Climate Camp To Target Heathrow (& new videos: Another End of the World is Possible)

Last sum­mer, over 600 peo­ple con­verged out­side Drax coal-fired pow­er sta­tion for 10 days of sus­tain­able liv­ing and col­lec­tive edu­ca­tion, cul­mi­nat­ing in a day of mass action against Drax. This year, the Camp for Cli­mate Action will pitch its tents near Heathrow air­port.

climate camp '07 sand posterLast sum­mer, over 600 peo­ple con­verged out­side Drax coal-fired pow­er sta­tion for 10 days of sus­tain­able liv­ing and col­lec­tive edu­ca­tion, cul­mi­nat­ing in a day of mass action against Drax. This year, the Camp for Cli­mate Action will pitch its tents near Heathrow air­port.

There will be a day of mass direct action aim­ing to dis­rupt the activ­i­ties of the air­port and the avi­a­tion indus­try, but in the inter­ests of pub­lic safe­ty there will be no attempt to block­ade run­ways.

Although the loca­tion is dif­fer­ent, the phi­los­o­phy of the camp remains the same: to be a place for the bur­geon­ing net­work of peo­ple tak­ing rad­i­cal action on cli­mate change around the coun­try to come togeth­er for a week of low-impact liv­ing, edu­ca­tion, debate, net­work­ing, strate­gis­ing, cel­e­bra­tion, and direct action. The camp will fea­ture over 100 work­shops cov­er­ing top­ics such as cli­mate change impacts, car­bon off­set­ting, bio­fu­els, peak oil, per­ma­cul­ture, prac­ti­cal renew­ables, cam­paign strat­e­gy, skills for direct action, and much more. Run with­out lead­ers by every­one who comes along, it will be a work­ing eco­log­i­cal vil­lage using renew­able ener­gy, com­post­ing waste and sourc­ing food local­ly.

Avi­a­tion is the fastest grow­ing source of green­house gas emis­sions in the UK, and all our efforts to tack­le cli­mate change in oth­er sec­tors are undone by the mas­sive growth in air trav­el. Hold­ing the camp at Heathrow aims to high­light the luna­cy of the gov­ern­men­t’s air­port expan­sion plans, tar­get indus­try giants prof­i­teer­ing from the cli­mate cri­sis, and raise aware­ness of the need to fly less. The camp will also sup­port local res­i­dents in their long-term strug­gle against the build­ing of a third run­way and the destruc­tion of their com­mu­ni­ties.

It all comes down to us, now. We are the last gen­er­a­tion that can do any­thing about cli­mate change. In 20 or 30 years time, should we not change our ways, we’ll be com­mit­ted to emis­sions increas­es that will see forests burn, soils decay, oceans rise, and mil­lions of peo­ple die. If we don’t get this issue right, so much else is lost too.

We still have time, but not for long. Make it count.

Camp for Cli­mate Action, 14th — 21st August 2007.
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk


To cel­e­brate the announce­ment of the loca­tion for this sum­mer’s CAMP
FOR CLIMATE ACTION — Heathrow Air­port, we present:

ANOTHER END OF THE WORLD IS POSSIBLE
7 Video por­traits of rad­i­cal cli­mate activists

“Apoc­a­lypse is always eas­i­er to imag­ine than the strange and cir­cuitous routes to what actu­al­ly comes next.”
Rebec­ca Sol­nit, Hope in the Dark: The Untold His­to­ry of Peo­ple Pow­er, Can­non­gate 2005.

Anoth­er End of the World is Pos­si­ble is a series of cap­ti­vat­ing video por­traits of peo­ple tak­ing rad­i­cal action against the root caus­es of cli­mate change. Rang­ing from an activist who occu­pied an airport’s
taxi way, to a teacher work­ing with kids on a deprived hous­ing estate, the por­traits demon­strate the won­der­ful diver­si­ty of those who will be tak­ing part in this years Camp for Cli­mate Action in the UK : 14th –21st August. see the all at www.climatecamp.org.uk

The 7 — 5 minute long por­traits are also post­ed on numer­ous video plat­forms includ­ing youtube,archive.org, dai­ly motion,v‑social — Quick­time copies can be down­loaded from http://www.guidedurenard.org/bm/library/7 . If you want a dvd copy con­tact john@labofii.net

Inter­vie­wees are: Cather­ine — Cli­mate Camp; Dun­can Law — Tran­si­tion Town Brix­ton; Pauline — Rite2No; John Stew­art- Air­port Watch, Julie — Grow­ing Com­mu­ni­ties; Leo — Plane Stu­pid; Kevin Smith — Car­bon Trade
Watch.

International Day of Direct Action Against Climate Change and the G8 — UK events: Haringey… (& Jeff Luers solidarity callout)

Fri­day 8th June 2007
Direct Action for Cli­mate Jus­tice – Resis­tance is Self Defense!

We all know the ter­ri­fy­ing sta­tis­tics: a mil­lion species extinct by 2050, 19 of the 20 hottest years on record since 1980, Green­land and Antarc­ti­ca melt­ing, droughts, floods, famines … the G8 have had over 30 years to address cli­mate change and only suc­ceed­ed in pro­vid­ing tril­lions in sub­si­dies to the very indus­tries that are destroy­ing our plan­et and our future. And while the G8 con­tin­ues to line their pock­ets, island states dis­ap­pear and hun­dreds of thou­sands die as a result of the freak weath­er con­di­tions caused by their irra­tional and uncon­trol­lable obses­sion with nev­er end­ing eco­nom­ic growth.

G8 2007 climate day flierFri­day 8th June 2007
Direct Action for Cli­mate Jus­tice – Resis­tance is Self Defense!

We all know the ter­ri­fy­ing sta­tis­tics: a mil­lion species extinct by 2050, 19 of the 20 hottest years on record since 1980, Green­land and Antarc­ti­ca melt­ing, droughts, floods, famines … the G8 have had over 30 years to address cli­mate change and only suc­ceed­ed in pro­vid­ing tril­lions in sub­si­dies to the very indus­tries that are destroy­ing our plan­et and our future. And while the G8 con­tin­ues to line their pock­ets, island states dis­ap­pear and hun­dreds of thou­sands die as a result of the freak weath­er con­di­tions caused by their irra­tional and uncon­trol­lable obses­sion with nev­er end­ing eco­nom­ic growth.

We have a ten-year win­dow to act. As the mega­lo­ma­ni­ac G8 lead­ers meet in Ger­many, masked behind a bar­ri­er of fences and sol­diers, intent on lead­ing us fur­ther towards cat­a­stroph­ic and irre­versible cli­mate chaos, we must shout, scream and roar ‘no more’. Now is the time to take direct action and shut them down, them and their cli­mate crim­i­nal indus­try friends!

The 8th of June Inter­na­tion­al Day of Action Against Cli­mate Change and the G8 has been called by the Inter­na­tion­al Ris­ing Tide Net­work. This is a call for autonomous, decen­tral­ized actions appro­pri­ate for your town, city, or local area. Use this inter­na­tion­al day of action to sup­port local strug­gles against oil refiner­ies, gas pipelines, strip mines and coal-fired pow­er plants. Dis­rupt the finan­cial back­ers of the fos­sil fuel indus­try. Organ­ise work­shops to spread sus­tain­able post-petro­le­um liv­ing skills. Find a weak point in the infra­struc­ture of resource exploita­tion and throw a lit­er­al or sym­bol­ic wrench in the works. It’s time to vis­it your local pol­luters and give ’em hell!

We already know of actions planned across the UK, North Amer­i­ca, Ger­many, Cana­da and Aus­tralia and that’s just the start! By 8th June actions will be planned around the world. Pass this call out on to all envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice, cli­mate action, rad­i­cal sus­tain­abil­i­ty and relat­ed move­ments in all the G8 coun­tries and the Glob­al South.

Ris­ing Tide will cre­ate a col­lec­tion of out­reach and agit-prop mate­ri­als (includ­ing this call out in five dif­fer­ent lan­guages) that can be used by groups around the world to organ­ise local­ly. These mate­ri­als will be down­load­able from www.risingtide.org.uk and http://risingtidenorthamerica.org.
Direct action and civ­il dis­obe­di­ence are the ratio­nal response in this time of cri­sis. Sup­port the 8th of June Inter­na­tion­al Day of Direct Action against Cli­mate Change and the G8! Tell us about planned actions for cli­mate jus­tice being planned in your com­mu­ni­ty. Con­tact us — info@risingtide.org.uk and contact@risingtidenorthamerica.org

In June 2007 the G8 will under­stand the mean­ing of rebel­lion, revolt and rev­o­lu­tion. Their recipe for cat­a­stro­phe will be met with our world­wide resis­tance!

