Direct Action and Rally at Chevron Richmond Refinery, USA

On Sat­ur­day March 15th, activists and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers protest­ed the war in Iraq, envi­ron­men­tal racism and glob­al warm­ing by blockad­ing the Chevron oil refin­ery in Rich­mond, CA.

Chevron refinery lock-on barrel blockadeOn Sat­ur­day March 15th, activists and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers protest­ed the war in Iraq, envi­ron­men­tal racism and glob­al warm­ing by blockad­ing the Chevron oil refin­ery in Rich­mond, CA. A coali­tion which includes health, envi­ron­men­tal and anti-war orga­niz­ers had called for peo­ple to shut down the Chevron refin­ery for the day in sup­port of com­mu­ni­ty efforts to stop Chevron from expand­ing its Rich­mond refin­ery. An expan­sion will increase pol­lu­tion and cause asth­ma, can­cer and ris­ing death rates in sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties.

Chevron was shut down all day in antic­i­pa­tion of the protest. Pro­test­ers marched to one of the main gates of the refin­ery and peo­ple laid out lock down tubes and bar­rels and up to 50 peo­ple locked them­selves down. Bands played, and there was street the­ater and food. The police had the entrance blocked with bar­ri­cades. After sev­er­al hours, the lock­down was end­ed. Pro­test­ers held a cir­cle gath­er­ing then quick­ly moved the bar­ri­cades and went toward Chevron. Police were star­tled but formed a line and peo­ple sat down. Oth­er peo­ple took down the rest of the bar­ri­cade and put it out in the inter­sec­tion to keep the street closed. Peo­ple sat in front of the police for sev­er­al more hours. Even­tu­al­ly the police arrest­ed 25 peo­ple. Protest orga­niz­ers say that Chevron is dri­ving the war and occu­pa­tion in Iraq, refin­ing over a mil­lion bar­rels of stolen Iraqi oil in Rich­mond a month, and active­ly lob­by­ing for the pri­va­ti­za­tion of Iraq’s oil fields.
Pho­tos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Video: 1 | 2 | Audio

Chevron has a long and high­ly prof­itable his­to­ry with Iraq—one it wants to see sig­nif­i­cant­ly expand­ed. Most recent­ly, Chevron has teamed-up with Total to bid on Iraq’s fourth largest oil field, the Majnoon field. Chevron hopes to pro­duce oil in the field under the terms of the Iraq Oil Law. It has con­tin­ued reg­u­lar nego­ti­a­tions with Iraq’s lead­ing gov­ern­ment offi­cials in pur­suit of the best con­tract deals pos­si­ble, while the Bush admin­is­tra­tion pres­sures the Iraqis to pass the Iraq Oil Law.

In Rich­mond, a city with a pop­u­la­tion of about 100,000, the vast major­i­ty of whom are low-income peo­ple of col­or, 17,000 peo­ple live with­in just three miles of the Chevron refin­ery, includ­ing in two pub­lic hous­ing projects. Built in 1902, the Chevron Rich­mond Refin­ery is one of the old­est and largest refiner­ies oper­at­ing in the U.S. To refine its capac­i­ty of 87.6 mil­lion bar­rels of crude oil per year—240,000 bar­rels a day—the refin­ery pro­duces over two mil­lion pounds of cli­mate-poi­son­ing, smog-form­ing and tox­ic air and water pol­lu­tants each year.

Spirit of Freedom (March 2008) — Earth Liberation Prisoners

Spir­it of Free­dom
(March 2008)
Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“The whole expe­ri­ence has been tough, but all the kind and strength­en­ing
words and wise thoughts from strangers made it much eas­i­er!”
(For­mer Swedish Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Spir­it of Free­dom
(March 2008)
Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“The whole expe­ri­ence has been tough, but all the kind and strength­en­ing
words and wise thoughts from strangers made it much eas­i­er!”
(For­mer Swedish Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Wel­come to the March 2008 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. First off in this
Edi­to­r­i­al ELP would like to apol­o­gise about an error we have made in our
pris­on­er list­ing. We wrote that the Amer­i­can Eco-Defence pris­on­er Grant
Barnes spray-paint­ed the let­ters ELF onto one of the vehi­cles he set fire
to. Grant has asked for a cor­rec­tion, point­ing out he spray-paint­ed the
let­ters ELF onto all of the vehi­cles he set fire to. Sec­ond­ly as peo­ple may
be aware, the Amer­i­can envi­ron­men­tal pris­on­er, Eric McDavid, is cur­rent­ly
held on remand await­ing his sen­tenc­ing hav­ing been found guilty of hav­ing
the inten­tion to destroy the prop­er­ty of the US Foresty Ser­vice, etc. (note:
he nev­er actu­al­ly destroyed or set fire to any­thing). Eric’s sen­tenc­ing is
con­stant­ly being put back and back and we urge every­one to sup­port him as we
recog­nise this con­stant delay in his sen­tenc­ing will be a very stress­ful
time for Eric. Remem­ber, no mat­ter where you are in the world, sup­port the
eco-pris­on­ers and no com­pro­mise in defence of Moth­er Earth!

ECO-DEFENCE PRISONERS

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 #137563, San Car­los Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty, PO Box 3, Pueblo, CO
81002, USA. Serv­ing 12 years for set­ting fire to a num­ber of SUV vehi­cles.
The let­ters ELF were spray paint­ed onto all of the vehi­cles.

