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Hunting Badger: Police Offer £10,000 Reward After Bristol Anarchist Attacks

December 6th, 2014

by Steven Morris / The Guardian

It is the city of the subversive street artist Banksy, a centre for alternative lifestyles and underground politics. Even the directly elected independent mayor, George Ferguson, praises the anarchic spirit of Bristol.

But over the last four years the city and its environs have been targeted by radicals who have not been satisfied with non-violent expression and protest.

The police have revealed for the first time that they are linking more than 100 acts of vandalism against police stations, politicians, military bases, banks, multinational companies, car dealerships, railway lines, magistrates courts and churches believed to have been carried out by anarchists. They have put a £10,000 reward on the head of one suspected offender, a 27-year-old activist called Huw “Badger” Norfolk.

A permanent team of 10 detectives, working under the codename Operation Rhone, has been set up to try to trace the perpetrators and police have warned that it can only be a matter of time before somebody is seriously hurt or killed in one of the attacks. “I’m really surprised that nobody has been injured so far,” said DCI Andy Bevan, who is leading the search.

But Bristol’s long-established anarchist community is not taking the police operation lying down. The minorityresponsible for the violence has vowed to continue the attacks. Many of the vast majority not involved have hit back at what they see as attempts by the police to prop up the establishment, suppress radicalism and split the community. They are organising demonstrations against the police.

“The feeling is that they are using these attacks as an excuse for targeting anyone with alternative ideas. It’s not going to work,” said one anarchist, who asked not to be named. “It is a strong, solid community. That’s why the police can’t find the people they are after.”

Avon and Somerset police took the unusual step this week of naming Norfolk in connection with two incidents. One was 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. Windows were smashed and paint splashed over the front of the building. The other was 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 is a well-known and largely popular figure within the UK anarchy scene. He was born in the leafy Bristol suburb of Westbury-on-Trym to David Norfolk and Gill Garrett.

The Cambridge-educated David Norfolk, 65, runs a consultancy advising the nuclear industry. Garrett, 64, is a retired lecturer and author of medical textbooks and a well-known local poet. Earlier this year she wrote a poem about waiting for her son’s birth and worrying that an early spring would precipitate his arrival: “Delay your debut until spring has truly come.”

Their daughter, who is two years older than Badger, followed a conventional career route, attending university and found finding work in health and social care.

In contrast, after leaving school Huw Norfolk moved from squat to squat, mainly in Bristol, but at one point was living in the nearby Forest of Dean. For a while he helped run anarchist book fairs in Bristol and helped out at a community kitchen. “He’s a gentle, lovely guy but committed to the cause,” said one friend.

At the time of the attack on the Bristol Post he was believed to be living in a squat on Park Row in the centre of Bristol but when police raided the premises looking for him he had gone. While on the run, he posted a defiant open letter on the anarchist website 325.nostate spelling out his world view and extolling the virtues of “proud lives of rebellion and compassion, reclamation and antagonism, poetry and fire”.

He said: “I am one of those who simply cannot and will not stomach the social, economic, moral, psychological, physical conditions not of our making that we are born into at this point of history. I have never sought to decorate the walls of my cell with exam certificates, job promotions, sports prizes, status symbols borrowed from the wealthy by our labour.

“I curse those who sell themselves so cheaply to buy such unimaginative dreams at the expense of a possibility of a freedom truly of their own making. Since an early age this unwillingness and refusal has put me in conflict, like countless others, with that reality. And our understanding is growing along with our fury.”

He signed off the 800-word letter: “Action replaces tears. For solidarity and self-organisation, Huw ‘Badger’ Norfolk – just another fugitive.”

Since then police have found no trace of Norfolk. They have linked him to the attack on the communications mast in January last year but now believe he may be lying low somewhere else in Britain – or could be abroad.

They have published details of his appearance, including distinctive tattoos, but said he was known to change his appearance and use other names.

Although the police have only identified the two incidents they want to speak to Norfolk about, there are many more that the police have not linked to him. By far the most spectacular was an arson attack on a new police firearms centre close to the Avon and Somerset’s force headquarters in August 2013, which caused £16m of damage.

