Week of Action Against Spectra

Activists shut down Spectra Energy’s Waltham office after deploying

a 24-foot tall tripod.

February 4th, 2015

While a gaggle of confused police tried to unseat Shane Capra from his perch atop a 24-foot tripod inside Spectra Energy’s Waltham, Mass., office on the morning of December 17, and others tried to snare a balloon banner floating near the office ceiling — all while accompanied by a brass band providing the rousing soundtrack — one Spectra employee was overheard muttering to another, “This is extremely disruptive.”

Of course, that was the point.

The action in Waltham was part of the Week of Respect and Resistance, a series of demonstrations, sit-ins, and lock-downs aimed at Spectra Energy, their investors, and the politicians who support them in their plan to expand a fracked gas pipeline — the so-called Algonquin, a name which many activists describe as insulting to the indigenous speakers of the Algonquian language — through New England. With FERC poised to present its final Environmental Impact Statement any day, and with New England politicians and Big Greens voicing their unwavering support for their favorite “bridge fuel,” climate justice organizers and pipeline fighters in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island knew they had to escalate their already long-running campaign against Spectra.

For Nick Katkevitch of Fighting Against Natural Gas, or FANG, this sense of urgency was fueled by a recent trip to Ferguson, MO, where he saw first-hand the power of the confrontational direct action tactics that had yet to be seen in the campaign against Spectra. “A lot of times in the climate movement, especially in New England, there’s a tendency to follow the political process, to not disturb things too quickly, to take it slow,” Katkevitch said. “When I went to Ferguson, it was a total learning experience. I learned to be tenacious, to be fearless, and to just say it like it is. I learned the true meaning of speaking truth to power.”

During the week of December 13-19, activists brought that tenaciousness and fearlessness to a variety targets, from Danbury, Conn., where Spectra plans to expand the already-existing gas pipeline to accommodate the higher volume of gas flowing from the Marcellus Shale, to the gas compressor station in Cromwell, Conn., to the offices of some of the most powerful individuals and entities involved in the so-called Algonquin Incremental Market project — including Spectra themselves.

Sherrie Andre of FANG, who gave the week of action its name, stresses that while many of the actions carried out against Spectra and their financial and political supporters involved acts of civil disobedience, “We need to respect those who have been organizing before us and have their own way of doing things. We need to show that we know how to pay homage to different types of nonviolent direct action.” She added, “I recently bumped into a friend who’s become interested in what we’re doing, but said, ‘I can’t climb a tripod.’ It’s really disheartening if that’s all they’re seeing because there are so many other players and parts involved that make that happen.”

For Noga Heyman of Flood Boston, the success of the campaign against Spectra — and the broader climate justice movement — hinges on making activism as accessible as possible for a wide variety of people. “Maybe lock-downs don’t always draw people in, but giving someone a zine to read, or getting a song stuck in their head, might engage them more.”

A bridge to nowhere

This emphasis on engagement and creativity was crucial to one of the goals for the week: to not only disrupt business as usual at the locations of the protests, but to disrupt the narrative about fracked gas perpetuated by the energy industry, fossil fuel-friendly politicians, and mainstream environmental groups alike.

In addition to blocking the driveway to the Cromwell gas compressor station, Dan Fischer explained, he and fellow Capitalism vs the Climate member Vic Lancia “were also trying to block the formation of misleading assumptions. People drive by the compressor station every day, and either don’t know about it or falsely assume it’s part of the clean energy process. So we felt it was important to take direct action at the point of assumption and say this is a dirty fuel, and there are plenty of clean, renewable alternatives that make fracking unnecessary.” To help make this point, Fischer and Lancia locked themselves to a massive wooden “bridge to nowhere” built in the days leading up to the action.

Members of Flood Boston and other groups fighting pipeline expansion in Massachusetts echoed this sentiment at their action at the Boston office of the State Street Corporation, one of Spectra’s biggest financial backers, later in the week. For Heyman, the action was an opportunity to use art, theater and music to “dismantle the myths surrounding natural gas” and advocate for community-controlled renewables. To this end, activists constructed a giant pair of lips “spewing myths” about fracked gas which protesters challenged with facts about the health and safety impacts of the pipeline project.

