Climate Rush Parliament

13.10.2008

Climate rush 1Climate rush 2
Climate rush 3
13.10.2008
A powe­ful and mov­ing demo at par­lia­ment saw over five hun­dred peo­ple push­ing through police and reach­ing the (locked) doors of par­lia­ment.

After frocks and cake on par­lia­ment square things turned a lit­tle less peace­full as the mass rushed accross the road and reached the doors of par­lia­ment.

Police have been forced to close the main pub­lic entrance to Par­lia­ment after envi­ron­men­tal pro­test­ers attempt­ed to force their way in.

Organ­ised by the Cli­mate Rush group, the aim was to emu­late the attempt by the Suf­fragette move­ment to storm Par­lia­ment 100 years ago.

At about 1830 BST, demon­stra­tors marched to Par­lia­ment where they were stopped by police at the St Stephen’s entrance.

Five peo­ple have been arrest­ed for breach of the peace and a 23-year-old woman has been held for breach of bail, a Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police spokesman said.

Doors at the main St Stephen’s Gate entrance were closed and secured with two large met­al bars. Pro­test­ers strik­ing the doors were clear­ly audi­ble from the inside.

BBC film footage
more pho­tos

Dongria Kondh Road Block — Tribe vows to fight mine with axes and arrows

Tribe vows to fight mine with axes and arrows

One of India’s most iso­lat­ed tribes, the Don­gria Kondh, is prepar­ing to stop British FTSE 100 com­pa­ny Vedan­ta from min­ing alu­mini­um ore on their sacred moun­tain, after police and hired thugs forced pro­tes­tors to dis­man­tle a bar­ri­cade over the week­end.

Tribe vows to fight mine with axes and arrows

One of India’s most iso­lat­ed tribes, the Don­gria Kondh, is prepar­ing to stop British FTSE 100 com­pa­ny Vedan­ta from min­ing alu­mini­um ore on their sacred moun­tain, after police and hired thugs forced pro­tes­tors to dis­man­tle a bar­ri­cade over the week­end.

About 150 peo­ple had blocked the road in Oris­sa state on Wednes­day after hear­ing that Vedan­ta intend­ed to start sur­vey work for a planned alu­mini­um mine which would destroy an eco­log­i­cal­ly vital hill, and the Don­gria Kondh’s most sacred site. Vedan­ta employ­ees vis­it­ed the block­ade repeat­ed­ly, threat­en­ing the pro­tes­tors. On Fri­day the vil­lagers gave in and took down the bar­ri­cade, but about 100 are still at the side of the road, block­ing traf­fic when Vedan­ta vehi­cles approach.

Vedan­ta is major­i­ty owned by Lon­don-based Indi­an bil­lion­aire Anil Agar­w­al.

Today, Don­gria Kondh from all over Niyam­giri, the hill range that would be dec­i­mat­ed by Vedanta’s mine, are mak­ing arrows and prepar­ing their axes to stop Vedan­ta reach­ing their sacred moun­tain. One Don­gria man said today ‘Now our peo­ple are very angry. We have to show the Don­gria Kondh pow­er to Vedan­ta.’

When India’s Supreme Court gave Vedan­ta the green light in August to mine on Don­gria land, around 40 Don­grias used tree trunks to block a road lead­ing into their hills, and held ban­ners read­ing, ‘We are Don­gria Kondh. Vedan­ta can not take our moun­tain.’ [pho­tos avail­able]

The moun­tain that Vedan­ta wants to mine is not only the Don­gria Kondh’s most sacred site, it is also inte­gral to the entire ecosys­tem of the hills, enabling the numer­ous streams and lush forests which sus­tain the Don­grias to con­tin­ue to thrive.

Survival’s direc­tor, Stephen Cor­ry, said today ‘The Don­gria Kondh are pro­tect­ing their land from invaders, who are only inter­est­ed in plun­der­ing the moun­tain for their own gain. The Don­grias will get noth­ing from the mine, except des­ti­tu­tion and ruin, and Sur­vival will con­tin­ue to sup­port their resis­tance to Vedan­ta.’

For more infor­ma­tion please con­tact Miri­am Ross at Sur­vival Inter­na­tion­al (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504 543 367 or email mr@survival-international.org

Bath Bomb #15 out now

The Bath Bomb
@nti-copyright: copy and dis­trib­ute!
Issue #15
free/donation
Oct 08

Knowl­edge is Pow­er, So Arm Your­self

The Bath Bomb
@nti-copyright: copy and dis­trib­ute!
Issue #15
free/donation
Oct 08

Knowl­edge is Pow­er, So Arm Your­self

Of late, you’d be mis­tak­en for think­ing the end is indeed nigh. With the implo­sion of large chunks of the glob­al econ­o­my, and the fall of banks like Brad­ford and Bin­g­ley and North­ern Rock over here, Lehman Broth­ers, Fan­ny Mae and Fred­die Mac in the States, cap­i­tal­is­m’s days are look­ing num­bered. Far from being an inevitable and effi­cient sys­tem, it seems like the con­stant finan­cial fid­dling and cre­ative math required to meet tar­gets and pro­vide the illu­sion of con­tin­u­al growth, are caus­ing a glob­al cred­it crunch whose sting we’re all feel­ing. But whilst Brown & co donat­ed £25 bil­lion worth of cor­po­rate wel­fare to bail out blun­der­ing North­ern Rock in one day, mon­ey sore­ly need­ed for our pub­lic ser­vices is nowhere to be seen. But are there any oth­er answers? Well, last month saw the Bris­tol Anar­chist Book­fair at St Wer­burghs Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre on Sat­ur­day the 13th Sep­tem­ber pulling in over 400 pun­ters, and on Sat­ur­day the 18th of this month will be the Anar­chist Book­fair in Lon­don. Expect reams of info on social­ly-just eco­nom­ics, alter­na­tive ener­gy and lifestyles, child­care, music, food, talks and work­shops, rad­i­cal the­o­ry and lessons learnt from the past. Cap­i­tal­ism has been fail­ing us now for decades with poor health, over-exploita­tion, over-work, increas­ing author­i­tar­i­an­ism, and a widen­ing pover­ty gap, and it’s high time we tried some­thing new. And if you can’t make it to Lon­don, we now have a new online rad­i­cal lend­ing library in Bath — so, if you fan­cy an inter­est­ing read on the real­ly cheap, check out the blog sec­tion of http://www.myspace.com/bathactivistnetwork.