Nathan Block, #36359–086, FCI Lom­poc, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, 3600
Guard Road, Lom­poc, CA 93436, USA. Serv­ing 7 years & 8 months for an ELF
arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV deal­er­ship.
Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy.

Vagge­lis Botzatzis, Komo­ti­ni Juridi­cal Prison (“Dikastikes Fylakes
Komo­ti­nis”), T.K. 69100, Greece. On remand accused of set­ting fire to two
com­pa­ny cars owned by a energy/power com­pa­ny. It is believed that the
per­son or per­sons unknown who car­ried out the arson did so in protest at the
destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment and in sup­port of two work­ers who
died at the pow­er plant. Vagge­lis is also accused of set­ting fire to a bank
and start­ing a fire inside a car yard.

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.

Daniele Casali­ni, Casa Cir­con­dar­i­ale, Via Burla 59, 43100 Par­ma, Italy. Il
Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an
elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy.

Rod Coro­n­a­do — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

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.

Francesco Gioia, C.C. Sol­lic­ciano, Via Giro­lamo Min­ervi­ni 2/R, 50142 Firen­ze
Sol­lic­ciano (FI), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of
using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear
ener­gy.

Jef­frey Luers, #1306729, Lane Coun­ty Adult Cor­rec­tions, 101 West 5th Ave,
Eugene, OR 97401–2695, USA. Serv­ing 10 years for arson on a SUV deal­er­ship
& the attempt­ed arson of an oil truck. The orig­i­nal sen­tence was 22 years &
8 months, but was reduced on appeal.

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

Daniel McGowan #63794–053, Unit I, FCI Sand­stone, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al
Insti­tu­tion, PO Box 1000, Sand­stone, MN 55072, USA. Serv­ing 7 years for an
ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an old growth
log­ging cor­po­ra­tion. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy.

Jonathan Paul — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Julio Vil­lanue­va, C.P. Pri­sion De Pam­plona, 31080, Iruna (Navar­ra), Spain.
Serv­ing just under 5 years for sab­o­tag­ing machin­ery at the con­tro­ver­sial
Itoiz dam con­struc­tion site.

Joy­an­na Zach­er, #36360–086, FCI Dublin, 5700 8th St.- Camp Parks- Unit F,
Dublin, CA 94568, USA. Serv­ing 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against
a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also
admit­ted her role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy.

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.

Gregg Avery TA7450, HMP Win­ches­ter, Rom­sey Road, Win­ches­ter, SO22 5DF,
Eng­land. On remand accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to his
involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign.

Natasha Avery NR8987, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx. TW15
3JZ, Eng­land. Jailed for breach­ing her parole con­di­tions imposed on her for
telling a fox hunt­ing mur­der­ing scum what she thought of them. Also await­ing tri­al accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to her involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign.

Nathan Block — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

Mel Broughton TN9138, HMP Wood­hill, Tat­ten­hoe Street, Mil­ton Keynes, Bucks
MK4 4DA, Eng­land. On remand accused of involve­ment with an arson and
black­mail cam­paign against an Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty vivi­sec­tion estab­lish­ment.

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.

Rod Coro­n­a­do, Voice of the Earth, PO Box 732, Tuc­son, AZ 85702, USA. Due to
be sen­tenced to one-year impris­on­ment after Rod informed peo­ple how to make
an incen­di­ary device dur­ing a speech at an ani­mal rights gath­er­ing.

Don­ald Cur­rie A3660AA, HMP Parkhurst, New­port, Isle of Wight, PO30 5NX,
Eng­land. Serv­ing an Inde­ter­mi­nate Sen­tence, of not less than six actu­al
years, for car­ry­ing out arsons against tar­gets asso­ci­at­ed the vivi­sec­tion
indus­try includ­ing HLS.

Lau­ren Gaz­zo­la #93497–011, FCI Dan­bury, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion,
Route #37Danbury, CT 06811, USA. Serv­ing 54 months impris­on­ment for help­ing
organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Sarah Gis­borne, LT5393, HMP Down­view, Sut­ton Lane, Sut­ton, Sur­rey, SM2 5PD,
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.

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

Daniel McGowan — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

Heather Nichol­son VM4859, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx.
TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. On remand accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in
rela­tion to her involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign.

Jonathan Paul, #07167–085, FCI Phoenix, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion,
37910 N 45th Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85086, USA. Sen­tenced to 51 months for an
ALF arson on a horse meat plant. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF
con­spir­a­cy.

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.

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.

Gabriel Vil­leneuve #HUL03299801, 500, de la Faune, Case Postale 87130,
Québec, Québec, G1G 5E4, Can­da. Held on remand accused of breach­ing pro­ba­tion con­di­tions by alleged­ly attend­ing an ani­mal rights protest, even though he nev­er actu­al­ly went to the protest!

Joy­an­na Zach­er — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

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.

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 that 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.

Fabio Milan, C.C. via Pianez­za 300, 10151 Tori­no, Italy. On remand accused of fight­ing with the police after an anti-fas­cist protest.

Andrea Neff, Bnr: 746/07/2, Jus­tizvol­lzugsanstalt fur Frauen in Berlin, Arkonas­trasse 56, 13189 Berlin, Ger­many. Serv­ing 14 months for anti-fas­cist activ­i­ty.

Chris­t­ian Süm­mer­mann, Bnr: 441/08/5, JVA Plötzensee, Lehrter­str. 61, 10557 Berlin, Ger­many. Serv­ing 40 months for breach­ing the peace whilst serv­ing a sus­pend­ed sen­tence issued for anti-fas­cist activ­i­ties.