The spectacular arson attack on a new police firearms centre in 2013
caused £16m of damage. Photograph: BBC

A group calling itself Angry Foxes Cell claimed on 325.nostate that it had carried out the attack. “We left it with flames licking high … It put smiles on our faces to realise how easy it was to enter their gun club and leave a fuck you signature right in the belly of the beast, with a curious fox as our only witness.”

The post claimed the attack was “also our way of marking two years that Bristol anarchist Badger has evaded capture” and added: “Stay free, keep fighting!”

There is no sign of the attacks stopping. Just before the Nato summit took place in Newport, south Wales, in September this year a group calling itself “Random Anarchists” set fire to an Air Cadet minibus in Bristol to highlight “the ways in which militarisation works its way into the fabric of daily life”.

The latest took place at the end of last month when five cars were torched in Long Ashton on the edge of the city. Four of the cars were parked on driveways and police said they could easily have put sleeping householders at risk.

On the 325.nostate site the attack was claimed by “FAI Torches in the Night/Earth Liberation Front”. It said two of the cars had been linked to a multinational power company and a provider of security equipment; the other three were high-end cars targeted to highlight the “green washing” charade of Bristol’s status as European green capital next year.

The police have stepped up their search for the attackers in recent months, angering many within Bristol’s non-violent alternative community. One activist, Al, an office worker in his 20s, who said his house was raided by an “army” of Operation Rhone officers, dismissed the police justification that they were trying to prevent anyone dying.

Arson attacks in Long Ashton last month destroyed five cars.
Photo from The Guardian

He argued that nobody had been hurt in the attacks – while people were dying in police custody all the time. “If the police want to prevent deaths, they should leave us alone and start arresting each other,” he told the Guardian.

Al said: “I think that the police’s actions are an attempt to make it look like they’re doing something. They care more about their image in the press than about the welfare of ordinary people. Their choice of who to target is also political and feels like harassment policing – making it clear that they know where we live and work, and that they can come into our homes and take what they want, whenever they like.

“This hasn’t worked – I knew already that police are here to keep the rich in power and keep us down. Since the raid, I also know that people in my community will stand by me and support me, whatever the police try to do. I hope that they stop harassing people, but if they do not then they should know that it will only make us more united, and more angry.”

Last month a group of about 20 anarchists turned up at the headquarters of Avon and Somerset police’s CID and special operations unit and made a nuisance of themselves as officers arrived for work.

A letter was published on websites including that of the Bristol Anarchist Federation and Bristol Defendant Solidarity, signed by more than a dozen groups accusing the police of resorting to “desperate” tactics to try to hunt down those behind the attacks.

It claimed the police had launched a “concerted effort to intimidate and divide us all,” adding: “A big part of their plan is to scare people into inaction and to create divisions between us. They hope to get us blaming each other for increased surveillance to the point where someone falls for their lies and starts talking to the bad guys.”

Bevan said he believed only a small group of anarchists was behind the attacks, arguing that if the group was a big one, someone would have broken ranks. He said the attacks were well planned and skilfully executed, suggesting the perpetrators were organised and intelligent.

He was keen to emphasise that the financial impact was just one element, claiming that as well as putting human lives at risk, some of the incidents had caused environmental damage.

Bevan insisted that the force was not trying to clamp down on Bristol’s counter-culture or harassing people with alternative lifestyles. “That’s a fantastic part of the city. Avon and Somerset police supports peaceful protest. These attacks are something quite different.”

Australia: Anti-Coal Lockdowns Continue

GUNNEDAH, 4 December 2014: Sustained protest against Whitehaven Coal’s controversial Maules Creek mine in the Leard State Forest continues this morning, as two men chained themselves to a concrete barrel at Whitehaven Coal’s Gunnedah coal handling and preparation plant. 31 year old Maules Creek farm-hand Adam Ryan and 37 year old, Sydney based father and corporate lawyer, Matthew Drake-Brockman have taken action to protest against what Drake-Brockman describes as the ‘lax approval processes’ that allowed the scandal-plagued mine to go ahead.

Mr Ryan, born in nearby Wee Waa, cited concerns about mining impacts on water and the subsequent effect on the local agricultural industry, saying “this mine is destroying the community that I have known my whole life. The time for standing by has passed, we have to stand up for our community.”