*G8 Day of Action Resources — Down­load­able G8 day of Action fly­ers and posters.
*Organ­ise a Crit­i­cal Mass Bike Ride on the 8th of June — here are some leaflet ideas to help you.

————————–
You could link your event in with Day of Sol­i­dar­i­ty with Jef­frey Free Luers, June 9, 2007:

June marks the sev­enth year that our friend and com­rade, Jef­frey “Free” Luers has been impris­oned and held cap­tive by the state. Sen­tenced to an out­ra­geous 22 years and 8 months for burn­ing three Sport Util­i­ty Vehi­cles (SUVs) at Roma­nia Chevro­let in Eugene, Jeff has con­tin­ued to be active in prison and fight back with his words and inspi­ra­tion. Although Jeff recent­ly won his appeal and is expect­ing a reduced sen­tence, this case is not over:

“I have spo­ken with my attor­ney and there are still many bat­tles ahead. Hard choic­es will have to be made. I am by no means close to walk­ing out of prison, just one step clos­er. This is a vic­to­ry, and while my own per­son­al strug­gle is mak­ing head­way oth­ers are just begin­ning.”

We encour­age peo­ple to orga­nize events for Jeff and oth­er polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, unit­ing strug­gles for human, earth, and ani­mal lib­er­a­tion. In Jef­f’s own words:

“This June, show your sol­i­dar­i­ty with me, and all those who have strug­gled, past and present, to make this world a bet­ter place. Strug­gle with us. Hold demon­stra­tions or gath­er­ings at fed­er­al build­ings or US embassies and demand change. It doesn’t mat­ter what cause or issue you fight for — we are all con­nect­ed. What does mat­ter is that we stand unit­ed and make our voic­es heard.”

More at http://freefreenow.org/june2007.html

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»>ANNOUNCED UK EVENTS»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»>

HARINGEY CRITICAL MASS BIKE RIDE 2007

Can’t make it to Ger­many? Sick of the all those cars get­ting in your way on the auto­bahn! Don’t despair…join us on Sat­ur­day 9th of June for the 2007 Haringey Crit­i­cal Mass. A leisure­ly ride down the Green Lanes to reclaim our streets and send a breath of fresh air to those meet­ing in Ger­many.

Sat­ur­day 9th June • Assem­ble 12 Noon @ Manor House
• Fin­ish­ing at Chest­nuts Park for a pic­nic •

All Wel­come: espe­cial­ly cycles, scoot­ers, wheel­chairs, skate­boards, rollerblades, pedes­tri­ans…
Sup­port­ed by Haringey Sol­i­dar­i­ty Group www.haringey.org.uk

FOR CLEAN AIR AND A GREEN G8

WHY HAVE A CRITICAL MASS BIKE RIDE IN HARINGEY?
We are join­ing togeth­er on a Crit­i­cal Mass Bike Ride through Haringey as a colour­ful and fun way of high­light­ing envi­ron­men­tal and trans­port issues in the bor­ough. In the week when the G8 are gath­er­ing in Ger­many and the day
after the Inter­na­tion­al Day of Direct Action Against Cli­mate Change we should also be focus­ing on the glob­al cri­sis of cli­mate change and the envi­ron­men­tal impacts of oil depen­den­cy.

• It’s time we reclaimed our streets from the traf­fic and con­ges­tion that caus­es tox­ic lev­els of pol­lu­tion and injury and death.
• We want cycle lanes on Green Lanes and all over Haringey to make cycling a safer, more viable form of trans­port.
• We want mea­sures in place to reduce traf­fic speeds on all roads in Haringey, where dan­ger­ous dri­ving reg­u­lar­ly puts cyclists, chil­dren and pedes­tri­ans at risk.

WHAT’S THE G8 GOT TO DO WITH THIS?

• The G8 (Group of eight, most indus­tri­al­ized nations) Sum­mits are host­ed, on rota­tion, by the group’s mem­ber states. In 2007 the sum­mit is to be held on 6–8 June in Ros­tock, Ger­many.
• While it seems to be in the news a lot, Cli­mate Change is per­haps the issue that has received least atten­tion com­pared to the scale of destruc­tion that life on earth is fac­ing. It is the most seri­ous prob­lem fac­ing the world, more seri­ous than inter­na­tion­al ter­ror­ism, accord­ing to the UK Government’s chief sci­en­tif­ic advi­sor.
• Cli­mate change needs to be high­er on the G8 agen­da. How­ev­er, we can­not leave it just to the sci­en­tists and politi­cians to dis­man­tle the car­bon machine.
• This bike ride aims to high­light this issue through action and the pro­mo­tion of cycling.

Let’s cel­e­brate the free­dom and plea­sure of trav­el­ling by bike – it’s much more fun and much health­i­er than being stuck in a car in a traf­fic jam. This will be a fun day out for every­one in a safe, sup­port­ive, pos­i­tive atmos­phere, show­ing how much safer and more pleas­ant our streets can be.

COME AND JOIN US!

If you feel it’s time to pro­mote cycling and encour­age a more sus­tain­able Haringey, or if you would like to get involved, vis­it the Haringey Sol­i­dar­i­ty Group web­site: www.haringey.org.uk

Earth First! summer gathering — Wednesday 18th July until Sunday 22nd July 2007 — location & programme announced

What is the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing?

* Are you fed up with bare-faced lies from politi­cians, big busi­ness and the media?
* Have you had enough of a world where cor­po­rate prof­it comes before life and dig­ni­ty?
* Do you want to see an end to mind­less con­sump­tion>
* Then this Gath­er­ing is for you! Read on…

EF! gathering '07 logo (rabbit/fence)What is the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing?

* Are you fed up with bare-faced lies from politi­cians, big busi­ness and the media?
* Have you had enough of a world where cor­po­rate prof­it comes before life and dig­ni­ty?
* Do you want to see an end to mind­less con­sump­tion>
* Then this Gath­er­ing is for you! Read on…

Explor­ing alter­na­tives to the cor­po­rate world of greed, lies & exploita­tion -

The Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing is the place where peo­ple involved in rad­i­cal eco­log­i­cal direct action — or those who want to be involved — get togeth­er for five days of time and space to talk, walk, share skills, learn, play, rant, find out what’s going on, find out what’s next, live out­side, strate­gise, hang out, incite, laugh and con­spire.

The gath­er­ing is also a prac­ti­cal exam­ple of non-hier­ar­chi­cal low-impact liv­ing in action.

We are a diverse com­mu­ni­ty with a wide range of approach­es to our action, so there should be plen­ty to inter­est and inspire every­one whether you have been active for years or are com­plete­ly new to it all.

More info at earthfirstgathering.org.uk

Plane Stupid Callout for Local Groups

Plane Stu­pid (www.planestupid.com) is call­ing out for local Plane Stu­pid groups to form to fight the fastest grow­ing cause of cli­mate change (avi­a­tion) in your area. Plane Stu­pid thinks that local groups tak­ing action in their area but with­in a wider net­work of Plane Stu­pid activists is the best way to fight the unsus­tain­able growth of the avi­a­tion indus­try. If you would like to set up a group in your area all you need is a few enthu­si­as­tic mem­bers com­mit­ted to using direct action to fight cli­mate change.

Plane Stupid plane fist logoPlane Stu­pid (www.planestupid.com) is call­ing out for local Plane Stu­pid groups to form to fight the fastest grow­ing cause of cli­mate change (avi­a­tion) in your area. Plane Stu­pid thinks that local groups tak­ing action in their area but with­in a wider net­work of Plane Stu­pid activists is the best way to fight the unsus­tain­able growth of the avi­a­tion indus­try. If you would like to set up a group in your area all you need is a few enthu­si­as­tic mem­bers com­mit­ted to using direct action to fight cli­mate change.

The 2003 Avi­a­tion White Paper out­lines plans for between dou­ble and triple the cur­rent num­ber of pas­sen­ger flights. This involves mas­sive air­port expan­sion all over Britain at rate equiv­a­lent to the build­ing of a new Heathrow every 5 years. The UK’s top cli­ma­tol­o­gists pre­dict that avi­a­tion’s emis­sions alone are pre­dict­ed to exceed the gov­ern­men­t’s tar­get for the coun­try’s entire out­put of green­house gas­es in 2050 by around 134%. (Tyn­dall Cen­tre for Cli­mate
Chan­g­eRe­search)

Plane Stu­pid has become one of the direct action groups of the emerg­ing grass­roots cli­mate move­ment in Britain. Our dra­mat­ic impact has come by means of a series of high-pro­file direct actions and a near obses­sive focus on clear, basic demands that peo­ple under­stand: the scrap­ping of air­port expan­sion plans, a tax on air­craft fuel and
plane tick­ets, and an end to unnec­es­sary and unsus­tain­able short haul flights.

