Nuclear New Build Blessed by Bishop of Cumbria

The Bish­op of Carlisle ( which includes all of Cum­bria) has giv­en his bless­ing to the “green future” of nuclear new build.

We will be in Carlisle on 10th Oct to wit­ness his inau­gu­ra­tion at the Cathe­dral and make clear that nuclear is as far away from a green future as it is pos­si­ble to get.

Remem­ber the sto­ry of Turn­ing the tables over in the Tem­ple at defunct moral com­pass ?

The Bish­op of Carlisle ( which includes all of Cum­bria) has giv­en his bless­ing to the “green future” of nuclear new build.

We will be in Carlisle on 10th Oct to wit­ness his inau­gu­ra­tion at the Cathe­dral and make clear that nuclear is as far away from a green future as it is pos­si­ble to get.

Remem­ber the sto­ry of Turn­ing the tables over in the Tem­ple at defunct moral com­pass ?

If you would like to join us please con­tact me on rafl@mariannebirkby.plus.com

more info below.…..

http://www.timesandstar.co.uk/anti_nuke_cathedral_protest_1_604487?referrerPath=home/search_results_page_2_1681

http://web.mac.com/mariannebirkby1/iWeb/Radiation%20Free%20Lakeland/Update%20on%20Open%20Letter%20to%20Carlisle%27s%20pro-nuke%20Bishop.html

Work restarts at Mainshill, resistance needed!

Forestry Com­mis­sion work­ers this morn­ing re-start­ed clear-felling large areas of plan­ta­tion in prepa­ra­tion for a new open cast coal mine. When the clear-felling start­ed in June, Main­shill sol­i­dar­i­ty camp was set up to stop work on the site and occu­py it, pre­vent­ing any fur­ther felling and pre­vent­ing any of the wood being removed from the site. Sup­port is need­ed to pre­vent this destruc­tion.

Forestry Com­mis­sion work­ers this morn­ing re-start­ed clear-felling large areas of plan­ta­tion in prepa­ra­tion for a new open cast coal mine. When the clear-felling start­ed in June, Main­shill sol­i­dar­i­ty camp was set up to stop work on the site and occu­py it, pre­vent­ing any fur­ther felling and pre­vent­ing any of the wood being removed from the site. Sup­port is need­ed to pre­vent this destruc­tion.

The area of plan­ta­tion is well with­in the intend­ed exca­va­tion area on the site. In addi­tion, Scot­tish Coal have still not car­ried out the exten­sive eco­log­i­cal sur­vey at Main­shill that was a con­di­tion of the plan­ning approval. How can an accu­rate sur­vey be con­duct­ed after all the wood­land has been removed? Bad­ger sets, bats and nests of birds of prey have all bee seen in the plan­ta­tion at Main­shill.

The Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp will stop any work from tak­ing place on the site in prepa­ra­tion for the nine – there is no com­mu­ni­ty con­sent for this project.

Come to the camp this week to resist more clear-felling – the longer prepara­to­ry work is delayed, the greater the cost to Scot­tish Coal and the stronger this cam­paign grows!

http://mainshill.noflag.org.uk/

Construction site sabotaged

To kick start Bris­tol co-mutiny three vehi­cles were sab­o­taged at a Som­er­set site con­struct­ing unaf­ford­able hous­ing (urban sprawl for the mid­dle class).

In antic­i­pa­tion of the Autonomous Days of Action elec­tron­ic cables were cut and the pierc­ing sound of split hydraulics was endured ren­der­ing the earth destroy­ing machines unus­able.

Social change not cli­mate change!

ALF/ELF

To kick start Bris­tol co-mutiny three vehi­cles were sab­o­taged at a Som­er­set site con­struct­ing unaf­ford­able hous­ing (urban sprawl for the mid­dle class).

In antic­i­pa­tion of the Autonomous Days of Action elec­tron­ic cables were cut and the pierc­ing sound of split hydraulics was endured ren­der­ing the earth destroy­ing machines unus­able.

Social change not cli­mate change!