http://www.anarchistbookfair.org/
www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org/

Labour of Hate

For the first time in decades, the annu­al Labour par­ty con­fer­ence was held out­side of Brighton, the politi­cians instead opt­ing for Man­ches­ter. The change in loca­tion did not bring a change in atti­tude though, and the con­fer­ence saw more of the now famil­iar cosy­ing up to big busi­ness, tired taglines and pro-war, pro-pri­vati­sa­tion rhetoric. Out­side the con­fer­ence how­ev­er, 4,000 cit­i­zens gath­ered to rip the agen­da away from Neo-Labour and their cor­po­rate bud­dies and high­light the grow­ing dis­gust the pop­u­la­tion feels at the con­tempt politi­cians show for the needs and desires of the aver­age per­son. A large part of the demo con­sist­ed of the anar­chist ‘free­dom of move­ment bloc’.

Made up of up to 500 peo­ple, the bloc gath­ered to demand free­dom of move­ment for migrants and an end to nation­al bor­ders, states and war. Before long, our flu­o­ro-jack­et­ed bud­dies from the deeply unpop­u­lar (and taser-hap­py) Man­ches­ter Met­ro­pol­i­tan showed an inter­est in the bloc, div­ing in to arrest activists trea­so­nous enough to don Gor­don Brown masks. After a short, sharp fight how­ev­er, the cops were sent pack­ing with no arrests made. From then on, police tried to make fre­quent incur­sions into the bloc, all of which were repelled, and the least suc­cess­ful end­ing with 15 cops get­ting tak­en pris­on­er and cut off from their bud­dies for a peri­od of 10 min­utes! The most notice­able aspect of the demo was the increased size and promi­nence of anar­chist pol­i­tics on the march, a phe­nom­e­non that has been grow­ing in recent years. While the demo was a most­ly non con­fronta­tion­al affair, it was suc­cess­ful in remind­ing Neo-Labour that while they pri­va­tise our resources, imprison and tor­ture our asy­lum seek­ing broth­ers and sis­ters, enclose us with CCTV and kill us with fuel prices — we are still watch­ing, and we will not be silent.

Lib­er­ate Your Mind at Bub­bling Under

Sun­day 28th Sep­tem­ber saw a return to the month­ly rad­i­cal film show­ings at the Porter Cel­lar Bar in Bath. This month, the line up includ­ed ‘Bombs and Batons’, a short film cov­er­ing Brighton’s Car­ni­val Against the Arms Trade on June 4th. The film gen­er­al­ly showed police offi­cers look­ing total­ly fazed and out of their depth amongst hun­dreds of demon­stra­tors tak­ing a stand against the lucra­tive arms trade (see below for more info). The sec­ond film, ‘Can’t Com­plain’, was made up of footage from a demon­stra­tion in Jan­u­ary out­side Brighton police sta­tion against the oppres­sion faced by those active in oppos­ing EDO/ITT. The third film took view­ers back in time to the tree camps of the 1990s. The film includ­ed dar­ing stunts by activists to halt the build­ing of the infa­mous New­bury Bypass. Whilst view­ers enjoyed the films, they tucked into the Porter’s famous veg­gie roast. Aside from the fab­u­lous food, pre­vi­ous show­ings have been accom­pa­nied by talks from polit­i­cal activists, live debates and work­shops on events such as this year’s Cli­mate Camp. Forth­com­ing events at Bub­bling Under will include films about Cli­mate Camp and cov­er­age of the 1990 poll tax demon­stra­tions. Organ­is­ers always wel­come sug­ges­tions to bathactivistnet@yahoo.co.uk for films, work­shops and debates.

Pigs Might Fly: Or Was He Pushed?

Matisse once said ‘flow­ers are every­where for those who are will­ing to look’. Well, this month, our flow­ers come in the form of the forced res­ig­na­tion of Sir Ian Blair — ex-head hon­cho of the Lon­don Met­ro­pol­i­tan police. Acts dur­ing his time at the top include the cold-blood­ed mur­der of Brazil­ian plumber Jean Charles ‘it’s one of them dark­’uns, sarge’ de Menezes, the res­ig­na­tion of almost every black and asian high rank­ing offi­cer he worked with amid claims of racism and the glee­ful pass­ing of laws to crim­i­nal­ize, beat and arrest legit­i­mate pro­tes­tors. The final turd on the moun­tain­ous steam­er that was Blair’s career came when it emerged that he chan­nelled tax­pay­ers’ mon­ey away from the police and into his mates’ pock­ets. So, good­bye to true scum in its purest form (and hop­ing that more of his bas­tard bud­dies go the same way), and a fond hope that his forced retire­ment ends soon and blood­i­ly with jour­nal­ists report­ing that the shoot­ing was noth­ing more than a trag­ic case of mis­tak­en iden­ti­ty.