“The people of West Roxbury are traumatized,” said David Ludlow, a 72 year-old organizer in the Boston area, citing the 2010 explosion of a gas pipeline in San Bruno, Calif., which killed eight people and which looms large in the minds of local residents bracing themselves for the construction of the West Roxbury Lateral pipeline and a new, high-pressure Metering and Regulating Station, both of which would be built dangerously close to an active quarry and residential areas.

Activists and community members expressed these concerns in songs, chants and cantastorias that rang out in State Street’s office and continued to Boston’s South Station after protesters delivered a letter urging State Street to divest from Spectra Energy and other similarly destructive corporations, including Kinder Morgan, whose gas pipeline projects also threaten Massachusetts communities and ecosystems.

In Rhode Island, activists drew attention to the hypocrisy of the politicians and government agencies supporting Spectra’s plan, with Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion holding a protest at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and FANG organizing a sit-in at Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s office. Ten protesters joined University of Rhode Island physics professor Peter Nightingale, a member of Fossil Free Rhode Island, in the sit-in, and cheered for Nightingale as he was eventually arrested for refusing to leave the office. Whitehouse, who Nightingale calls a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” has long been a focal point in the Rhode Island fight against Spectra’s pipeline projects: in August, members of Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion held a sit-in at Whitehouse’s office which led to a meeting with the senator.

Despite Burrillville residents expressing their concerns about the health and safety impacts of Spectra’s plans to expand the gas compressor station in their town, however, Whitehouse’s support for the pipeline expansion has not changed; in light of Whitehouse’s climate-friendly rhetoric from the Senate floor, Nightingale finds this inexcusable. “Compared to any of the other climate zombies, [Whitehouse] may be a ‘climate champion,’” Nightingale explained. “But at the same time he supports this plan out of Washington and Wall Street that wants to push natural gas and gets in the way of developing the green power sector.”

Blockadia and beyond

The actions during the Week of Respect and Resistance garnered significant local media attention and, some speculate, may have played a role in FERC delaying the release of their final Environmental Impact Statement on the AIM project — not to mention Spectra’s stock hitting a 52-week low. Still, organizers know that the fight against Spectra — and the fight for climate justice — is far from over.

“Before this week, the fight against Spectra had been mostly polite and playing by the rules,” Fischer said. “We’re still going to keep using the old tactics, but this was the week where people in four different states said that they’ve had enough with Spectra’s misleading claims and with the whitewash advanced by the government and business-friendly environmental groups. This is the week where we entered a more committed resistance, and hopefully a more successful resistance.”

As many of those involved in this week of action think about what that resistance will look like, one word seems to be on many of their minds: “Blockadia,” a name given to the growing network of groups disrupting the extraction and transportation of fossil fuels with elaborate and longstanding protest camps. “We see Blockadia as an important way of achieving victory against not only this project, but extreme energy in general,” Fischer explained. “Spectra Energy can keep its eyes peeled for the construction of Blockadia in more and more places.”

However, even as the resistance to Spectra and the fossil fuel energy industry mounts, many organizers also recognize that there is still significant work that needs to be done within the environmental movement itself, a fact that was highlighted by the Week of Respect and Resistance coinciding with an escalation of the Black Lives Matter movement following the non-indictment of the police officers responsible for the choking death of Eric Garner. Andre explained that as FANG shared Black Lives Matter memes and articles on their social media platforms, “there was a lot of backlash from environmental organizers who follow the FANG page and who wanted us just to focus on pipelines. But life is not just about pipelines. Our struggles are not siloed.” Indeed, FANG members underscored this point by blocking a commuter train carrying passengers to a New England Patriots game for four and half minutes earlier this month to signify the four and a half hours Mike Brown’s dead body remained in the streets of Ferguson after he was shot by officer Darren Wilson.

For Andre and many of the other organizers involved in the Week of Respect and Resistance, the fight against Spectra has to be seen as part of a larger fight for justice that begins with recognizing that the land members of the predominantly white environmental movement live on and struggle to protect “is not theirs. It was stolen. Environmentalists need to understand the history of colonization and what it’s done to indigenous people before they can even begin to talk about pipelines. Pipelines are just a new form of colonization. They’re a new trauma.”

Ludlow, who stresses the implications of the climate crisis for indigenous communities in the United States and around the world, also emphasizes the need to recognize the connections between the climate justice movement and movements fighting militarism and economic injustice. “The U.S. makes more wars to protect its resources and gobble up more of the world’s existing resources. We’re not going to stop this by being nice. We’re not going to stop it by just talking to our local areas about safety. We need to make alliances to build a broad-based movement.”