ALF/ELF

Sowing the Seeds of Resistance in Aotearoa

7.9.09
Local com­mu­ni­ty gar­den­ers fed up with our unsus­tain­able city took part in a ‘Per­mablitz’ in cen­tral Auck­land yes­ter­day. About 20 gar­den­ers appro­pri­at­ed neglect­ed pub­lic land for com­mu­ni­ty ben­e­fit; dig­ging up grass, plant­i­ng veg­eta­bles and var­i­ous fruit trees.

NZ permablitz7.9.09
Local com­mu­ni­ty gar­den­ers fed up with our unsus­tain­able city took part in a ‘Per­mablitz’ in cen­tral Auck­land yes­ter­day. About 20 gar­den­ers appro­pri­at­ed neglect­ed pub­lic land for com­mu­ni­ty ben­e­fit; dig­ging up grass, plant­i­ng veg­eta­bles and var­i­ous fruit trees.

Sup­port from locals was high, with many offer­ing to lend a hand and resources for the project. The increase of sup­port for com­mu­ni­ty food ini­tia­tives is indica­tive of the shift in pub­lic con­scious­ness around not only where our food comes from but on the impor­tance of inde­pen­dent and healthy com­mu­ni­ties.

This per­mablitz coin­cid­ed with the com­mence­ment of the Grey Lynn Farm­ers mar­ket that caters to those seek­ing local food in many cas­es grown with­in the lim­its of Auck­land city. To get involved in fur­ther per­mablitz actions or oth­er com­mu­ni­ty agri­cul­ture intia­tives, take a look at the infor­ma­tion below;

Per­mablitz Auck­land —  Grey Lynn Farm­ers Mar­ket  —  Grey Lynn Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­dens  –  Kings­land Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­dens — CCS Hori­zon gar­dens —  Per­ma­cul­ture NZ

For a UK exam­ple of amaz­ing gueril­la and with-per­mis­sion yum­my plant­i­ng, take a look at Incred­i­ble Edi­ble Tod­mor­den

Two airport protesters arrested near Oxford

13 Sep­tem­ber 2009
Two cli­mate change activists have been arrest­ed after breach­ing secu­ri­ty at Oxford Air­port.

The pair, from the Cli­mate Rush group, climbed under a hedge and jumped over a fence to reach the run­way area on Sat­ur­day after­noon.

They had been tak­ing part in a pic­nic out­side the air­port which was organ­ised by Cli­mate Rush as a protest against the air­port’s expan­sion.

13 Sep­tem­ber 2009
Two cli­mate change activists have been arrest­ed after breach­ing secu­ri­ty at Oxford Air­port.

The pair, from the Cli­mate Rush group, climbed under a hedge and jumped over a fence to reach the run­way area on Sat­ur­day after­noon.

They had been tak­ing part in a pic­nic out­side the air­port which was organ­ised by Cli­mate Rush as a protest against the air­port’s expan­sion.

They were held on sus­pi­cion of aggra­vat­ed tres­pass and bailed.

A Thames Val­ley Police spokes­woman said: “About 30 peo­ple had a pic­nic, but two of them gained access to the main air­port, and were arrest­ed just after they got into it. They did not cause any dis­rup­tion.”

‘Envi­able exam­ple’

The air­port, in Kidling­ton, Oxford­shire, recent­ly rebrand­ed itself as Lon­don Oxford Air­port despite being near­ly 60 miles from the cen­tre of Lon­don.

A Cli­mate Rush spokes­woman said it was protest­ing against plans to expand the air­port by increas­ing its num­ber of flights, adding: “More flights can only mean more emis­sions, more noise, and more local pol­lu­tion.”

In July, the small air­port flew its first sched­uled char­ter flight for 20 years when 50 pas­sen­gers trav­elled to Jer­sey.

The air­port’s man­ag­ing direc­tor Steve Jones said: “The protest was entire­ly peace­ful.

“No-one was any­where near our pas­sen­ger ter­mi­nal or oth­er impor­tant air­port facil­i­ties and we do not con­sid­er we had a secu­ri­ty breach yes­ter­day.

“Lon­don Oxford Air­port takes its envi­ron­men­tal respon­si­bil­i­ties extreme­ly seri­ous­ly and it is dis­ap­point­ing that these pro­tes­tors are attack­ing an air­port that is actu­al­ly pro­vid­ing an envi­able exam­ple on how to devel­op sus­tain­able avi­a­tion.”