Mr Drake-Brockman was involved in a 2007 lawsuit against the then Planning Minister regarding planning approval processes, with the case focussing on the fact that the approval did not take into account the impacts of climate change.

Mr Drake-Brockman said, “The whole process between what goes on in parliament and what goes on in industry is not transparent – there is no way the public can know what’s going on. There is not a great deal of room for input from the public in this system – if there was we would already be moving away from coal and into renewable energy.”

Drake-Brockman continued, “It has become necessary that we all stand up and become citizen activists against the corrupt state government and Whitehaven Coal and to stand in solidarity with farmer’s, whose livelihood and health are under threat, and will only get worse with climate change.”

In the last week there have been 10 arrests including high profile former Wallabies captain, David Pocock, prominent local farmer, Rick Laird and IPCC contributing author, Prof. Colin Butler. The long running protest camp has seen thousands flock to protest the mine and over 290 arrests take place.

Leard Forest Alliance spokesperson, Phil Evans said, “Hundreds of Australians including doctors, professors, World War II veterans, sports players and young people have stood alongside local farmers and risked arrest to say that the Maules Creek project is wrong and should not go ahead. Surely, this sends a signal that something is broken with the way we decide on whether coal mines go ahead.”

“We need an immediate stop to work whilst there is a long, hard look at the planning approval process – so that ordinary Australians can have faith in their government’s independence from big coal and the big end of town.”

Whitehaven Coal’s share-price fell to new lows this week dipping to $1.07 on Tuesday.

UPDATE 12:30pm: Police have arrived on site.

UPDATE 4:30pm: Both men have been arrested and taken to Gunnedah police station to be charged.

Further Information:

Phil Evans

Leard Forest Alliance Spokesperson

0490 064 139

Pictures and footage for media use: https://www.mediafire.com/#ir1c4tq4oncu2

Twitter updates @FLACCoal and #LeardBlockade

from Front Line Action on Coal

Lockdown on Coal Super Digger at Maules Creek, Australia

MAULES CREEK, 30 November 2014, In an extraordinary show of solidarity 8 Canberrans have responded to a call for help from the Maules Creek community impacted by Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek mine in the Leard State Forest. The group have swarmed a ‘super digger’ operating in the Maules Creek project site and are joined by 5th generation Maules Creek farmer, Rick Laird and high profile former Wallabies Captain and Brumbies player, David Pocock.

The group of Canberrans are calling on the ACT Government to divest its shares in Whitehaven Coal given the ACT Government has taken taken a strong stance on tackling climate change.

Maules Creek farmers are struggling with the effects of drought exacerbated by climate change. Local farmers are facing a double blow on water, holding deep concerns about the impact of the new mine on underground aquifers and their access to irrigation water.

David Pocock said “I believe it’s time for direct action on climate change, standing together as ordinary Australians to take control of our shared future. It’s inspiring to join other Canberrans and Rick Laird in their call for the ACT Government to quit their investments in Whitehaven.”

Local farmer and long time vocal opponent of the mine Rick Laird said “I’m out here for the sake of my 5 children. The mine is about 4kms from the school they go to and I worry about their future and their health growing up next a coal mine that is always blasting and kicking up dust.”

The Leard Forest Alliance, comprising of local farmer groups and prominent environmental groups, are calling for immediate halt to construction work on the Maules Creek Mine whilst there is a full inquiry into how this scandal-plagued project was approved by NSW and federal governments.

Leard Forest Alliance spokesperson Phil Evans said, “This mine has been a rort from word go – and this is why prominent Australians, farmers and city folk are flocking to the area to oppose this symbol of corruption and climate disaster.”

There have been over 280 arrests since the establishment of the Leard Blockade camp in August 2012.

UPDATE 07:45AM: Local Police have arrived on site.

UPDATE 3:30PM: David Pocock and Rick Laird have been arrested after coming down from the machine and other activists are still occupying the machine.

