from
from Hambach Forest(en)
Yesterday (23rd September), around noon, an excavator was stopped which was working at the old railway of the lignite industry close to Cologne, Germany. The railway as well as the open pits and the power plants belongs to the company RWE.
The railway was used for the transport of the lignite directy from the pits to the power plants. But now, parts of the railway and the highway A4 were build new some kilometers more south to make space for the growing mine.
The company H.-B. Kaiser, Abbruch und Erdbewegungen, in 52388 Nörvenich“ is in charge of removing the old railway.
Furthermore, the security company KÖTTER Security and the foresting company Krobbach“ from Melsbach are taking part in the destruction of the nature that RWE is commiting.
These companies are also to mark, to block and to sabotage!
Every day is an action day! – Earth First!
September 19th, 2014
September 19th, 2014
Three volunteer members of Sea Shepherd’s pilot whale and small cetacean defense campaign Operation GrindStop 2014 were arrested today just outside the Faroese capital of Torshavn for protecting a large pod of hundreds of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, preventing them from approaching the dangerous killing shores of the Faroe Islands.
The Danish Navy chased, boarded and seized Sea Shepherd’s UK-registered boat, the Spitfire, and arrested its three crewmembers — Jessie Treverton of the UK and Celine Le Diouron and Marion Selighini, both from France.
Though it is against Faroese law to interfere with the mass cetacean slaughter known as the “grindadrap” or “grind,” no grind had been called when Sea Shepherd prevented the dolphins from reaching shore. Moreover, white-sided dolphins are a protected species and are not to be killed. The Danish Police, however, have charged the Sea Shepherd volunteers with failure to report the dolphin sightings to the grind master and police and, ironically, with “harassing dolphins.”
Sea Shepherd Founder Captain Paul Watson responded, “Apparently in the Faroe Islands it is perfectly legal to kill a protected species, but it is illegal to push them back out to sea in order to keep them from harm’s way because that is considered ‘harassment.’ So these three Sea Shepherd women can proudly say that they successfully ‘harassed’ the dolphins for the purpose of saving their lives.”
“The good news is, however, that a pod of hundreds of white-sided dolphins were successfully ‘harassed’ away from the vicious knives of the whalers. Last year, in August 2013, 450 white-sided dolphins fell to the cruel knives of these cetacean-slaughtering thugs. Fortunately the hundreds spotted today remain safe at sea,” added Captain Watson.
Sea Shepherd currently has an attorney involved. The crew and the Spitfire were released late this evening in the Faroes. They were escorted to the Spitfire and permitted to leave. The crew is to appear in court tomorrow at 2 pm Faroes time. However, the volunteers face deportation from the Faroe Islands by Denmark, and if deported, would not be allowed to return to the Faroes for at least one year.
Despite being an anti-whaling member nation of the European Union, subject to laws prohibiting the slaughter of cetaceans, Denmark continues to show its support and even collaboration with the Faroese whalers to kill small cetaceans.
The Spitfire is the fourth vessel seized by the Danish Navy in the Faroe Islands during Operation GrindStop 2014, as Sea Shepherd’s three small boats — the Loki, the Mike Galesi and the B.S. Sheen (sponsored by actor Charlie Sheen) were seized on August 30th. They are being held as evidence awaiting the trial of eight Sea Shepherd crew from those boats. Along with the small boat crew, 6 members of Sea Shepherd’s onshore team were also arrested for attempting to prevent the brutal slaughter of a pod of 33 pilot whales on August 30.
“Though three volunteers have been arrested and the Danish Navy has once again acted in defense of the brutal grind by seizing one of our boats, Sea Shepherd considers this a victory. Hundreds of dolphins are still swimming safely as a family because of our brave volunteers, and Sea Shepherd will continue to act in defense of its clients,” said Lamya Essemlali, President of Sea Shepherd France and GrindStop 2014 Offshore Leader.
There are two Sea Shepherd vessels currently operating in the Faroes — the Spitfire, and the Clementine, from France. Thor had to be removed from the water earlier today, as foreign vessels can only be in Faroese waters for a maximum of three months.
