Other – Page 47 – Earth First!

Tesco Blockade in Porthmadog

A protest was held at Tesco’s store in Porthmadog north Wales on Saturday 14.07.07 to protest about
– Tesco’s token use of Welsh on signs etc within their stores
– Tesco’s link to Adecco recruitment agency who recently banned their staff from speaking Welsh
– Tesco’s destruction of small local shops and businesses (see www.tescopoly.com)

For full details of the protest see http://cymdeithas.org/2007/07/14/former_chairman_arrested_in_porthmadog_demo.html#rhagor

mobile phone masts destroyed by tank, Australia

July 15, 2007

A FORMER Telstra worker allegedly stole a tank and used it to demolish six mobile phone towers as he led police on a wild two-hour rampage through western Sydney yesterday.

July 15, 2007

A FORMER Telstra worker allegedly stole a tank and used it to demolish six mobile phone towers as he led police on a wild two-hour rampage through western Sydney yesterday.

More than 20 police chased the tank but were powerless to stop it, retreating to a safe distance as the huge vehicle cut a path of destruction through six suburbs.

They could only watch as the driver, hanging out of the top at times, allegedly rammed the tank through fences and into six mobile phone towers, telecommunication relay sheds and an electrical substation.

The damage caused major disruptions to mobile phone services in Sydney’s west yesterday.

The divorced father allegedly stole the 1967 Trojan armoured personnel carrier (APC) from his former workplace, A One Lift Truck Service, at Minchinbury.

His former boss, Greg Morris, said the man had a beef with mobile phone towers.

“He used to work for Telstra and told us he was going through a medical claim for his head injury.

He said something about the radiation from the towers had caused it,” Mr Morris said.

“He actually worked on the tank he stole, doing a lot of wiring and putting the engine in.”

The drama began at 2am when the ex-British Army tank – complete with steel tracks and replica gun turret – was taken from a holding shed and headed straight for its first target: an electricity substation at Michinbury.

The tank then allegedly rammed a police car as it drove from the Mount Druitt Hospital car park.

At its maximum speed of 52km/h per hour, it continued on through the suburbs of Mount Druitt, Dharruk, Emerton, Glendenning and Plumpton with 10 police vehicles in pursuit.

Several times police were forced to retreat when the driver allegedly swung the tank towards them.

He taunted police by leaning his head out the side window to wave at them.

The joyride ended at 4am when the vehicle stalled as the driver attempted to destroy a seventh mobile phone tower.

Police used capsicum sprayto subdue the man, who was dragged head first from the tank by officers.

Mr Morris said he bought the tank from the British military.

He restored the vehicle, which is valued at $1 million, and he hires it out for weddings and for motor shows.

A colleague who would not be named said the man who stole the tank had a “vendetta” against phone towers.

“He told us he’d worked for a government agency where he had to work around the towers and got radiation poisoning.

“So he planned out a map of where the towers were that he wanted to destroy.”

Mr Morris said he was “devastated” at the news.

“I can’t believe it,” he said.

Mr Morris described the man responsible for the carnage as a “quiet, well spoken” man.

He left in December but Mr Morris saw him often.

“We were mates, he’d call in for a chat and a few beers.’

“The problem he’s got is not with us. It’s just that it’s the tool he needed to do it.”

The chase attracted a lot of attention with drivers following the tank.

“It’s not something you see in Mount Druitt every day,” William Errington, 26, said.

Another local resident expressed similar disbelief after being woken up by her partner to chase the tank.

“Mick said we were going to follow a tank and I thought yeah a fuel tanker. Then the thing drove past us,” said Oakhurst resident “Ally”.

Mount Druitt Chief Inspector Guy Habberly said the man had not been drinking and did not appear to be affected by drugs.

Yesterday John Robert Patterson, 45, of Dharruk, appeared in Parramatta Court charged with stealing the tank, dangerous driving and malicious damage.

He did not enter a plea or apply for bail and he was remanded to appear in Penrith Court tomorrow.

His defence lawyer Ivan Bertoia told the court that in a police interview his client “suggested he had the authority to behave in such a manner”.

Magistrate Terry Forbes said there was a strong case to be made for the case to be dealt with under the Mental Health Act.

Aboriginal Elders Occupy Barrick Gold’s Australian Head Office

July 13th, 2007
Wiradjuri Elders Neville “Chappy” Williams (third from left) and Ron Gardner (back to camera in wheelchair) in tense negotiations with Barrick’s Steve Robinson (fourth from left) while other Barrick staff and protestors look on. Barrick Gold office foyer, Perth Western Australia 11 July 2007.

