Support the Eco-Prisoners (December 2009)‏

Spir­it of Free­dom (Decem­ber 2009)
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)

Earth Liberation Prisoners logoSpir­it of Free­dom (Decem­ber 2009)
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)

Wel­come to the Decem­ber 2009 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. A few months ago ELP report­ed the arrest of the Amer­i­can, Justin Solondz in Chi­na. As peo­ple will be aware Justin is want­ed for ques­tion­ing in con­nec­tion to an FBI inves­ti­ga­tion into the ELF that led to the Ore­gon and Wash­ing­ton Tri­als.

When ELP first heard of the arrest we wrong­ly believed, like many oth­ers, that Justin would be extra­dit­ed to Amer­i­ca where he would be remand­ed to stand tri­al for his alleged ELF activ­i­ty. How­ev­er, a cou­ple of days ago ELP learnt that rather than extra­dit­ing him, the Chi­nese decid­ed to put Justin on tri­al accused of drugs relat­ed activ­i­ty. Justin was duly found Guilty and sen­tenced to three years impris­on­ment fol­lowed by depor­ta­tion. This is of course very bad news for Justin and if any­one has any con­tact details for Justin (or knows what prison he is held in, in Chi­na, please con­tact ELP as soon as pos­si­ble).

Besides Justin’s impris­on­ment, sad­ly over the past few weeks ELP has learnt about the impris­on­ments of a num­ber of peo­ple across Europe and North Amer­i­ca accused of a vari­ety of activ­i­ty, this includes the impris­on­ment of for­mer Ital­ian ALF pris­on­er Ser­gio Ste­fani who has been accused of steal­ing a car and charged with “sub­ver­sive con­spir­a­cy” and placed in a jail specif­i­cal­ly designed for polit­i­cal activists! ELP encour­ages every­one to write urgent let­ter of sup­port to all of the new pris­on­ers on our list and remind them we are behind them. But also please don’t for­get our exist­ing pris­on­ers. All of the pris­on­ers list­ed below wel­come let­ters of sup­port.
So please, regard­less of what lan­guages you speak and regard­less of where you live in the world, your let­ters of sup­port real­ly do make the world of dif­fer­ence to the pris­on­ers. So please sup­port the eco-pris­on­ers and no com­pro­mise in defence of Moth­er Earth!

If any­one notices any of ELP’s pris­on­er details is out of date or we do not list a pris­on­er who we should list, please let ELP know as soon as pos­si­ble.
ELP is run by a small group of vol­un­teers and although we try to ensure our lists are accu­rate, we admit we do make mis­takes. So help us help keep the lists accu­rate by let­ting us know of any changes we need to make.

ECO-DEFENCE PRISONERS

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).

Niall Har­nett, Castlerea Prison, Har­ris­town, Castlerea, Co. Roscom­mon, Repub­lic of Ire­land. Sev­er­ing 4 months for non-pay­ment of a fine. The fine was issued fol­low­ing Mau­ra’s involve­ment in an anti-Shell petrol com­pa­ny protest. (Diet unknown).

Mau­ra Har­ringon, Dochas Cen­tre, Moun­tjoy Gaol, North Cir­cu­lar Road, Dublin 7, Repub­lic of Ire­land. Sev­er­ing 8 months for non-pay­ment of a fine. The fine was issued fol­low­ing Mau­ra’s involve­ment in an anti-Shell petrol com­pa­ny protest. (Diet unknown).

Leonar­do Lan­di, Carcere San­re­mo, Via Armea, 144, 18038 San­re­mo (IM), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of rob­bery. (Leonar­do is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

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).

Marie Jeanette Mason, #04672–061, FCI Wase­ca, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, PO Box 1731, Wase­ca, MN 56093, USA. Serv­ing 21 years and 10 months for her involve­ment in an ELF arson against a Uni­ver­si­ty build­ing car­ry­ing out Genet­i­cal­ly Mod­i­fied crop tests. Marie also plead­ed guilty to con­spir­ing to car­ry out ELF actions and admit­ted involve­ment in 12 oth­er ELF actions. (Marie is a veg­an).

Eric McDavid, 16209–097, FCI Vic­torville, Medi­um II, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, PO Box 5300, 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, 63794–053, USP Mar­i­on, US Pen­i­ten­tiary, PO Box 1000, Mar­i­on, IL 62959, 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).

Steve Mur­phy #39013177 (for his most cur­rent prison address check out the web­site http://supportsteve.org/ ). On remand accused of attempt­ed arson and crim­i­nal dam­age at a town house con­struc­tion site in 2006. The FBI claim the action was done under the ban­ner of the ELF. (Steve is a veg­an).