Air trans­port move­ments and cor­re­spond­ing noise and emis­sions have decreased by some 67% over the last 10 years, the air­port said.

http://climaterushontherun.blogspot.com/

Clear-felling to resume at Mainshill Wood

The Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp has learned from Forestry Com­mis­sion work­ers that the land own­er at Main­shill Wood in South Lanark­shire, Lord Home, intends to con­tin­u­ing clear-felling large areas of plan­ta­tion in prepa­ra­tion for a new open cast coal

Mainshill clearcutThe Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp has learned from Forestry Com­mis­sion work­ers that the land own­er at Main­shill Wood in South Lanark­shire, Lord Home, intends to con­tin­u­ing clear-felling large areas of plan­ta­tion in prepa­ra­tion for a new open cast coal mine.

Two work­ers have been remov­ing branch­es on a sec­tion of plan­ta­tion next to the huge area that was felled three months ago, and told campers that the har­vest­ing machines and a JCB would be on their way soon.

When the clear-felling start­ed in June, campers took this as a sign that work was start­ing on the site and occu­pied it, pre­vent­ing any fur­ther felling and pre­vent­ing any of the wood being removed from the site.

The area of plan­ta­tion is well with­in the intend­ed exca­va­tion area on the site. In addi­tion, Scot­tish Coal have still not car­ried out the exten­sive eco­log­i­cal sur­vey at Main­shill that was a con­di­tion of the plan­ning approval. How can an accu­rate sur­vey be con­duct­ed after all the wood­land has been removed? Bad­ger sets, bats and nests of birds of prey have all bee seen in the plan­ta­tion at Main­shill.

The Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp will stop any work from tak­ing place on the site in prepa­ra­tion for the nine – there is no com­mu­ni­ty con­sent for this project. An update will be sent out as soon as there is an attempt to enter the site with heavy machin­ery.

Come to the camp this week to resist more clear-felling – the longer prepara­to­ry work is delayed, the greater the cost to Scot­tish Coal and the stronger this cam­paign grows!

Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp web­site: http://mainshill.noflag.org.uk/

Vestas Blade Blockade Steps Up The Pressure By Setting Up A Tripod at Sunrise

On the morn­ing of Thurs­day 10 Sep­tem­ber a tri­pod has now suc­cess­ful­ly been erect­ed at the marine gate pre­vent­ing blades from leav­ing the fac­to­ry. A work­er from the orig­i­nal occu­pa­tion is cur­rent­ly stand­ing at the top of the tri­pod as the block­ade pre­pares for an increase in activ­i­ty on both sides.

Vestas tripodOn the morn­ing of Thurs­day 10 Sep­tem­ber a tri­pod has now suc­cess­ful­ly been erect­ed at the marine gate pre­vent­ing blades from leav­ing the fac­to­ry. A work­er from the orig­i­nal occu­pa­tion is cur­rent­ly stand­ing at the top of the tri­pod as the block­ade pre­pares for an increase in activ­i­ty on both sides.

10th Sep­tem­ber 2009, 7am

After more than a week of blockad­ing the Ves­tas fac­to­ry in New­port, Isle Of Wight, a tri­pod has now been erect­ed at the marine gate pre­vent­ing blades from leav­ing the fac­to­ry. A work­er from the orig­i­nal occu­pa­tion is stand­ing on top of the tri­pod enjoy­ing a stun­ning view of sun­rise over the Riv­er Med­i­na.

This inspi­ra­tional addi­tion to the block­ade fol­lowed a day of police intim­i­da­tion that includ­ed one arrest and one per­son being banned from the site after receiv­ing a dis­per­sal order. Block­aders have also had to deal with the con­fis­ca­tion of one tri­pod before it had been erect­ed and the dis­man­tling of one oth­er block­ade. Work­ers and sup­port­ers worked togeth­er through­out the night to build the replace­ment tri­pod and car­ry it to the site as the sun rose. Tri­pod work­shops have been held through­out the week as cli­mate activists share skills with Ves­tas Work­ers. Oth­er skill­shares have includ­ed 12 volt solar instal­la­tions to pow­er the camp’s office in a car­a­van.