For all the work that needs to be done to stop Spectra and combat the oppressive tendencies within the environmental movement, the activists involved in the Week of Respect and Resistance all agree that the week of action marked a turning point in their campaign against Spectra. As Katkevitch reflected on the week’s impacts, his mind turns to one of the other great passions of his life besides organizing: basketball.

“When the team you’re playing is much better, they don’t respect you and they think it’s going to be an easy game,” he said. “But if you start playing aggressively and assertively and really confidently, at first they’ll think it’s kinda funny, like, ‘look at these kids trying so hard.’ But there’s a certain moment in the game when all of a sudden the energy switches and the opponent is actually afraid, because they’re recognizing that your confidence and your aggression is actually coming from a real place — that you could actually win. In Spectra’s office, it definitely felt like one of those moments of turning the energy. Now they have to respect us.”

Italy – No TAV: Convictions and Tear Gas on the Motorway

 

 

scontri27.6.2011Maddalena1

(June 27th, 2011: Eviction of the Free Republic of Maddalena)

February 3rd, 2015

from Contra Info

NO TAV (No to the High Speed Train) movement, which is based in the Susa Valley (Italy) in Piedmont and which opposes the creation of the new high speed railway line between Turin and Lyon in France. This line is part of a EU project which plans to connect Lyon to Budapest and then onto Ukraine

The so-called ‘No TAV mega-trial’ has finished at first instance, in which 53 comrades are involved over the eviction resistance of the Free Republic of Maddalena on June 27th, 2011, and for the attack of the construction site of Chiomonte on July 3rd that followed. Charges of causing bodily-harm and aggravated violence, resistance against custodial staff of the public authority, defacement and covering faces (masking up) became sentences which varied between a few months and four and a half years in prison for 47 defendants. Heavy sentences, but less than the requests of the prosecutors Pedrotta and Quaglino—who, on October 7th, 2014, demanded 200 years of prison in total—except for a few comrades, against whom the judge decided to tighten the screw a bit more than what was proposed by the prosecution. On the other hand, six people were acquitted of charges.

When leaving the room, the No TAV supporters present at the trial invaded and blocked the route of Corso Regina Margherita for about twenty minutes in both directions, at the point of the bunker room [the special court of Torino, built into the Vallette jail, near the beginning of the motorway], to protest against the sentences given by the judges.

Another gathering happened the same afternoon at Bussoleno train station at 6pm. This transformed into a march of about 250 people, who at first blocked the main road, then tried to invade the motorway. The police managed to put themselves in the way in time to prevent this first attempt, but then were quickly bypassed by a large group of protesters, who scattered through the meadows, and seized one of the two sides of the motorway. The occupation of the motorway lasted approximately half an hour until the arrival of other police forces that attacked with shots of tear gas and some charges. Five comrades were arrested during these events, two of whom were released shortly after. The motorway was then reopened, well protected by officers, whilst the main road was still blocked. At around 11.30pm, the three No TAV arrested during the police charges on the motorway were then released with a summons to the court.

Translated and (a tiny bit) adapted from Macerie

A large protest has been called on February 21st in Turin to demonstrate that everything continues and that the 145 years of prison-time which were distributed do not diminish the determination of the No TAV struggle

More Info (in Italian)

Activist convicted after using ‘stinger’ device on police cars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three patrol cars were immobilised by Emma Sheppard’s homemade stinger device.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three patrol cars were immobilised by Emma Sheppard’s homemade stinger device.

Tuesday 27 January 2015

An environmental activist faces jail for putting the lives of police officers in danger by successfully setting up a home-made trap designed to take patrol cars out of action.

Emma Sheppard brought three cars to a juddering stop by puncturing their tyres with the crude “stinger” device made of plywood and nails that she had positioned outside a police station near Bristol on New Year’s Eve.

Emma Sheppard, who has been convicted in Bristol of damaging police cars with a stinger device.
Emma Sheppard, who has been convicted in Bristol of damaging police cars with a stinger device. Photograph: Public Domain

Sheppard’s conviction is the first following an arrest by detectives from Avon and Somerset police’s Operation Rhone, which is probing more than 100 attacks on establishment targets including police stations, banks and politician’s cars by suspected anarchists in and around Bristol.