(Spanish version available at: http://barrick.live.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=165)

Elders and supporters of the Wiradjuri Aboriginal Nation have occupied the Australian head office of the world’s largest gold mining company, Barrick Gold.

Around 35 people peacefully occupied Barrick Gold’s Australian headquarters in Perth, Western Australia on Wednesday in a bid to force the company to meet Wiradjuri protocols relating to people with bloodlines to Lake Cowal in Central New South Wales where Barrick is operating a gold mine.

Elders Neville ‘Chappy’ Williams and Ron Gardner sought from Barrick:

* copy of the Cowal Gold Project Ancillary Deed between Barrick Australia Limited and the so-called ‘Wiradjuri Condobolin Native Title Claim Group’
* a response to an eviction notice delivered to Barrick
* a meeting with Barrick senior management, and
* any legal papers the company has that are the property of the Wiradjuri Elders.

Barrick’s response was to call the police and to ask the protesters to leave the premises saying they were ‘trespassing on private property’. After a sit-in lasting around an hour and being threatened with arrest, the Elders and supporters agreed to leave on the condition that Barrick agree to respond to the Elders’ verbal and written demands in writing.

“We’re fed up with Barrick’s lack of courtesy to Wiradjuri Elders so we’ve been forced to take this kind of action. We’ve been trying to get a copy of the ancillary deed and other documents like a full inventory of artefacts collected at Lake Cowal for a long time now,” Mr Williams said.

“All the Wiradjuri with ties to Lake Cowal have a right to see the deed and the inventory, not just the five sell-outs who have signed away our ancient cultural heritage. We’ve gone through the correct channels, through Freedom of Information, letters to Barrick and a request I made personally to Barrick Chairman, Peter Munk in Canada on only 2 May at their AGM. They keep saying the deed is ‘commercial-in-confidence’. So what have they got to hide? They should be open with all of us Wiradjuri people, but they keep on acting in secret and putting a lot of spin on their publicity about the mine and its so-called ‘benefits’. Their Perth public relations officer was extremely rude to us and showed us no respect at all.”

“Barrick has not gone through the appropriate protocol, nor have they spoken to the right Wiradjuri people about Lake Cowal,” Ron Gardner said. A nine-year veteran of the campaign to stop the gold mine in the Wiradjuri Nation’s heartland, Gardner has strong feelings about the mine. Until recently ill health has kept him away from the lake.

“I was shocked and emotionally upset to the point of tears when I saw the mine infrastructure on our sacred place,” he said.

“There are burials out there and it’s a massacre site. There are thousands of artefacts and scarred trees in the area that are testament to our People’s long and continuing occupation of the region, yet Barrick won’t release an inventory of all the artifacts they have collected or tell us what has happened to the scarred trees that have been removed to make way for the mine.

“The mine has split the Wiradjuri community. You don’t know who you can talk to or trust any more. Barrick continues to deal with just a small group over the $9.2 million deal they made. They’ve set up the Wiradjuri Condobolin Corporation (WCC) but you have to join to become a member. As Chappy says, “We know who we are. You’re born into Wiradjuri. You don’t need a membership application”.

“The WCC is not benefiting the majority of Wiradjuri people. Most of us still have the same problems, poor health, housing in need of maintenance and upgrade and lack of education and job prospects.

“Barrick are wrecking the ecology out there at Lake Cowal. The company is drawing up to 3650 megalitres of water a year out the groundwater and Lachlan River near the lake and we’re still in the worst drought in recorded history.”

“They are using cyanide to leach gold from the ore. This inevitably leaches into the soil and can make its way into the water system. Despite what the company says in its PR spin, gold mining is just not safe. One teaspoon of 2% cyanide can kill a human and a lot of cyanide spills have occurred around the world. They are digging up a massive mount of earth out there and will leave a pit 1 kilometre long, 825 metres wide and 325 metres deep. It will be there forever, never to be filled in, a legacy for future generations.”

“They’ve cut down thousands of old trees that take hundreds of years to grow and provide habitat for lots of native species. Yes, they’ve replanted some vegetation but thousands of trees have died because they weren’t watered in the continuing drought”, Mr Gardner said.

“So we’re not going to stop our protests against Barrick until we get some justice,” Mr Williams said.