Shut ITT, You Slag

Fol­low­ing on from June’s smash­ing Car­ni­val Against the Arms Trade, on Wednes­day the 15th of Octo­ber, activists will con­verge from all round the nation on the EDO/ITT arms fac­to­ry in Brighton, for around 2. Rather than tooth­less­ly appeal­ing to the state’s fic­ti­tious benev­o­lent side to NOT spon­sor cor­po­rate mas­sacres half way across the world and at home, in the case of the ‘Smash EDO’ cam­paign, ordi­nary peo­ple are con­fronting the roots of war — the very man­u­fac­tur­ers of instru­ments of death (Nazi Ger­many-affil­i­at­ed ITT make the Pave­way mis­sile guid­ance sys­tem, used in Iraq and Pales­tine). Not peti­tion­ing them, but forc­ing them to stop, share by share, day by day, with the cam­paign bit­ing down and hold­ing tena­cious­ly on, until these prof­it-obsessed bas­tards are brought down. It’s his­to­ry in the mak­ing, an exam­ple of a focused cam­paign suc­ceed­ing at its aims, even in the face of state, police and media cen­sor­ship and harass­ment. And once ITT has been bank­rupt­ed, which com­pa­ny is next? Fol­low­ing this course, we will even­tu­al­ly have human­i­ty, mutu­al aid, and dare we say it, world peace… even if we have to smash, d‑lock, shout our­selves hoarse, and super­glue our way through every dodgy indus­try and evil mega­lo­ma­ni­ac to get it: be there on the day! The demo starts at 12 noon, meet­ing oppo­site Falmer train sta­tion. For trans­port down, drop us an email at bathactivistnet@yahoo.co.uk.

http://www.smashedo.org.uk/shut-itt.htm

Pos­i­tive’s Not News

It’s come to our atten­tion here at the Bath Bomb of a wor­ry­ing ten­den­cy in the local press. Whilst the same is true of nation­al and region­al papers the UK over, the Bath Chron­ic has tak­en upon itself to ignore pos­i­tive local events and ini­tia­tives which show com­mu­ni­ties organ­is­ing their own needs and doing good for them­selves and their neigh­bours; take for exam­ple, the case of the River­side Com­mu­ni­ty Youth Cen­tre’s open evening on the 26th Sep­tem­ber, where local youth showed off their music tal­ents and staff put on food and high­light­ed to res­i­dents the impor­tant work the cen­tre is doing. Staff were told by the Chron that such pos­i­tive sto­ries, which you might mis­tak­en­ly believe are the fare of local rags all over the land, were not high enough pri­or­i­ty to war­rant a pho­tog­ra­ph­er, nor any more than reluc­tant cov­er­age; per­haps the kids should have been out mug­ging peo­ple like a prop­er hood­ie? Like­wise, worth­while activist events through­out the last six months have been equal­ly cen­sored: ‘Roots of Change’, ‘There is such thing as a free lunch!’, the Bath FreeShop… the list goes on. If these pro­test­ers had lived up to the stereo­type and been busy break­ing stuff, then per­haps that would have shift­ed a cou­ple more papers? So whilst the Chron puts a cyn­i­cal spot­light on the neg­a­tive, the triv­ial, the celeb-obsessed, or fear-mon­ger­ing, is it real­ly the job of the media to decide what its read­ers are per­mit­ted to know or think?

Bath — 2, BNP — 0

Remem­ber last year when Nick Grif­fin, head Nazi of the BNP, tried to come to speak at Bath Uni? Local anti-fas­cists mobilised to first kick him off cam­pus, then out of sev­er­al pubs, then into a field where the cops made him and his bone­head mates go home after a 5‑minute speech on pub­lic safe­ty grounds! Well, it looks like the Nazis may be back. Reports sug­gest that sev­er­al BNP activists were hand­ing out fly­ers at Bath Uni ear­li­er this month. This month also saw a few hun­dred Nazis from across Europe con­verge at the Bun­ga­low Inn in Som­er­set (against the scared own­er’s wish­es) to drunk­en­ly sieg heil their depart­ed fuhrer Ian Stew­art Don­ald­son, singer of fas­cist band Skrew­driv­er, who brave­ly mar­tyred him­self over a decade ago after drunk­en­ly falling in front of a car! While this was a one-off event, the BNP at Bath Uni may not be so, and Bath anti-fas­cists would appre­ci­ate any infor­ma­tion on the sit­u­a­tion there. The BNP are vicious racists who oppose immi­gra­tion and trade unions and have a long his­to­ry of racial vio­lence, Hitler-wor­ship and Holo­caust denial (their leader still denies the Holo­caust, call­ing it the ‘Holo­hoax’, and recent­ly claimed in a speech to Amer­i­can Nazis that he would be hap­py to kill for the white race). We have kicked them out of Bath once, and we can do it again. Any infor­ma­tion will be treat­ed as con­fi­den­tial and can be sent to bathactivistnet@yahoo.co.uk.