Sea Shepherd has led the opposition to the mass slaughter of cetaceans in the Faroe Islands since the 1980s. Operation GrindStop 2014 is Sea Shepherd’s largest Faroese campaign to date, and a multi-national team of Sea Shepherd volunteers has been patrolling land and sea in the islands since mid-June. Sea Shepherd will remain in the Faroes until the beginning of October. The campaign spans the typically bloodiest months of the grindadrap hunt season, in an effort to save as many lives as possible.
The Hambach is a forest in Germany proposed for lignite (brown coal) strip mining. There is currently a forest occupation underway, as well as an action camp, and action days at the end of every month.
September 16th, 2014
from Hambach Forest
español
deutsch
Today, the new part of the Autobahn, which they built to help further the expansion of the mine, will be opened with an official celebration. Apparently, the police chose the same day to disturb our resistance in the forest and on the meadow. They appeared as early as 8:00h this morning and are giving us trouble since then. Follow us here today, we will regularly publish new updates, ticker-style.
8:00 First appearance of cops in the forest and on the meadow, building up to around 100 cops at 8:30
8:20 Person attacked by police for now reason, except asking what they want
8:30 Removal of barricades on the forest paths, takes them about 2 hours
10:20 Police are trying to evict beech town (tree occupation) destroying everything on the ground – climbing units are present
10:30 Police are amassing at plane hangar close to meadow – we‘re no longer reachable by car
11.20 Police van by the meadow occupation
11.40 Police and RWE on way to destroy kitchen near meadow
11.50 Food packs for the police (it locks that they want to work longer)
12.00 The opening of the highway A4 starts – 400 people on official opening (honored guests) The demonstration against it with 50 people works, but not directly by the opening party, 50 police are there – traffic minister talking shit
12.10 the barricades to düren are evicted and the police are blockading the way to beech town
12.28 the police start to come on the meadow occupation, hiding duty numbers. Policeblock from Aachen: (License Plate NRW-4-4623, picture of police standing on the meadow )
12.50 the official opening at the highway is over.
13.10 police „retreats“ a bit, leaving oaktown, a treehouse occupation, for now.
13:20 Police no longer visible on the meadow
13:25 News from the forest – one harvester (machine for cutting trees) is damaged (fluids leaking out)
13:30 People are doing a sitting blockade in the Forest, on the way to beech town occupation
13:40 A small group of people got controlled by Police, one person arrested for lack of I.D.
13:40 Harvester is driveable again, but is leaving the Forest, protected by RWE and Police
15:00 No more police or other enemies in the Forest – one security car was passing through the removed barricades, but left again quite quickly. The ticker will go on break for now, if there’s any more action we‘ll be updating again.
some pictures of today: 16.09.14
Last week, occupiers buried themselves in the ground to defend La ZAD du Testet. Photo from @seamymsg
September 16th, 2014
Occupied since October 2013, the ZAD du Testet is one of the many “zones a defendre” which were created after the mediatization of the ZAD at Notre-Dame-des Landes in October 2012. The collective in Testet, a valley in the Tarn region of southeast France, is a mix of “zadistes, farmers, clowns and people in revolt”, resisting a dam project which would destroy a wooded, wetland area with over 100 threatened species, to supply 24 agro-industrial farms with water.
The squatted forest was violently evicted in February 2014, the 10-20 opponents chose to use nonviolent tactics, and then reoccupied. They were evicted again in May of 2014.
August 15, a larger re-occupation was organized, under heavy police and military attention, with arbitrary arrests and road blockades preventing building material from arriving on site. August 25th, biologists came to give their expertise and fill out paperwork to approve the project, and evictions began. People resisted with burning barricades and molotovs, and there has been almost daily confrontation ever since. The region went under martial law on August 31st, with the police chief declaring- “the law must remain strong”, and workers began cutting the forest on September 1. A press release from the collective against the dam- “Tant qu’il y aura des Bouilles” said- “…these new events show the disdain that the Tarn Regional Council shows for dialogue and for the opponents of this project. We condemn this show of force. This kind of behavior breeds rage, even in the most pacifist of opponents, and so one can understand that actions will become more and more radical.”