Since we formed in less than 18 months ago; we have dis­rupt­ed the world’s largest inter­na­tion­al avi­a­tion indus­try con­fer­ence in Cen­tral Lon­don; ground­ed planes through the occu­pa­tion of a taxi­way at the short-haul East Mid­lands Air­port; blocked the entrance to BAA’s head­quar­ters at Heathrow twice; staged a roof-top protest at easy­Jet’s cor­po­rate head­quar­ters in Lon­don, tem­porar­i­ly shut down tens of trav­el agents across the UK and helped angry Heathrow res­i­dents dis­rupt the trans­port min­is­ter’s speech. We also inspired and over­saw Britain’s first nation­al day of action against short haul flights, which saw local groups hold demon­stra­tions at six region­al air­ports and out­side Flight Cen­tre trav­el agents in cities across the UK.

Gov­ern­ment and indus­try’s prof­i­teer­ing from cre­at­ing cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mate change will go unchecked unless YOU do some­thing today! Join us by set­ting up a local group with some like mind­ed peo­ple in your area to help us scrap air­port expan­sion, get avi­a­tion fuel and tick­ets taxed and end­ing short haul flights.

Con­tact info@planestupid.com or call 07948 219 493 for advice on set­ting up a local group or for some­one to come and speak in your area about Plane Stu­pid. Also on the 12th and 13th of May we will be at the Cam­paign against Cli­mate Change con­fer­ence in Lon­don (http://www.campaigncc.org/) where you can come and speak to us.

www.planestupid.com
info@planestupid.com

SHAC TAKES THE FLAK: FLIMSY PRETEXT FOR COUNTRY-WIDE ARRESTS OF ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

4.5.07
In yet anoth­er ham­merblow aimed at the ani­mal rights move­ment, police made 32 arrests across the UK in the ear­ly hours of Tues­day morn­ing in ‘Oper­a­tion Achilles’. Assis­tant Chief Con­sta­ble Adri­an Lep­pard of Kent Police says the arrests are “one of the largest, if not the largest, police oper­a­tion that has tar­get­ed ani­mal extrem­ism in the UK.” Three prop­er­ties were also searched in Bel­gium and the Nether­lands.

4.5.07
In yet anoth­er ham­merblow aimed at the ani­mal rights move­ment, police made 32 arrests across the UK in the ear­ly hours of Tues­day morn­ing in ‘Oper­a­tion Achilles’. Assis­tant Chief Con­sta­ble Adri­an Lep­pard of Kent Police says the arrests are “one of the largest, if not the largest, police oper­a­tion that has tar­get­ed ani­mal extrem­ism in the UK.” Three prop­er­ties were also searched in Bel­gium and the Nether­lands.

700 police were involved as homes and ani­mal sanc­tu­ar­ies were raid­ed, with police seiz­ing com­put­ers, mobile phones and cash. The whole oper­a­tion was designed with max­i­mum pub­lic­i­ty in mind — the press were tipped off in advance and duti­ful­ly report­ed on the lat­est crack­down on ani­mal rights ‘extrem­ism’. Almost all those arrest­ed had some con­nec­tion with the SHAC cam­paign

Of course what did­n’t hit the head­lines was the num­ber of prop­er­ties raid­ed with­out arrests being made and the fact that 24 hours lat­er only nine of those arrest­ed had been charged — two with black­mail and the oth­er sev­en with ‘con­spir­a­cy to black­mail’. Twen­ty were released on bail and one with­out charge. Two of those nicked, main organ­is­ers in the SHAC cam­paign, have been held for fur­ther ques­tion­ing.

Cru­cial­ly, the police inves­ti­ga­tion — in a nod to cor­po­rate mar­tial law — used intel­li­gence and foren­sic sup­port from the pri­vate sec­tor. The phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal and biotech­nol­o­gy indus­try greet­ed news of the raids with glee: “News of today’s oper­a­tion will act as a great fil­lip to the med­ical research com­mu­ni­ty across Europe,” said a state­ment issued by Ais­ling Bur­nand, chief exec­u­tive of Britain’s BioIn­dus­try Asso­ci­a­tion.

One source close to SHAC told SchNEWS, “This has all the hall­marks of a fish­ing expe­di­tion, designed to cause mas­sive dis­rup­tion to ani­mal rights cam­paigns and show Big Phar­ma here and abroad that the police are mak­ing strides against the ani­mal rights move­ment.”

NETCU CLOSES IN

As details emerged of the botched raid on Fresh­fields Ani­mal Sanc­tu­ary in Liv­er­pool, sanc­tu­ary head Dave Cal­len­dar told SchNEWS, “At 5.30 they kicked in the door and seized three staff mem­bers. At 6.20 they seized two oth­ers as they turned up for work. There were about six­ty cop­pers — they set up a cor­don and refused access to any­one. Those seized were held in vans but not arrest­ed. My farm man­ag­er had his col­lar­bone bro­ken after he was grabbed by three police when he climbed the back wall to check on our pigs. He was held in a van for three hours and refused access to med­ical atten­tion. Although the police brought an RSPCA inspec­tor with them it was clear that when we regained access to the site that noth­ing had been done for the ani­mals. Also they allowed ani­mals to escape, which we’re still look­ing for. They took every sin­gle piece of hard­ware, mobile phones, pho­to­copiers, you name it — but they did­n’t take a sin­gle piece of paper­work. It’s dif­fi­cult to see it as any­thing oth­er then delib­er­ate intim­i­da­tion and dis­rup­tion — nobody here is involved with the Hunt­ing­don cam­paign. We’re a pro-active com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tion and we’re not going to let them walk all over us.”

The raids come against a back­drop of a decline in crim­i­nal inci­dents relat­ed to ani­mal rights and demon­strate that the Nation­al Extrem­ism Tac­ti­cal Co-ordi­nat­ing Unit’s (see www.netcu.org.uk) efforts are now aimed firm­ly at the ‘legit­i­mate’ above ground ani­mal rights move­ment. With SHAC once again able to con­duct demos out­side HLS (see SchNEWS 581) and activism spread­ing across Europe, Britain’s polit­i­cal police seem intent on decap­i­tat­ing the A.R. move­ment, by any means nec­es­sary.

* See www.shac.net for more
* Fresh­fields Ani­mal Sanc­tu­ary see www.freshfieldsrescue.org.uk

Call for Submissions: Zine on Property Destruction

Enter­ing the rad­i­cal com­mu­ni­ty, many quick­ly find them­selves con­stant­ly hear­ing about debate over prop­er­ty destruc­tion. Is it vio­lence? Does it mat­ter if it’s vio­lence? Is it effec­tive? Is it alien­at­ing? And on and on. I’ve been hear­ing this argu­ment pret­ty much since I reg­u­lar­ly start­ed attend­ing protests. At this point, I almost don’t want to deal with the sub­ject. Nat­u­ral­ly, you’re ask­ing, “Then why the hell do you want to make a zine about it?”

Enter­ing the rad­i­cal com­mu­ni­ty, many quick­ly find them­selves con­stant­ly hear­ing about debate over prop­er­ty destruc­tion. Is it vio­lence? Does it mat­ter if it’s vio­lence? Is it effec­tive? Is it alien­at­ing? And on and on. I’ve been hear­ing this argu­ment pret­ty much since I reg­u­lar­ly start­ed attend­ing protests. At this point, I almost don’t want to deal with the sub­ject. Nat­u­ral­ly, you’re ask­ing, “Then why the hell do you want to make a zine about it?”

The answer is sim­ple: I may be sick of the debate, but that’s just me. As the war in Iraq drags on (drag­ging blood­ied Iraqi corpse upon blood­ied Iraqi corpse with it) and dis­con­tent and dis­il­lu­sion­ment with this whole socio-polit­i­cal-eco­nom­ic sys­tem increas­es, more peo­ple are get­ting involved in the fight against cap­i­tal­ism and its machines of war (both the armies abroad and the police at home). For many, when they start going to protests and demon­stra­tions, they have at best mixed feel­ings about things like prop­er­ty destruc­tion, vio­lent­ly resist­ing the police, or even just march­ing in the street with­out a per­mit. And some appre­hen­sion about these tac­tics is com­plete­ly under­stand­able. After all, every­thing in this sys­tem is designed to teach us that prop­er­ty (or per­haps more accu­rate­ly, cor­po­rate prop­er­ty) is sacred, that police should always be obeyed (or else) and that break­ing the law, even small laws, is moral­ly and eth­i­cal­ly wrong and can nev­er be jus­ti­fi­able.