Com­put­er Says ‘No… 2ID’

Despite long resis­tance, the racist state will be push­ing in ID cards, this year, start­ing on the 25th Novem­ber with easy tar­gets the immi­grants. Incensed at this, 35 activists from No Bor­ders across South Wales, Bath, Bris­tol and beyond con­verged on the Home Office Iden­ti­ty and Pass­port Office in New­port, on Sat­ur­day the 5th Octo­ber. Despite the driz­zle and minor police intim­i­da­tion, they stayed on for two hours, leaflet­ing the pass­ing pub­lic about this insid­i­ous new (old) scheme. Whilst the cards will reach immi­grants next month, if the scheme does­n’t meet too much oppo­si­tion, it will then be rolled out to work­ers in ‘sen­si­tive’ loca­tions in 2009, and then stu­dents in 2010. Act­ing on flawed ‘intel­li­gence’, bungling cop­pers turned up an hour before­hand to police the demo, and the office itself shut its bar­ri­er after one hour. But what’s all the big deal? Sure­ly if you have noth­ing to hide, you have noth­ing to fear? Man­age­ment of this data­base (the most com­plex in Europe) will be doled out to pri­vate com­pa­nies like PA Con­sult­ing, who already lost 30,000 peo­ple’s records back in August. Will their strug­gling soft­ware be able to han­dle this larg­er strain? We hope so, because with an increas­ing reliance on tech­nol­o­gy, and numer­ous such com­put­er cock-ups, what’s to say that sim­i­lar inci­dents won’t result in oth­er hor­ror sto­ries, with data-loss vic­tims unable to work, unable to pay bills, unable to shop, and unable to access basic ser­vices. But what about ID cards stop­ping crime? Unless the cards or RFID chips (radio fre­quen­cy iden­ti­fi­ca­tion implants) mirac­u­lous­ly address mal­nour­ish­ment, domes­tic abuse or pover­ty cycles, then these cards won’t pre­vent crime. So giv­en that, why is Big Broth­er so intent on build­ing up all this info? As the proverb goes, “First they came for the com­mu­nists, and I did noth­ing because I was not a com­mu­nist. Then they came for the trade union­ists, and I did noth­ing because I was not a trade union­ist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did noth­ing because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to help me.”

http://current.com/topics/88831947_data_loss
http://www.no2id.net/
http://noborderswales.wordpress.com

Your Gov­ern­ment Wants You Dead!

A dra­mat­ic head­line? We at Bath Bomb are known for our occa­sion­al sen­sa­tion­al­ism, but on this occa­sion, we are being ‘dead­ly’ seri­ous. Recent fig­ures sug­gest that 1/3 of the pop­u­la­tion is going to be forced into a choice between suf­fi­cient fuel or suf­fi­cient food this win­ter. By encour­ag­ing price hikes in the pri­vate fuel sec­tor and choos­ing to sup­port fail­ing busi­ness rather than aver­age peo­ple, the gov­ern­ment of this coun­try will lit­er­al­ly be respon­si­ble for thou­sands of deaths this win­ter. Let’s put this in per­spec­tive — the gov­ern­ment is per­fect­ly will­ing to shell out hun­dreds of mil­lions of OUR mon­ey to slow the inevitable col­lapse of cap­i­tal­ism, while just down the road in Swin­don, 69% of coun­cil house res­i­dents were recent­ly dis­cov­ered to be liv­ing well below the pover­ty line. There is plen­ty to be angry at the gov­ern­ment over that we spend much time focus­ing on — the war on the Iraqi peo­ple and sur­veil­lance soci­ety being a cou­ple of exam­ples, but it is about time we start to resist the bru­tal­i­ty that the state dish­es out to us all on a dai­ly basis; the fuel pover­ty, the cuts to NHS, edu­ca­tion and job­seek­ers, the mea­gre sup­port for low income fam­i­lies. The gov­ern­ment has shown that it stands on the side of busi­ness above the needs of the peo­ple. The class war, this epic social bat­tle between the haves and the have-nots was not start­ed by us, it was start­ed by a rul­ing class who care more for prof­it and preser­va­tion of the sta­tus quo than the lives of its cit­i­zens. We have had war declared on us by the polit­i­cal class and we need to begin ask­ing ‘how will we respond to the assault of busi­ness and gov­ern­ment on our lives’ and how can we organ­ise to take back what is ours, our basic rights to warmth, food, afford­able hous­ing, enjoy­ment and an end to wage slav­ery? How will we organ­ise to win the class war?

Mini Bar-stards

Just a quick­ie: on Fri­day 26th Sep­tem­ber, activists from Bath Ani­mal Action and BAN did a short, sharp demo against foie gras sell­er Mini Bar on John Street, who have tak­en it upon them­selves to sell the stuff. See every oth­er issue of Bath Bomb for more on foie gras and the cam­paign. As per usu­al, BAA will be back again and again, until Mini Bar sees sense.

EVENTS

Mon­days — Bath Hunt Sabs Meet­ing, 8pm, Bell
Wednes­days — Lon­don Rd Food Co-op, River­side Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, 4–7pm
Sat­ur­days — Bath Stop The War Vig­il, Abbey Court­yard, 11.30–12.30
Weds 15th Oct — Smash ITT, Falmer Sta­tion, Brighton, 12noon
Fri 17th Oct — Chris Baines’ green spaces in cities talk, Guild­hall, 7pm £6
Sat 18th Oct — Lon­don Anar­chist Book­fair www.anarchistbookfair.org
Fri 24th Oct — Bath Mad­hat­ters Birth­day Par­ty, Man­vers St Bap­tist Church, 3–6pm
Fri 24th Oct — anti-foie gras demo, against Mini­bar, John St, 7–9
Sat 25th Oct — ben­e­fit gig, the White Hart, Eas­t­on, 6pm, £7 entry
Sun 26th Oct — Bub­bling Under, Porter Cel­lar Bar, 1–4pm
Mon 27th Oct — Block the Builders, Alder­mas­ton AWE block­ade
Weds 29th Oct — Bath Bomb ben­e­fit gig, the Junc­tion, Stokes Croft, Bris­tol, 8‑late
Sat 1st Nov — Bath FreeShop, Stall Street, 12–3pm
Weds 5th Nov — Bath Ani­mal Action meet­ing, back­room of Bell, 7.30–8.30
Thurs 6th Nov — BAN meet­ing, down­stairs Hob­gob­lin, 7.30–9
Sat 22 Nov — Bath Veg­an Fayre, Per­cy Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre 12–4pm