People have resisted in a variety of ways- a hunger strike by locals in their 50s and 60s, numerous blockades using tractors, fire, buried people, tripods, bulls, human chains etc, a 24/7 occupation of the square in front of the city council, climbing on machines and in trees, and fighting on the ground. There are about 800 people against the project currently in and around the forest, and they frequently encounter tear gas, concussion grenades and rubber bullets. Today (September 15th) action centered around the Gaza(d) treehouse, which still hasn’t been evicted, although 5 people were hospitalized (no thanks to the police, who blocked the ambulances). There are still quite a lot of people in the trees, and the actions are slowing or blocking work every day.
There have also been numerous solidarity actions, from a high school walkout in Gaillac to occupying the offices of the dam construction company in Nantes. The bourgeois media, perhaps afraid of another snowball effect like in October 2012, has kept almost total silence about Testet, despite countless reports of police brutality. In addition to the theft or destruction by the police of medical supplies, food, vehicles, tents, sleeping bags, anything they can get their hands on, the farmers who stand to benefit from the dam and local suspected facists have formed a gang with iron bars, rocks, dogs, molotovs and hunting rifles- with as of yesterday about 80 people, and they are patrolling the roads.
A last word from those on the ground: “Thank you to all who are mobilizing in solidarity with the struggle in Testet, everywhere it’s the same thing, everywhere the same system of rotten politicians who decide amoungst themselves what they’re going to do and call it “democracy”, and who have only one goal: develop their businesses to strengthen the chokehold of this system of machines and technology on the natural environment and people. Those who think they are protected are already dead. We refuse to be isolated and so we struggle, we humbly resist.”
a film in french
website of the occupation
#TESTET #ZAD
About an hour's drive north of Toulouse (sw France) there is an area of wetlands called the Testet, in the forest of #Sivens . This is the last area of wetlands ("Zone Humide" in French) in the department of the Tarn. It is home to rare and endangered species.
This area (13hectares) will be drowned by a dam. The purpose of the dam is principally to irrigate large-scale maize production.
It will also be used to regulate the levels of water in the river Tescou, so that pollution will be diluted and the local authorities can claim to respect European environment legislation. The water can also be used if difficulties arrive at the Golfech nuclear reactor.
Maize production is not appropriate to this region, it is a highly polluting form of agriculture. European and French rules say that it should no longer receive subsidies. (Dam financed by local, regional and European budgets)
The projected dam is not necessary, smaller, higher dams exist upstream, and are not used.
The studies of water availability and use, of the cost, impact and of the need for the dam are flawed and partial. (Local politicians who favour the project have interests in the company which produced the studies – which just happens to be the company which will pocket the money for building the dam….)
Claims about the need to dilute industrial pollution downstream are nonsense: the milk cooperative which used to pump effluent into the Tescou has had filters since 2006.
Environmentalists have been defending the wetlands for almost a year. Logging started on the 1st of september, the army and military police corps have commited acts of violence against non-violent protestors.
A hunger strike is in progress.
Hundreds of dam opponents are active on the site ( blocking roads, slowing the chainsaws, negociating and demonstrating). Other activists are demonstrating in front of local governement offices (and being savagely beaten for their efforts)
Calls for the public to show opposition to this unnecessary and destructive project are online.
Welcome groups exist for participants in direct action. The struggle is gradually growing, all and any help is needed. Sadly, at the time of writing the GIGN (special forces) are clearing resistance from the Zone.
Futher info:
http://collectif-testet.org/
http://tantquilyauradesbouilles.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SoutienTestet
9.9.14
Volunteers from Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s pilot whale defense campaign Operation GrindStop 2014 appeared before a court in the Faroe Islands on Monday following their recent arrest in conjunction with trying to prevent the murder of pilot whales. These volunteer crewmembers – many of whom are European citizens – have been found guilty of defending the whales, while Denmark has acted in blatant defiance of European Union regulations by defending the slaughter of whales. Sea Shepherd has issued a statement pertaining to the verdicts and supporter and actor Martin Sheen is speaking out.
The six members of Sea Shepherd’s onshore team were among a total of 14 volunteers arrested on August 30 on the Faroese island of Sandoy for attempting to protect 33 pilot whales from the brutal mass slaughter known as “grindadrap” or the “grind.” The onshore crewmembers entered the water, banging poles, in an attempt to lead the pilot whales back out to sea and out of danger, but as the pod was driven in quickly from close to shore, there was little time to prevent the slaughter. The Royal Danish Navy arrested Sea Shepherd’s offshore crew and seized three of their small boats – the Loki, the Mike Galesi, and the B.S. Sheen (sponsored by actor Charlie Sheen). Despite being an anti-whaling EU member nation, Denmark acted in collaboration with the whalers, enabling 33 whales to be killed.