And so, this is a call for arti­cles, sto­ries, art, or any­thing else about the tac­tic of prop­er­ty destruc­tion and its mer­its for a zine that seeks to give those on the fence about this issue a gen­tle nudge (and maybe con­vince them to rip down the fence!). Since this is meant to be a zine for peo­ple new to social move­ments, I respect­ful­ly ask that the tone of the arti­cles keep that in mind when choos­ing their words. To put it plain­ly, please no anti-lib­er­al rants–they piss me off too, but this is sup­posed to be the case for prop­er­ty destruc­tion, not the case against lib­er­als (maybe next time!).

When I say arti­cles, I mean pre­vi­ous­ly pub­lished or unpub­lished arti­cles argu­ing for the valid­i­ty or effec­tive­ness of prop­er­ty destruc­tion. It does­n’t even have to be some­thing you wrote. If there’s an arti­cle that you think is real­ly great and think that it should be includ­ed, tell me about it (things like, where I can find it, who wrote it, and how I can get ahold of them). There’s two kinds of sto­ries that would be real­ly great to have for this zine: per­son­al accounts and “his­tor­i­cal” accounts. Per­son­al accounts would be some­thing talk­ing about wit­ness­ing or even com­mit­ting an act of prop­er­ty destruc­tion, how it made you feel, what impact it had, etc. Obvi­ous­ly this is very sen­si­tive, so try­ing to be rel­a­tive­ly vague is best (and also see the next para­graph for the best way to sub­mit things like that). A “his­tor­i­cal” account would be more of a gen­er­al sto­ry (prefer­ably con­tem­po­rary) of how prop­er­ty destruc­tion put pres­sure on an insti­tu­tion to win a con­crete goal. Art would be any­thing that would be an image. A car­toon, a cool draw­ing, what­ev­er.

If you have any­thing to con­tribute, please send an email to tacticaldiversity@gmail.com. I may want to edit some of your sub­mis­sion for var­i­ous rea­sons (most like­ly space). Any edits or cuts will be run by you first. If for some rea­son you can’t or don’t want to sub­mit some­thing online, send an email and we can dis­cuss oth­er meth­ods of sub­mis­sion. As was said above, send­ing per­son­al accounts about prop­er­ty destruc­tion over email is not nec­es­sar­i­ly a good idea. In fact, for both our sakes, it’s a bad idea. Any per­son­al accounts should be sub­mit­ted will an anony­mous email ser­vice like www.willselfdestruct.com (be sure to make it at least 1 view). If you want me to respond some­how, you can leave an email address in the will­selfde­struct mes­sage and I can respond in kind. If you don’t leave a way to respond to you, I may make edits with­out run­ning them by you first. Also, a major goal is to make sure that every piece pub­lished is pub­lished with the cre­ator’s per­mis­sion. This zine isn’t going to be sold any­where and will be dis­trib­uted for free, but I still don’t want to use oth­er peo­ple’s stuff in this zine with­out their express per­mis­sion. So yeah, don’t sub­mit oth­er peo­ple’s work act­ing like it’s your’s and get peo­ple pissed at me. If you run an infos­hop or any oth­er rad­i­cal space that could dis­trib­ute this zine upon com­ple­tion and are inter­est­ed in receiv­ing copies, drop a line and you’ll be kept in the loop when it comes time to pub­lish.

In love and rage,
Casey Ford

Reclaim Power — 15min film version online

In the sum­mer of 2006, 600 peo­ple set up a Camp for Cli­mate Action in the shad­ow of one of the biggest C02 emit­ters in Europe: Drax coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in York­shire / UK. With over one hun­dred work­shops on a wide range of top­ics, the 10 day camp was a space of col­lec­tive learn­ing, sus­tain­able liv­ing and tak­ing direct action on the root caus­es of cli­mate change. The gath­er­ing that showed prac­ti­cal low ener­gy solu­tions in action, cul­mi­nat­ed in a day of protest and mass direct action in an attempt to shut down Drax.

In the sum­mer of 2006, 600 peo­ple set up a Camp for Cli­mate Action in the shad­ow of one of the biggest C02 emit­ters in Europe: Drax coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in York­shire / UK. With over one hun­dred work­shops on a wide range of top­ics, the 10 day camp was a space of col­lec­tive learn­ing, sus­tain­able liv­ing and tak­ing direct action on the root caus­es of cli­mate change. The gath­er­ing that showed prac­ti­cal low ener­gy solu­tions in action, cul­mi­nat­ed in a day of protest and mass direct action in an attempt to shut down Drax.

You can down­load this 15 min ver­sion of the film ‘Reclaim Pow­er — voic­es from the camp for cli­mate action’ here:

http://video.indymedia.org/en/2007/04/821.shtml

order the mul­ti­lin­gual DVD 62 min + sev­er­al extras — or this 15 min ver­sion in DVD qual­i­ty here: orders@cinerebelde.org or networking@climatecamp.org.uk

More infor­ma­tion about the camp 2007: http://climatecamp.org.uk

You are wel­come to post or link up this 15 min clip on your web­sites. Please include a link to cine rebelde: http://www.cinerebelde.org/site.php3?id_rubrique=166〈=en

On how to block just about everything

The upcom­ing actions against the G8 sum­mit in Heili­gen­damm will present con­sid­er­able chal­lenges for the cre­ativ­i­ty and sta­mi­na of activists. After all, the idea is to effec­tive­ly block all the entry points. The prob­lem is that an enor­mous army of secu­ri­ty and pub­lic order forces will be present and try to pre­vent the same. But his­to­ry has shown that every­thing can be blocked. Below you will find some use­ful sto­ries about the prac­tice of block­ades. This text will be updat­ed as new ideas pour in.

The upcom­ing actions against the G8 sum­mit in Heili­gen­damm will present con­sid­er­able chal­lenges for the cre­ativ­i­ty and sta­mi­na of activists. After all, the idea is to effec­tive­ly block all the entry points. The prob­lem is that an enor­mous army of secu­ri­ty and pub­lic order forces will be present and try to pre­vent the same. But his­to­ry has shown that every­thing can be blocked. Below you will find some use­ful sto­ries about the prac­tice of block­ades. This text will be updat­ed as new ideas pour in.

Orig­i­nal ver­sion of the arti­cle, with many illus­tra­tions, can be found here: http://www.globalinfo.nl/content/view/1200/30/

Also writ­ten by the affin­i­ty group Wil­nis: 8 good rea­sons to block the G8 sum­mit ( http://www.globalinfo.nl/content/view/1209/30/)

——————————-

The roads to Heili­gen­damm come in all shapes and sizes. Except to the air­port, there are no big motor­ways, which require their own expert approach to block­ing. Most of the roads that will be used to trans­port peo­ple and goods to the G8 sum­mit are dual car­riage­ways, some­times with a crash bar­ri­er inbe­tween the lanes, often with crash bar­ri­ers (and cycle paths) along the sides of the road.

To begin an effec­tive block­ade is not that dif­fi­cult, but the skill lies in keep­ing it going. Good prepa­ra­tion is half the work. You can start with prepar­ing a few days before in the action camps, but it will be even eas­i­er if you have made plans before and have organ­ised your­selves in a so-called affin­i­ty group. Then you can think before­hand about how you want to do actions, what you need for it, you can also prac­tice already before­hand, etc. Dur­ing the prepa­ra­tions, you can ask oth­ers for advice, learn cer­tain tech­niques, etc. It is impor­tant to form a group of peo­ple who more or less agree on the man­ner in which they want to do actions, so that not too much time goes into dis­cus­sions or dis­agree­ments. If you have not organ­ised your­self in a group yet, or if you have ques­tions, you can always try and find con­tact through activist meet­ings. Con­ver­gence cen­tres, for exam­ple, are going to be set up in Berlin, Ham­burg and Ros­tock, amongst oth­ers for this pur­pose. In the Nether­lands, you can find fel­low activists at the dis­sent meet­ings.

More­over, dur­ing the prepa­ra­tions as well as the imple­men­ta­tion of the actions you should expect that the block­ade is going to be suc­cess­ful and that it will last long. The G8 sum­mit goes on for 3 days, and the block­ades will be imple­ment­ed for that peri­od of time. Make sure, there­fore, that at least for the first hours you have enough to eat and drink and some form of enter­tain­ment. Bore­dom is often one of the biggest prob­lems with suc­cess­ful block­ades and occu­pa­tions.

Inbe­tween block­ades, you can hold sports com­pe­ti­tions, lec­tures, teach-ins, etc. Or you can think about which new func­tion Hotel Kempin­s­ki will have after­wards… Also, make sure (espe­cial­ly if you’re in a big group) that you are accom­pa­nied by activist first aid and legal observers, activist media, etc. Make sure you have com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels with oth­er block­ades and action camps so that you know what’s going on. If the block­ade per­se­veres, bet­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tion and sup­ply struc­tures can be start­ed lat­er and you can com­mu­ni­cate to oth­ers that the block­ade has start­ed and that oth­er peo­ple can help to secure it.