And now, to the dis­claimer: As any­one is free to con­tribute, the opin­ions expressed in each arti­cle are not nec­es­sar­i­ly reflec­tive of each con­trib­u­tor. Nat­u­ral­ly, any right-wing or cor­po­rate bull­shit will be binned and spat on. Need­less to say, the opin­ions of the author of this dis­claimer does not nec­es­sar­i­ly rep­re­sent the views of any oth­er con­trib­u­tor…

For fur­ther info on any of our sto­ries see www.myspace.com/bathbomb

Q: Who Are Bath Activist Net­work? A: A local umbrel­la group cam­paign­ing on issues as diverse as devel­op­ment, envi­ron­men­tal­ism, anti-war, ani­mal rights, work­ers’ rights and more. Help­ing to pro­duce The Bath Bomb, we are open to any­one, and our mem­bers range from trade union­ists to anar­chists, lib­er­als to greens, and peo­ple who just want to change Bath for the bet­ter. For details on meet­ings, demos, or just to get in touch, ring us on 07949 611912, email bathactivistnet@yahoo.co.uk, or see our web­site: www.myspace.com/bathactivistnetwork

GOT A STORY? WANT TO RECEIVE THE BATH BOMB BY EMAIL? HOPING TO SUE? Con­tact us by e‑mailing bathbombpress@yahoo.co.uk. Large print e‑versions avail­able on request.

Picnic in the Park — mass trespass in Derbyshire, 25th October

Pic­nic in the Park, the Sequel
Sat­ur­day 25 Octo­ber

A new open-cast coal mine site is gear­ing into action in beau­ti­ful Der­byshire and must be stopped. Leave it in the Ground, sup­port­ed by Earth First!, invites you to a sec­ond Pic­nic in the Park for a Mass Tres­pass to get to know the area, meet the locals and have fun…

Picnic in the Park 2 mass trespassPic­nic in the Park, the Sequel
Sat­ur­day 25 Octo­ber

A new open-cast coal mine site is gear­ing into action in beau­ti­ful Der­byshire and must be stopped. Leave it in the Ground, sup­port­ed by Earth First!, invites you to a sec­ond Pic­nic in the Park for a Mass Tres­pass to get to know the area, meet the locals and have fun…

So come and Dis­cov­er Der­byshire!

Meet at the Vis­i­tors Cen­tre, Ship­ley Coun­ty Park, off Slack Lane, Heanor DE75 7GX at 12 noon on Sat­ur­day 25 Octo­ber (map).

For more info see www.leaveitintheground.org.uk or call 0780 4018214

Protest halts logging in upper Florentine Valley-Monday 13 October 2008 & campaign update newsletter

MEDIA RELEASE
Mon­day, 13th Octo­ber 2008
Tas­man­ian for­est defend­ers take a stand against cli­mate crimes in the Upper Flo­ren­tine Val­ley

MEDIA RELEASE
Mon­day, 13th Octo­ber 2008
Tas­man­ian for­est defend­ers take a stand against cli­mate crimes in the Upper Flo­ren­tine Val­ley

This morn­ing, for­est activists from Still Wild Still Threat­ened con­duct­ed a peace­ful action in the Upper Flo­ren­tine Val­ley, halt­ing log­ging oper­a­tions in coupe FO42E. A for­est defend­er is perched high on a tree-sit to protest against the con­tin­ued dec­i­ma­tion of Tas­ma­ni­a’s car­bon dense old growth forests.

“We are speak­ing out against the cli­mate crimes which con­tin­ue to be per­pet­u­at­ed by Forestry Tas­ma­nia and Gunns Lim­it­ed, and are call­ing on Kevin Rudd to take imme­di­ate action and put a stop to the ram­pant wood-chip­ping of some of our most sig­nif­i­cant car­bon sinks” said Still Wild Still Threat­ened spokesper­son Chris­to Mills.

“A recent ANU study has clear­ly shown that Tas­ma­ni­a’s ancient forests can play a key role in com­bat­ing dan­ger­ous cli­mate change. [1]However, these glob­al­ly renowned forests con­tin­ue to be sub­ject­ed to destruc­tive road­ing, log­ging and burn­ing oper­a­tions” said Mr Mills.

“The car­bon rich forests of the Upper Flo­ren­tine Val­ley are being sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly destroyed to feed the rapa­cious appetite of an envi­ron­men­tal­ly unsus­tain­able wood-chip­ping industry.The dev­as­ta­tion of these car­bon rich forests is an inter­na­tion­al dis­grace and for­est defend­ers will con­tin­ue to take peace­ful action against these rep­re­hen­si­ble cli­mate crimes” said Mr Mills.

“Pro­tect­ing Tas­ma­ni­a’s ancient forests is a sim­ple and high­ly effec­tive cli­mate change solu­tion” said Mr Mills.

For com­ment, con­tact: Chris­to Mills 0447 631 735

—–

The lat­est cam­paign update newslet­ter, Spring 2008 — upcom­ing dates (Note: South­ern hemi­sphere spring is our North­ern autumn) — not that you’d think of fly­ing there in any case, boys & girls 😉

Anti-RBS Action, London — Fri 10 Oct 08

What do a Dis­traught Ben­gal Tiger, a Sacked Finan­cial Ana­lyst, a Home­less Polar Bear, and a Job­less Banker all have in com­mon?

