=887219

Today around 12:30 an inter­ven­tion was realised at Marinopou­los super­marked on Evdok­sos street, at Neos Kos­mos. The peo­ple’s behav­iour was encour­ag­ing and sup­port­ive. A typ­i­cal exam­ple of that is that dur­ing the expro­pri­a­tion, out­side the store peo­ple gath­ered with their wheel-carts wait­ing for the prod­ucts dis­tri­b­u­tion.

Fol­low­ing is the text dis­trib­uted at the open mar­ket.

Every day that pass­es we expe­ri­ence intense­ly the con­se­quences of the increas­ing raise of prices the cap­i­tal is enforc­ing on soci­ety, the same time that wages and pen­sions remain at the same poor lev­el, lead­ing us below sur­vival lim­its. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, every kind of experts and respon­si­bles, cry out for the con­tin­u­ous raise of prices sug­gest­ing “boy­cottage” styled solu­tions that lead to the illu­sion of a stronge reac­tion to the prob­lem.
We select to react tak­ing prod­ucts of basic needs from shelves of large super­mar­ket chain stores and dis­trib­ut­ing them freely to those that they belong to.
We do not regard our action as rob­bery, because these prod­ucts are the fruits of our own exploit­ed work and belong to all of us.
This action isn’t altru­is­tic, but a sym­bol­ism with the aim to encour­age the social ensem­ble to an uncon­strained, free cir­cu­la­tion of goods and the con­scious eras­ing of the cash desks, over­com­ing the legal lim­i­ta­tions. For the gen­er­al­i­sa­tion of the chal­leng­ing of state and cap­i­tal.
Our choice to act with our faces cov­ered does­n’t mean in any case to fright­en the peo­ple, but to our per­son­al secu­ri­ty against those that think our action is ille­git­i­mate.

Ini­tia­tive of anar­chists for the free cir­cu­la­tion of goods

Note: It is the fourth of this kind of expro­pri­a­tions. Pre­vi­ous­ly, there were Sklaveni­tis on 31/5 and Veropou­los and DIA on 13/6

On the arson of Sprider store (Athens, 28/6/2008)

“After put­ing off the fire, fire­men found gas can­is­ters inside the store, a fact lead­ing invsti­ga­tions to an arson case, and police takes over…”

Sprider shop burnt“After put­ing off the fire, fire­men found gas can­is­ters inside the store, a fact lead­ing invsti­ga­tions to an arson case, and police takes over…”

Com­mu­nique sent via e‑mail to directactiongr@yahoo.gr:

On June 28, 2008 we chose to strike one of the well-known Sprid­er chain stores, at Lykovris­si. This choise was­n’t ran­dom at all.

We live an every day life turned into an are­na of com­pe­ti­tion as well as accu­mu­la­tion and demon­stra­tion of life­less objects. The expen­sive car, the classy out­fit, the new mobile phone and fast inter­net are the mod­ern val­ues of your world. The con­sumer crowds grum­bles over cost­li­ness while they buy off at their shop­ping ther­a­py a piece of “joy” and a ster­ile image of suc­cess and show-off. In our days, humans seek for an iden­ti­ty at the new acces­sories of their mobile phones, their cars’ cov­ers and fash­ion trends. And every­thing seems cool.

It is enough for one to choose, of Sat­ur­day night’s dilem­ma between Kolon­a­ki or Psyrri area, the right dress, the appro­pri­ate mobile phone and most of all that fake smile, to impress every­body around.

When it comes to every­day life, the lack of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, lone­li­ness, the slow sui­cide of alien­ation, the servi­tude to a job, the cops’ orders, the reporter’s truth, the boss­es’ exploita­tion… Who cares about all that? Besides, they’re not even a life-style trend to be adver­tised and fol­lowed faith­ful­ly.

Thus, all of you faith­ful con­sumers, titled with mis­ery and pro­pri­etors of the lie can keep dress­ing up your fan­cy noth­ing­ness tis­sued with all the shades of com­pro­mise and indif­fer­ence. We instead have cho­sen for our­selves the col­ors of war: As long as our life suf­fo­cates in the tis­sue of com­mer­cial adver­tise, use­less objects, styl­ish orders and all the sym­bols of a con­sumer par­adise, our rage with con­sious­ness will keep search­ing for break-outs.

We had writ­ten in our com­mu­nique con­cern­ing our pre­vi­ous strike against the Aiga­leo Police Sta­tion, that we do not need an inci­dent or a con­cur­rence to get to action. Now though, we come with an event. On July 11, 2008 the com­rades Mar­ios Tsoura­pas and Chris­sos­to­mos Kon­tore­vithakis face a jury, for their arson­ist attempt against a munic­i­pal police car, an action they have claimed respon­si­bil­i­ty for, and stand up to it.

All we have to say on that, is that the mate­r­i­al dam­ages and the total destruc­tion of this lux­u­ri­ous store are illus­tra­tive of our wil­ful­ness, in case of our com­rades impris­on­ment con­tin­ues.

Gangs of Con­science

Note: You can read the pre­vi­ous claim of the Gangs of Con­science (Sym­mories Syni­di­sis) on their attack against Aiga­leo Police Sta­tion here:
http://directactiongr.blogspot.com/2008/05/attack-against-police-station-plus.html