UPDATE 6PM: The remaining activists have all been arrested and take to Narrabri police station

UPDATE:

Emma Pocock (David’s partner) and ANU Philosophy lecturer Bruin Christensen were arrested early in the day.
David Pocock and Rick Laird have been arrested by Narrabri Police and taken into custody after 10 hours occupying the ‘super digger’ in the Maules Creek mine.
Other Activists from Canberra Josh Creaser, Greg Oakes, Claudia Caton, Mishael J and Tim Boston were arrested after 12 hours occupying the ‘super digger’.
All 9 participants were charged with Enter Inclosed Lands, Remain on Enclosed Lands.
David Pocock, Rick Laird, Josh Creaser, Greg Oakes, Claudia Caton, Mishael J and Tim Boston were all also charged with Hinder to mine equipment

Further information:
Phil Evans
Leard Forest Alliance Spokesperson
Ph: 0490 064 139
David Pocock and Rick Laird available for comment on request.

Photos available from: mediafire.com/folder/pm6uzeefeetbp/External

Twitter updates: @FLACCoal and #LeardBlockade

from Front Line Action on Coal

Dene Trappers Block Oil Companies in Northwestern Saskatchewan, Canada

November 21st, 2014

The Dene people of Ducharme, who have made a living from the land for centuries, have found access to their trap lines blocked by security gates. Life-long trapper, Don Montgrand, reported, “When I drove up to my trap line, a helicopter followed overhead of me, all the way. That’s 106 km.”

On Wednesday, November 19, 2014, a road block [was] established 8 km north of La Loche, Saskatchewan to prevent numerous oil companies road access to exploration camps beyond that point.

Trappers are making a stand because for the past 6 ½ years, there has been a mad rush on mineral and oil exploration. This along with the province’s ‘let it burn’ forest fire policy in the region which has decimated wildlife and destroyed cabins has had a serious impact on their ability to make a living and thrive in a culturally sustainable way in their own home territory. “It is taking food off of our table,” says Bobby Montgrand.

We’ve had enough! The animals are disappearing. Even the minnows are dying in the lakes. All of the chemicals they are dumping and burning in our local landfills and what they are leaving in the bush and running into the lakes. Even the people are dying of cancer and some are pretty young. We buried six in the last few months when we used to see maybe one person die of cancer in a year,” claims Don Montgrand.

The trappers are concerned that they are being ignored and driven off of their lands by oil and mineral companies, like Cenovus from Calgary, Alberta. “When these companies are done destroying our north there will be nothing for our children to live on,” stated Bobby Montgrand.

Contact: Don Montgrand (306) 822-3181 or Bobby Montgrand (306) 822-2704
Email: susnaghe@sasktel.net

Protesters Block Runway in Philippines to Stop Aerial Spraying

photo courtesy Interface Development Interventions

November 17th, 2014

Hundreds of residents barricaded the runway of the community airport in Surallah town in South Cotabato on Monday in protest of the aerial spraying activities of a banana plantation company operating in the area.

Around 300 protesters gathered at the Allah Valley Airport in Surallah at around 4 a.m. and occupied a portion of the runway in a bid to stop the aerial spraying activities of foreign-backed Sumifru Philippines Corporation.

The company, which operates banana plantations in Surallah and T’boli towns, had been using the airport as base of its aerial spraying operations.

Omar Azarcon, coordinator of the protest action, said they launched the mobilization to pressure local government leaders to decisively put a stop to the aerial spraying activities of Sumifru.

He said the protesters are composed of parishioners from Surallah and other areas within the Diocese of Marbel, which covers the provinces of South Cotabato, Sarangani and this city.

“We’re calling on the provincial government of South Cotabato and the municipal governments of areas affected by the aerial spraying activities to pass ordinances that will totally ban them,” he said in a radio interview.

Citing results of their recent fact-finding mission in the affected areas, Azarcon claimed that they have documented three deaths and numerous cases of various illnesses that were directly caused by the aerial spraying activities.

He said the three fatalities came from communities situated near the banana plantations of Sumifru in T’boli town.

He said they found a significant number of residents who have been suffering from various illnesses like asthma and contact dermatitis in the affected communities.

“These were caused by herbicides and fungicides sprayed by airplanes commissioned by Sumifru these past several years,” Azarcon said.

Fr. Joy Pelino, coordinator of the Diocese of Marbel’s Social Action Center, said that aside from health hazards, the aerial spraying activities also pose serious threats to the area’s environment.