Sheppard is well known within green activist circles and is one of the campaigners who was found guilty of trying to shut down the Ratcliffe power station in Nottinghamshire in 2009 but whose conviction was quashed following the revelations that the group had been infiltrated by the undercover police officer Mark Kennedy.

At a brief hearing at Bristol crown court on Tuesday, Sheppard, 33, appeared via video-link from Eastwood Park prison in Gloucestershire.

Wearing all black, she spoke only to confirm her name and to plead guilty to damaging property and being reckless as to whether her actions endangered lives.

Judge Martin Picton told Sheppard, who is from the Easton area of the city – a neighbourhood associated with Bristol’s radical scene – that he would have to consider public protection issues when sentencing her next month.

Ordering a pre-sentence report, he told Sheppard: “The court will have to know a lot more about you to determine what is the right sentence. It will inevitably be a custodial sentence.”

The facts of the case were not given in court, but the Guardian understands that on New Year’s Eve Sheppard placed a home-made stinger made of nails and plywood across a road close to Concorde House in Emersons Green, a police base to the east of the city centre. Police and armed forces typically use stingers to stop suspects’ cars and to defend road blocks.

Three police response vehicles had their tyres punctured as they left the police station together to deal with an incident. No officers were hurt.

Avon and Somerset police regard the guilty plea as significant because it is the first conviction credited to Operation Rhone. Detectives from Rhone, which has a permanent team of 10, were called in to investigate Sheppard’s attack because it was considered an assault on the establishment.

In December, for the first time police linked more than 100 arson and vandalism attacks that have been carried out in and around Bristol and Bath over the past four years. The most spectacular arson attack caused £16m of damage to Avon and Somerset’s new firearms centre in August 2013. But other attacks have been carried out on phone masts, railway lines, car dealerships, courts and churches.

Often responsibility for the attacks is claimed on the anarchist website http://325.nostate.net. Police believe a very small group is behind the campaign. Members of Bristol’s long-established and thriving anarchist scene claim the force has unfairly harassed activists because it hates their anti-establishment stance.

A £10,000 reward has been offered over one well-known activist, Huw “Badger” Norfolk. Police have said they want to talk to Norfolk about a vandalism attack on the offices of the Bristol Post in August 2011 – at the time of protests around Britain following the shooting of Mark Duggan in north London – and an arson attack on a phone mast in January 2013 that cut off television, radio and mobile phone signals to thousands of homes and businesses. Norfolk’s location has been unknown to the police since 2011.

In 2010, Sheppard, then living in Manchester, was given a conditional discharge over the Ratcliffe protest. Judge Jonathan Teare told her and her co-defendants: “You are all decent men and women with a genuine concern for others, and in particular for the survival of planet Earth in something resembling its present form. I have no doubt that each of you acted with the highest possible motives. And that is an extremely important consideration.”

The convictions were quashed at the court of appeal the following year after three court of appeal judges ruled that crucial evidence recorded by police spy Mark Kennedy had been withheld. The lord chief justice, Lord Judge, said that the convictions were “unsafe because of significant non-disclosure” of secret surveillance tapes recorded by Kennedy.

No link has been established between Sheppard and any of the other attacks on establishment targets in Bristol, but it is believed that she knew Badger Norfolk.

DCI Andy Bevan, who heads Operation Rhone, said: “These crude homemade stinger devices caused damage to three police vehicles, which were responding to emergency calls on New Year’s Eve.

“Each of these devices had around five large nails sticking through a piece of wood and rendered the police vehicles unusable on what is traditionally one of the busiest nights of the year.

“Emma Sheppard placed these purpose-built devices in the road, knowing full well what the consequences could be.

”They posed a serious risk to our police officers as well as other road users and formed part of a reckless and dangerous plan.”

 

Sapotaweyak Cree Nation Sets Up Blockades

sapotaweyak-cree-nation

January 26th, 2015

sapotaweyak-cree-nation

January 26th, 2015

Members of a western Manitoba aboriginal community are peacefully protesting work on the Bipole III hydroelectric line, a transmission project that requires the construction of a transmission line, two new converter stations and two ground electrodes for those stations.

That construction will involve clear-cutting trees near Sapotaweyak Cree Nation, located north of Swan River in central Manitoba.

On Saturday, members of the community set up two blockades along Highway 10 to prevent access for workers who are scheduled to cut down trees, and they ignited a sacred fire in the clear-cutting path.