“They’ve made their position very clear and looks like they won’t budge. But we’re not alone. We have many rock solid supporters here in Australia like Kungarakan/Gurindji Elder Speedy McGuinness from the Northern Territory, who is fighting his own battle against new uranium mines on Aboriginal land there.

“We have great support from the students who sat in at Barrick’s Perth head office and our Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal friends across Australia and the world in the Coalition to Protect Lake Cowal. We’ve also got a great international coalition going with First Nations peoples where Barrick is damaging and destroying Aboriginal lands in Africa and North and South America. We’ll never give up the fight until the mine is stopped and our land is returned to us,” he said.

This is an ongoing story. Barrick faxed a letter to the Elders yesterday afternoon Perth time in response to their demands. The Elders have referred it to their legal counsel for advice.

http://www.savelakecowal.org/intro.html
Contact: Neville ‘Chappy’ Williams +61 416 316 774
Ron Gardner +61 414 098 536

Saving Iceland Summer of Resistance Kicks off in Reykjavik

12.07.2007
A day of action in Reykjavik kick starts Saving Iceland’s Summer of Resistance to heavy industry and the aluminium industry’s corporate invasion of Europe’s largest wilderness.

Following on from Saving Iceland’s international conference: ‘The Global Consequences of Heavy Industry’ where speakers and delegates from five continents gathered to unite struggles against the aluminium industry, was a day of public actions.

The International Summer of Dissent begins!

Firstly at Kringlan Shopping Mall:

Over 50 people from 5 different continents started the day at Kringlan Shopping Mall, Reykjavik, to protest against the consumer culture that demands new aluminium factories. Reverend Billy, from the Church of Stop Shopping, and his new deciple Reverend Snorri, lead a flock of devoted and extremely noisy earth lovers (also known as Saving Iceland activists) through the consumerist hell that is a the shopping mall.

“The foreign corporations who want to dam Icelands great rivers, and put polluting smelters on our shores – they want us to keep shopping.”

“The Aluminium industry makes most of its money from warplanes, tanks and missiles (30%, actually.) They propose the complete damming of Icelands wilderness rivers, this isnald’s famouse beauty buried under industrial reservoirs. Let us stop the war machine and the ruin of Iceland’s wilderness. The same corporations that keep us shopping, make war around the world. Isn’t a shopping mall like a ‘human’ dam? We re stopped, hypnotized, put in debt. Our energy is taken from us. Save the country and save ourselves…”

…Then a march down Laugavegur (Reykjavik’s busiest street)…

… for a rally at Alþingi

On the lawn outside the Alþingi, the Icelandic Parlaiment, people gathered together to speak out against the aluminium industry. People from Trinidad, who are winning a fight against Alcoa, from South Africa, who are fighting a nuclear powered Alcan plant, from the East of Iceland, who have been devastated by the recent Alcoa Reydarfjdur factory and Karahnjukar dams, from Brasil, who is fighting the damming of the Amazon for aluminium factory energy, and many more gave inspiring speeches and lead energy filled songs against the aluminium industry.

…and finally at the Prime Minister’s Office
Street theatre activists then set up an aluminium smelter, installed some tomb stones and handed out dirty Icelandic water (Iceland prides itself on its pure water, yet it is polluting and destroying its water for the sake of heavy industry dams).

activist video footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJF7uK4cCOM
RUV coverage (Iceland’s state TV): http://dagskra.ruv.is/streaming/sjonvarpid/?file=4338360/5

For updates and details of upcoming actions see: http://www.savingiceland.org/
For more videos of Saving Iceland actions and the recent conference see: http://www.youtube.com/user/octoplasm

Miffed by Miffy

I don’t know how it came about but the Miffy rabbit character has for a long time been associated with the Earth First! movement and radical ecological direct action. But do the creators and copyright owners of the character know or approve of Miffy’s political activities?…

Miffy is a picture book character created by Dick Bruna in 1955, after telling his one-year-old son Sierk stories about a rabbit they had seen on holiday. Miffy now features in about 30 titles which have been translated into 40 different languages, selling over 80 million copies all over the world.

Drawn in a very minimalist style, Miffy requires only a few lines and one or two primary colors drawn in two dimensions to be recognisable. Perhaps this, and the sense of air of innocence over mischief explains why she become involved in ecological direct action.

It’s unclear exactly when exactly it began but you can trace her political activities, in this country at least, back to the early 90’s and the anti-roads movement. Seen coyly holding a spanner behind her back, one could only imagine the trail of monkey wrenching she left behind her in her efforts to defend the fields, woodland and hedgerows she loved.