Jonathan Paul — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Justin Solondz (Address Unknown — Chi­na). Amer­i­can Green Scare defen­dant accused of direct action activ­i­ty in Amer­i­ca. Serv­ing 3 years in Chi­na for drugs relat­ed offences then due to be deport­ed back to Amer­i­ca. His exact prison loca­tion is cur­rent­ly unknown. (Diet unknown).

Jonatan Strand­berg, Box 248, 59323, Väster­vik, Swe­den. Serv­ing 15 months impris­on­ment after admit­ting dam­ag­ing a com­mu­ni­ca­tion tow­er used by the Depart­ment of Defence, cut­ting the cables on a crane used in cre­at­ing urban sprawl, and dam­ag­ing a vehi­cle used in the log­ging indus­try. Jonatan is a dia­bet­ic and fol­lows a paleo diet, demand­ing local­ly sourced food).

Michael Sykes 696693, Richard A. Hand­lon Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty, 1728 Blue­wa­ter High­way, Ionia, MI 48846, USA. Serv­ing four to ten years for anti-sprawl arsons, crim­i­nal dam­age to a util­i­ty pole, spray-paint­ing polit­i­cal graf­fi­ti and burn­ing the Amer­i­can flag. (Diet unknown)

Bri­ana Waters 36432–086, FCI Dan­bury, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, Route 37, Dan­bury, CT 06811, 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).

Anony­mous Female Pris­on­er One (E‑mail mes­sages of sup­port to
holland@die-tierbefreier.de ) Ger­man woman held on Remand accused of raid­ing a mink farm in Hol­land. (She is a veg­an).

Anony­mous Female Pris­on­er Two (E‑mail mes­sages of sup­port to
dbf-sg@riseup.net ) Dutch woman held on Remand accused of raid­ing a mink farm in Hol­land. (She is a veg­an).

Jon­ny Able­white TB4885, H.M. Prison, Hewell Lane, Red­ditch, Worcs B97 6QS, Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion. (Jon is a veg­an).

Dan Amos VN7818, HMP Guys Marsh, Shaftes­bury, Dorset, SP7 0AH, Eng­land. Serv­ing 4 years for con­spir­a­cy to black­mail Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences. (Dan is a veg­an)

Gregg Avery TA7450, HMP Cold­in­g­ley, Shaftes­bury Road, Bis­ley, Wok­ing, Sur­rey GU24 9EX, Eng­land. Serv­ing 9 years for con­spir­a­cy to black­mail Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences. (Gregg is a veg­an).

Natasha Avery NR8987, HMP Send, Rip­ley Road, Wok­ing, Sur­rey, GU23 7LJ, Eng­land. Serv­ing 9 years for con­spir­a­cy to black­mail Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences. (Nat is a veg­an).

Mel Broughton A3892AE, HMP Fran­k­land, Bras­side, Durham, Coun­ty Durham DH1 5YD, Eng­land. Serv­ing 10 years for “con­spir­a­cy to com­mit arson” against Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty vivi­sec­tion depart­ment. (Mel 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).

Alex Hall, Inmate #2009–06304, Davis Coun­ty Jail, 800 West State St., Farm­ing­ton, UT 84025, USA. On Remand accused of raid­ing a mink farm. Also accused of breach­ing bail con­di­tions whilst on bail. (William 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).

Robert Lewis (address unknown — Eng­land). Serv­ing 18 months for send­ing threat­en­ing let­ters to a com­pa­ny linked to drugs test­ing. (Diet Unknown).

Daniel McGowan — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

Robert Grif­fiths (address unknown — Eng­land). Serv­ing 18 months for send­ing threat­en­ing let­ters to a com­pa­ny linked to drugs test­ing. (Diet unknown).

Gavin Medd-Hall WV9475, HMP Cold­in­g­ley, Shaftes­bury Road, Bis­ley, Wok­ing, Sur­rey GU24 9EX, Eng­land. Serv­ing 8 years for con­spir­a­cy to black­mail Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences. (Gavin is a veg­an).

Heather Nichol­son VM5859, HMP Fos­ton Hall, Fos­ton, Der­by, Der­byshire, DE65 5DN, Eng­land. Serv­ing 11 years for con­spir­a­cy to black­mail Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences. (Heather is a veg­an).

Kevin Olliff, #1300931, TTCF 161 D‑Pod, 450 Bauchet St., Los Ange­les, CA 90012, USA. On remand accused of stalk­ing. Exact details of the indict­ment have not yet been revealed but the charges appear to relate to a per­son employed by an edu­ca­tion­al facil­i­ty so may be linked to vivi­sec­tion. (Kevin 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).

