Rest of Europe – Page 52

News from the battles for free space in Copenhagen

Struggles around free space and squats continue abounds in Copenhagen, Denmark. Not only are there still weekly demos still for the campaign to have a new Youthhouse (Ungdomshuset) but a new extension to the famous squatted Christiania has been occupied with great success. It also looks like the council has given in to pressure from the squatters movement and agreed a new Youth House for the kids!!

69 WEEKS for UNGDOMSHUSET:
69 weeks. At least 1 demo every week. Thursday demo number 69 was obviously symbolic (It was the street number of the Youthhouse) and the demo crew had announced it was going to last 24 hours, going through most parts of Copenhagen with different sorts of activities planned throughout – four meals during the 24 hours, open air cinema, pirate party, blocking traffic, speeches, concerts and happenings.
Initially there was some sceptiscism from both activists and police, but it soon became apparent that people were going to stick it out all 24 hours. The demo moved around Copenhagen, stopping in different locations to give speeches or show political films. At many points there were disagreements with the police following the demo, but the demo always got its way in the end, often stopping for long stretches in main roads blocking traffic. After 21 hours – on Friday around 2 pm – the police had finally had enough of the demo acting autonomously and confined the demo to a square in Vesterbro. This resulted in a big public manifestation on the square with both bands and DJs coming from other parts of the city to play.
After 24 hrs the demo ended in a count down and a big greeting to the activists and the city which had both been upside down for 24 hrs through sun and rain, light and darkness.
PICTURES: http://english.indymedia.dk/publish/show/180

A NEW YOUTH HOUSE COMES SLOWLY INTO BEING:
On Wed June 11th, the last city council meeting before summer, the politicians of the council voted in favor of the agreement on a new Ungdomshus in the buildings of Dortheavej 61. The votes were 38 pro and 13 against. The votes were given after 2 hours of discussion. Activists has promised militant activity in the streets again if this meeting was unable to come to a decision on a YES vote for a new place and an address.
The new house will be in what is now a local culture centre under the council. It will be in two connected buildings, one of which will be split in half. The culture centre will remain in the other half of the building and the city council has agreed to build a new add on to compensate for the space lost to the new Ungdomshus.
The first part of the take over (the smaller building comprising 600 m2) will happen on July 1st. After that the main building will be available for take over on January 1st next year.
There has been very positive contact between the left radical scene and the leaders of the culture centre, who are welcoming the new house.
PICTURE: http://english.indymedia.dk/system/photo/file/111/616161.jpg

CHRISTIANIA EXPANDING!!
The area on Refshalevej right next to Christiania that was squatted on the 31st of May is stil growing and the different houses and constructions are taken shape. Neither the City council or the state approves of the situation but can’t figure out who has the authority to act on the squat since half the road is state property and the other half belongs to the city.
Neither the City council nor the state approves of the situation but can’t figure out who has the authority to act on the squat since half the road is state property and the other half belongs to the city. Apparently ‘the constructors’ on Refshalevej for once are benefiting from the bureaucracy, since nothing will be done to clear the street until the two administrations agrees on who’s doing what,
Meanwhile small houses are being built both on water and on the ground as well as roadblocks to slow down car traffic has been established. Around 28 different projects are currently under construction and ‘the constructors’ invited more people to join in!

PICTURES OF NEW SQUATTED REFSHALEEVEJ:
http://english.indymedia.dk/publish/show/175
http://english.indymedia.dk/publish/show/178

BUT EVICTION NOTICE NOW SERVED
The new area squatted near Christiania – Refshalevej – has been given notice. The eviction date is not finalised but will be up soon.
For some weeks activists have been building in the newly squatted ground just outside Christiania called Refshalevej. Now the builders have been given notice by the city council and the state who have joint ownership over the area. An eviction is said to be pending although no date has yet been officially given.
The activists have stated that they intend to resist the eviction non violently, and that they intend to resquat the area immideaitely following the eviction.

COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE STRUGGLE FOR UNGDOMSHUSET
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungdomshuset

EVICTION AND RIOTS CHRONOLOGY + PICTURES/VIDEOS
http://www.emoware.org/ungdomshuset.asp
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/03/363973.html

COMPLETE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANIA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania

Residents clash with riot police against dump construction (Corfu, 16/6/2008)

Massive clashes erupted outside the -under construction- illegal garbage disposal center at Lefkimmi, a village in southern Corfu, once the construction company (DOMOKAT) is now trespassing land they haven’t yet expropriated and paid. Some hundreds of local residents gathered in order to reclaim the area from the police forces and block the works. The cops attacked them using excessive tear gas and rubber bullets, they even sent the police chief injured to the hospital, once he wasn’t in his uniform and wasn’t recognised! Another three cops were injured during the clashes. Three arrestees were tortured by the policemen and face charges.

The residents mobilization came from a popular assembly, one day before, that took place in Lefkimmi’s high-school yard, also suggesting the following actions:
A whole island-wide demonstration on June 27 together with trade unions, environmental associations and others, lead by the struggle co-ordination committee.
A demonstration in Corfu city blockading the airport symbolically for two busy hours.
A sit-in at the entrance of the ring road to Missorachia and the promotion of the issue of a total management of solid wastes throughout the prefecture.

Previous actions of Lefkimmi residents in struggle: http://directactiongr.blogspot.com/2008/05/residents-clash-with-riot-policemen.html

More info in greek and some photos-videos at:
http://xyta-lefkimis.blogspot.com/
http://enakcorfu.blogspot.com/
http://athens.indymedia.org

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from a message posted on myspace.com

Last Saturday, 14/6/2008, the residents of the south Corfu town of Lefkimi have resumed their mobilisation against the building of an open garbage-dump (XYTA) meant to accomodate refuse from the tourist-rich north of the island. After lengthy direct-democratic discussions, the town’s “People’s Council” has decided to refuse the mediation of political parties and demand the immediate departure of the riot police forces (MAT) stationed in their area since the last street battles (29/5) which led to the death of a 42 year old mother, an event that has triggered solidarity protest marches across the country. “No dialogue can even start while our town is under occupation”, claimed the residents identifying the riot police with the nazi forces of the 40s.

The situation escalated once again, when on Monday the 16th of July, faced with the government’s refusal of their terms, the residents of Lefkimi errected once again barricades in an effort to inhibit construction of the new refuse unit. The renewed mobilisation of the residents was met with ruthless repression during which the riot-police used tear gas and, for the first time in recent greek history, plastic bullets. Four residents and 3 policemen have been wounded during the clashes, with the situation remaining tense and reinforcements sent by the mainland.

field trial with genetically modified wheat destroyed (zurich, switzerland)

the local press reports as following:
early friday morning (june 13, 2008) around 35 persons entered the research area (“Forschungsanstalt Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon ART in Zürich Affoltern”) close to zurich and destroyed nearly the whole field trial with genetically modified wheat by scything and trampling the plants.

the research is initiated by Agroscope, university of zurich and ETH (polytech. university).
the present security agents were threatened and couldn’t stop the action.
the police arrested 5 persons after the action in the surrounding area, but it might be difficult to prove they’ve been involved.

http://tagi.ch/dyn/news/zuerich/888308.html
http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/zuerich/zerstoerungsaktion_in_gentech-versuchsfeld_1.759006.html

in 2003 a similar, but smaller field trial was done by ETH in another village. during weeks greenpeace tried to prevent other activists destroying the field so they could do an own spectacular action later on: greenpeace dumped dung on the field, but was stopped by the agents present.

Double supermarket expropriation (Athens, 13/6/2008)

“Today at 13:30 goods of basic necessity were expropriated from 2 supermarkets (Veropoulos and DIA) and handed out in the open market of M. Voda. Following is the communique distributed at Veropoulos.

Thousands of supermarkets so full of goods, why don’t we just pillage them for our old age! -N. Asimos

Finally! the supermarket and corporation sharks frozen the prices of their products! Some of them were even more generous reducing their prices, in order to raise the “purchasing power” of the consumers. In simpler words: to gain more! As we can tell that no one takes into account this bullshit about a so-called price reduction, we put into action again our own “pack of measures” against costliness, expropriationg foods and basic stuff from large supermarkets.