RBS recruitment demo 1What do a Dis­traught Ben­gal Tiger, a Sacked Finan­cial Ana­lyst, a Home­less Polar Bear, and a Job­less Banker all have in com­mon? Why they’re all vic­tims of the Car­bon Crunch — the con­fla­tion of Cap­i­tal’s tox­ic Car­bon Addic­tion and it’s self-made Cred­it Crunch. Oh, and they’re also all char­ac­ters in a protest dra­ma played out at the Olympia Exhi­bi­tion Cen­tre between some rad­i­cal smart cook­ies from…
• Peo­ple & Plan­et — http://peopleandplanet.org
• PLATFORM — http://www.platformlondon.org
• Ris­ing Tide — http://risingtide.org.uk & http://londonrisingtide.org.uk
…and some shit­ty-brown suit­ed secu­ri­ty drones.

You know how Finance Cap­i­tal oils the wheels of indus­try? [1] Well one UK bank excels above all oth­ers at oil­ing the wheels and greas­ing the axles of the Cli­mate Crim­i­nal’s Jug­ger­naut — and my, how proud they used to be about doing so. Once upon a time, there was a web­site called www.theoilandgasbank.com — a prod­uct of the Oil Bank of Scot­land (who pre­fer “Roy­al Bank of Scot­land”) — but in Jun 06, RBS took it down and stopped using this title pub­li­cal­ly. But why? This was the first major vic­to­ry in a cam­paign waged since ear­ly 06 by a coali­tion of envi­ron­men­tal NGOs (includ­ing Friends of the Earth Scot­land, Peo­ple & Plan­et and PLATFORM) to wean RBS of its tox­ic addic­tion to financ­ing the cli­mate crim­i­nals of the fos­sil fuel indus­tries, and set it on a healthy diet of financ­ing renew­able ener­gy ini­tia­tives: The Oyal Bank of Scot­land Cam­pain. [2]

THE OIL BANK OF SCOTLAND

“In 2007 RBS sup­port­ed the fos­sil fuel indus­try with over $7 bil­lion, while the bank’s embed­ded emis­sions passed 50 mil­lion tonnes of CO2 – more than Scot­land.”
PLATFORM, in ‘NGOs slam RBS for fos­sil fuel financ­ing on the eve of delayed Cor­po­rate Respon­si­bil­i­ty Report launch’, 10 Jul 08 -
http://www.carbonweb.org/showitem.asp?article=330

Yes, you did read that right — one bank in Edin­burgh is com­plict in MORE cli­mate pol­lu­tion than the ENTIRE NATION of Scot­land!

“RBS-NatWest is dri­ving cli­mate change and feed­ing car­bon addic­tion faster than any oth­er British bank. Pour­ing bil­lions into fos­sil fuels and work­ing inti­mate­ly with oil cor­po­ra­tions, the bank is lock­ing huge emis­sions into our future. Peo­ple & Plan­et and PLATFORM are cam­paign­ing for RBS to recog­nise its cli­mate respon­si­bil­i­ties and move its mon­ey from the dirt­i­est fos­sil fuels into sus­tain­able ener­gy.

OUR DEMANDS
We are call­ing on RBS-NatWest to:
• Accept respon­si­bil­i­ty for the cli­mate impacts of its lend­ing. Cal­cu­late and pub­lish the embed­ded emis­sions result­ing from loans to oil and gas projects.
• Adopt a com­pre­hen­sive cli­mate change pol­i­cy, includ­ing a tar­get for annu­al reduc­tions and the strat­e­gy to achieve this.
• Rebal­ance its lend­ing port­fo­lio away from fos­sil fuels and towards renew­able ener­gy. Imme­di­ate halt on all loans to coal and tar sands.”
Oyal Bank of Scot­land Cam­paign — http://oyalbankofscotland.com

WANNA WORK FOR CLIMATE CRIMINALS?

The Oil Bank of Scot­land is proud of it’s score of grad­u­ate recruit­ment pro­grammes and sports a flashy ani­mat­ed Flash microsite to snap up the bright young things fresh from uni­ver­si­ty — http://www.makeitrbs.com (although it’s foun­da­tions are as dodgy as its fos­sil fuel addic­tion — click­ing any ‘pro­grammes’ link on the ‘Pro­gramme Selec­tor’ pro­duces: “Page not found!”)

We thought we’d bet­ter alert atten­dees at the Nation­al Grad­u­ate Recruit­ment Exhi­bi­tion at Olympia 2 that the recruiters on the RBS stand were con­seal­ing the fact that their hands were cov­ered in oil. But with one recon­nais­sance pho­to tak­en and a few leaflets hand­ed out, we were escort­ed from the Exhi­bi­tion Hall by shit­ty-brown suit­ed secu­ri­ty drones. Unveil­ing our ban­ner out­side led to some very sil­ly cat-&-mouse antics, with one of said drones try­ing to stop two snap­pers shoot­ing his fel­low drones attempts to cen­sor a peace­ful pave­ment protest!

Seems the cops had tipped of their Secu­ri­ty Head Hon­cho (one v v unhhap­py bun­ny) to our arrival, so he’d had con­struct­ed a three-crash-bar­ri­er cage to try (in vain) to con­tain us. Per­haps by stu­pid­i­ty (or maybe as a secret expres­sion of sym­pa­thy? tee­hee 😉 our cage pro­vid­ed per­fect ban­ner mount­ing facil­i­ties, and was per­fect­ly posi­tioned to engage the cap­tive audi­ence of career seek­ers queue­ing up to get in.