Ster­gio Ste­fani — See Oth­er Polit­i­cal Pris­on­er List.

William James Viehl, Inmate #2009–05735, Davis Coun­ty Jail, 800 West State St., Farm­ing­ton, UT 84025, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing hav­ing plead­ed guilty to raid­ing a mink farm. He is due to be sen­tenced in Decem­ber. (William is a veg­an).

Nicole Vosper VM9385, HMP Bronze­field, Wood­hthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx, TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. On remand accused of black­mail­ing Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences. (Nicole is a veg­an).

Dan Wad­ham, A5705AA, HMP Camp Hill, New­port, Isle of Wight, PO30 5PB, Eng­land. Serv­ing 5 years for con­spir­a­cy to black­mail Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences. (Dan 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)

GRAND JURY RESISTERS
The fol­low­ing peo­ple have been jailed for refus­ing to tes­ti­fy before Grand Juries in Amer­i­ca which are inves­ti­gat­ing ALF & ELF activ­i­ty.

Car­olyn Feld­man, Wash­ing­ton Coun­ty Jail., 2185 Lex­ing­ton Blvd. PO Box 6, Wash­ing­ton, IA 52353, USA. (Diet unknown).

Mus­ca­tine Coun­ty Jail Inmate, c/o “Scott DeMuth”, 400 Wal­nut Street, Mus­ca­tine, Iowa 52761, USA. Scott has also recent­ly been indict­ed for con­spir­a­cy under the Ani­mal Enter­prise Ter­ror­ism Act. (Scott is a meat eater who advo­cates bow hunt­ing).

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).

OTHER ANTI-WAR PRISONERS

Eli­ja Smith VP 7551 HMP Lewes, 1 Brighton Rd, Lewes, Sus­sex, BN7 1EA, Eng­land. On remand accused of dis­arm­ing a weapons fac­to­ry, which, amongst oth­er things, makes Hell­fire Mis­siles. The action was in protest at Israel mil­i­tary action against Gaza. (Diet unknown).

THE LECCE DEFENDANTS
The Lec­ce Defen­dants 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

Alek­sey Bychin, FBU OIK‑2 IK‑7 otryad No. 7, ul. Kar­nal­li­to­vaya d. 98, g. Solikam­sk Permskiy Kray, 618545 Rus­sia. Serv­ing 5 years for defend­ing him­self against neo-nazis. (Diet unknown).

Andrei Mergen­ov, FGU IZ 64/1 OKB 2 komn. 73, Up. Kutyako­va 107, 410601 Sara­tov, Rus­sia. Serv­ing 3 years for fight­ing with neo-nazis. (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

Pavel Deli­don, ul. Timiryazeva‑1, FGU IK‑7, 309990 Val­uy­ki Rus­sia. Anarchist/Animal Rights activist jailed for attempt­ing to obtain wages owed to him, but which had not been paid to him by his employ­er. IMPORTANT: Pavel can only receive let­ters writ­ten in Russ­ian. He is pun­ished by the prison if he receives a let­ter not writ­ten in Russ­ian so please, only send let­ters writ­ten in Russ­ian. (Diet unknown).

Richard Sills (Address Unknown, USA). Serv­ing 15 months for bomb hoax­ing a Uni­ver­si­ty say­ing they would be tar­get­ed by the ALF if they did­n’t stop their ani­mal exper­i­ments. (Diet unknown).

Alessan­dro Set­tepani, Carcere San Michele, Via Casale, 50/A, 15122 San Michele (AL), Italy. Co-defen­dant of Ser­gio Ste­fani. Arrest­ed for steal­ing a car and then remand­ed for “Sub­ver­sive Con­spir­a­cy” and remand­ed into a prison for polit­i­cal activists. (Alessan­dro is a veg­an).

Ser­gio Maria Ste­fani, Carcere San Michele, Via Casale, 50/A, 15122 San Michele (AL), Italy. For­mer ALF pris­on­er arrest­ed for steal­ing a car and then remand­ed for “Sub­ver­sive Con­spir­a­cy” and remand­ed into a prison for polit­i­cal activists. (Ser­gio is a veg­an).

Fran Thomp­son, #1090915, CCC, 3151 Lit­ton Dri­ve, Chill­i­cuthe, MO 64601, 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 includ­ing assault and mur­der. ‘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

Sabotage at Mainshill

On the morn­ing of the 22nd of Novem­ber a drilling rig had it’s elec­tron­ics and hydraulics cut. The spe­cial­ist drilling rig is owned by Apex Drilling Ser­vices. The machine dam­aged is one of two rigs that have been work­ing to pre­pare the Main­shill Wood area for coal extrac­tion.