PS. As far as it concers our covered faces, we say that: keeping in mind that society is yet unready and uneasy to listen closely and support these facts, so we think it’s necessary to adopt the basic measures for our own security, against the systems of security and repression mechanisms, in order to continue live and act freely. THE ONLY MEASURE AGAINST COSTLINESS IS THE EXPROPRIATION. MASSIVE INVASION IN THE SUPERMARKETS TO TAKE BACK ALL THAT BELONG TO US.

Angry anarchists against costliness”

From: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=880457

Vandalism at subway station (Athens, 13/6/2008)

From reports at http://athens.indymedia.org it seems that a group attacked Victoria’s subway station, breaking down cameras and ticket checking machines, throwing leaflets and spray painting slogans against surveillance and control and in solidarity to the detained M. Tsourapas-Chr.Kontorevithakis. A nearby bank on Patission avenue was also attacked.

Demonstrators tear down privatisation fencing bars (Thessaloniki, Greece, 7/6/2008)

What happened is a demonstration of hundreds of residents of Kalamaria (a large suburb of Thessaloniki by the sea) and Thessaloniki on the seafront of Kalamaria.

What happened is a demonstration of hundreds of residents of Kalamaria (a large suburb of Thessaloniki by the sea) and Thessaloniki on the seafront of Kalamaria. There, privatization works fence the one open area after the other, so, after a decision of a residents assembly, the demonstrators tore down the fencing bars of the local marina that prevent free access to the seaside. This action was welcomed with applause from local people.

Texts in greek and a lot of photos can be found here:
http://indy.gr/ or here http://athens.indymedia.org/ or there: http://diexodos.blogspot.com/.

GroenFront! blocks E.ON Benelux HQ

June 3rd, GroenFront! occupied the Benelux headquarters of E.ON in Rotterdam. The office was closed shut down from 6 AM – 1 PM, when police specialists finally managed to remove some technologically advanced lock-ons. GroenFront! is demanding an immediate halt to the construction of an E.ON coal power plant on the Maasvlakte, part of the port of Rotterdam. The action is part of GroenFront!’s “shrink or drown” campaign, which aims at bringing down the size of the Dutch economy to more manageable proportions. Seven protestors were arrested for refusing police orders or refusing to show an ID. They were released around midnight.

The E.ON plant is said to be CO2 capture-ready, but in a leaked email conversation between E.ON managers at the British Dept. of Industry, it appears E.ON itself has no faith in this technology at all and is not expecting it to work. GroenFront! and clown army activists had earlier tried to put a literal ‘cork’ on an existing E.ON plant in Holland to illustrate this point.

July 19th a bicycle protest and picnic are being organised by locals from the area and GroenFront!-ers.

Another coal power plant is being planned only 1 km from E.ON’s construction site, by the Belgian company Electrabel, and there are also plans by NUON and RWE for new coal power plants that GroenFront! says it will oppose by direct action.

GroenFront! was started in 1996 as the Dutch and Belgian branch of EarthFirst.

More info: http://www.groenfront.nl

Video of the action

World Naked Bike Ride UK

A peaceful, imaginative and fun protest against oil dependency and car culture. A celebration of the bicycle and also a celebration of the power and individuality of the human body. A symbol of the vulnerability of the cyclist in traffic. The world’s biggest naked protest: 50+ cities and thousands of riders participate worldwide, including more than 1500 in the UK in 2007.

http://worldnakedbikeride.org/uk/

To check any details of rides below, see http://nakedwiki.org/wiki/UK

# Southampton: Fri 6 June, 6pm
# Brighton & Hove: Sat 7 June, 11am
# York: Sat 7 June, 4pm
# Sheffield: Sun 8 June, 2pm
# Manchester: Fri 13 June, 6pm
# Cardiff: Sat 14 June, (time is still being finalised)
# London: Sat 14 June, 3pm
# Edinburgh: 28 or 29 June – TBC

# There is discussion about possible rides in Cambridge, Belfast, Glasgow, Oxford, or even a Bristol to Bath ride.

3rd June Food & Climate Change Day of Action – more actions, in Nottingham, London x3, Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool & Amsterdam