It can be use­ful to have (in a side street near­by?) one or more cars so that peo­ple can get mate­ri­als there and back.

Make sure you have nice dec­o­ra­tions for the block­ade, ban­ners, flags and, for exam­ple, these things (link to demo units: http://www.demotech.org/d‑design/d‑construct.php?p=69), so that it is clear to the view­er what it’s all about.

The most sim­ple way to block­ade is to just sit on the street with a few peo­ple. This is already enough to stop car traf­fic and if there’s a lot of it, the result­ing traf­fic jam will cre­ate even more prob­lems for mobil­i­ty in the sur­round­ings. The more peo­ple take part in the block­ade, the more dif­fi­cult it will be to break it. How­ev­er, past expe­ri­ences have shown that if the police real­ly want to, they can chase away the block­ade fair­ly eas­i­ly. There are meth­ods to make the block­ade some­what stronger. For exam­ple, by link­ing arms or by prac­tic­ing resis­tance meth­ods against being dragged away. This will delay the evic­tion. But keep in mind that the police can apply force­ful mea­sures: water can­nons, tear gas, hors­es and even dogs. More­over, it often uses vio­lence when drag­ging peo­ple away (twist­ing of arms, fin­gers in the nose, bat­ter­ing with the stick, etc.) Make sure cam­eras are direct­ed towards the police, that might restrain them in their vio­lence.

On a (hope­ful­ly unnec­es­sary) side note: before you sit on the street, the traf­fic has to have stopped. You also have to make sure that new­ly arriv­ing cars can­not dri­ve into the block­ade. There are many ways to stop traf­fic, you can also decide to choose a spot near traf­fic lights. Make sure you have a group of peo­ple warn­ing the traf­fic some hun­dred metres before the block­ade that they have to stop. If blockad­ing roads at night, make sure there is suf­fi­cient light­ing. Nev­er block a road with traf­fic on it or if you are not sure that the traf­fic has been stopped, and nev­er block a road just after a curve. Also, do not just throw things on the road and walk away, this can cause acci­dents. Once the road is out of use, by police or activist inter­ven­tion, then throw­ing things on the roads is, of course, pos­si­ble. In prac­tice, how­ev­er, a block­ade that is defend­ed by peo­ple is much more effec­tive than just some objects left behind.

Using lock-ons is anoth­er way to make your block­ade stronger. You can get them in all shapes and sizes. (link: http://www.eco-action.org/rr/ch12.html) Most often they are met­al pipes in which you can stick your arm in one side and anoth­er per­son in the oth­er, this way you can make human chains. You can, for exam­ple, make a cir­cle of peo­ple and link this to anoth­er cir­cle, etc. By mak­ing bar­rels with con­crete short­ly before blockad­ing you can link the lock-ons to heavy objects. Remem­ber though that the police does not shy away from being heavy-hand­ed against you in this sit­u­a­tion either. Make sure that you can always free your­self and that there are oth­er ‘unlocked’ peo­ple around you (who can also bring food, scratch your back, etc.)

The more mate­r­i­al you have, the more sta­ble the block­ade. You can use mate­ri­als you find in the area around you (wood, stones, con­tain­ers, etc.) or by plan­ning the block­ade in areas where you have a lot of mate­r­i­al at your dis­pos­al. You can also bring your own.

A famous exam­ple is the tri­pod. (pic­ture)

The high­er it is the more dif­fi­cult it is for police to break it down. You can make it from tree trunks, met­al pipes, etc. But tripods can cause acci­dents; you have to know what you’re doing, first prac­tice and ask advice from peo­ple who have used them before. Also keep in mind that some­times the police is will­ing to let peo­ple fall, as was the case dur­ing the G8 sum­mit protests in Lau­sanne.

It is eas­i­er to strength­en the block­ade with dif­fer­ent kinds of mate­r­i­al. First make sure the block­ade is erect­ed, then you can make it stronger. Speed is essen­tial, if the block­ade has been secured well before the police arrives, it will be more dif­fi­cult to push it to the side. Organ­ise groups of peo­ple to get mate­ri­als and make sure there are always enough peo­ple left over to form the block­ade. Some­times it is use­ful to have thought in advance about what you need to get the mate­ri­als there: ropes, if objects have to be towed, or saws if you want to cut bits of woods loose. Depend­ing on the sit­u­a­tion, you can also fix cables inbe­tween the crash bar­ri­ers or trees. Make sure, how­ev­er, that you make them clear­ly vis­i­ble with flags and keep in mind they can be a hin­drance for you, too, if you need to get away.

Always try and stay friends with peo­ple liv­ing in the neigh­bour­hood. Do not use their front gar­den fence for you bar­ri­cade and explain to peo­ple what the block­ade is about. Invite them to have a look at the action camps. Be pre­pared that not all of them will be friend­ly. The same applies to car dri­vers. It can be use­ful to decide before­hand who will act as a spokesper­son (cer­tain­ly for the media). It can also be use­ful to have one or more person(s) act­ing as a con­tact per­son to the police.

The response of the police will depend on the cir­cum­stances and the time they have at their dis­pos­al. If there are block­ades every­where, they will not able to tack­le them all at the same time. In any case though, you have to expect an attack by the police at some point in time.

They can arrive with vehi­cles to push aside the block­ades (armoured cars, pic­ture), with water can­nons to attack groups of peo­ple or with groups of police offi­cers wear­ing pro­tec­tive gear to attack peo­ple with batons, etc.

It is impor­tant to have dis­cussed in advanced about how you want to defend the block­ade. In Seat­tle, it appeared that a big group of deter­mined peo­ple can be much more effec­tive than strong mate­ri­als. Make sure the atmos­phere on the block­ade is good. Pre­vent peo­ple being sur­prised by fel­low activists using meth­ods that not every­one sup­ports. But also pre­vent peo­ple from being intim­i­dat­ed and leave the block­ade soon­er than nec­es­sary. It often takes hours before police takes heavy hand­ed action and most of the time you can pre­dict their actions by watch­ing their moves close­ly. For exam­ple, you only have to start wor­ry­ing about tear gas when they put on their gas masks. Keep in mind that the police that is keep­ing you busy can­not be deployed else­where.

Anoth­er strat­e­gy to delay the break­ing of a block­ade is to sit down and link arms. But be pre­pared for police being heavy hand­ed in haul­ing you away. The fact that you do not use vio­lence is not a guar­an­tee that they will not use it either (in fact, often the oppo­site seems to be the case). There are, of course, oth­er and more mil­i­tant ways to keep the police at bay. A sud­den attack by clowns can also con­sid­er­ably dis­turb the plans of the pub­lic order troops. There is lit­tle you can do against armoured police vehi­cles (unless the bar­ri­cade is very sta­ble indeed) but they do, for exam­ple, hate paint on the wind­screen. In fact this applies to all police vehi­cles. And it has been proven that even armoured cars and water can­nons can get stuck in a ditch.

Set­ting a bar­ri­cade on fire helps also dur­ing a ‘man­u­al’ evic­tion by the police, that is with­out vehi­cles. Do con­sid­er that after a while the bar­ri­cade will be gone. Also make sure the fire can­not spread to near­by objects or areas such as a for­est. This would be the last effect you would want your ‘protest’ to have. If locat­ed near build­ings, make sure they are not endan­gered. Do not leave bot­tles with inflam­ma­ble flu­ids lying around, they can cause nasty acci­dents.

There are ways of mak­ing a road unus­able for longer term, but that often takes a lot of time and/or spe­cif­ic hard­ware. Dur­ing the anti-nuclear protests in Gor­leben, for exam­ple, local inhab­i­tants and activist dug tun­nels under­neath the roads so that trucks could no longer pass. If you want to stop reg­u­lar cars, you will have to take off the top lay­er of asphalt or con­crete as well, for which you need a jack-ham­mer, pick­axe and shov­els. Nat­u­ral­ly, if the road is not asphalt­ed you can dig holes in it. Non-asphalt­ed roads some­times lead to big­ger roads that you might want to block and they are often used by police as access road to the block­ade. If you dig a hole, pile up the sand on ‘your’ side, if it lies on the side of the police they sim­ply shov­el it back in. Dur­ing evic­tions in Ams­ter­dam some peo­ple even man­aged to get a dragline exca­va­tion machine going which was parked in the neigh­bour­hood…

Until now, we dis­cussed the tra­di­tion­al road block/blockade. There are many more ways to inter­vene in road traf­fic. Keep in mind that the police also knows them and under­goes train­ing pro­grammes to deal with them, so be cre­ative and invent new meth­ods! Sit in a tree next to the road, that’s dif­fi­cult for police to evict and often they do not dare to con­tin­ue let traf­fic go through, at least not their high­er vehi­cles. Even bet­ter: choose two trees stand­ing across the road from each oth­er, tie a rope between them high above the street and hang in them, that’s a so-called walk­way. The idea is that police and oth­er road users will not risk dri­ving under­neath the rope as they fear the peo­ple hang­ing in it will drop some­thing or jump down onto the street. This meth­ods requires a lot of expe­ri­ence. Make sure you have a good accom­pa­ny­ing group with you and stop the traf­fic dur­ing the set­ting up. Do not start hang­ing in the ropes before the traf­fic has been stopped!