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

OTHER PRISONERS

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.

Mau­ra Mich­lle Lun­gar­l­li, book­ing # 1167062, Cen­tu­ry Region­al Deten­tion Facil­i­ty (CRDF), 11705 South Alame­da Street, Lyn­wood, CA 90262, USA. Well known ani­mal rights Lau­ra Lun­gar­l­li held on remand accused of activ­i­ty uncon­nect­ed to ani­mal rights. (Please note the prison offi­cials have made a spelling mis­take with her name which must be repli­cat­ed on her let­ters of sup­port).

Kevin Olliff, book­ing #1167029, Ter­mi­nal Annex, P.O. Box #86164, Los Ange­les, CA 90086–0164, USA. Ani­mal rights activist held on remand accused of activ­i­ty uncon­nect­ed to ani­mal rights. Co-defen­dant of Lau­ra Lun­gar­l­li.

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 Grater­ford, PO Box 244, Grater­ford, PA 19426–0244, USA.

Edward Good­man Africa (AM4974), SCI Mahanoy, 301 Morea Rd, Frackville, PA 17932, USA.

William Philips Africa (AM4984) and Del­bert Orr Africa (AM4985) both at SCI Dal­las Draw­er K, Dal­las, PA 18612, USA.

Mumia Abu Jamal, (AM8335), SCI Greene, 175 Progress Dri­ve, Way­nes­burg PA 15370, USA. In 1981 Mumia, for­mer Black Pan­ther and vocal sup­port­er of MOVE, was framed for the mur­der of a cop. He was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death but is cur­rent­ly await­ing re-sen­tenc­ing fol­low­ing a court hear­ing in 2001.

STATEMENT ON VIOLENCE
Some peo­ple list­ed in this newslet­ter have car­ried out vio­lent actions. ‘Spir­it of Free­dom’ does not con­done vio­lence. But we are also against cen­sor­ship & believe peo­ple can decide for them­selves who they wish to sup­port.

ABOUT E.L.P. SUPPORT NETWORK
ELP is an inter­na­tion­al eco-pris­on­er sup­port net­work found­ed, in Britain, in 1993 to sup­port jailed eco-activists. We sup­port the pris­on­ers by pro­duc­ing var­i­ous reg­u­lar pris­on­er lists:

Spir­it of Free­dom is ELP’s inter­na­tion­al month­ly pris­on­er list­ing which is cir­cu­lat­ed by e‑mail.

Urgent ELP! Bul­letin is an e‑mail ser­vice that dis­trib­utes the names of any new eco-pris­on­er as soon as ELP gets their details. For more info e‑mail ELP4321@hotmail.com

On-Line Newslet­ters — ELP has a num­ber of web­sites that pro­vide news, pris­on­er lists and addi­tion­al info about ELP & the pris­on­ers.

Eng­lish lan­guage ELP Web­site
www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk

Greek lan­guage ELP Web­site
http://greekelp.blogspot.com

North Amer­i­can ELP Web­site
www.ecoprisoners.org

Turk­ish lan­guage ELP Web­site
www.geocities.com/yesilanarsi/elp.htm

ELP Extra is an e‑mail group that cir­cu­lates the details of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, ELP learns about, who do not fall with­in the remit for sup­port by ELP. To sub­scribe to the list e‑mail ELP4321@Hotmail.com

Aus­tralian ELP.SN is our Aus­tralian con­tact. For more info e‑mail elp4321@hotmail.com

Bel­gium ELP.SN is our Bel­gium con­tact. For more info e‑mail elp_bel@hotmail.com

Ger­man ELP.SN is a pris­on­er led ini­tia­tive run by eco-pris­on­er Mar­co Camenisch. For more info con­tact Mar­co Camenisch, Post­fach 3143, CH-8105 Regens­dorf, Switzer­land.

Greek ELP.SN is our Greek con­tact. For more info e‑mail greekelp@yahoo.gr

North Amer­i­can ELP is our North Amer­i­can con­tact. For more infor­ma­tion e‑mail naelpsn@mutualaid.org

Turkey ELP.SN is our Turk­ish con­tact. For more info e‑mail yesilanarsi@yahoo.com

Road blockades in Argentina against gold mine exploitation

Bar­rick Gold Secret­ly Build­ing Roads to Attack Mt. Famati­na in La Rio­ja

12th March 2008

Bar­rick Gold Secret­ly Build­ing Roads to Attack Mt. Famati­na in La Rio­ja

12th March 2008

On the one-year anniver­sary of the road block­ade in Peña Negra and “ouster” of Bar­rick Gold from the Famati­na moun­tain range, it has been con­firmed that Bar­rick Gold, with the com­plic­i­ty of the nation­al and provin­cial gov­ern­ment, has been secret­ly con­struct­ing a new entry road into the back­side of the moun­tain. This new road enters through Potrero Grande near Vinchi­na, avoid­ing the wide­spread pub­lic resis­tance on the east side of the range, and links Bar­rick Gold’s Famati­na project with the ura­ni­um projects under explo­ration along the south­ern bor­der of the neigh­bor­ing province of Cata­mar­ca.