He said the chemicals sprayed by Sumifru’s airplanes could contaminate the Allah river system, which traverses the provinces of South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.

Pelino said Allah River’s headwaters are located in the municipalities of Lake Sebu and T’boli, where the banana plantations are located.

Azarcon said they will sustain their protest actions until local officials would act on the matter.

The municipal government of Surallah issued a five-day permit or until November 23 for the protest actions.

“But we might extend our mobilization if we will not get decisive actions from our officials,” he said.

Sumifru officials were not immediately available for comment.

Sources said the company already pulled out from the airport on Sunday the aircraft and chemicals that it uses for the aerial spraying activities. (MindaNews)

ZAD Calls Out for International Day Against Police on November 22nd

November 22nd: an international day against police violence and repression

The repression that falls on those who oppose the mafia-like projects of politicians is ever more violent.

The Socialist party coming to power hasn’t changed anything.

The police, the gendarmes and the army injure and mutilate as much as ever, maybe even more, surfing on the wave of fascism that is rising up under the guise of a world economic crisis, and thanks to their weapons, becoming always more efficient with the emphasis on military technology.

Even more worrisome than constantly increasing war budgets is the unwillingness of cops, gendarmes, soldiers and their politician bosses to take responsibility for their violence. The omnipresence and unrestrained usage of flashballs, defensive ball launchers, and explosive grenades are some concrete examples.

The discourse is also simplified, glossed over, and the violence made to seem mundane. When we ask the cops in front of us if they are proud to have killed, they smile or threaten us. One of the police authorities in the Tarn recently affirmed that those who oppose the “forces of order” should expect violence and eventual injury.

And, some days ago, the police killed. Again.

We, who were gathered together in Testet to fight against this deathly project of the Sivens dam, we lost a friend. In the early hours of Sunday, October 26th, a few meters from soldiers of the State, armed and protected by their weapons and shields, Rémi Fraisse was murdered by the armed branch of the State.

By the level shot of a mercenary’s grenade, most likely aimed at his head, the explosive hit between the base of his neck and his shoulder. This despite that even the internal laws of the armed branches of the State forbid level shots at a certain distance and also forbid aiming at the head, or with some weapons, aiming at all.

This was not an accident. It’s even surprising that such a drama hasn’t happened earlier. The attacking police, gendarmes, and soldiers brake their own laws every day (of the evictions). We’ve lost track of the knees, hands, stomachs and heads that have been targeted. Their extraordinary and illegal violence leaves its trace on all of us, whether physical or emotional. This time it took someone with it: Rémi Fraisse.

But even if Rémi’s murder is headlining the nightly news and embarrassing the government, don’t believe that it’s an exception.

At the end of August, an “illegal” migrant died in a car with the BAC (a notoriously violent undercover police force) while being brought to the airport. It was almost ten years ago that the teenagers Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré died hiding in an electric transformer after being chased there by the police. We’re not even mentioning deaths in war for economic interests, in Mali or elsewhere…

We’ve stopped counting on the charges pressed by those close to the ones murdered by an armed branch of the State. None of these trials have resulted in prison sentences.

We want rapid and implacable justice for the murderers in the armed branches of the State.

We demand that starting now, there is a legal amnesty for all those arrested for their opposition to the Sivens dam, who we consider to be almost political prisoners.

We also demand the total disarmament of the multiple armed branches of the State, to end the murders, the “mistakes” and the violence of police, gendarmes, and military.

Thus we join the call of the ZAD of Notre Dame des Landes to demonstrate everywhere against police repression on Saturday, November 22nd, 2014.

We call upon every person and every group that feels concerned by the danger represented by the State’s police forces to make actions and protest from wherever they are.

Let’s make November 22nd a national and international day against the violence of armed branches of the State, but let’s not forget that every day, before and after the 22nd, is a good day to make an insurgency against the existence of an institution which mutilates and murders for a “law-based” state and their profitable, mafia-like, and devastating projects.