You can also park one or sev­er­al cars on a cross­ing and lock your­self to them (pic­ture Gle­nea­gles). Again, take all the above-named pre­cau­tion­ary meth­ods. You can also secure the bar­ri­cades with turned over cars (for exam­ple old cars you took with you).

Most action meth­ods are crim­i­nalised and made ille­gal in order to make it dif­fi­cult for activists and be able to dish out pun­ish­ments after­wards. But it is, of course, not explic­it­ly ille­gal to dri­ve real­ly slow­ly with your car. Or to have a break-down in the mid­dle of the road some­where…

The expe­ri­ence from Gle­nea­gles has shown that a block­ades that uses dif­fer­ent meth­ods in one is the most dif­fi­cult to break. One road, 3 km from the sum­mit, was cho­sen because it passed a small bridge. On both sides of the bridge peo­ple built bar­ri­cades from mate­ri­als they found in the for­est (tree trunks, car tires, etc.). Inbe­tween, two groups used lock-ons and just after the bridge peo­ple had start­ed tree-sit­ting. When the police rushed to the scene, five min­utes after the start of the block­ade at 6 am in the morn­ing, we heard them dis­cuss the sit­u­a­tion and they esti­mat­ed they need­ed “at least 80 men and a crane” to get rid off the block­ade, which they sim­ply did not have at their dis­pos­al. The road block last­ed the whole day and peo­ple even left to secure anoth­er block­ade a few streets fur­ther which had been bro­ken off and was tak­en up again.(pictures here: http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2005/07/29208.shtml)

If the block­ade is bro­ken up by police, those that have not been arrest­ed should swarm out (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_Intelligence) (look out for each oth­er, try not to pan­ic, try and make sure each group that swarms out has peo­ple who know the way or have a map, accom­pa­ni­ment by mem­bers of first aid and legal teams, etc…). You can swarm out to new places to con­tin­ue block­ing. Small groups of peo­ple can also be dis­rup­tive. It also helps to ran­dom­ly block police cars, even if they use roads not used for the sum­mit. You there­by stop them from break­ing up block­ades else­where or trans­port­ing arrestees.

——————

There are, of course, oth­er means of trans­port that will be used for the sum­mit. These are main­ly heli­copters and ships. They are more dif­fi­cult to block, but also for the author­i­ties more dif­fi­cult to use. Only a small num­ber of peo­ple can be trans­port­ed by heli­copter. Heli­copters can also be blocked; espe­cial­ly take-off and land­ing spots, but also in mid-air: in Gor­leben, for exam­ple, peo­ple used sky rock­ets and some peo­ple flew around with hang glid­ers which forced heli­copters to leave. You can also think about tak­ing with you heli­um bal­loons on very long ropes so that heli­copters do not dare come clos­er. The sea can also be blocked, even though you need boats, which are expen­sive when they get dam­aged or con­fis­cat­ed. But you can always block the entrances to the har­bour, so that peo­ple can­not be trans­port­ed to the ships to leave.

In short: we will win this bat­tle, if every­one joins in!

(Affin­i­ty Group Wil­nis, Dutch Pold­er)

Web­sites with more infor­ma­tion on meth­ods and tech­niques:

ENGLISH:
http://www.uhc-collective.org.uk/webpages/toolbox/index.htm
Delia Smiths basic blockad­ing guide (pdf): http://www.sprayism.com/dawiki/lib/exe/fetch.php?id=guides&cache=cache&media=guides:basic_blockading.pdf
Every­thing about doing direct action: http://www.sprayism.com/dawiki/doku.php?id=guides

On Affin­i­ty Groups: http://www.rantcollective.net/article.php?id=30
(Noam Chom­sky: “If you assume cor­rect­ly that what­ev­er group you are in is being pen­e­trat­ed by the FBI, when some­thing seri­ous is hap­pen­ing, you don’t do it in a meet­ing. You do it with some peo­ple you know and trust, an affin­i­ty group and then it does­n’t get pen­e­trat­ed. That’s one of the rea­sons why the FBI has nev­er been able to fig­ure out what’s going on in any of the pop­u­lar move­ments.”)

DUTCH
dissent.nl and dissent.be
http://www.directe-actie.nl
Arti­cle on the his­to­ry of direct action: http://www.globalinfo.nl/content/view/1068/41/

Support the Eco-Prisoners, Easter 2007

Spir­it of Free­dom (East­er 2007)
Pro­duced by EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“I thank you all dear­ly for writ­ing” (Jon Able­white, Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Spir­it of Free­dom (East­er 2007)
Pro­duced by EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“I thank you all dear­ly for writ­ing” (Jon Able­white, Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Wel­come to the East­er 2007 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. First off I’d like to apol­o­gise in the delay in pub­lish­ing this edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom.
A lot of things have been hap­pen­ing recent­ly for ELP’s vol­un­teers and a delay was inevitable. How­ev­er, despite the delay in pub­li­ca­tion ELP has some fan­tas­tic news. For the first time in ages ELP is able to bring some good news! A lot of the ‘Il Sil­vestre’ pris­on­ers have been released! Mar­co Camenisch has had his sen­tence reduced at appeal! Jeff Luers may have his sen­tenced reduced! Rod Coro­n­a­do has been released! Garfield Gab­bard has been released! And long-term pris­on­er Dave Blenk­in­sop has been released!!!
This is all bril­liant news. How­ev­er despite our cel­e­bra­tions, ELP has also seen a num­ber of new pris­on­ers added to our list. So lets cel­e­brate the good news of our friends and then lets sup­port the news pris­on­ers. Also before we end this edi­to­r­i­al we’ve been asked by Joy­an­na Zach­er to remind every­one on ELP’s pol­i­cy towards police infor­mants. We do not sup­port them! Regard­less of how long they are jailed for, we do not sup­port them. Regard­less of who they are, we do not sup­port them. A police infor­mant relin­quish­es their right to be regard­ed as an eco-pris­on­er as soon as they inform. ELP sup­ports eco-pris­on­ers, not police infor­mants. But remem­ber, no mat­ter where you are in the world, sup­port the real eco-pris­on­ers and no com­pro­mise in defence of Moth­er Earth!

COURT REPORTS & LEGAL UPDATES

MARCO CAMENISCH APPEAL NEWS
In mid March 2007 ELP received some news from Switzer­land that at his appeal, Mar­co Camenisch, has had his 17-year prison sen­tence, for alleged­ly killing a Swiss board­er guard, reduced to 8 years. The Appeal Court ruled that the orig­i­nal Judge had not tak­en into account Mar­co’s time spent in prison in Italy for destroy­ing elec­tric­i­ty pylons, nor had the Judge ful­ly con­sid­ered the out­stand­ing prison sen­tence Mar­co had to serve for destroy­ing elec­tric­i­ty pylons in Switzer­land. Added alto­geth­er (39 years), the prison sen­tence was exces­sive­ly long and so was reduced so now Mar­co is serv­ing an 18-year sen­tence.

JEFF LUERS APPEAL UPDATE
On Valen­tines Day (Feb 14th) the Amer­i­can media announced that the Court of Appeal has declared Jeff ‘Free’ Luers, 22+ years prison sen­tence is too long and sug­gest­ed it should be reduced to between 11+ to 13+ years. ELP will bring you more news as we get it.

ARRESTS IN MEXICO
On the 30th of Novem­ber 2006 two Mex­i­can anar­chists, Oscar San­ta Maria Caro and Sacra­men­to Delfi­no Cano Her­nan­dez, were arrest­ed for as yet unknown rea­sons. Oscar is a well known ani­mal rights activist who is involved with RATA (Resis­tance Against Ani­mal Tor­ture). Reports are com­ing out of Mex­i­co alleg­ing that both Oscar and Sacra­men­to have been tor­tured whilst inside. There are also reports alleg­ing that their inter­roga­tors have threat­ened to rape female polit­i­cal pris­on­ers if the two men do not con­fess to their alleged crimes. ELP is try­ing to obtain more infor­ma­tion about these arrests and will bring you more news as we get it.