A judge denied the First Nation’s request for an injunction to stop construction in an area known to the community as N4, until the province properly consulted with the community in January.

The area includes Sapotaweyak Cree Nation’s ancestral lands and traditional territory, which includes burial and spiritual sites sacred to the community.

Chief Nelson Genaille says RCMP spoke briefly with him and allowed the peaceful protest to continue.

“Our people are now standing up for their rights and interests,” Genaille said.

“I have exhausted the diplomatic and legal routes to voice our concerns against this project. And regrettably, the responsible Manitoba ministers and Manitoba Hydro bigwigs did not take our concerns seriously.”

Noname

More news 28/1/15

Angry Residents Block Entrance to Naameh Dump in Lebanon

Residents block the entrance to the Naameh landfill in front of
Sukleen trucks as riot police stand guard south of Beirut,
Friday Jan. 24, 2014.

January 17th, 2015

Angry residents blocked Saturday the entrance to the controversial Naameh landfill and demanded the government shut it down, warning of more actions in the future.

Speaking to television reporters, a spokesperson for the protesters called on Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk to resign after failing to shut down the landfill, which was originally set for closure Saturday.

“You made us a promise and failed to keep it. Like several senior statesmen, you have failed in resolving a simple problem,” he said.

Other protesters expressed frustration with the environment minister, saying “we no longer trust you after today nor do we trust your promises or empty plans.”

The spokesperson also announced that another protest will be held at the dump on Jan. 31.

Security forces beefed up measures in and around the dump in an effort to prevent any escalation.

Residents and officials are at odds concerning the closure of the Naameh dump after Progressive Socialist Party head Walid Jumblatt, whose party enjoys wide support in the area, agreed to a three month extension for the landfill.

Though the agreement calls for a three-month long technical extension, protesters fear the landfill will not be closed down for another seven years.

If the protesters decide to permanently block the entrance to the dump as they had last year, the streets of Beirut and other parts of the country could again be drowned in garbage.

The contract between the government and Sukleen, the company responsible for sweeping and cleaning the streets of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, was set to expire Saturday.

The Naameh landfill was originally opened in 1997 to serve the Beirut and Mount Lebanon region. It was intended to close after six years but remains open 17 years later. The landfill now receives 2,850 tons of waste a day, five times its intended capacity.

The Naameh landfill was originally supposed to be closed on Jan. 17 but under the new plan the deadline has been extended by three months and could be pushed back by another three if no alternative is found.

Earth First! Winter Moot (Bristol): 20th-22nd February 2015 /full programme

A weekend gathering for people involved or wanting to know more about ecological direct action around the UK including fighting opencast coal, fracking, GM, nuclear power, new road building and quarries with discussions and campaign planning – emphasis on the tactics and strategies, community solidarity and sustainable activism.

Sharing stories, skills, tactics, updates & analyses of the radical ecological movement

Cost scale £20 to £30 . This includes full vegan meals and accommodation. Arrive Friday evening (programme starts at 7pm), leave Sunday (ends by 4pm). It will be an indoor floor sleeping space so bring a warm sleeping bag and mat to

Kebele Community Centre 14 Robertson Road Easton Bristol BS5 6JY
TrainTo Stapleton rd , two stops from Bristol TM then 7min walk —

Earth First! is a network of people and campaigns who fight ecological destruction and the forces driving it. We believe in non-hierarchical organising of Direct Action, to confront, stop and eventually reverse the forces that are responsible for the destruction of the Earth and its inhabitants. EF! is not a cohesive group or campaign, but a convenient banner for people who share similar philosophies to work under and doing it ourselves rather than relying on governments or industry.

For info or offers southwest.earthfirst@riseup.net www.earthfirst.org.uk

Download the (ready-to-print) flyer

 

Programme subject to change:

Starts 7pm Friday with dinner, followed by films & an intro to EF!

On Saturday, breakfast is before the 9:30am start with campaigns round-ups and legal & security workshops.  After lunch we'll be looking at strategic thinking (see below) and at 5 exploring the relationship between Reclaim the Power and EF!

On Sunday we'll continue those explorations from 10am.  After lunch, there'll be a workshop on sustainable activism, and a chance to get involved in organising the EF! Summer Gathering.  Please stay for that if you can and get involved. 