Bar­rick­’s Famati­na project was an open-pit gold mine to be locat­ed upon the high­er flanks of the Famati­na Range. Bar­rick­’s inser­tion into the beloved moun­tain was car­ried out silent­ly and secret­ly dur­ing the past few years until 2006, when res­i­dents found out and began a grass­roots cam­paign of edu­ca­tion, out­reach and resis­tance. In March 2007, res­i­dents began a round the clock peace­ful block­ade of the only road enter­ing into the moun­tain and Bar­rick­’s min­ing camp. In an aston­ish­ing turn of events, wide­spread anti-min­ing pub­lic opin­ion led to the ouster of cor­rupt provin­cial Gov­er­nor Angel Maza, a province-wide “pro­hi­bi­tion” of open-pit min­ing, and the sched­ul­ing of a pub­lic ref­er­en­dum. Con­front­ed with tur­moil and resis­tance, Bar­rick Gold announced their “with­draw­al” from the Famati­na project in April 2007.

Owing to Bar­rick Gold’s his­to­ry of lies and mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tions, nobody believed them. Sure enough, in the past year, new gov­er­nor Luis Bed­er-Her­rera reneged on his promis­es to stop the min­ing exploita­tion: First he blocked the sched­uled pub­lic ref­er­en­dum, claim­ing that it was unnec­es­sary because there were already laws in place to pro­hib­it open-pit min­ing — months lat­er he claimed that these very laws he had signed were non-bind­ing because they had nev­er been sub­ject to a pub­lic ref­er­en­dum! The Gov­er­nor has been nego­ti­at­ing secret­ly with min­ing com­pa­nies, includ­ing Bar­rick Gold, to pave the way for their return.

The access road to Famati­na has remained stead­fast­ly block­ad­ed by neigh­bors through­out the year. And now, Bar­rick Gold and the province of La Rio­ja are con­firmed to be con­struct­ing a new road to try and insert out the view of the firm­ly anti-min­ing res­i­dents. The truth came out in Feb­ru­ary when a truck car­ry­ing unknown chem­i­cals plunged off a cliff near Potrero Grande, killing the dri­ver con­tract­ed by a sub­sidiary Bar­rick Gold. It still remains unan­nounced what chem­i­cals were spilled in the trag­ic acci­dent.

One thing remains cer­tain: The Famati­na moun­tain range pro­vides the water which sup­ports the lives of all the peo­ple and ecosys­tems in the region. La Rio­ja is an arid province which depends upon the runoff from the moun­tain peaks, their only source of water and life. And the peo­ple of this region remain stead­fast in their oppo­si­tion to large-scale min­ing projects, be they gold or ura­ni­um.

The “self-orga­nized neigh­bors” (veci­nos auto­con­vo­ca­dos) of Famati­na, Chilecito, and La Rio­ja have called upon their neigh­bors on the oth­er side of the moun­tain range (in the towns of Vinchi­na, Jague, and Potrero Grande) to come forth and pre­vent fur­ther con­struc­tion of Bar­rick Gold’s cow­ard­ly rear access road. Sure enough, on March 12, 2008, neigh­bors have fol­lowed their exam­ple, car­ry­ing out a first block­ade of the high­way in the town of Patquía.

Self-Orga­nized Neigh­bors of Famati­na In Defense of Life
Coor­di­na­tion of Cit­i­zen Assem­blies of Chilecito
Self-Orga­nized Neigh­bors of Pitu­il,
Self-Orga­nized Neigh­bors of Chañar­muyo
Self-Orga­nized Neigh­bors of North Famati­na
Self-Orga­nized Neigh­bors of La Rio­ja cap­i­tal

For More Infor­ma­tion:
www.ciudadanosporlavida.com.ar

Good news at last for Packers Field users!!!

Free, infor­mal access to con­tin­ue

The last 10 months may have seemed the qui­etest since 2002, when the City Academy’s plans to devel­op Pack­ers Field first became pub­lic knowl­edge.

Free, infor­mal access to con­tin­ue

The last 10 months may have seemed the qui­etest since 2002, when the City Academy’s plans to devel­op Pack­ers Field first became pub­lic knowl­edge.

In fact, the work of local cam­paign­ers try­ing to main­tain free pub­lic access to Pack­ers has con­tin­ued through­out this peri­od, and is to be reward­ed with the imple­men­ta­tion of a Com­mu­ni­ty Use Agree­ment, or CUA. This CUA should uphold the right of local peo­ple to con­tin­ue to use the site for infor­mal sport and leisure, as they have done for gen­er­a­tions. This is good news for local res­i­dents of all ages and back­grounds, in advance of the field re-open­ing in April or May.

What is a CUA?
A CUA is a doc­u­ment that is required when coun­cils and gov­ern­ment give fund­ing to devel­op sports facil­i­ties. It is a signed legal doc­u­ment that makes it clear who can use the facil­i­ties and who is respon­si­ble for man­ag­ing them. In the case of Pack­ers, the CUA will be signed by the City Acad­e­my and Bris­tol City Coun­cil.

His­to­ry of the Pack­ers Field CUA
The imple­men­ta­tion of a CUA was one of the con­di­tions attached to plan­ning per­mis­sion grant­ed to the Acad­e­my. How­ev­er, this does not tell the whole sto­ry. ‘Com­mu­ni­ty use’ refers pri­mar­i­ly to offi­cial, organ­ised groups of peo­ple who book the facil­i­ties (sports clubs, schools, etc). The rights of infor­mal users (e.g. walk­ers, kite-fly­ers, chil­dren hav­ing a ‘kick­about’) are not auto­mat­i­cal­ly cov­ered by a CUA. Indeed, the Acad­e­my stat­ed from the begin­ning that its com­mit­ment was only to organ­ised sport. The orig­i­nal CUA pro­posed by the Acad­e­my in 2005 con­sist­ed of just a few para­graphs, with no mean­ing­ful con­tent regard­ing pub­lic use or the Academy’s respon­si­bil­i­ties. It was under­stand­ably reject­ed by local peo­ple. The new agree­ment that has been agreed and signed is a robust, mean­ing­ful doc­u­ment, WRITTEN AND PROPOSED BY MEMBERS OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITY. Both of these doc­u­ments are avail­able to view at www.packersfield.org.uk.