The onshore crewmembers face small fines as well as possible deportation from the Faroes by Denmark. The court date for the eight members of the offshore crew has been scheduled for September 25, and Sea Shepherd’s three small boats will be held “as evidence” until that time.
Read more at SeaShepherd.org
On the 1st of August this year several actions took place against brown coal mining in the rhineland in germany.
On the 1st of August this year several actions took place against brown coal mining in the rhineland in germany.
One of the biggest open cast mines of europe are located in the midwest of germany. Near to Cologne RWE, the biggest energy provider of germany runs three open cast mines with an area of 160 km². With an emission of ca. 100 million CO2 per year RWE is the biggest emittent of CO2 in whole Europe. Enough Profit for the highly indepted enterprise, the loss of natural resources for millions of people of the global south
The local consequences of the brown-coal-minig are desastrous. Highly fertile soil gets digged away. Tens of thousands of people get resettled. Important ecosystems like the hambach forest get cut down. To prevent the mines from flooding the groundwater gets pumped down. The negative effects for the agriculture and wetlands can be located even in the netherlands which are ca. 60 km away. The grit and fine dust which are produced by the biggest diggers of the world, which work 24/7 includes even radioactive particles.
There was Resistance against the gigantic project for the whole time of RWEs economic activity since the beginning of 1900. Sometimes bigger sometimes smaller the resistance moreover collapses because of the power RWE develops with lobbyism, corruption and the undercutting of administrations, courts and local social communities.
For about 4 years a constantly growing grassrootsmovement tries to power up the resistance against the power generation of coal on a local and nationwide scale. With constant crystallisation points like the hambach forest occupation and a house project in the area, with climate camps and helping to empower the local resistance movement with supporting citizen initiatives.
Embedded in the climate camp this year a powerful action day took place.
The coal train which transports the coal from the hambach open cast mine to the power plant was blocked two times. On the the first blockade chained themselves to the rails of the coal train which transports the coal of the mine called hambach to the power plant and the second time two people roped down from a bridge above the rails.
Nearly at the same time about 80 people moved the other big mine Garzweiler to block the infrastructure. 2 Diggers were blocked 3 times with lock-on-actions and squattings.From 8 o'clock in the morning to 10 in the evening the drivers of the diggers and the other personal in the mine had no calm minute.
It seems that more and more people want to take responsibility for themselves to protect ecosystems and natural resources and begin to stop the worst effects of climate change with direct actions against fossil infrastructure.
Photos of the action day:
Lock-on-action and climbing action (with other photos of the hambach forest occupation)
https://secure.flickr.com/photos/hambacherforst/with/14797606761/
Blockade of diggers:
https://secure.flickr.com/photos/100963658@N02/sets/72157645681194248/
Mobilisation for a big infrastructure blockade simultaneously to the COP21
According to the next COP-meeting in Paris 2015 we want to invite people from all over europe to think about what to do. As we don't want to have such a big depression after the COPs 2009 in Copenhagen again there is a tendency to organise a big blockade of infrastructure of fossil fuel energy production simultaneously somewhere centrally located in Europe. If you have ideas and want to distribute them you can come to Cologne/Germany from the 3rd to the 5th of octobre. There will be accomodation and board.
English callout for the action plenary:
http://ekib.blogsport.eu/2014/08/23/invitation-action-plenary-meeting-3-5-oct-2014-in-cologne/
Earth First!
An activist from ausgeco2hlt
Unfortunately the websites are not in english or the english blogs are not well operated
www.ausgeco2hlt.de
www.hambacherforst.blogsport.de / http://hambachforest.blogsport.de/
http://ekib.blogsport.eu/
www.klimacamp-im-rheinland.de
The world's leading warmongers will meet this summer in Wales. A week of action is planned to oppose and stop them, from August 30th to September the 5th.
The world's leading warmongers will meet this summer in Wales. A week of action is planned to oppose and stop them, from August 30th to September the 5th.