 

Workshops include:

Intelligent Resistance: strategy and its implementation in the modern world

Summary: Strong strategy has always been a key element of successful resistance movements. Whether it be the anarchist movements of revolutionary Spain, or the contemporary fight against fracking, a solid strategy is proven to be indispensable.‘Intelligent Resistance’ is a basic introduction to strategic thought and action and looks to provide those in attendance with a practical set of theoretical tools to take away and apply to their own movements and practice.

Sustaining Resistance: avoiding ‘Burn out”

This is a taster workshop from a much longer ten day workshop and offers a range of tools, collective and personal, which can make our activism more effective and help us avoid burn out staying in for the long haul.

Reclaim the Power meets Earth First!”

How can Earth First! and Reclaim the power coexist in the future struggles and is there a need for collaboration between other camps or a consolidation of resources?

Legal Defence Monitoring:

A taster session in how to be an effective LDM on actions and demos.

Campaigns go-round:

Dates for your diary and what resistance is going on around the world and your back yard..

Eight Protestors with Lancaster Against Pipelines Arrested Blockading Testing Site in PA

January 5th, 2015

Eight protestors were arrested Monday morning at a pipeline testing site in Lancaster County, police have confirmed. The demonstrators included local residents opposing the proposed Atlantic Sunrise project and members of a Native American tribe who claim the pipeline company is improperly drilling test bores on sacred grounds in Conestoga Township.

More from Lancaster Online, which had a reporter on the scene:

Eight of the roughly three-dozen protesters were charged with trespassing after refusing to leave when PPL, the property’s owner, said they had to.

Protesters gathered near the drilling site around 9 a.m. and walked about a quarter-mile to where workers were drilling along the Conestoga River.

 

The workers stopped drilling about 10 minutes after the protesters arrived at the site around 9:20 a.m.

However, drilling had resumed by about 12:25 p.m., and no protesters remained.

“Everyone was peaceful,” said Chief John Fiorill with the Southern Regional Police Department. Fiorill noted it was not the first time protestors gathered on the site owned by PPL over the last two weeks, nor does he expect it will be the last.

A Williams spokesman said the company is drilling to collect soil samples that will help determine the least-invasive construction method for its proposed Atlantic Sunrise project. The interstate pipeline would send natural gas from the Marcellus Shale southward to markets on the east coast.

The project has faced fierce opposition from people in Lancaster County who have raised concerns about how it will effect the environment, public safety and property values.

“Our immediate goal is to prevent the pipeline from going in and doing what we can in a peaceful way to protect our land,” said Brenda Sieglitz, a member of the group No Lancaster Pipeline which organized Monday’s protest.

Chief Carlos Rivera of the North Arawak Tribal Nation is arrested protesting the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline in Conestoga, Pa. (courtesy of Michelle Johnsen)

Chief Carlos Rivera of the North Arawak Tribal Nation is arrested protesting the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline in Conestoga, Pa. (courtesy of Michelle Johnsen)

Chief Carlos Rivera, a leader of the Northern Arawak Tribal Nation, was among the eight protestors arrested. According to his Facebook page, Rivera believes Williams’ drill bores are desecrating a site sacred to his tribe.

“I know there are some sensitive cultural resources out there and that’s one of the reasons we’ve been taking the steps we’ve been taking to make sure we treat those with respect,” said Williams spokesman Chris Stockton, who could not confirm whether the company is operating on a sacred Northern Arawak site.

Rivera cooperated with police officers and was released on a summary citation, Fiorill said.

However, the other seven protestors, who linked arms when officers attempted to arrest them, were charged with trespassing in the third degree and could face up to a year in jail and $250 in fines.

Thousands Join Second Week of Protest against Privatization of Turkey’s Caretta Beach

by 

by MUĞLA / Hurriyet Daily News

January 5th, 2015

A vigil held against the privatization of the protected beach of İztuzu on the Mediterranean coast will enter its second week today, with activists mobilizing to prevent a company from building recreational facilities on the site, a major nesting ground for Caretta Caretta turtles.

Local activists were prompted to action after officials from DALÇEV, the company that won the tender to operate the beach facilities, entered the area with three construction vehicles around midnight on Dec. 29, 2014, after a court lifted a stay of execution order on the privatization process.

The incident triggered fury among local activists, who spontaneously gathered near the beach and launched their resistance. They celebrated New Year’s Eve in İztuzu and thousands of activists are now attending the vigil.