By the late nineties, with the roads building program in retreat, Miffy joined the growing anti GM movement, taking up a spade to join the resistance. More recently, Miffy joined her fellow protesters for a game of golf up in Scotland during the 2005 G8 summit and who know, perhaps she also took part in the blockades in Heiligendamm this year.

At over fifty years old you’d think that Miffy would be her own person, free to express her political beliefs as she sees fit but sadly it appears not. The copyright owners of all Dick Bruna’s character constantly hunt down unlicensed users of her image in order to defend their profitable merchandising business.

While Miffy was created for a children’s book, the design has been capitalised on to sell numerous other products like clothes, stationery, toys, glasses, household items etc. A search for Miffy products on google brings up over 100,000 pages and no doubt many of the products sold are unlicensed copies made in far eastern sweat shops.

However, Mercis, the Dutch company that owns the copyright, are not content to simply take action on those producing ‘fake’ merchandise, they appears to have stumbled on Miffy’s radical secret life and they are not amused. They are deeply offended, ironically, by Miffys involvement in the campaign against patents on life, as depicted in sticker produced many years ago promoting the (long dead), www.resistanceisfertile.com website – copies of which can now only be found in resource archives of the (no longer maintained) Totnes Against Genetics (ToGG) website.

Mercis (www.mercis.nl) have unleashed their legal team to threaten expensive legal action against whoever might be held accountable – the inactive Totnes Genetics Group who’s long unmaintained website sill contains a picture of that Miffy sticker.

While ToGG volunteers try to get long forgotten passwords and access from the internet service provider which hosts the website in order to remove the offending image, more important questions have been raised. Will Miffy tolerate this attack on her freedom of expression and will her friends in the movement stand idly by and watch as her freedom to protest is taken away?

Other siting of Miffy can be found at https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/374195.html?c=on#comments

Welsh Anarchist Radio

Gagged! 17 has been produced in audio format, with some music in the background and a few songs, check it out and let us know what you think!

Check it out here:

http://www.archive.org/details/GaggedAudioVersion

Gagged! 17 has been produced in audio format, with some music in the background and a few songs, check it out and let us know what you think!

Check it out here:

http://www.archive.org/details/GaggedAudioVersion

info@gaggedanarchist.tk
http://www.gaggedanarchist.tk

Ramona Africa – ON A MOVE tour of UK

Ramona Africa is touring the UK speaking about the incredible story of MOVE. MOVE are a largely black eco-revolutionary group based in Philadelphia. They have campaigned on environmental, animal rights and anti-police repression issues for thirty years. They have never backed down in the face of overt racist police repression.

More info: www.onamove2007.org.uk

In 1978 nine members of MOVE were imprisoned for a blatantly framed murder, they are still imprisoned with their first chance of parole in August 2008. In 1985 the city of Philadelphia sort the ‘final solution’ for the MOVE ‘problem’ by attacking their home with 10,000 rounds of ammunition, tear gas, water cannons and finally a bomb that burnt 60 homes to the ground. 6 MOVE adults and 5 children were burned to death. Ramona managed to escape with one of the children.
She was sentenced to seven years for ‘riot’.

Mumia Mumia Abu-Jamal is a MOVE supporter who also has also experienced the injustice of the system whilst spending over 26 years on death row for a crime he did not commit.

Come and hear about all these events and see the MOVE documentary narrated by Howard Zinn.

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June:
Thu 21ST @ 1in12 Bradford
Fri 22nd @ The Workshop Cafe Bar Norwich 7pm
Sun 24th @ The Common Place Leeds 6pm
Mon 25th @ The West Indian Club Leeds 6.30pm
Wed 27th @ The Cowley Club Brighton 7pm
Thu 28th @ The Rampart Centre London 7pm
Fri 29th @ Bath Place Leamington Spa
Sat 30th @ The Drum Birmingham 7pm
July:
Sun 1st @ The Star and Shadow Cinema Newcastle 7.30pm
Mon 2nd @ The Cube Cinema Bristol 8pm
(Kebele are also turning their regular Sunday Vegan cafe into a
benefit for MOVE on Sunday 1st July)

Common Ground Community Garden – EVICTION UPDATE – Resistance successful so far.

Common Ground Community Garden, is a self-managed squatted community project in the heart of Reading. The land and surrounding buildings are council owned, and they have tried to obstruct this initiative every step of the way – and thanks to the spirit of the squatters and our neighbours, they have failed every step of the way.