On the morn­ing of the 22nd of Novem­ber a drilling rig had it’s elec­tron­ics and hydraulics cut. The spe­cial­ist drilling rig is owned by Apex Drilling Ser­vices. The machine dam­aged is one of two rigs that have been work­ing to pre­pare the Main­shill Wood area for coal extrac­tion.

This sab­o­tage is one of many recent attacks against coal and coal min­ing, and it should be clear that these actions will con­tin­ue regard­less of the exis­tence of Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp.

This action was tak­en by a group of autonomous peo­ple in sol­i­dar­i­ty with all those who oppose the devel­op­ment of Main­shill Wood into an open cast coal mine.

Camp for Climate Action — where next, gatherings and process

Jan­u­ary Region­al Gath­er­ings

There will be no nation­al gath­er­ing in Jan­u­ary. Instead, we are encour­ag­ing neigh­bour­hoods to hold their own region­al gath­er­ings in advance of a three-day nation­al gath­er­ing in Feb­ru­ary.

Jan­u­ary Region­al Gath­er­ings

There will be no nation­al gath­er­ing in Jan­u­ary. Instead, we are encour­ag­ing neigh­bour­hoods to hold their own region­al gath­er­ings in advance of a three-day nation­al gath­er­ing in Feb­ru­ary.

We sug­gest that at least part of the agen­da for the region­al gath­er­ings is to eval­u­ate the past year (or more) of cli­mate activism, and con­sid­er the pro­pos­als for future nation­al­ly organ­ised activ­i­ties that have come out of the Cam­p’s Where Next? dis­cus­sions over the last few months. We will be send­ing out more infor­ma­tion about this in the email newslet­ter short­ly.

Once you’ve organ­ised your gath­er­ing, con­tact process[at]climatecamp.org.uk to get the details of put up on this page.

Feb­ru­ary nation­al gath­er­ing

We are plan­ning a three-day nation­al gath­er­ing in Feb­ru­ary, prob­a­bly on the week­end of 12–14 Feb­ru­ary. update — now 20/21 Feb­ru­ary instead. We are keen for this gath­er­ing to be as cen­tral as pos­si­ble in the coun­try so that it’s acces­si­ble for as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble. If you could offer to host this gath­er­ing, or help host it, please get in touch with process[at]climatecamp.org.uk.

Ques­tions?

If you’ve got any ques­tions relat­ing to the Cam­p’s organ­is­ing process, con­tact process[at]climatecamp.org.uk.

Gath­er­ing details will always be sent out via the Camp for Cli­mate Action email newslet­ter.

UK Rossport Solidarity Gathering Feb 12–14th, Sumac Centre, Nottingham (incl.agenda)

Find out more about the Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp in Co.Mayo, Ire­land & how to sup­port the com­mu­ni­ty strug­gle against Shell in 2010.

Shell&BonesFind out more about the Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp in Co.Mayo, Ire­land & how to sup­port the com­mu­ni­ty strug­gle against Shell in 2010.

UK sup­port­ers of the Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp are hold­ing a gath­er­ing at the Sumac Cen­tre in Not­ting­ham from the 12th-14th Feb­ru­ary. Any­one who has been active in the cam­paign or who would like to find out more is wel­come to join us for the week­end. There will be food by dona­tions & accom­mo­da­tion. We will be dis­cussing how to sup­port the strug­gle in Ross­port over the next year as the project moves to the on-shore pipeline stage.

The project has recent­ly been fur­ther delayed, with half of the pro­posed on-shore pipeline route deemed as pos­ing an unac­cept­able risk to the local com­mu­ni­ty. Shell have been asked by the plan­ning board to go away & design a new route by Feb­ru­ary. This will prob­a­bly go through the bay which they had pre­vi­ous­ly ruled out on envi­ron­men­tal & tech­ni­cal grounds.