“We were three in the beginning. Then we became five. Now our number has reached 2,000 people,” said Tuğba Özge Musaoğlu, a local who was among the first to join the impromptu protest.One of the last untouched seashores along Turkey’s coasts, İztuzu is located within an archaeological site and has a special protected status that bans any construction on the site. The sandy beach is also globally known for being one of the main breeding grounds for loggerhead turtles, also known as Caretta Caretta.

But the beach’s environmental importance has not prevented the authorities’ privatization attempt, which was eventually won by DALÇEV last June, a local company that also has British partners.

“We wouldn’t even lay our towels in the areas were the turtles deposit their eggs. And then, one morning, we learned that construction machines had entered the site. This place was ours and we want it to remain like that, because it is the locals who will take care of it the best,” Musaoğlu said.

The particularly photogenic giant turtles are on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) due to the destruction of their habitat.

Activists have remained at the entrance of the İztuzu beach after Gendarmerie officers refused to allow activists to hold a vigil inside the protected area.

Legal trouble has ensued following the privatization, as the process was initially suspended by a court order on June 23, 2014. But the stay of execution was lifted in late September, with the Muğla Governor’s Office ordering the authorities of Ortaca district, which İztuzu is a part of, to evacuate the facilities at the beach. The privatization was then challenged by the Ortaca Municipality, with the Muğla Administrative Court ruling for a stay of execution for a second time. The same court lifted the order on Dec. 22, giving the go-ahead to the company to take over the facilities. But only three days later, a district court again ruled to suspend the execution of the privatization.

Adding fuel to the legal turmoil, the Environment Ministry on Jan. 5 confirmed that the tender land had now been taken over by the firm “in accordance with the cancellation of the stay of execution order.”

Human rights abuse

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Mahmut Tanal, who joined the protest at İztuzu, said any action regarding İztuzu would amount to a human rights violation. “This would seriously hurt Muğla’s tourism, economy and the right for people to live in a healthy environment. What the state has to do is protect and develop the environment,” Tanal said.

For their part, officials from DALÇEV claim they came to the site after the latest ruling lifting the stay of execution had been announced. “We should normally have taken over in June. But the facilities owned by the Ortaca Municipality were not given to us. The municipality opened several lawsuits against us,” said the company’s executive committee head, Ramazan Oruç, emphasizing that if they did not undertake any action it was due to their “respect for justice.”

He also dismissed claims that their arrival to the site near midnight was an attempt to raid the facilities.

“The governor’s office announced the court decision at 5 p.m. So we entered the facilities [at night]. We are not here to occupy. We would have entered during the morning if the decision had been announced during the morning,” Oruç said.

The recent transfer of authorities regarding privatizations to governor’s offices instead of municipalities has hurt locals as it means they have less control over decisions on such sensitive matters.

A recent hospital project for sea turtles near İztuzu also raised controversy with activists objecting to the construction of the facility within the protected area. Their action was successful in obtaining the cancelation of the project but prompted Environment Minister İdris Güllüce to accuse them of fanaticism.

Many international environmental and animal rights groups, including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), expressed their opposition to the establishment of a hospital in İztuzu.

Italy’s No-TAV Movement Heats Up with Major Sabotage and Court Victory

photo from protest in the forest atta

photo from protest in the forest attacked by police in 2011

from Earth First! News

December 29th, 2014Advocates of the impossibly corrupt and environmentally devastating high speed rail project known as TAV that threatens to cut through the Alps received a double-blow last week in the form of a major court victory for activists, and another large-scale act of arson.

This month, six fires have been set along the TAV lines in Italy, with militant groups like Armed Operational Nuclei (NOA) calling on activists to join them in armed struggle.

Image from the sabotage in Bologna five days ago / courtesy ANSA

Image from the sabotage in Bologna five days ago

As recently as last week, three people wearing hoods set fires at Bologna’s Santa Viola station. Though private surveillance cameras caught their image, they are unidentifiable. According to the Daily Beast, the sabotage was surprisingly effective: “the Bologna fires destroyed the regional train traffic control system, which put the entire rail network in northern Italy on hold until it could be repaired.”

Since the first of December, six fires have been set along Italy’s high-speed rail, causing the fast-moving trains to screech to a halt.

In spite of accusations of terrorism and the controversy surrounding fresh sabotage, three anarchists who were jailed in relation to the blockade of machinery and throwing molotovs at cops had their terrorism charges dropped in court today.