Two organisations are planning actions against the summit, inclusing mass demonstrations and days of action on different aspects of militarism. This promises to be a massive focal point for the movement against miliarism this summer. Details of can be found here:
https://network23.org/stopnatocymru/
http://www.nonatonewport.org/
Please get involved and spread the word! Help raise our profile by linking to stopNATOCymru on blogs etc., and more importantly, come along to the events and show your support.
Action Days in the Rhineland Coalfield
Action Days in the Rhineland Coalfield
Lots of things were happening in the Rhineland Coalfield today: Early in the morning, four activists locked themselves to coal train tracks. Two more activists abseiled themselves from a bridge. These two blockades stopped the coal transportation between the open-cast mine Hambach and the power plants. Further north, at the edge of the Garzweiler mine, a group of 80 people took a seat in front of the buckets of the digging machine, some of them locked themselves together. Another group ventured further down into the mine and climbed on the wheels the digging machine, accompanied by a Samba band and rebel clowns. And last but not least, about 20 activists were blockading the gate to the mininig area for six hours. It seems that more and more people are willing to take direct action against the polluting industry to stop climate change!
The Rhineland Coalfied is situated in the Western part of Germany, close to the Dutch bordier. There are three huge open-cast lignite mines, and right next to it, some of Europe's dirtiest coal-fired power plants, which emit about 100 million tons of CO2 per year.
Lots of the activists had their base on the climate action camp, that is taking this week on a piece of land that is scheduled to be digged away soon for the lignite mine.
View images of the action days on www.klimacamp-im-rheinland.de
July 18th, 2014 – In light of the news of the moving forward of the Very High Tension Line (la línea de muy alta tensión or MAT), we want to make public:
On Tuesday, July 1st, an all-terrain vehicle in the service of Tensalm, a company subcontracted by the Spain Electrical Network (REE), was burned, destroyed by the flames in the night within a Sarrià de Ter hotel in the Girona province.
We claim all the actions detailed below, a year after we began our work. All the actions have been systematically silenced by the communication media and for this reason we want to make public that, in denial of the lastest news from the daily El Punt, we have caused months of delay to the work and thousands of euros of damages and losses to REE.
At the margin of the assemblies and collectives that have carried out a struggle against the construction of the MAT, a multitude of activists from the region and foreigners, we have carried out a fight based on direct action.
We vindicate sabotage as a fundamental part of the fight against the imposition, the infrastructure that sustains the system, and all the social, laboral and economic mechanisms of capitalism.
The whole world is capable of carrying out sabotage, a tool that has belonged to the oppressed class for a long time. It can be as simple as unscrewing the bolts of any tower, and we encourage everyone who is against to act in the way they see as most fitting.
We publish this list of actions in order to incite sabotage, to give ideas, and to bring to light what they didn’t want to be known.
June 2013:
– 2 excavators sabotaged
-All-terrain vehicle of the ROTELLA company has tires slashed and radiators broken.
– Removal of stakes marking the towers.
August 2013:
– 2 excavators sabotaged
– 1 excavator destroyed
– Blocking of the trails with barricades
September – November 2013:
– 5 excavators and machines sabotaged
– 12 all-terrain vehicles of GAROC and ROTELLA companies sabotaged
– Blocking of trails with barricades and spikes
December 2013:
– Attack on the representatives of REE and their cars
January 2014:
– Attacks on GAROC excavators
February – April 2014:
– Guide cords for running cables repeatedly cut
– Multiple unboltings of the bases of the MAT towers
– Attack on the security guards of EULEN company, and broken windows.
May 2014:
– Cords cut
– Destruction of 2 generators
– 2 all-terrain vehicles of REE sabotaged
– Sabotage of support structures
– Several unboltings of the towers
June – July 2014:
– All-terrain vehicles sabotaged and burned!
This is an incomplete list since it is impossible to know all the actions that have been carried out, or who has done them. The bolts will be sent to the press, in order to put pressure for the publication of this manifesto.
No MAT, no TAV, no nuclear and no to the system that sustains them!
More information about resistance to the MAT can be found at
http://torresmasaltashancaido.espivblogs.net/ingles/
from contrainfo, translated by waronsociety