There is still a lot of fight left in this cam­paign & works on a new route; if giv­en per­mis­sion prob­a­bly won’t start till June. That gives us lots of time to plan & pre­pare a sol­id resis­tance. The local com­mu­ni­ty need our help as much as ever so please come along to the gath­er­ing; meet peo­ple involved in the strug­gle & plot how to take on one of the biggest multi­na­tion­als in the world!!

www.indymedia.ie
www.shelltosea.com

Week­end Itin­er­ary.
Fri 12th: 12–5pm. Cycle car­a­van meet­ing. For those peo­ple inter­est­ed in help­ing to organ­ise a spring ride to Mayo around com­mu­ni­ties in Ire­land.
6pm: Intro­duc­tion to Shell to Sea & the Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp.
Sat 13th: 10–6pm. Main meet­ing to dis­cuss sup­port­ing the cam­paign both in the UK and the camp.
8pm ‑1am: Ben­e­fit night at the Sumac Cen­tre
Sun 14th: 10am onward. Brunch & space for infor­mal chats/more meet­ings

Veg­an food will be avail­able for dona­tions. Sleep­ing space also pro­vid­ed.
Tel: 07510285458

Fur­ther gath­er­ing details at http://www.veggies.org.uk/event.php?ref=1664

More Bailiff activity at Mainshill

Two Welsh bailiffs were found walk­ing around the site this morn­ing and fol­lowed to one of the bunkers which has been built as a defence.

Two Welsh bailiffs were found walk­ing around the site this morn­ing and fol­lowed to one of the bunkers which has been built as a defence.

The bailiffs then attempt­ed to rip off one of the bunker’s walls but left soon after. Camp res­i­dents are con­cerned that two appear­ances of the Nation­al Evic­tion Team and bailiffs with­in 4 days may mean that they are all in Scot­land wait­ing to evict the camp. Please come to Main­shill if you can and help us defend the site. The Gath­er­ing on Sat­ur­day 28th – Tues­day 1st is going ahead as planned.

http://mainshill.noflag.org.uk

Come to the Peace News Winter Gathering, 15–17 January

Join peo­ple from across the spec­trum of the British peace move­ment for a week­end of explo­ration, cel­e­bra­tion and empow­er­ment — learn­ing from oth­er move­ments, strug­gling with chal­leng­ing issues, and cre­at­ing greater cohe­sion and sol­i­dar­i­ty in a seg­ment­ed peace move­ment.

Join peo­ple from across the spec­trum of the British peace move­ment for a week­end of explo­ration, cel­e­bra­tion and empow­er­ment — learn­ing from oth­er move­ments, strug­gling with chal­leng­ing issues, and cre­at­ing greater cohe­sion and sol­i­dar­i­ty in a seg­ment­ed peace move­ment.

Work­shops will be reflec­tive (learn­ing from recent activist ini­tia­tives in Gaza, Copen­hagen and Calais), strate­gic (for exam­ple, devel­op­ing plans to counter the war in Afghanistan) and prac­ti­cal (plan­ning for actions in Not­ting­ham itself, and at Alder­mas­ton the fol­low­ing month). Decades of activist expe­ri­ence will be rep­re­sent­ed, along with fresh faces and new­blood.

The Gath­er­ing will be fol­lowed on Mon­day 18 Jan­u­ary by a mass non­vi­o­lent direct action against the arms trade request­ed by and organ­ised by par­tic­i­pants in the Gath­er­ing (not under the con­trol or direc­tion of Peace News).

Peace News Win­ter Gath­er­ing 2010 has devel­oped out of Peace News Sum­mer Camp 2009, which cre­at­ed a real sense of lib­er­a­tion for par­tic­i­pants. The Gath­er­ing is a space of mutu­al respect in which activists from dif­fer­ent groups and move­ments, who hold diverse views on fun­da­men­tal issues, can share expe­ri­ences, infor­ma­tion and insights, and can learn more about each oth­er.

More details includ­ing pro­gramme at http://peacenewsgathering.info/

Reminder: Mainshill — weekend of action and workshops!

Week­end of Action and work­shops
at MAINSHILL SOLIDARITY CAMP

Sat 28th Nov — Tues 1st Dec

With signs that the evic­tion may hap­pen any minute the Main­shill sol­i­dar­i­ty camp need all the sup­port they can get (see http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/ for more details on the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion).

Week­end of Action and work­shops
at MAINSHILL SOLIDARITY CAMP

Sat 28th Nov — Tues 1st Dec

With signs that the evic­tion may hap­pen any minute the Main­shill sol­i­dar­i­ty camp need all the sup­port they can get (see http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/ for more details on the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion).

Since June, the Main­shill camp has been occu­py­ing the site of a new open cast coal mine in Lanark­shire with lots of local sup­port and seri­ous­ly delay­ing work with dig­ger div­ing, drill rig occu­pa­tions and sab­o­tage actions.

If you can, go now! Oth­er­wise, join us for our open week­end Sat 28 Oct — Tues 1st Dec. There’ll be direct action work­shops, legal brief­in­gs, a guid­ed tour of the site and a small pos­si­bil­i­ty of a ceilidh with local peo­ple on Sat­ur­day night, plus what­ev­er actions peo­ple are up for.