During the action in question, the newswire service ANSA explains, “Police at the time said roughly 30 hooded militants broke into the construction site under the cover of nightfall and tore down fences and blocked machinery. In a nearby incident, several other activists confronted police with fireworks and Molotov cocktails.”

The court victory sends a message that activists fighting the TAV are not simply terrorists pretending to be environmentalists, but members of a diverse and committed movement that encompasses large sectors of the Italian populace.

Investigators are not just out to get activists, either. They are also cracking down on supporters of the TAV—chiefly mafia operatives who have infiltrated the project in order to channel contracts and permits to their syndicates.

Meanwhile, the largest mob of them all, the EU, has made infrastructure a priority, over and against resistant communities and militant groups fighting against the destruction of a simpler way of life.

Diverse crowd of protestors marching from a historical site through the forest set to be destroyed by TAV / by Pietro Bondi

Live Streamers Make Great Informants

from We Cop Watch

There are many ways to effectively document the movement while protecting the space, its movements and people’s privacy. Live Streaming is generally NOT one of them.

from We Cop Watch

There are many ways to effectively document the movement while protecting the space, its movements and people’s privacy. Live Streaming is generally NOT one of them.

A common issue with Streamers is their display of entitlement, often citing the value of bringing the movement to the people. But Streamers have a hard time admitting that the police find their work more valuable then demonstrators.

In a world of voyeurism and exhibitionists, Streamers often get carried away, interpreting their role as being a narrator for the movement. They often film people without their consent, placing more value in presenting to their viewership, then protecting the group that is already taking risks by just getting out into the street to protest.

 

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One of the biggest problems with streaming is that it gives real time information to the police as far as what people are present, the group’s intentions, as well as its location and routes. Embedded Streamers give police a tactical advantage when trying to conduct mass arrests.

An even more tragic contract Streamers impose on demonstrators is the raw, unedited, archived video that is often made public and available online for law enforcement to use later to help identify and target people.

Before we move to “Streamer Solutions” lets review some “Streamer tactics” that are favorable to law enforcement, and almost always at the expense of the people.

Very Poor Streamer Etiquette:
Calling People out by Name on Streams.

People don’t go to protests for other people to call them out on streams that are put up permanently online for law enforcement to review.

Filming Peoples’ Identities on Streams

Law enforcement use streams to target and identify people for repression and arrest

Narrating your Interpretation of what Kind of Action is Taking Place

Streamers often divulge personal opinions rather than facts when narrating about actions. Are you prepared to be a witness for law enforcement in the future?

Filming Direct Actions

Everything you film, can and will be used against protesters if law enforcement has anything to do with it.

Narrating Logistics and Tactics

At the height of Occupy Oakland, Undercovers were being called into certain FTP protests because of the “no Live Streaming” / “no Twittering” tactic.

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FTP marches are ongoing Fuck the Police marches that take place in Oakland and across the Bay.

Narrating Group Routes

Police have a much easier time arresting people in the streets when they have Streamers narrating the group’s routes. You don’t need Undercovers and helicopters when you have a front-row seat.

If you want to be helpful to the movement, be honest about your intentions. Is your viewership more important than the people you are standing with? Do you want to be doing something that benefits the police over the people? Every action, every mass mobilization, has a story that can be told. But folks need to either start holding “non streaming” actions again, or streamers should stop operating as informants for the police.

If any of these issues are concerning to you, maybe consider NOT “Live Streaming” your next protest. Pick up a still camera, conduct some audio interviews, heck shoot some video. There’s no reason why you can’t go home after a protest and produce some content that is useful and not harmful. But in case it’s not in your blood to consider other people on that level, here are some good Live Stream tactics.

“Good” Livestream Tactics

  • Stand hundreds of feet away from the group so the low quality recording doesn’t pick up conversations or peoples’ identity.
  • Don’t film peoples’ identity without their consent.
  • Don’t narrate intentions, tactics, locations, or destinations.
  • Wear a bright shirt that says “Live Streamer” or “Informant.”

More “Real Good” Livestream Tactics

  • Live Stream an event, panel, or discussion where all parties consent.
  • Live Stream a demo or action where all parties involved consent.
  • Live Stream your interactions when being stopped, questioned, or harassed by law enforcement. (maybe put your channel on private!)

Be safe out there, and make it safer for the masses by considering them when you point a camera at them!