Indignons-nous !

proposal–

Where did it come from, the grenade that killed Rémi? Strategic proposal for what comes next.
Rémi was killed by a police concussion grenade, Sunday October 26th. What happened to him could have happened to any one of us, anywhere. Some days later, Thursday the 30th, in a northern neighborhood in Blois, a young man lost an eye to a state rubber bullet. Saturday in Nantes, a demonstator took a rubber bullet to the face and lost his nose. How many times must history repeat itself?

We are not making demands to State power, for the conviction of the cop who shot him, or the resignation of a higher police official, or even the Minister of the Interior. For the death of Rémi to resonate everywhere and provoke a real movement, we propose to organize ourselves locally and nationally against the infrastructures that maintain order.

These are the infrastructures which make possible the terrorism of the State, which we are confronted with in the “ghettos” as well as in our social movements. These are the infrastructures which organize the police occupation of our territories and our existences. It is also them who are deployed as soon as a movement of opposition or contestation adventures outside of traditional paths cordoned off by powerlessness.

France is an expert in maintaining order, by neutralizing all efforts of people to rise up/bring themselves up. It exports globally it’s knowledge, weapons, and forms to many foreign police forces. It has also participated in crushing movements across the world, as in the insurrections of the Arab Spring in 2011. Didn’t Michèle Alliot-Marie brag to have provided French expertise in counter-insurrection to the Ben Ali regime? Paralyzing the infrastructure of the police is an act which, outside of the national context, supports all those who organize to struggle in other places and have to dodge French bullets.

The factories that make grenades, uniforms, and equipment for the police, their vehicles and their televised propaganda, the logistical platforms that organize food supplies for the troops; for us they are all targets. Outside of occasional confrontations or deployments, the continued existence of the armed group known as the national police depends on these resources.
The announcement that a certain type of offensive grenade has been suspended will not bring about a “return to calm”. What’s at stake in this movement, born on October 25th, is disarming the police. Flashballs, tasers, concussion grenades, have sufficiently mutilated, injured, or killed in these past couple of years.

We are no longer in the era of Malik Oussekine or Vittal Michalon*. Not a single union, not a single leftist organization called out for people to take the streets after Rémi’s death. They are in fact so afraid of the streets, they are reduced to organizing virtual protests like those proposed by the Green Party (#occupysivens).

What can we expect from the “Occupiers” who “condemn the violence of both sides” by carefully omitting which camp is equipped for war and which has a few cobblestones? That one side kills people and the other expresses their rage by breaking windows? At a time when the left is decomposing, when the far right are on the upswing, why is there not a single reaction from leftist political parties, NGO’s, or unions, after this police murder?

This week, 90 protests were organized in around 60 cities. We address our call-out to this autonomous power in the making. The collective emotion expressed in rage and contemplation is legitimate, but won’t be enough to change the situation.

We call for a long term strategy, consisting of harassing and collecting information on all those who support repression, to disrupt all the technical ways which permit it to be armed, to move, to feed itself, and more. These objectives encompass a diversity of tactics that correspond to the resources and limitations of groups and individuals. Noise demos outside police stations and barracks, verbal harassment of patrols, suing the police for injuries, sabotage, street demos; it’s the simultaneous usage of all these tactics that will help us to establish a favorable “rapport de force” against the police, in our neighborhoods and in our struggles.

A call-out is coming soon to organize demos in front of police weapons manufacturers. A list of strategic places will also appear soon. This is a strategic proposition that we are addressing to all those that are assembling, agitating, and organizing so that the backlash against this latest police murder spreads and grows.

*Malik Oussekine was killed by police in the student strikes of 1986, and Vittal Michalon in an anti-nuclear demonstration in 1977

from Anarchist News

Athens: Action in Solidarity with the Fight in Testet

On November 11th, 2014, anarchists symbolically occupied the offices of the AFP (Agence France-Presse) in the affluent neighbourhood of Kolonaki, central Athens, to protest the police murder of Rémi Raisse in the ZAD of Testet, France. Comrades handed out leaflets in Greek and French, reading: “From France to Greece, let us transform the foci of resistance into a signal of rebellion towards the oppressed of the whole earth. Solidarity is our weapon.”