The CUA now allows the local com­mu­ni­ty and the school to enjoy the ben­e­fits of this green space, as has always been the inten­tion of cam­paign­ers. How­ev­er, the man­age­ment of the CUA by the Acad­e­my will need to be mon­i­tored close­ly by all par­ties, as some ques­tions remain over how the Acad­e­my can be held to account to do what it says it will do.

What does the Pack­ers CUA mean for local peo­ple?

The CUA sets out a num­ber of impor­tant guar­an­tees for infor­mal users of the field. These include:
— Free pub­lic access to the site at all times between 7.30am and dusk.
— The City Acad­e­my to be respon­si­ble for main­te­nance and safe­ty of site.
— Annu­al con­sul­ta­tion meet­ings with the Acad­e­my to dis­cuss progress of infor­mal use of the site, includ­ing griev­ances /
con­cerns. Local res­i­dents are strong­ly encour­aged to attend these pub­lic meet­ings.

Infor­mal users of Pack­ers also have respon­si­bil­i­ties under the terms of the CUA. These include:
— Not inter­fer­ing with for­mal sports activ­i­ties on the field or pos­ing a health and safe­ty risk to oth­er users.
— Mov­ing to oth­er parts of the site if rea­son­ably request­ed to do so by ground staff.
— Not walk­ing dogs on the site.

This is only a brief sum­ma­ry of the agreed CUA. For a more detailed under­stand­ing of its con­tent, please con­sult the orig­i­nal doc­u­ment at

www.packersfield.org.uk/news/cua2.htm or by con­tact­ing the City Acad­e­my.

Future devel­op­ment of Pack­ers Field?
It has long been pub­lic knowl­edge that the Acad­e­my and Bris­tol City Coun­cil are keen to devel­op an ath­let­ics facil­i­ty on Pack­ers Field. A pre­vi­ous plan for a sta­di­um and arti­fi­cial run­ning track was quick­ly retract­ed fol­low­ing pub­lic oppo­si­tion, but both par­ties have since made clear their desire to see an ath­let­ics facil­i­ty on the site. This pos­es some very seri­ous chal­lenges for the future, not least to the valid­i­ty of the CUA itself. If an ath­let­ics facil­i­ty were to be locat­ed on the site, any free space for infor­mal use would undoubt­ed­ly be lost. It is also a very real pos­si­bil­i­ty that flood­lights will be part of the plan, which would affect many peo­ple in White­hall and Green­bank. This may well become the next part of the cam­paign and will again need pop­u­lar local sup­port to stop it form hap­pen­ing.

Let’s end on a pos­i­tive note! The Acad­e­my has made con­sid­er­able con­ces­sions on its orig­i­nal vision for Pack­ers Field, due to the strength and ini­tia­tive of the local com­mu­ni­ty. These con­ces­sions are a trib­ute to every per­son who has signed a peti­tion, writ­ten a let­ter, attend­ed a meet­ing or just sup­port­ed the cam­paign with words of encour­age­ment. The future of the field is still a long way from cer­tain, but what we have achieved so far should give us the belief that we can fur­ther influ­ence events and deci­sions.

To cel­e­brate this pos­i­tive devel­op­ment in the cam­paign, there will be a social evening at the White Hart pub on White­hall Road on Sun­day 30th March from 8 till late. There will be live bands, DJs and the chance to catch up with peo­ple who have sup­port­ed the cam­paign over the last few years. Entry is free, although dona­tions towards the ongo­ing costs of the cam­paign are appre­ci­at­ed. All wel­come, please come along.

http://www.packersfield.org.uk

Word Doc­u­ment Leaflet deliv­ered to White­hall res­i­dents

Earth First! summer gathering date change & contact details

The dates of the EF! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing have been changed, to work bet­ter with oth­er events hap­pen­ing over the sum­mer such as the Sav­ing Ice­land protest camp and the Camp for Cli­mate Action.

The new dates are Wednes­day 27th August to Mon­day 1st Sep­tem­ber 2008.

This should give us all the space to recov­er & reflect, and to plot & plan onwards and upwards.

Rabbit with spanner & Earth First!The dates of the EF! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing have been changed, to work bet­ter with oth­er events hap­pen­ing over the sum­mer such as the Sav­ing Ice­land protest camp and the Camp for Cli­mate Action.

The new dates are Wednes­day 27th August to Mon­day 1st Sep­tem­ber 2008.

This should give us all the space to recov­er & reflect, and to plot & plan onwards and upwards.

The new con­tact details for the EF!SG col­lec­tive is summergathering@earthfirst.org.uk

You can down­load pub­lic­i­ty — 2 posters & leaflet all in one: (front & back)

Watch this space for more info near­er the time.