There’s lots and lots to do — not only are con­trac­tors busy felling trees on site, there are also four open­cast coal mines with­in spit­ting dis­tance of Main­shill, as well as the Raven­struther coal rail depot.

From jump­ing on machin­ery and build­ing momen­tum and sup­port in the com­mu­ni­ty, to chop­ping wood and clean­ing out the com­post loos — there’s some­thing for every­one!

A brochure of coal tar­gets in Scot­land plus Dig­ger Div­ing for Begin­ners can be found at http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/?page_id=10

WHAT TO BRING:
*warm clothes, boots and water­proofs, a tent, sleep­ing bag and mat
*tools for build­ing work and action mate­ri­als if you can
*Most impor­tant­ly bring your­self and friends.

FOOD:
There’ll be com­mu­nal veg­an food for a dona­tion, so come pre­pared to help with chop­ping veg.

GETTING THERE:
The camp is right next to junc­tion 12 of the M74, which runs from Carlisle to Glas­gow. The near­est train sta­tions are Lanark and Hamil­ton and there are fre­quent direct busses to the site.
Email us if you need a lift from the train sta­tion.

Detailed trav­el direc­tions:
http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/?page_id=415

MORE INFO AND CONTACT:
info@leaveitintheground.org.uk
http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/?page_id=827

Please note: Peo­ple arrest­ed at Main­shill are held overnight, then tak­en to the Sher­if­f’s Court in Lanark­shire on the next work­ing day before being released, (i.e. if you’re arrest­ed on Mon­day you’ll be let out on Tues­day, but if you’re arrest­ed on Fri­day or Sat­ur­day you’ll have to wait til
Mon­day!) If you are plan­ning to take action, make sure you’ve got the next work day off too.

Mainshill Eviction Alert: the National Eviction Team show up on Site

20.11.2009
This morn­ing the process to evict Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp began. Mem­bers of the Nation­al Evic­tion Team, along with police climbers, are cur­rent­ly on site, walk­ing around tak­ing pic­tures. At the moment there are about 10 police/eviction team on site, they are attempt­ing to gain access to dwellings and mak­ing threats.

20.11.2009
This morn­ing the process to evict Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp began. Mem­bers of the Nation­al Evic­tion Team, along with police climbers, are cur­rent­ly on site, walk­ing around tak­ing pic­tures. At the moment there are about 10 police/eviction team on site, they are attempt­ing to gain access to dwellings and mak­ing threats.

The Nation­al Evic­tion Team, for those who dont know, are a spe­cial­ist group of sher­iffs offi­cers that evict Activists, Hip­pies, and Squat­ters from tun­nels, tree­hous­es and build­ings.

Res­i­dents of the camp are ask­ing for any­one who is able to go to site as soon as pos­si­ble to boost num­bers and strength­en the camps posi­tion.

More infor­ma­tion as we get it.

Fore direc­tions see here http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/?page_id=415#How%20to%20Get%20There

Buy Nothing Day (Bristol, Birmingham, Falmouth, Leeds, Lincoln, Sheffield…) — Steal Something Day (everywhere)

Bris­tol: To buy, or not to buy…

Sat­ur­day Novem­ber 28th is Buy Noth­ing Day (UK). It’s a day where you chal­lenge your­self, your fam­i­ly and friends to switch off from shop­ping and tune into life. The rules are sim­ple, for 24 hours you will detox from shop­ping and any­one can take part pro­vid­ed they spend a day with­out spend­ing!

Shop Less Live MoreBris­tol: To buy, or not to buy…

Sat­ur­day Novem­ber 28th is Buy Noth­ing Day (UK). It’s a day where you chal­lenge your­self, your fam­i­ly and friends to switch off from shop­ping and tune into life. The rules are sim­ple, for 24 hours you will detox from shop­ping and any­one can take part pro­vid­ed they spend a day with­out spend­ing!

Every­thing we buy has an impact on the envi­ron­ment. Buy Noth­ing Day high­lights the envi­ron­men­tal and eth­i­cal con­se­quences of shop­ping. The devel­oped coun­tries — only 20% of the world pop­u­la­tion are con­sum­ing over 80% of the earth­’s nat­ur­al resources, caus­ing a dis­pro­por­tion­ate lev­el of envi­ron­men­tal dam­age and an unfair dis­tri­b­u­tion of wealth.

As con­sumers we need to ques­tion the prod­ucts we buy and chal­lenge the com­pa­nies who pro­duce them. What are the true risks to the envi­ron­ment and devel­op­ing coun­tries? The argu­ment is infi­nite — while it con­tin­ues we should be look­ing for sim­ple solu­tions and Buy Noth­ing Day is a good place to start.