21 Year Old ZAD Activist Killed in Clashes with Police at Testet Dam Resistance

October 26th, 2014

17 hours after police attacked again the ZAD resistance in Testet, south of France, a 21 year old ZADist was found dead. During the clashes, witnesses say they saw a man collapse and noticed the police taking him away.

On Saturday, October 25th, thousands of people from all over France gathered at Testet in opposition to the dam project and the violent repression of the ZAD resistance, which is ongoing for years, and has increased in the past months.

Police attacked the protestors to remove them, and some militants battled the cops until late in the night. Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas grenades; several protestors were badly injured.

Later in the night, firefighters and police claimed they have found the body of a man in the woods, while eye witnesses who were there say the body was found at police roadblocks.

“A witness said he saw someone collapse in clashes and being removed by the police“ , says Ben has Lefetey, spokesman for the Collective for safeguarding wetland Testet, during a press conference Sunday morning.

Police blame the clashed on the resistance, to justify the brutal repression they enforced on the protestors. The commander of the gendarmerie Tarn, quoted by the AFP, claimed that “100-150 anarchists masked and dressed in black threw incendiary devices” and other projectiles at police surrounding a mobilization “2000″ opponents.

In a statement, the association Action for the Environment says: “Acting for the Environment can see that after several weeks of police violence indiscriminately and sometimes outside any legal framework (identity papers and personal effects burned, disrespect private areas …), the police have once again made use of rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas and even though the event took place in a good atmosphere [sic] -child. The presence of the police at the end of the day will appear again for what it is: a provocation leading to a tragedy.”

“According to preliminary information we have collected, the death took place in the context of clashes with the police at 2:00 am. We are not saying that the security forces have killed an opponent, but a witness we said the deaths happened during clashes, “he told AFP by phone Ben Lefetey, spokesperson of the group Save the wetland Testet, which includes most of the opponents of the dam project . “We do not know more about the cause of death.”

Contacted, the prefecture did not want to comment. The prosecutor in Albi, Claude Derens, refused to make any comment “before the results of the autopsy will take place tomorrow (Monday) in the afternoon.” According to a source close to the investigation, the young man who died was 21 years old and “was among those who were in the midst of clashes last night” (Saturday).

“The proposed reservoir dam 1.5 million m3 of water stored is growing figure “Notre-Dame-des-Landes Southwest”, in reference to this common Loire-Atlantique, where significant mobilization caused the freeze in 2012 the creation of a new airport. Since the beginning of clearing September 1, skirmishes and rallies have multiplied around the site. The proposed water retention is supported by the General Council of the Tarn. Opponents denounce an expensive project for, according to them, only a small number of farmers practicing intensive agriculture.”

“Member of the Paris collective support Notre-Dame-des-Landes and sympathizers es-es of the opponent Testet. According to the information available, one of us died that night during clashes with riot police in the ZAD Testet. Neither oblivion or pardon.”

Massive protests are announced later on Sunday.

Construction of Areng Dam Continues Despite Natives Protests

October 21st, 2014

Regardless of the dam’s progression, Chong inhabitants continue to express their discontent.

The detention and release of 11 environmental activists in Cambodia’s Areng Valley in mid-September ended the last major protests of the controversial Stung Cheay Areng hydro dam project.

Activists had been detaining and blocking convoys of vehicles into the valley since March of this year, but their makeshift roadblock has since been commandeered by the country’s Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.

The valley’s native Chong inhabitants have watched the dam project grow with a mixture of fear and bitterness. The Chong have dwelt along the Areng for over 600 years but soon, if the dam is completed, it will flood at least 26,000 acres of land. Mother Jones writes that the estimates range between 40 and 77 square miles.

This will displace more than 1,500 people, and is already inviting the rape of the Central Cardamom Protected Forest. To begin the dam project, new roads had to be built to transport equipment back and forth, providing free access to unscrupulous timber companies. At least 20,000 cubic yards of rosewood (worth an estimated $220 million in timber) have been illegally logged since the dam project began.

The dam itself is being constructed by Sinohydro Resources, China’s largest dam-building contractor and its third firm to take on the task. Initially, China Southern Power Grid was to build the dam, but relinquished its contract with the Cambodian government in 2010 on purportedly “moral” grounds.

A report from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency on the project later pointed out that the dam would only generate an output of 108 megawatts – too little for so high a monetary and environmental cost.