New groups & contacts/support setting up a group

At the recent EF! Win­ter Moot, eight new EF! groups & con­tacts for rock-on eco­log­i­cal direct action were formed, with oth­ers just final­ly get­ting an email address. Some have address­es already — click on their name if linked for those details & per­haps more info…

At the recent EF! Win­ter Moot, eight new EF! groups & con­tacts for rock-on eco­log­i­cal direct action were formed, with oth­ers just final­ly get­ting an email address. Some have address­es already — click on their name if linked for those details & per­haps more info…

Der­by EF! | derby@earthfirst.org.uk
Lan­cast­er EF! | lancasterbasement@aktivix.org
Leeds EF! | leeds@earthfirst.org.uk
Nor­folk & Waveney EF! | norfolk@earthfirst.org.uk
Notts EF! | notts@earthfirst.org.uk
Ply­mouth EF! | plymouth@earthfirst.org.uk
Scot­land Cen­tral Belt EF! | scotland@earthfirst.org.uk
West Wales EF! | westwales@earthfirst.org.uk

If you want to set-up an EF! group, check out the ‘set­ting up a group’ at What is Earth First!? and let us knowwhat you get up to, or if you need a hand.

The Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing col­lec­tive also now have an email address (note the date change in this sep­a­rate news sto­ry): summergathering@earthfirst.org.uk

—–

2009 updates:

Bath Activist Net­work | bathactivistnet@yahoo.co.uk
Ker­now Action Now! | kernowaction@gmail.com
Man­ches­ter Cli­mate Action | manchester@climatecamp.org.uk
Pre­ston Earth First! | preston@earthfirst.org.uk
Wor­thing Eco-action | worthing@eco-action.org

Leeds street medic training, 28th-30th March

The UK Action Medics are run­ning a 2 1/2 day street medic train­ing in Leeds at the end of this month. This is a 20 hour course that will teach you the basics of gen­er­al First Aid, as well as skills to deal with med­ical sit­u­a­tions spe­cif­ic to direct action, such as deal­ing with chem­i­cal weapons and the police. The course will involve sce­nar­ios and hands-on prac­tice and, although we can­not offer you any offi­cial accred­i­ta­tion, the 2 1/2 day train­ing is the min­i­mum stan­dard for mem­ber­ship of the Action Medics, and will equip you for a wide range of sit­u­a­tions, from hypother­mia to baton wounds.

The UK Action Medics are run­ning a 2 1/2 day street medic train­ing in Leeds at the end of this month. This is a 20 hour course that will teach you the basics of gen­er­al First Aid, as well as skills to deal with med­ical sit­u­a­tions spe­cif­ic to direct action, such as deal­ing with chem­i­cal weapons and the police. The course will involve sce­nar­ios and hands-on prac­tice and, although we can­not offer you any offi­cial accred­i­ta­tion, the 2 1/2 day train­ing is the min­i­mum stan­dard for mem­ber­ship of the Action Medics, and will equip you for a wide range of sit­u­a­tions, from hypother­mia to baton wounds.

The train­ing will be on the 28th-30th of March, which is Fri­day to Sat­ur­day. There will be 3 or 4 hours on Fri­day evening and two full days on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day. Food will be pro­vid­ed, as well as accom­mo­da­tion if need­ed — we ask for a dona­tion of £30 to cov­er costs, although this will be less if we can find a venue for free.

The venue is as yet uncon­firmed, but the train­ing will take place in cen­tral Leeds, and we can give you direc­tions from the train/bus sta­tion. It is essen­tial to book a place so we know how many peo­ple are com­ing — please email iloveavocado@hotmail.com to do this, or with any ques­tions.

Also, we are plan­ning to organ­ise a 4 hour cer­ti­fied ‘Emer­gency Life Sup­port’ course on the Fri­day (28th March) after­noon. This will cov­er CPR as well as a bit of oth­er stuff, like how to con­trol bleed­ing and deal with an uncon­scious per­son. We don’t teach CPR in the 2 1/2 day course, although we cov­er every­thing else, but hav­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is use­ful. We’d rec­om­mend that peo­ple com­ing on the 2 1/2 day course try to attend this too, but it isn’t manda­to­ry, and it is open to peo­ple who can’t com­mit to the week­end. As we will be bring­ing in an out­side train­er, please email if you want to come on this so we can work out if we have the num­bers.

www.actionmedics.org.uk

Treesit last ditch attempt stop bushland destruction

2008–2‑29
A group of Con­cerned Inde­pen­dent Activists (CIA) have placed a plat­form occu­pied by an activist, high up a tuart tree in bush­land at Col­lege Grove in Bun­bury. It is hoped this will delay destruc­tion of this con­tentious for­est.

College Grove tree-sit2008–2‑29
A group of Con­cerned Inde­pen­dent Activists (CIA) have placed a plat­form occu­pied by an activist, high up a tuart tree in bush­land at Col­lege Grove in Bun­bury. It is hoped this will delay destruc­tion of this con­tentious for­est.

The bush, which forms part of a valu­able nature cor­ri­dor, is under threat of being bull­dozed by Land­corp for a hos­ing devel­op­ment. CIA spokesper­son Simon Peter­fly said “this is the last nature cor­ri­dor on the Swan Coastal Plain that con­nects the ocean to a riv­er”…
The plat­form is a last ditch attempt to save the bush, which includes a rare pop­u­la­tion of ring-tailed pos­sums. He said that Landcorp’s project was con­trary to all good sense and showed a total lack of moral stand­ing in the world of con­ser­va­tion.

“We want to expose Landcorp’s intent to destroy this vital sec­tion of the cor­ri­dor to all West­ern Aus­tralians”, he said. “This is more than just a piece of bush to be flat­tened. It con­tains the rare tuart tran­si­tion zone and pro­vides habi­tat to a pro­tect­ed species which relies upon the bush for its ongo­ing exis­tence”.