Actions co-inciding with the UN Conference on World Food Security and Climate Change got off to an early start, with Sunday seeing the first of an outbreak of vegan food give-aways, in Manchester, with a spot of guerrilla gardening; the rash spread on Monday with GM labs occupied. The Ready Steady Skip website tried to soothe, but on the day, the action contagion spread…

Passer-bys were enticed to our stall by the offers of free chips, vegan pasties and tomato plants. We handed out leaflets about climate change & food and had lots of chats with people about the world food crisis & our solutions of eating a local, organic & vegan diet. An amazing number of people already grew there own food & lots more were encouraged to give it a go. We had a really positive response from the public and people seemed genuinely interested in the information leaflets we handed out.

More photos.

The next free vegan food giveaway in Nottingham is going to be on the 4th July.

A handful of us then visited Fresh & Ecoworks community garden based at St Ann’s allotments. We had a tour of the amazing gardens & saw a brilliant example of local, organic food being produced in the city. See
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2006/08/348168.html
and
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2007/10/382929.html

We toddled off home in the rain, chilli plants in hand, inspired to grow our own.

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Food & Climate Change Action – London

For the Food & Climate Change day of action, Whitechapel Food Not Bombs and Brixton Reclaim Your Food teamed up to serve free vegan food in front of a Mac Donald’s in Camberwell.

The groups had a stall right in front of a Mac Donald in Camberwell for two hours, serving out freshly skipped, lovingly cooked free vegan food to passers by, and engaging people in conversation about the link between the food they eat and climate change. For good measure, the group was accompanied by a bicycle sound system, to liven up the atmosphere.

All in all, over a hundred servings were given out, countless more people saw the stall and were given leaflets highlighting some of the links between food and climate change on the following topics : waste ; veganism ; organic food ; locally produced food.

The menu included a spicy mash, a curry, a pumpkin soup, a salad, some guacamole, some stuffed aubergines, some veggies burgers, an apple cake, a fruit salad and more.

Unsurprisingly, the Mac Donald’s managers weren’t too happy about people giving out free food in front of their window shop – but the police seemed to decide otherwise. The groups were asked to remove a banner from the Mac Donald window shop, but were otherwise permitted to stay there as long as there wasn’t too much obstruction.

londonfnb@lists.riseup.net
http://www.londonfnb.org

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25 protesters organised by Biofuelwatch and Food Not Fuel, London came together for a protest outside Newham town hall in East Ham on Saturday to raise public awareness of the planning application for the UK’s first biofuel-fired power plant to be built, in Beckton. Banners and placards quoted many statistics such as the number of people going hungry because of agrofuels and the number of people who could be fed with one tank of biofuel. Over 500 signatures objecting to the plant were collected…it appears that Beckton, one of the most polluted London boroughs, is prepared to fight back.

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In London, vegan campaigners we took to the streets of Chancery Lane to
treat the city workers to some vegan food samples. The response was good,
with a range of interested people coming to taste the food. We gave away
hundreds of recipe booklets, and leaflets for this year’s London Vegan
Festival.

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Bristol Protest Over Tesco’s Biofuels Claim

Biofuels far from the panacea to petrol prices and climate change, have added to the global food price hike by taking land previously occupied by food crops. A study by the University of Minnesota found that growing biofuel on converted rainforests, peat lands, savannas or grasslands created up to 420 times more carbon dioxide than it saved.

Wheat Prices have doubled in the UK over the past year, and consumers and retailers have so far managed to absorb this. But elsewhere in the world, people are going without wheat (and other staples) and bakers are going out of business.

To illustrate this issue, a dozens bakers (rather than a bakers dozen!) will be following up Bristol Rising Tides demo in April of this year to illustrate the true cost of Agro-fuels. They will be at Tesco, Eastville between 4.30pm and 7pm

Ms Bread of Bristol Rising Tide said:

“The question is do we want do feed our cars or feed ourselves?”