Today, 20th June, is supposed to be eviction day. The day when the council takes back control of our land, and is able to flog it off to the highest bidder, for development of yet more unnafordable prison block flats. However, so far, its not going according to their plan…

Baillifs showed up early this morning, about 9am. However, activists were allready busy barricading the building that has been our home for the last 9 months and our beautifull squatted garden. Reporters and television cameras showed up, taking interviews from us and our neighbours (so if you are in the Southeast or Thames Valley, check local news services out!). A mixture of activists and local neighbours are holding a picket out the front of the building, and others are sitting in the garden enjoying the sunshine! At this point balliffs have left, and we have won for now. But we are sure they will be back fairly soon with backup, so any help is appreciated.

So long as the baillifs keep their distance, the rest of the day will be enjoyed in the garden with a picnic and acoustic punk rock show later.

EXISTANCE IS RESISTANCE!

P.S. Our solidarity greetings to Brecon eviction resisters! FIGHT THE PIPE!

========================================

01:07
Hi,

Just to give a last quick update, the baillifs stayed well away all day, and the rest of the day has been fantastic!

Quite a lot of local residents have been through during the day, telling us how much they love the garden, use it all the time etc etc.

Some residents have even showed a fair amount of interest in anti-capitalist/anarchist politics, including ex-Labour members who agreed all political parties are the same now and ‘this’ (i.e. direct-action, DIY etc like the garden) IS the alternative now, and a local couple having trouble at work who are now interested in joining IWW!

A couple of local people were among those who stayed in the garden past eviction time, being prepared to face arrest to defend the garden.

This evening the day has been finished off with a public BBQ and absolutely fantastic acoustic punk-rock show. Again, several neighbours stuck around all night having a drink and enjoying the music, and the tunes were amazing. Big thanks to the artists who travelled down to play tonight for free!

Obviously, this project is most likely not going to last much longer (although you never know and we’ll keep fighting!), but all our neighbours are saying they want the squatters to stay and do similar things, and who are we to refuse!? 🙂

Spirits are high,
LA LUCHA SIGUE!

Undead support campaign against Spanish oil multinational

Last Thursday 14th June in Asturias, Northern Spain I was present at an action where a Zombie Collective came back from the dead to support La Campana Asturiana e Contra el Expolio de las Petroleras and other Spanish solidarity organisations by staging a series of die-ins in a garage forecourt and elsewhere around the city of Gijon.

The action was to draw attention to the actions of Spanish based oil multi-national Repsol who are responsible for population displacement, militarization, violence and murder in several South American countries, most notably Colombia, where they operate clandestinely.
Publicity at the action told of El Tribunal Permanente de los Pueblos (Permanent Tribune of the People) that is described as an international organisation, looking for truth, justice and reparation for the victims of oil companies Repsol, British Petroleum and Occidental Petroleum in Colombia. It operates outside official judicial structures of any country and represents the ethical conscience of the people and humanity. The TPP is holding a judgement on these companies in Bogota in August this year. There is also a preliminary meeting to this in Madrid in June.

One of the Zombies said:
“ We are here in solidarity with all those who have died as a result of Repsol’s actions in Colombia. We are also here because we wish to make you, the Living aware of how so many of the organisations, institutions and systems that you cling to are in fact corpses themselves. From the Other Side we have a clearer picture than you and we see that though you trick yourselves into believing otherwise, your courts, your governments, your businesses in so many cases serve only Death. You cling to them because you are afraid to let go and allow new systems that can truly serve you and Life to grow. Always something has to die for the new to be born. Many of you hold a new world in your hearts but it cannot be born while you hold on to the rotting corpse of the old. Let it go, grieve it if you must but its time is past and it serves you no longer.”

I asked for clarification but the undead companera declined to elaborate. Perhaps she was referring to social movements where people seem to be moving away from trying to change the behaviour of governments to learning how to govern themselves and build the world they want….?

Nottingham Against Incineration and Landfill [NAIL]: A Video

This video shows it is a national issue, affecting many people and their communities.

There has been a large campaign, with much support over recent times. A planning application to extend the operation of the Eastcroft Incinerator in Nottingham was denied. WRG, the operators of the plant, appealed. This process has now been stopped and a new application has been lodged.

This video shows it is a national issue, affecting many people and their communities.

Now, folks have to go round again.

The film explains the background and dangers.

Video”>https://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2007/06//373597.mpg”>Video Video by George’s Brother – video/mpeg 90M