Mr Peter­fly said that the inde­pen­dent activists hoped that their remain­ing actions would help edu­cate peo­ple about the fragili­ty of the remain­ing bush­land at Col­lege Grove. “If peo­ple log onto Google Earth, they will see just how thin the nature cor­ri­dor has become… It is just so frag­ile and too valu­able to lose”.

Mr Peter­fly said that the plat­form would stay in place as long as pos­si­ble to focus people’s atten­tion on the plight of rem­nant bush­land on the Swan Coastal Plain.

CONTACT Simon Peter­fly — 0422 540756

South West Envi­ron­ment Cen­tre

Brixton Reclaim Your Food Collective, 2 Arrests.

Peo­ple tak­ing part in Brix­ton’s Reclaim Your Food week­ly action faced arrest on Sun­day (2nd March 2008 ) as they chal­lenged the legit­i­ma­cy of a Dis­per­sal Order issued by the Lam­beth branch of the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police.

Reclaim your FoodPeo­ple tak­ing part in Brix­ton’s Reclaim Your Food week­ly action faced arrest on Sun­day (2nd March 2008 ) as they chal­lenged the legit­i­ma­cy of a Dis­per­sal Order issued by the Lam­beth branch of the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police.

The week­ly veg­an open pic­nic has recent­ly faced grow­ing repres­sion from Police and con­sis­tent sup­port in the com­mu­ni­ty. Police (which con­sti­tut­ed a mix of PCs, CSOs and high­er-rank­ing offi­cers) were wait­ing for the col­lec­tive before they even arrived. They came equipped with a mobile sur­veil­lance van, 2 reg­u­lar Police vans and 2 Police cars. Dis­pro­por­tion­ate? Make up your own mind…

The first arrest came as a result of a refusal to com­ply with the Dis­per­sal Order placed upon the group, the sec­ond for attempt­ing to estab­lish the legal basis for such an arrest.

The Dis­per­sal Order, made pos­si­ble by the con­tro­ver­sial Anti-Social Behav­iour Act, was issued in response to an alleged Sec­tion 5 Pub­lic Order offence — defined as caus­ing harass­ment, dis­tress or alarm. How­ev­er, when ques­tioned, the Police failed to pro­vide ade­quate evi­dence to sug­gest that such an offence was tak­ing place. What fol­lowed was a series of con­vo­lut­ed and dubi­ous expla­na­tions as to why they had rea­son to believe an offence was being com­mit­ted:

1) By giv­ing out free food, a cli­mate was being cre­at­ed that enabled drug-deal­ing — which in itself could pro­mote harass­ment, dis­tress and/or alarm. Case Law con­tra­dicts the use of this Pub­lic Order law ‘by proxy’ (as it were) and it has pre­vi­ous­ly been ruled that if a Sec­tion 5 offence is being comit­ted, it is unlaw­ful to arrest any­one oth­er than the alleged per­pe­tra­tor of the offence.

2) “Local Busi­ness­es” — such as the near­by McDon­alds & KFC resta­raunts — were claim­ing that the actions of the col­lec­tive were inhibit­ing their abil­i­ty to make a prof­it. No law that explic­it­ly states the inter­ests of said busi­ness­es are to take prece­dent over the inter­ests of the oth­er par­ties involved was invoked. How­ev­er, it’s hard­ly a shock­ing rev­e­la­tion that prof­it comes before peo­ple.

3) The con­cen­tra­tion of Brix­ton’s drug users and deal­ers in Brix­ton Town Square, alleged­ly as a result of the Reclaim Your Food col­lec­tive’s project, was mak­ing the ‘prob­lem’ more dif­fi­cult to Police. This isn’t even wor­thy of a wit­ty retort.

Thank­ful­ly, the long arm of the law did not stretch to the Bicy­cle Repair Work­shop or those mak­ing Punc­ture Repair Kits and Wal­lets from recy­cled and sus­tain­able mate­ri­als. These were wel­come addi­tions to the Town Square, which was reclaimed as a ful­ly-func­tion­al pub­lic space for all…with room for a bit of a dance to the chilled reggae/dub soundsys­tem!

Despite all the Police intim­i­da­tion and gen­er­al­ly not fan­tas­tic weath­er, a good time was had by most peo­ple who turned up or hap­pened to be pass­ing by!

Sun­day’s events also demon­strate the pow­er of sol­i­dar­i­ty and engage­ment with the com­mu­ni­ty, after Police aban­doned ini­tial threats to arrest every­one present because they thought those involved had ‘learnt their les­son’ and would not be back the next week. This, of course, had noth­ing to do with the logis­ti­cal dif­fi­cul­ties that would’ve arisen from arrest­ing up to 50+ peo­ple with lim­it­ed resources — and hav­ing to jus­ti­fy that to the large­ly sup­port­ive mem­bers of the pub­lic present…honest, sarge! There were many peo­ple on hand to pho­to­graph and film the behav­iour of the Police and to record the iden­ti­ty num­bers of the offi­cers involved. The action was not only ful­ly com­plet­ed and large­ly unim­ped­ed by Police inter­ven­tion but also took to the streets after­wards, march­ing to Brix­ton Police Sta­tion and stand­ing in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the two arrestees. The Reclaim Your Food ban­ner was unfurled accross the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police logo at the front of the sta­tion, gen­er­at­ing pub­lic inter­est and sup­port. Tea and Bis­cuits were also on offer, giv­ing the whole pro­ceed­ing an unchar­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly twee vibe!
Many Brix­ton res­i­dents approached the col­lec­tive, shar­ing their own expe­ri­ences of deal­ing with Police intim­i­da­tion and bru­tal­i­ty. Whilst this may appear incred­i­bly doom-and-gloom, the atmos­phere was more con­ducive to a sense of mutu­al sup­port and a desire to chal­lenge the state appa­ra­tus than of feel­ing down­trod­den or apa­thet­ic, which left many peo­ple feel­ing pos­i­tive about the pos­si­b­li­ty of resist­ing the ever-creep­ing Police state.