Tesco has made false claims about the source of the fuel sold at its service stations, according to an investigation that found that the chain sold the most environmentally damaging types of biodiesel -Palm Oil – whilst claiming that it ‘s biofuel was sourced from relatively sustainable UK-planted rape seed oil.[2]

Mr A.Baker of Bristol Rising Tide said:

“Its now clear that we leave big business to deal with climate change, this is the kind of thing that will happen – a bloody disaster”

At this years Climate Camp (3rd – 10th August) there will be a national day of action against Agrofuels.

[1] Bristol Rising Tide is part of the International Rising Tide for Climate Justice network
www.risingtide.org.uk
[2] The Times,April 14, 2008 “Tesco green fuel ‘adds to climate change”

Leaflet

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Waiting for (social) Change!

4/06/2008
Today in the Charing Cross area of Glasgow a group of waiters invited passers-by to ‘Taste the waste’ and sample their free food. The menu was made up entirely out of skipped goods from supermarket bins and included such delights as: homemade vegan frequent flyer banana cake, skipped chip, rescued roast veg. and binned beans. This was part of the call to action on Food and Climate Change by the Network for Climate Action (http://networkforclimateaction.org.uk).

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Liverpool hosted a free vegan food fair at its social centre ‘Next to
Nowhere’. Around 50 people attended and loads of food and information was given out. The event allowed for a lot of informal discussion, with a social area created for this purpose. People were delighted to hear that they can come back for vegan food every Saturday afternoon 1-5pm.

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Pigs say: If you care about climate change, eat less meat, milk and eggs

On Tuesday June 3rd, a group of pigs made a small action for a more vegan Amsterdam. They handed out vegan snacks to encourage people not to buy that ham for dinner. It may look like the pigs acted out of self-interest, but today their message was that meat production is a major cause of climate change. While the UN is conferring in Rome on World Food Security and Climate change, the pigs put a focus on that average Europeans have a diet of disaster. Raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined.

Quite some people in front of the Albert Heijn on Jodenbreestraat were happy to taste the organic, vegan falafel and chocolate cake and many said they are vegetarians already. People were surprised to hear that producing one kilo of cheese cause as much greenhouse gas emissions as driving a car for 60 km. A Brazilian woman had witnessed the expanding soy fields used for feeding animal industry.

“Consumers can make a huge improvement by avoiding animal products and imports, and by supporting local, organic farmers instead. But humans need to organise themselves fast against the dominant culture if they want to save themselves from climate chaos” the piggies stated after all the food had been handed out.

Tonight, Wednesday June 4 from 19 there will be a film night in Plantage Doklaan 12, with organic vegan food and ideas on how to combat climate change. (See programme on the website)

Website: http://www.howtocookaplanet.net

Ready Steady Skip: Trailer and website launched!

Ready Steady Skip – the game show where needlessly wasted food is recovered from the bin and turned into delicious dishes before your very eyes!

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: http://www.readysteadyskip.org.uk/

Ready Steady Skip is a bit like “Scrapheap Challenge” meets “Ready Steady Cook” – skipping for food and whipping up some tasty dishes, with plenty of hilarity (and people diving into skips).

Every year over 17 million tons of food are put straight into landfill sites, yet over 4 million tons of this is perfectly edible and still well within it’s sell-by date. A whopping 5 million tons of food are wasted annually by consumers alone: that is, more than a quarter of all food we buy goes into the bin. It’s high time this insanity stopped!

Skipping (aka. “Freeganism” or “Dumpster Diving”) is all about reclaiming perfectly edible food “waste” from the jaws of an insane system founded on greed, and making good use of it.

We’ve launched the Ready Steady Skip trailer and website to coincide with the Days Of Climate Action food day (3rd June 2008), which is highlighting the fact that the food we eat contributes up to a third of the emissions that are poisoning the planet. When you consider the amount of food that is just thrown away, it brings home how needless this lunacy is. Nobody ever need go hungry – yet people still starve every day.

The programme was shot here in Nottingham at the beginning of March, and the full episode will be released online in July 2008. We’re also trying to organise a screening (and possibly even another contest) at the Climate Camp.

Keep an eye on our website for updates!

Previous Notts Indymedia piece: Ready, Steady, Skip!! – The Pictures 1

info@readysteadyskip.org.uk
http://www.readysteadyskip.org.uk/