ROD CORONADO UPDATE
In late March, Amer­i­can Earth First! activist, Rod Coro­n­a­do, was released from prison hav­ing served his sen­tence for sab­o­tag­ing a moun­tain lion hunt. ELP has learnt that Rod’s tri­al for “demon­strat­ing the use of a destruc­tive device,” relat­ing to a speech he gave in San Diego in 2003, is sched­uled to begin in June.

FINNISH ‘GREEN SCARE’
ELP has learnt that the author­i­ties in Fin­land appear to be copy­ing Amer­i­can tac­tics and are tar­get­ing known ani­mal rights and envi­ron­men­tal activists. No mat­ter how minor the ‘offence’ the Finnish police seem deter­mined to pros­e­cute. One per­son end­ed up in court for ring­ing the door­bell of an ani­mal abuser whilst on a demo. The activist was fined for “dis­turb­ing home peace”. Anoth­er activist was ques­tioned for ‘crim­i­nal dam­age’ after they alleged­ly spat on a fur shop win­dow! Two more activists were raid­ed and ques­tioned for alleged­ly putting a leaflet through a post box and putting a stick­er on the win­dow of a fur shop. The police accused them of ‘crim­i­nal dam­age’.
ELP’s Finnish friends, who wish to remain anony­mous for obvi­ous rea­sons, say these are just a few exam­ples of the types of police activ­i­ty hap­pen­ing in Fin­land at the moment.
ELP is informed that the police have set up a spe­cial unit to inves­ti­gate ani­mal rights activists and the unit has said intend to get activists involved in the ear­ly stages of activism ‘before it gets more seri­ous’. Trans­la­tion, the police want to intim­i­date peo­ple away from activism.

SERIOUS ORGANISED CRIME!
Every so often ELP brings you sto­ries of ridicu­lous pros­e­cu­tions of non-vio­lent activists under Britain’s new ‘Seri­ous Organ­ised Crime’ leg­is­la­tion. Who can for­get the fines imposed on two peace activists for read­ing out the names of the British war dead, killed in Iraq, whilst stand­ing next to Britain’s main war memo­r­i­al! Sad­ly the courts have now moved beyond just fin­ing peo­ple and have start­ed to hand out prison sen­tences to activists under this new law. In ear­ly March three British ani­mal rights activists were jailed for between 15 months to 4 years for their part in a non-vio­lent cam­paign against Huntin­don Life Sci­ences.
Accord­ing to the BBC, the three were accused of being key fig­ures in a cam­paign against com­pa­nies with links to HLS. They were accused of enter­ing the offices of the com­pa­nies and demand­ing that those com­pa­nies cut their links to HLS. They were also accused of organ­is­ing loud demon­stra­tions against the com­pa­nies build­ings. Plus they were accused of tak­ing pho­tos of the peo­ple who worked for the com­pa­nies.

MAN ARRESTED IN AMERICA
At the end of March the Amer­i­can media report­ed that a 24-year old man, Grant Barnes, had been arrest­ed accused of set­ting fire to SUVs in Den­ver, CO. The media quot­ed the cops as say­ing incen­di­ary devices were used to dam­age the vehi­cles and one of the vehi­cles had ELF spray paint­ed on it. The police also stat­ed they did not believe that Grant Barnes was a mem­ber of the ELF.

IL SILVESTRE UPDATE
At the end of Feb­ru­ary 2007 the Ital­ian courts ruled that Sil­via Gueri­ni and Fed­eri­co Bonam­i­ci should be released under house arrest. This means that only three Il Sil­vestre mem­bers are cur­rent­ly impris­oned. They are Benedet­ta Galante, Francesco Gioia and Costan­ti­no Ragusa.

ECO-DEFENCE PRISONERS

Fadal­la Idris Ala­jaimy (address unknown). Sudan anti-dam pro­test­er on remand accused of Wag­ing War against the State for protest­ing against the con­struc­tion of a dam.

Mohamed Ahmed Ala­jaimy (address unknown). Sudan anti-dam pro­test­er on remand accused of Wag­ing War against the State for protest­ing against the con­struc­tion of a dam.

Tre Arrow, CS# 05850722, Van­cou­ver Island Region­al Cor­rec­tion Cen­ter, 4216 Wilkin­son Rd., Vic­to­ria, BC, V8Z 5B2, Cana­da. On remand accused of involve­ment with an arson on log­ging trucks and an arson on vehi­cles owned by a sand & grav­el com­pa­ny. Both arsons occurred in the USA. Tre is fight­ing his extra­di­tion to the USA.

Grant Barnes #1533241, PO Box 1108, Den­ver, CO 80201, USA. On remand accused of set­ting fire to a num­ber of SUV vehi­cles. On one of the vehi­cles the let­ters ELF was spray-paint­ed.

Nathan Block, #1663667, Lane Coun­ty Jail, 101 W 5th Ave., Eugene, OR 97401, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing hav­ing admit­ted involve­ment in an arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted involve­ment in a con­spir­a­cy to car­ry out direct action in Ore­gon.

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.

Ibai Eder­ra, Car­cel de Pam­plona, C/San Roque. Apdo. 250, 31080 — Iruñez Pam­plona, Navar­ra (España), Spain. Serv­ing just under 5 years for sab­o­tag­ing machin­ery at the con­tro­ver­sial Itoiz dam con­struc­tion site.

Benedet­ta Galante, Casa Cir­con­dar­i­ale, Con­tra­da Capo di Monte, 82100 — Ben­even­to (BN), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist sen­tenced to 3 years 6 months for pro­mot­ing & par­tic­i­pat­ing in COR direct action. Also await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy.

Francesco Gioia, Via Maiano, 10, 06049 Spo­le­to, Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist sen­tenced to 5 years 2 months for pro­mot­ing & par­tic­i­pat­ing in COR direct action. Also await­ing tri­al for escap­ing from house arrest.

Jef­frey Luers, #13797671, OSP, 2605 State St. Salem, OR 97310, USA. Serv­ing 22 years & 8 months for arson on a SUV deal­er­ship & the attempt­ed arson of an oil truck.

Ali Mohamed Alhas­sen Mas­sad (address unknown). Sudan anti-dam pro­test­er on remand accused of Wag­ing War against the State for protest­ing against the con­struc­tion of a dam.

Eric McDavid X‑2972521 4E 231A, Sacra­men­to Coun­ty Main Jail, 651 “I” Street, Sacra­men­to, CA 95814, USA. On Remand accused of plan­ning to destroy the prop­er­ty of the U.S. Forestry Ser­vice, mobile phone masts and pow­er plants.

Costan­ti­no Ragusa, Casa Cir­con­dar­i­ale, Via Prati Nuovi 7, 27058 Voghera (PV), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist serv­ing 7½ years. 1) Five years for pro­mot­ing & par­tic­i­pat­ing in COR direct action. 2) 18-months for bur­gling and fire­bomb­ing a multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny. 3) 12-months for organ­is­ing an anti-GM protest. Costani­no is also await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy.

John Wade #38548–083, FCI Peters­burg Low, Satel­lite Camp, PO Box 90027, Peters­burg, VA 23804, USA. Serv­ing 37 months for a series of ELF actions against a num­ber of tar­gets includ­ing McDon­alds & Burg­er King; urban sprawl; the con­struc­tion indus­try; and an SUV deal­er­ship.

Joy­an­na Zach­er #1662550, Lane Coun­ty Jail, 101 W 5th Ave, Eugene, OR 97401, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing hav­ing admit­ted involve­ment in an arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also admit­ted involve­ment in a con­spir­a­cy to car­ry out direct action in Ore­gon.

ANIMAL LIBERATION PRISONERS

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.

Made­line Buck­ler PR7492, HMP Mor­ton Hall, Swinder­by, Lin­coln, LN6 9PT, Eng­land. Serv­ing 2 years for send­ing hate mail to a fam­i­ly who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

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.

Don­ald Cur­rie TN4593, HMP White­moor, Longhill Road, March, Cambs, PE15 OPR, Eng­land. Serv­ing an Inde­ter­mi­nate Sen­tence, of not less than six actu­al years, for car­ry­ing out arsons against tar­gets asso­ci­at­ed the vivi­sec­tion indus­try includ­ing HLS.

Josh Dem­mitt 12314–081, FCI Saf­ford, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, P.O. Box 9000, Saf­ford, AZ 85548, USA. Serv­ing 30 months for an ALF arson on a Uni­ver­si­ty ani­mal test­ing facil­i­ty.