This action comes one week before a nation­al day of action to fur­ther high­light the plight of the 600 work­ers made redun­dant by this multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny.

“We the work­ers see it as our duty to stop our blades from leav­ing as part of the cam­paign to nation­al­ize the fac­to­ry. Ves­tas have told us that there is no demand for our prod­ucts but are still unwill­ing to sell the site to oth­er inter­est­ed par­ties. It is clear the gov­ern­ment must act on such an impor­tant issue as renew­able ener­gy pro­duc­tion. They should not let our future be dic­tat­ed sole­ly by prof­it.’’

‘’We are call­ing on the gov­ern­ment to invest in green jobs on the Isle of Wight and for Ves­tas to rein­state the eleven sacked work­ers who occu­pied the fac­to­ry.’’

The work­ers and their sup­port­ers call on oth­ers to come and join them on the block­ades over the com­ing days as a mat­ter of urgency and to show sup­port on the Nation­al Day of Action on 17th Sep­tem­ber.

PLEASE GET IN TOUCH FOR PHOTOS AND INTERVIEWS

Tele­phone num­ber for tri­pod inter­views with Ves­tas work­er: 07875 098960 or 07935 868009

Web­site: Savevestas.wordpress.com

Email: savevestas@gmail.com

DSEi Arms Fair Exhibitor and SHAC Protests in Cambridge

On the 8th of Sep­tem­ber 2009 pro­test­ers head­ed to two Cam­bridge tar­gets named in the map of DSEi arms fair exhibitors and the Cam­bridge office of BDO who have giv­en a mas­sive loan to the most exposed ani­mal test­ing lab in the world Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences (HLS).

On the 8th of Sep­tem­ber 2009 pro­test­ers head­ed to two Cam­bridge tar­gets named in the map of DSEi arms fair exhibitors and the Cam­bridge office of BDO who have giv­en a mas­sive loan to the most exposed ani­mal test­ing lab in the world Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences (HLS).

The arms trade leads to the death of humans and non-human ani­mals alike and the pro­test­ers want to show there cross move­ment sol­i­dar­i­ty with all move­ments fight­ing for a just and kind world. HLS test sweet­en­er, GMOs and pes­ti­cides on ani­mals and has a his­to­ry of ani­mal wel­fare vio­la­tions and fal­si­fy­ing data.

Watch the protests here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPeHU8TBKNo

The small group of pro­test­ers head­ed to…

DESi Exhibitor: Mott Mac­Don­ald
Deme­ter House, Sta­tion Road Cam­bridge CB1 2RS

Arriv­ing at recep­tion pro­test­ers told the lady at the desk why they where there and asked to speak to the man­ag­er. But the man­ag­er did­n’t want to talk.

Pro­test­ers decid­ed to hold a protest in the recep­tion area and unfurled a ban­ner which the recep­tion­ist prompt­ly fold­ed over with pro­test­ers prompt­ly re-open­ing it again! After a bit a staff mem­ber decid­ed to drag the pro­test­ers out. He began drag­ging a pro­test­er across the floor rip­ping the pro­test­ers t‑shirt. The staff mem­ber then stop to grabbed a female pro­test­er push­ing her out the door. The remain­ing cam­paign­ers held on to each oth­er stay­ing in the office as the staff mem­ber tried to pull them across the floor.

The man­ag­er of the Cam­bridge office came down because of all the com­mo­tion and told the staff mem­ber to stop. The pro­test­ers sat down with him and have a long dis­cus­sion with him about the arms trade. He apol­o­gised to us for the staff mem­ber who attacked us and admit­ted he would­n’t have spoke to us apart from because of what hap­pened. He said he would be fill­ing in paper­work to inform the com­pa­ny about the protest.

HLS (ani­mal lab) Finance: BDO Stoy Hay­ward — Cam­bridge
Claren­don House Claren­don Road Cam­bridge CB2 8FH

Pro­test­ers went to the doors of the office block BDO is locat­ed in and pushed the buzzer and told the com­pa­ny who they were. An assis­tant popped down and spoke to them and said he did­n’t know any­thing about it and said he did­n’t agree with the cru­el­ty they described to him. He went back up to his office, but the pro­test­ers did­n’t real­ly feel there issue had been addressed so they went up as well.