The col­lec­tives involved in Sun­day’s action are keen to wel­come any­one who is inter­est­ed in any aspect of the project to come along. The project will con­tin­ure to meet at Brix­ton Town Square

(by Cold­har­bour Lane, oppo­site the Ritzy Cin­e­ma) from around 2/3pm every Sun­day. The town square is well on it’s way to being a free pub­lic space, for any­one to use. This does not fig­ure in the plans of the Police and Local Gov­ern­ment, who are intent on see­ing through gen­tri­fi­ca­tion of the area. Let’s show them whose streets they real­ly are!

Video and Report: http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/392723.html
Pre­vi­ous Encoun­ters: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/391653.html?c=on#c189534

Lancaster ‘First’ Carnival Of Culture 2008

“The Car­ni­val of Cul­ture is a cel­e­bra­tion of all that’s good and dis­tinc­tive about Lan­cast­er and a protest against the cor­po­rate takeover of our city by Cen­tros Miller and oth­er devel­op­ers, against the wish­es of the com­mu­ni­ty.

Carnival of Culture“The Car­ni­val of Cul­ture is a cel­e­bra­tion of all that’s good and dis­tinc­tive about Lan­cast­er and a protest against the cor­po­rate takeover of our city by Cen­tros Miller and oth­er devel­op­ers, against the wish­es of the com­mu­ni­ty.
From Cen­tros Miller, the North­ern Link road and out-of-town super­mar­ket plans at Lawson’s bridge, Lan­cast­er is sub­ject to a bar­rage of pro­posed devel­op­ments designed to ben­e­fit large com­pa­nies, yet threat­en the fab­ric and live­li­ness of our com­mu­ni­ties. We are tired of the lack of any say for the res­i­dents of the city as to the direc­tion that the plan­ners are tak­ing us.

The Car­ni­val is about giv­ing Cen­tros, the Coun­cil and any oth­er devel­op­ers a taste of the strength of our com­mu­ni­ties and of our oppo­si­tion. It’s also about mak­ing links and cre­at­ing lots of excit­ing and fun events!”

Tak­en fron web­site.…

Sat­ur­day 1st of March saw Lan­cast­er’s Car­ni­val of Cul­ture come off with­out a hitch. Dur­ing the day, between 250–350 peo­ple joinedin a fan­tas­ti­cal­ly colour­ful, cre­ative and vibrant street pro­ces­sion that snaked around the town through the after­noon, stop­ping in spots that are due to be blight­ed by car-parks, big box retail shop­ping and so forth, as well as the town square with it’s Trump­ton-style Vic­to­ria stat­ue, the City hall and the plan­ners’ offices. We were treat­ed to per­for­mances by a com­mu­ni­ty steel band, Bata­la sam­ba (lead­ing the pro­ces­sion for much of the day), Sis­taSlap wom­en’s african drum­ming group, an impromp­tu klezmer group, a skate­board­ing 10-foot Punch pup­pet, an alien on stilts etc etc etc.

The pro­ces­sion also took up the City’s one-way sys­tem in between events, with a bike sound-sys­tem pro­vid­ing the bassy beats. Stew­ards for the car­ni­val on bikes blocked side streets and on foot, hand­ed lol­lipops to car dri­vers caught up in the block­age. The police, it has to be said, facil­i­tat­ed the whole thing in a low-key man­ner, except for the unnec­es­sary pres­ence of 3 under­cov­er cops and evi­dence gath­er­ing team. Why don’t they just use our web­site for pic­tures!? 😉

The protest/procession was organ­ised over sev­er­al months at open, pub­lic meet­ings run by con­sen­sus, and at ‘infra­struc­ture group’ meet­ings (also open), with tasks divid­ed into work­ing groups for e.g. music, per­for­mance, carnivalism…The event itself was pro­ced­ed by a street per­for­mance where cor­po­rate ‘grey men’ pulled the mag­got of con­sumerism through sat­ur­day shop­pers, suck­ing the souls from ‘unsus­pect­ing’ ‘ran­dom’ Lan­cas­tri­an shop­pers, who were offered emp­ty shiney bags and emerged with zom­bie-mask blank faces.

It is impos­si­ble to con­vey the ‘vibran­cy’ and ‘diver­si­ty’ (we want­ed to reclaim these cor­po­rate-pro­pa­gan­da words from the devel­op­ers) of the day, it’s best to vis­it the web­site at www.carnivalofculture.org.uk. We have sent a loud and colour­ful, well-organ­ised and diverse, unam­bigu­ous ‘NO’ to the cor­po­rate take-over of our city, and a mul­ti-faceted ‘YES’ to the alter­na­tives of non-com­mer­cial com­mu­ni­ty and cre­ativ­i­ty.

car­ni­val­of­cul­ture at google­mail dot com
http://www.carnivalofculture.org.uk