While recon­noi­ter­ing the RBS stand, I picked up two toys for my nephews, arche­types of cor­po­rate brad­ing arro­gance — wind-up squishy walk­ing globes of plan­et Earth embla­zoned with the RBS logo. This was on Black Fri­day, the last work­ing day of a week that saw RBS shares have 40% of their val­ue wiped out in Cred­it Crunch recrim­i­na­tions. Here’s hop­ing the sham­bol­ic rout of Finance Cap­tal will refo­cus the minds of the RBS Fat Cats on bequeath­ing to their own young rel­a­tives a bioshere still rich in bio­di­ver­si­ty, and stll fit enough to sus­tain human­i­ty’s urgent­ly required low car­bon econ­o­my.

ALSO AVAILABLE: PIX, REPORT, & CALL TO TAKE ACTION

You can also read about our action in an illus­trat­ed report by Peo­ple & Plan­et media and com­mu­ni­ca­tions vol­un­teer, and mem­ber of West­min­ster Uni P&P, Amani Ashraf — http://peopleandplanet.org/navid6525

Mean­while, YOU TOO can help to shape our ener­gy future — by telling RBS to stop fuelling car­bon addic­tion:
• Take Action on RBS: The Oil Bank of Scot­land — http://www.oyalbankofscotland.com/action.htm
• Take Action to Ditch Dirty Devel­op­ment, Tar­get #1: RBS-NatWest — http://peopleandplanet.org/ditchdirtydevelopment/action

Nei­ther the Inter­na­tion­al Court of Jus­tice nor any oth­er bour­geois court will put huge dirty cor­po­rate Finace Cap­i­tal bod­ies like RBS in the dock for aid­ing and abet­ting the Cli­mate Crim­i­nals in the fos­sil fuel indus­tries. So its down to us to band togeth­er and force RBS OUT of fos­sil fuel financ­ing and IN to sus­tain­able renew­able ener­gy devel­op­ment — join us, and take pos­i­tive actions to safe­guard our plan­e­tary future.

Tim Dalin­ian Jones

[1] Finance Cap­i­tal oils the wheels of indus­try — at least it did until Cap­i­tal’s his­tor­i­cal Cri­sis of Over­pro­duc­tion [3] found expres­sion in the Cred­it Crunch, top­pling the huge Wall Street domi­no Lehman Broth­ers on 15 Sep 08, since when Finance Cap­i­tal’s lubri­ca­tion ser­vices have all but ceased in a parox­ysms of fear and recrim­i­na­tions.

[2] The Oyal Bank of Scot­land Cam­paign — http://www.oyalbankofscotland.com is the suc­cess­ful cam­paign­ing web­site of the anti-RBS coali­tion of envi­ron­men­tal NGOs, includ­ing:
• Peo­ple & Plan­et — http://peopleandplanet.org
• PLATFORM — http://www.platformlondon.org
• Friends of the Earth Scot­land — http://www.foe-scotland.org.uk/

[3] Cap­i­tal’s his­tor­i­cal Cri­sis of Over­pro­duc­tion: “what char­ac­teris­es the 20th and 21st cen­turies is that the ten­den­cy towards over­pro­duc­tion — which in the 19th cen­tu­ry was tem­po­rary and could eas­i­ly be over­come — has become chron­ic, sub­ject­ing the world econ­o­my to a semi-per­ma­nent risk of insta­bil­i­ty and destruc­tion. Mean­while com­pe­ti­tion — a con­gen­i­tal trait of cap­i­tal­ism — became extreme and, crash­ing up against the lim­its of a world mar­ket which con­stant­ly verged on sat­u­ra­tion, lost its role as a stim­u­lant for the expan­sion of the sys­tem, so that its neg­a­tive side as a fac­tor of chaos and con­flict came to the fore.” ~ ICC, in ‘Cap­i­tal­ist Econ­o­my: Is there a way out of the cri­sis?’, trans­lat­ed from Accion Pro­le­taria 199, the ICC’s pub­li­ca­tion in Spain, Jan-Mar 08 — http://en.internationalism.org/wr/315/crisis-01

Spirit of Freedom (October 2008) — support the eco-prisoners

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)

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 Octo­ber 2008 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. The last month has been a month of mixed emo­tions for ELP. On the one hand we heard the bril­liant news that the Dutch ani­mal rights activist, Ger­ben Jan, was found not guilty of assault­ing a police offi­cer, caus­ing the offi­cer to break his leg, dur­ing an ani­mal rights demo in Swe­den. Instead Ger­ban was found guilty of resist­ing arrest for which he was fined and deport­ed. Also in an unex­pect­ed move, all the Aus­tri­an Ani­mal Rights pris­on­ers were released from prison pend­ing their tri­al! Plus, the Amer­i­can veg­an, Nathan Kno­erl, was grant­ed bail in his case where he is accused of involve­ment in an anti-vivi­sec­tion protest. Fol­low­ing Nathans release a sup­port cam­paign has been set up to try and help raise mon­ey for Nathan’s forth­com­ing legal case. For more info please e‑mail supportnathan@gmail.com. How­ev­er, just as ELP start­ed to think our pris­on­er lists might start to go down, we received news of fur­ther police raids in Aus­tria. ELP also learnt that, due to Frank Ambrose, grass­ing every­one up, the Amer­i­can’s Marie Mason, Stephanie Lynne Fultz, and Aren Burth­wick, have all had to enter Plea Bar­gains and admit some of the charges set against them. In Marie’s case she has admit­ted her direct role in an ELF arson on a Uni­ver­si­ty build­ing involved with GM crop tests, whilst Stephanie and Aren have admit­ted not report­ing a fire (Stephanie has admit­ted cut­ting Marie’s hair which was burnt fol­low­ing the arson). We don’t know what sen­tences Stephanie and Aren are like­ly to receive, but Marie is look­ing at 15 to 20 years and has been remand­ed into cus­tody. This is real­ly bad news, espe­cial­ly as it was hoped Marie might remain free until her sen­tenc­ing ear­ly next year. Around the world, peo­ple are being impris­oned for stand­ing up for what they believe in and try­ing to
help the ani­mals and the earth. So please, 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, #70936–065, (in tran­sit), USA. Serv­ing 78 months for his involve­ment in two ELF arsons. 1) an arson on log­ging trucks 2) an arson on vehi­cles owned by a sand & grav­el com­pa­ny. (Tre is a raw ener­gy veg­an — He has asked that his let­ters of sup­port are writ­ten on scrap paper or tree-free paper).