As last year’s buy noth­ing day was a huge suc­cess in the city cen­tre, we will be doing the same event again — a free shop, where peo­ple can take away things for free. We will be right at the heart of the mad shop­ping world that is Broad­mead.

Help­ing peo­ple think about the mate­r­i­al world we live in, and mak­ing con­scious deci­sions in the way we exploit the world, its peo­ple and the nat­ur­al resources.

Bring musi­cal instru­ments, things to give away in the free shop, chalk, and your love­ly self!

Hope to see you there.

Hap­py 10th Buy Noth­ing Day!

Buy Noth­ing Day start­ed in North Amer­i­ca in the ear­ly 90’s and has grown to an inter­na­tion­al day cel­e­brat­ed in over 50 coun­tries. The Buy Noth­ing Day UK web­site went online in Jan­u­ary 2000. We’re not quite 10 years old, but on Novem­ber 28th Buy Noth­ing Day will be just 10 days young — anoth­er rea­son to cel­e­brate the fru­gal fes­ti­val.

http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/

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Birm­ing­ham: We are hold­ing our 8th annu­al San­ta Parade in Birm­ing­ham City Cen­tre for Buy Noth­ing Day on 28th Novem­ber at 12:00 noon. Email: joe (at) birminghamfoe.org.uk. For last years parade click here.

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Fal­mouth:
Free Shop
Ker­now Action Now! a new direct action group in Corn­wall will be launch­ing what will become a reg­u­lar Freeshop on Buy Noth­ing Day. The Freeshop will be from 1pm out­side the old Wool­worths in Fal­mouth, Corn­wall.

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Leeds:

Buy Noth­ing Day is try­ing to make peo­ple think about the goods they buy — think before you shop!  We are NOT ask­ing you to go with­out milk if you run out. Instead, before you buy think about where things come from, how they got here, what resources were used to make them and: do you REALLY need them?

The idea is to encour­age peo­ple that instead of buy­ing some­thing for Christ­mas they could make some­thing (see our alter­na­tive Christ­mas gifts for ideas).  There is so much adver­tis­ing say­ing BUY THIS we thought that there should be some say­ing BUY NOTHING.

Last year we had Christ­mas Car­ols, a free shop, food and all for free in Brig­gate.  Lots of peo­ple inter­est­ed in the con­cept and lots of cups of tea.

Join us.

See web­site below for meet­ings or come to Brig­gate — 11am

http://www.greenactionleeds.org.uk/buy-nothing-day-09

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Lin­coln:

My Dads Strip Club out again on Buy-Noth­ing-Day-Release, this time three events in three days in the city of Lin­coln.

Thurs 26 Nov 2009 8–10pm Dog and Bone, St Johns St, Lin­coln.
BITE THE HAND feeds thoughts of break­ing con­di­tioned respons­es … sub­vert­ing sys­tems upon them­selves… inter­rupt­ing need­less con­sump­tion… and cut­ting off the pow­er. Enjoy an evening at the Dog and Bone with My Dads Strip Club as they demon­strate to you ‘the art of reclaim­ing space’. Putting embar­rass­ment aside, they will address the del­i­cate sub­ject of car­nal knowl­edge of Coke machines. The com­e­dy in the work runs very close to anger, and excites all kinds of stuff in on-look­ers.

Fri 27 Nov 2009 5.30–7.30 pm at the Healthy Hub cafe Beau­mont Fee
(after The 4pm Mini-Wave hap­pen­ing at the cathe­dral )
FROM DIRTY CASH TO CLEAN GREEN come watch us try to nav­i­gate our way out of the chaos of cli­mate change through draw­ing and per­for­mance cap­tur­ing the con­nec­tions between slag heaps and super­mod­els green-wash­ing and the titan­ic and our flood­ed out cum­bri­an towns. Sound by FLOTEL.

Sat 28 Nov 2009 at var­i­ous loca­tions in the city of Lin­coln.
GOOD SHIT DOESN’T HAVE TO COST THE EARTH Mak­ing our annu­al dis-func­tion­al attempt to relate to the shop­ping expe­ri­ence MDSC will try to coerce inno­cent shop­pers to break their addic­tion to mass pro­duced poor­ly made prod­ucts (cheap-shit) instead offer­ing for sale alter­na­tive organ­ic and sus­tain­able high-priced mer­chan­dise. Meet us for a report back at the Dog and Bone pub 1pm sharp.