Dar­ius Fullmer #26397–050, FCI Fort Dix Satel­lite Camp, P.O. Box 1000, Fort Dix, NJ 08640 USA. Serv­ing 12 months for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Lau­ren Gaz­zo­la #93497–011, FCI Dan­bury Route #37, 33 1/2 Pem­broke Road, Dan­bury, CT 06811 USA. Serv­ing 54 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Sarah Gis­borne, LT5393, HMP Cookham Wood, Rochester, Kent, ME1 3LU, Eng­land. Serv­ing 5½ years for con­spir­a­cy to cause crim­i­nal dam­age fol­low­ing the dam­ag­ing of 8 vehi­cles owned by peo­ple linked to Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ence.

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.

Joseph Har­ris TN5728, HMP Bulling­don, Patrick Haugh Road, Arn­cott, Nr. Bices­ter, Oxon, OX25 1WD, Eng­land. Serv­ing 2 years for dam­ag­ing the prop­er­ty of peo­ple asso­ci­at­ed with Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences. (His orig­i­nal sen­tence was reduced on appeal).

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

Josephine Mayo PR6508, HMP Drake Hall, Eccle­shall, Stafford­shire, ST21 6LQ, Eng­land. Serv­ing 4 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

Trish Portwine, TM7153, HMP Cookham Wood, Rochester, Kent, ME1 3LU, Eng­land. Serv­ing fif­teen months for her role in loud demon­stra­tions out­side the offices of com­pa­nies with links to HLS.

John Smith TB4887, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA, Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

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.

Mark Tay­lor TT6636, HMP Bel­marsh, West­ern Way, Thames­mead, Lon­don, SE28 0UB, Eng­land. Serv­ing four years for organ­is­ing loud demon­stra­tions out­side the offices of com­pa­nies with links to HLS.

Suzanne Tay­lor, TM7154, HMP Cookham Wood, Rochester, Kent, ME1 3LU, Eng­land. Serv­ing two and a half years for help­ing organ­ise loud demon­stra­tions out­side the offices of com­pa­nies with links to HLS.

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.

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.

OTHER ANTI-WAR PRISONERS

Bren­dan Walsh, 12473–052, FCI Allen­wood Low, PO Box 1000, White Deer, PA 17887, USA. Serv­ing 5 years for an arson on an army recruit­ment office in protest at the War on Iraq.

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

Lasan­dra Bur­well W063658, Ohio Refor­ma­to­ry for Women, 1479 Collins Ave. Marysville, OH 43040, USA. Serv­ing 5 years for tak­ing part in an anti-fas­cist demon­stra­tion which turned into a riot.

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.

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.

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

PARTY & PROTEST
Around the world there have been sev­er­al mas­sive protests against glob­al cap­i­tal­ism and its envi­ron­men­tal impact. The fol­low­ing have all been jailed in con­nec­tion with the protests.

Jonathan Philip Robert, Crisp Coun­ty Deten­tion Cen­ter, 197 Ga. Hwy. 300 South, Cordele, GA 31015, USA (12 months)

OTHER PRISONERS

Oscar San­ta Maria Caro, CERESO, Miahu­at­lan de Por­firio Diaz, Oax­a­ca en Hall B, Cell 5., Mex­i­co. On remand. The exact charges against Oscar are unknown but Oscar is a mem­ber of RATA, a known ani­mal rights group.

Sacra­men­to Delfi­no Cano Her­nan­dez, CERESO, Miahu­at­lan de Por­firio Diaz, Oax­a­ca en Hall B, Cell 5., Mex­i­co. On remand. Co-defen­dant of Oscar San­ta Maria Caro.

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.

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.

MOVE
MOVE is an eco-rev­o­lu­tion­ary group who car­ried out protests in defence of all life. 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 Grate­ford, PO Box 244, Grate­ford, PA 19426–0244, USA.

Edward Good­man Africa (AM4974), 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.

MAPUCHE PRISONERS & OTHER LAND RIGHTS PRISONERS
Due to space lim­i­ta­tion we can­not pub­lish the names & address­es of the Mapuche & Land Rights pris­on­ers in this edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom, how­ev­er if you would like a list please con­tact Spir­it of Free­dom.

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 bimonth­ly pub­li­ca­tion (avail­able via e‑mail or in a paper ver­sion). If you would like to receive a copy con­tact Spir­it of Free­dom, BM Box 2407, Lon­don, WC1N 3XX, Eng­land. Or e‑mail ELP4321@hotmail.com

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

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

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.

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

North Amer­i­can ELP Pris­on­er Fund. The North Amer­i­can ELP group has set up a fund where peo­ple can pay mon­ey, for North Amer­i­can Eco-Defence and Ani­mal Rights pris­on­ers, which will then be dis­trib­uted to the North Amer­i­can pris­on­ers. For infor­ma­tion about the Fund and how to make a dona­tion please con­tact naelpsn@mutualaid.org

DEDICATION
This Edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom is ded­i­cat­ed to Russ­ian antifa activist, Stanislav Korepanov, who died in hos­pi­tal on the 31st of March 2007, hav­ing been attacked a few days ear­li­er by an armed gang of neo-nazis. Stanislav is the sec­ond Russ­ian antifa activist to have been bru­tal­ly attacked in recent months. On the 14th of Jan­u­ary 2007 veg­an ani­mal rights activist, Ivan Elin, was sur­round­ed and attacked by ten neo-nazis in St. Peters­burg after he had tak­en part in a week­ly “Food not bombs” peace ral­ly. Ivan suf­fered 21 stab wounds and was rushed to hos­pi­tal where he is mak­ing his recov­ery. Fol­low­ing on from the knife attack on Ivan, on the 4th of Feb­ru­ary, with a small bomb explod­ed in Vladimirskaya Square of St. Peters­burg, near to where Food Not Bombs organ­ise their week­ly protests. The bomb was hid­den in a kiosk sell­ing flow­ers. Luck­i­ly the bomb only dam­aged the kiosk and did not injure any­one.
This is not the first time neo-nazis have used knives or explo­sives to tar­get Russ­ian activists. On the 22nd of Decem­ber 2006 a num­ber of police were injured whilst try­ing to defuse a device, which set to mur­der antifa activists in Moscow. In August 2006 eleven peo­ple were killed in Moscow when a neo-nazi bomb explod­ed in Cherk­isovs­ki mar­ket­place. The bru­tal mur­der of Stanislav Korepanov and the attack against Ivan are a remind­ed of why fas­cism must nev­er be allowed to go unchal­lenged. ELP wish­es Ivan Elin a speedy recov­ery from his injuries and we con­grat­u­late the Russ­ian ‘Food Not Bombs’ move­ment for not giv­ing into this neo-nazi intim­i­da­tion.
Our thoughts and sor­row are with the fam­i­ly and friends of Stanislav Korepanov who was only 18 years old when he died.

Climate Camp organising gathering April 21 and 22, Liverpool

Organ­is­ing for Cli­mate Camp 2007 is well under way and it looks like being big­ger, bet­ter and more inspir­ing than last year…so come along to our next gath­er­ing, find out what it’s all about and get involved…doesn’t mat­ter if you haven’t been involved before, every­one’s wel­come. Sat­ur­day will focus on camp-wide and how we net­work the Camp, Sun­day is main­ly work­ing group time. Again, new peo­ple more than wel­come in all work­ing groups.

Organ­is­ing for Cli­mate Camp 2007 is well under way and it looks like being big­ger, bet­ter and more inspir­ing than last year…so come along to our next gath­er­ing, find out what it’s all about and get involved…doesn’t mat­ter if you haven’t been involved before, every­one’s wel­come. Sat­ur­day will focus on camp-wide and how we net­work the Camp, Sun­day is main­ly work­ing group time. Again, new peo­ple more than wel­come in all work­ing groups.

Venue: St Michael’s and Lark Lane Com­mu­ni­ty Ass­co­ci­a­tion, The Old Police Sta­tion, 80 Lark Lane, Liv­er­pool, L17 8UU. The venue is wheel­chair acces­si­ble and street-park­ing is avail­able and free. If arriv­ing by coach or train you take the num­ber 82 bus from the city cen­tre and ask the dri­ver to let you off near Lark Lane, it’s easy to find and peo­ple will be able to direct you.

Acco­mo­da­tion, creche, food and enter­tain­ment on Sat­ur­day night will be pro­vid­ed for the usu­al £10 sug­gest­ed dona­tion. Please bring your own sleep­ing bag and if pos­si­ble bring your own cut­lery and a bowl/plate. If you require acco­mo­da­tion on the Fri­day night please con­tact gatherings@climatecamp.org.uk.

For any­body arriv­ing on Fri­day there is a Crit­i­cal Mass fri­day evening, for more infor­ma­tion send me an email.

Future plan­ning meet­ings:

April 21 and 22: Liv­er­pool
May 19 and 20: Lon­don (loca­tion of camp to be decid­ed here)
June 16 and 17: Man­ches­ter
July — TBC

http://www.climatecamp.org.uk