China Guodian Corporation was the next firm to take up the project, but pulled out in 2013. They, too, found the dam to be economically unviable.

Though the dam would be hypothetically capable of generating enough power for 87,000 homes, International Rivers argues that “the dam will only operate at 46 percent capacity during the dry season, precisely when Cambodia most needs the electricity.”

In addition to this low energy output, the dam is projected to be more of a burden to Cambodia than a blessing – even without taking the valley’s 31 endangered animals into account. Areng is just one of 17 dams the country wants to build over the next two decades, but most of their power will be exported to neighboring countries. What’s worse, Sinohydro will own the dam for the next 40 years before turning it over to the Cambodian government, at which time the dam’s maintenance costs and environmental impacts will potentially make it worthless to the country.

Despite all this, Cambodia’s Minister of Mines and Energy and Minister of Environment have both stated that the Areng dam is on schedule for completion by 2020.

But that hasn’t stopped natives from protesting.

“Even if they piled money one meter above my head, I don’t want their Chinese money,” one villager told Mother Jones’ Kalyanee Mam. “I want to stay in my village. Even with all this money, I could only spend it in this life. I wouldn’t be able to pass it on to my grandchildren. I just want my village and my land for the future of my grandchildren.”

by Planet Experts

Manitoba Hydro Evicted from Northern Dam Station by Protesters

October 17th, 2014

Protesters have forced employees of Manitoba Hydro out of the Jenpeg generating station in northern Manitoba.

The protesters, from Pimicikamak Cree Nation, delivered an oversized evicted notice on Friday to staff at the station and the employee housing complex, both of which are located on the Nelson River in Pimicikamak territory.

“The building is empty, locked, undamaged and under the Pimicikamak flag,” states a release from the Cree Nation, which is located approximately 525 kilometres by air north of Winnipeg.

A few hydro personnel remain inside the dam itself to monitor the facility. Pimicikamak guarantees the safety and well-being of these people, and ensures that hydro facilities will not be damaged.”

The protesters want compensation for damages caused by flooding from the dam, which opened in 1979.

“The hydro system floods 65 square kilometres of Pimicikamak land and causes severe damage to thousands of kilometres of shoreline,” Chief Cathy Merrick stated in the press release. “Outlying grave sites have been washed away; Pimicikamak people have died as a result of semi-submerged debris from eroding shorelines and unsafe ice conditions caused by hydro.

“The project has turned a once bountiful and intimately known homeland into a dangerous and despoiled power corridor.”

Jenpeg, which Manitoba Hydro uses to control outflows from Lake Winnipeg into the Nelson River system, is located about 20 kilometres from Cross Lake, which is the main Pimicikamak settlement with some 8,000 residents.

“This is our home; we will not let it be trampled,” said Merrick. “This dam has been great for the south but for us it is a man-made catastrophe. Hydro needs to clean up the mess it has created in our homeland. Hydro needs to treat us fairly.”

She said the provincial government has spoken about reconciliation with all hydro-affected peoples, and a “new era” of “partnership” but so far none of that has happened.

The hydro system produces $3.8 million worth of power on its five Nelson River dams every day, according to Merrick, who noted it “has not contributed to ‘the eradication of mass poverty and mass unemployment’ as was contemplated in the 1977 Northern Flood Agreement.

“The NFA says affected people will be dealt with fairly and equitably,” she said, adding, “In many parts of Canada, governments and companies are realizing that everyone benefits when the tremendous wealth and opportunity of the land is shared fairly.”

Pimicikamak’s road map to positive change includes:

A public apology from Premier Greg Selinger for past and present harms suffered by all hydro-affected peoples and their lands.
A commitment from Manitoba and Manitoba Hydro to engage in a good-faith process to fulfill promises in the NFA, including measures related to community development, environmental mitigation and maximum employment opportunities.
A revenue sharing agreement and/or water rental arrangement with Pimicikamak.

“The Pimicikamak people will not leave Jenpeg until Manitoba and Hydro make substantive commitments to follow the course outlined above,” Merrick said.

The chief and council will be meeting with provincial and hydro officials at the Jenpeg station on Friday.