A secu­ri­ty guard stopped them and pro­test­ers explained they just want­ed to speak to the peo­ple in the office. He did­n’t let them go up but did let them wait in the recep­tion area while the com­pa­ny phoned head office. One cop turned up and the secu­ri­ty guard said the pro­test­ers had been peace­ful and went to check about BDO who now said it was noth­ing to do with the Cam­bridge office but they did­n’t know about the rest of the com­pa­ny! Pro­test­ers explained that was­n’t good enough and went out­side to voice our oppo­si­tion on the mega­phone.

BDO’s Cam­bridge office now know about the issue and now have a chance to act and tell their boss­es to with­draw the mas­sive loan that is help­ing keep HLS afloat.

DESi Exhibitor: Atkins
5 Well­brook Court Gir­ton Road Cam­bridge CB3 0NA

Cam­paign­ers head­ed to the office of Akins to let them know they object to their com­pa­ny’s involve­ment in the arms trade. The site man­ag­er came and spoke to them and the pro­test­ers told him why they were there. His atti­tude did­n’t seem great, but he lis­tened. Pro­test­ers unfurled their ban­ner and staff rang the police.

They explained to the man­ag­er that they want­ed him to con­tact Head Office to let them know about their objec­tions he refused at first, even refer­ring to the pro­test­ers as ter­ror­ists at one point when they said tres­pass was a civ­il mat­ter, but even­tu­al­ly phoned his head office.

The police arrived and told the man­ag­er to tell pro­test­ers to leave so they left. The police asked for pro­test­ers details but were denied them.

Ani­mal Rights Cam­bridge
— Home­page: http://animalrightscambridge.webs.com/

Pirate For the Sea London Screening

8.30pm 28th Sep­tem­ber 2009, Bar­bi­can Cen­tre, Silk Street, Lon­don, EC2Y 8DS. This evening will be the first screen­ing in the UK of ‘A Pirate for the Sea’ a doc­u­men­tary on the life of Paul Wat­son, founder and Cap­tain of Sea Shep­herd.

Farley Mowat in ice8.30pm 28th Sep­tem­ber 2009, Bar­bi­can Cen­tre, Silk Street, Lon­don, EC2Y 8DS. This evening will be the first screen­ing in the UK of ‘A Pirate for the Sea’ a doc­u­men­tary on the life of Paul Wat­son, founder and Cap­tain of Sea Shep­herd. The Vol­un­teer and Out­reach Coor­di­na­tor for Sea Shep­herd UK, will be intro­duc­ing the film and hold­ing an audi­ence Q&A after­wards.

Trail­er can be seen here: http://www.artistsconfederacy.com/pirateforthesea/

Tick­ets are avail­able from the Bar­bi­can Box office here: http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/event-detail.asp?ID=9431

‘Pirate for the Sea” is a bio­graph­i­cal film of Cap­tain Paul Wat­son, the youngest found­ing mem­ber of Green­peace Cana­da. He orga­nized ear­ly cam­paigns protest­ing the killing of seals, whales, and dol­phins. Green­peace eject­ed him for being too much of an activist. Start­ing his own orga­ni­za­tion, the Sea Shep­herd Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety, he went on to sink ille­gal whal­ing ships, stopped Cana­di­an seal hunts for ten years, per­ma­nent­ly halt­ed seal­ing in British Isles, killing of dol­phins on Iki Island, Japan, etc. This doc­u­men­tary wit­ness­es his lat­est cam­paigns and explores the per­son­al and envi­ron­men­tal his­to­ry of this con­tro­ver­sial marine con­ser­va­tion­ist.

More info on Sea Shep­herd: http://www.seashepherd.org/

Switch off Hazelwood (Australia)

9 Sep­tem­ber 2009
“Switch off Hazel­wood. Switch off Coal. Switch on Renew­ables” was a day of fun, cre­ative and inspir­ing direct com­mu­ni­ty action at Hazel­wood coal pow­er sta­tion.