______________________

Lin­coln Mini Wave — meet Fri­day 4pm out­side Lin­coln Cathe­dral. The event is in sol­i­dar­i­ty with mobil­i­sa­tions around the UN con­fer­ence in Copen­hagen www.ecolincs.org
Buy Noth­ing Day — sab­o­tage the shop­ping
www.buynothingday.co.uk
www.dogandbonelincoln.co.uk — Best com­mu­ni­ty pub in Great Britain award 2009

http://www.mydadstripclub.com

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Con­sumer Virus Out­break, Sheffield

Meet by the stat­ue in the main Mead­owhall con­course at 1pm and do any­thing but shop!
We know that sweet tasty braaaains will be short sup­ply dur­ing the run up to Christ­mas, but let’s see what we can do … Zom­bies and out­break cleanup crew are all wel­come : bring friends, cos­tumes, signs and fake blood aplen­ty!!!
A face­book event page can be found here : www.facebook.com
FEEL FREE TO INVITE FRIENDS : ALL ARE WELCOME IN THE ZOMBIE HOARD!!!

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Steal Something Day
Steal Some­thing Day

“…Unlike Buy Noth­ing Day, when peo­ple are asked to “par­tic­i­pate by not par­tic­i­pat­ing,” Steal Some­thing Day demands that we “par­tic­i­pate by par­tic­i­pat­ing.” Instead of down­play­ing or ignor­ing the cap­i­tal­ists, CEOs, land­lords, small busi­ness tyrants, boss­es, PR hacks, yup­pies, media lap­dogs, cor­po­rate bureau­crats, politi­cians and cops who are pri­mar­i­ly respon­si­ble for mis­ery and exploita­tion in this world, Steal Some­thing Day demands that we steal from them, with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion.…

…Unlike the mis­placed Buy Noth­ing Day notion of con­sumer empow­er­ment, Steal Some­thing Day pro­motes empow­er­ment by urg­ing us to col­lec­tive­ly iden­ti­fy the greedy bas­tards who are actu­al­ly respon­si­ble for pro­mot­ing mis­ery and bore­dom in this world. Instead of ignor­ing them, Steal Some­thing Day encour­ages us to make their lives as uncom­fort­able as pos­si­ble.

As we like to say in Mon­tre­al: diranger les rich­es dans leurs nich­es!

And remem­ber, we’re talk­ing about steal­ing, not theft. Steal­ing is just. Theft is exploita­tive. Steal­ing is when you take a yup­pie’s BMW for a joyride, and crash into a parked Mer­cedes just for the hell of it. Theft is when you take can­dy from a baby’s mouth.

Steal­ing is the re-dis­tri­b­u­tion of wealth from rich to poor Theft is mak­ing prof­its at the expense of the dis­ad­van­taged and the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment. Steal­ing is an unwrit­ten a tax on the rich. Theft is tax­ing the poor to sub­si­dize the rich. Steal­ing is noth­ing more than a tax on the rich. There is sol­i­dar­i­ty in steal­ing, but prop­er­ty is noth­ing but theft.…”

For the full orig­i­nal text and call-out, go to http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/432

Scottish Activist Legal Project launched for weekend of protests

The Scot­tish Activist Legal Project formed in Octo­ber 2009. It draws on the expe­ri­ence peo­ple have of pro­vid­ing legal sup­port for direct action at Faslane, the G8 2005 and many oth­er sit­u­a­tions.

The Scot­tish Activist Legal Project formed in Octo­ber 2009. It draws on the expe­ri­ence peo­ple have of pro­vid­ing legal sup­port for direct action at Faslane, the G8 2005 and many oth­er sit­u­a­tions.

The Scot­tish Activist legal Project will be involved in pro­vid­ing legal sup­port for the anti-NATO protests in Edin­burgh from the 13th-17th of Novem­ber and the anti-SDL protests in Glas­gow on the 14th of Novem­ber.

Legal Observers will be around dur­ing the protests. They will be iden­ti­fi­able as hav­ing orange flo­res­cent jack­ets with “Legal Observ­er” writ­ten on the back. They will be hand­ing out bust cards dur­ing the demo.

If you would like to vol­un­teer to help with legal observ­ing please email us.

Vis­it our web­site for legal infor­ma­tion includ­ing legal guides and bust cards for the Smash NATO demo on Fri­day and the Stop the SDL demo on Sat­ur­day.

Legal Sup­port Num­ber’s
Edin­burgh Anti-NATO Protests
0797 556 0809
Glas­gow Anti-SDL Protests
0845 313 8459

http://scalp.noflag.org.uk

scalp [at] noflag.org.uk