Hazelwood bannersHazelwood crowd9 Sep­tem­ber 2009
“Switch off Hazel­wood. Switch off Coal. Switch on Renew­ables” was a day of fun, cre­ative and inspir­ing direct com­mu­ni­ty action at Hazel­wood coal pow­er sta­tion. The protest at the front gates of the Hazel­wood Pow­er Sta­tion was organ­ised by com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers who care about cli­mate change — and are will­ing to take peace­ful com­mu­ni­ty action. Mel­bourne Indy­media was there live cov­er­ing the demon­stra­tion as it hap­pened.

Twen­ty-two arrests occurred through-out the after­noon as peo­ple tried to get into the plant to switch off Hazel­wood.

http://www.switchoffhazelwood.org/
http://twitter.com/hazelwood2009

9:00 Last night approx­i­mate­ly 300 peo­ple ate, camped and planned togeth­er for the day of action. Most peo­ple were formed into affin­i­ty groups and took part in the spokes coun­cil meet­ing. Spir­its were high with live music, films by indy­media, and great food from Food Not Bombs.

9:30 Media van got stopped, one of two nego­ti­at­ed cars got through. 11:00

11:00 Media set up with heli­copters buzzing over our heads. Speech­es at start of demon­stra­tion: Rob­bie Thor­pe, Sven Teske and Scott Lud­lam. “Bikezil­la” the giant bike join the parade and many offi­cers have their badges obscured. Oth­er­wise liai­son is work­ing well.

12:19 The protest march has reached the front gates where there is a heavy police pres­ence and lots of new tem­po­rary fenc­ing to keep pro­test­ers at bay. Speech­es in front of gates: David Spratt, Mer­ryn Reben­bach, Dave Sweeney con­grat­u­lates locals: “Peo­ple from the val­ley can’t voice their options and still be anony­mous” “The place will become an indus­tri­al sac­ri­fice zone as well as an eco­log­i­cal one”

12:31 Demon­stra­tors wav­ing to the heli­copters and hold­ing bal­loons.

12:45 David Spratt speech “Min­is­ter Should Resign”

12:55 Two Bel­grave Wom­bats jumped the fence, two pushed away- two arrest­ed 1:03 Cheer­leader and Cli­mate Actions Dance Group start. Rain stopped.

1:00 “Sil­ly walks min­istry” moves towards fence.

1:12 Police hors­es ride up to hill-fence to con­front pro­tes­tors.

1:13 Water and police on hors­es in place

1:15 Kids are play­ing with the “world”. Sec­ond wom­bat brought out of the gate.

1:20 Rad­i­cal Cheer­lead­ers in action chant­i­ng.

1:21 more police in front of the fence. Cheer­ing activists move for­ward towards police and fence.

1:26 Around six more jumped the fence

1:34 Garbage bin sound-sys­tem starts. Anoth­er pro­test­er jumps the fence

1:35 The first two arrest­ed wom­bats got charged and released.

1:36 Activists posi­tioned on grass hill try­ing to push down fence.

1:40 Cheer­lead­ers cre­ate diver­sion on fence line.

1:48 Chant and march down fence. Try­ing to shake fence down. Hors­es almost tram­ple pro­test­ers.

1:50 Pro­test­er jumps over fence. Groups of pro­test­ers shake and try to jump fence

2:01 loud chant­i­ng. Batons up. Activists on hill­side walk in an unbro­ken line towards the fence. Line is stopped by police hors­es.

2:02 Three activists get over the fence. Two get rough­ly pushed away and do not get over the fence.

2:03 Anoth­er activist dressed as a car­bon cop jumps the fence and gets arrest­ed.

2:05 Arrest Update: 13 so far

2:11 Crowd turns its back to Hazel­wood in dis­gust.

2:30 Three more get over the fence, one tack­led by police.

2:55 Arrests: 22, every­one ID processed on site. No one has been tak­en to Mor­well police Sta­tion as yet. Most activists have been released on sum­mons.

3:10 Activist form­ing a gigan­tic wind­mill, cheer­ing and even though it’s rain­ing a moti­vat­ed out­come of the days efforts.

3:30 Peo­ple head­ing home after a great day of civ­il dis­obe­di­ence against the one of the worst car­bon pol­lut­ing coal plants in Vic­to­ria and the world.