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. (Grant is a veg­an).

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. (Diet unknown).

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 Bor­der Guard whilst on the run. In ’02 Mar­co com­plet­ed a 12-year sen­tence in Italy for destroy­ing elec­tric­i­ty pylons in Italy. (Mar­co is a meat eater who encour­ages organ­ic liv­ing).

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. (Daniele is a veg­an).

Rod­ney Coro­n­a­do #03895–000, FCI El Reno, PO Box 1500, El Reno, OK 73036, USA. Serv­ing one-year impris­on­ment after he informed peo­ple how to make an incen­di­ary device dur­ing a speech at an ani­mal rights gath­er­ing. (Meat eater).

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. (Francesco is a veg­e­tar­i­an and Straight Edge).

Pao­la Gori, Via delle Mac­chie 9, 57124 Livorno, Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of allow­ing her house to be used to plan ille­gal activ­i­ty. (Pao­la is a veg­an).

Bryan Lefey #38664–086, FDC SeaT­ac, Fed­er­al Deten­tion Cen­ter, P.O. Box 13900, Seat­tle, WA 98198, USA. On remand accused of an ELF action that saw the dam­ag­ing of GM trees and the dam­ag­ing of US Forestry Ser­vice vehi­cles. (Diet unknown).

Jef­frey Luers, # 13797671, CRCI, 9111 NE Sun­der­land Ave, Port­land, OR 97211–1708, 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. (Diet unknown).

Marie Jeanette Mason, Neway­go Coun­ty Jail, PO Box 845, White Cloud, MI 49349, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing hav­ing plead­ed guilty to involve­ment in ELF arson against a Uni­ver­si­ty build­ing car­ry­ing out Genet­i­cal­ly Mod­i­fied crop tests. Marie also plead­ed guilty to con­spir­ing to car­ry out ELF actions and also admit­ted involve­ment in 12 oth­er ELF actions. Marie is expect­ed to receive a sen­tence of between 15–20 years. (Marie is a veg­an).

Eric McDavid, 16209–097. FCI Vic­torville Medi­um II, PO BOX 5700, Ade­lan­to, CA 92301, USA. Serv­ing 19 years & 7 months for plan­ning to destroy the prop­er­ty of the U.S. Forestry Ser­vice, mobile phone masts and pow­er plants. At the point of his arrest no crim­i­nal dam­age has actu­al­ly occurred. (Eric is a veg­an).

Daniel McGowan, #63794–053, USP Mar­i­on, US Pen­i­ten­tiary, PO Box 1000, Mar­i­on, IL 62959, 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. (Daniel is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

Jonathan Paul — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Bri­ana Waters 36432–086, FCI Dan­bury, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, Route 37, Dan­bury, CT 06811, USA. Serv­ing six years for involve­ment in an ELF arson on a Uni­ver­si­ty. (Diet unknown).

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. (Diet unknown).

ANIMAL LIBERATION PRISONERS
(All Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers fol­low a min­i­mum veg­e­tar­i­an diet and most are veg­an).

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. (Jon is a veg­an).

Dan Amos VN7818, HMP Win­ches­ter, Rom­sey Road, Win­ches­ter SO22 5DF, Eng­land.
On remand hav­ing plead­ed guilty to con­spir­a­cy to black­mail Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences. (Dan is a veg­an)

Gregg Avery TA7450, HMP Win­ches­ter, Rom­sey Road, Win­ches­ter, SO22 5DF, Eng­land. On remand hav­ing plead­ed guilty to con­spir­a­cy to black­mail Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences. (Gregg is a veg­an).

Natasha Avery NR8987, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx. TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. On remand hav­ing plead­ed guilty to con­spir­a­cy to black­mail Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ences. (Nat is a veg­an).

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.
(Mel is a veg­an).

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. (Jake is a veg­an).

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. (Don is a veg­an).

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. (Lau­ren is a veg­an).

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. (Josh is a veg­an).

Sean Kirt­ley WC 6977, HMP Stafford, 54 Gaol Road, Stafford, ST16 3AW, Eng­land. Serv­ing four and a half years for run­ning an anti-vivi­sec­tion cam­paign web­site. (Sean is a veg­an).

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

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. (Heather is a veg­an).

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. (Jonathan is a veg­an).

John Smith, TB4887, HMP Lind­holme, Bawtry Road, Hat­field Wood­house, Don­cast­er, DN7 6EE, Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion. (John is a veg­an).

Andrew Stepan­ian #26399–050, USP Mar­i­on, P.O. Box 1000 Mar­i­on, IL 62959, USA. Serv­ing 36 months for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign. (Andrew is a veg­an).

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. (Ker­ry is a veg­an).

Sarah White­head, VM7684, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx, TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. Serv­ing two years for: 1) res­cu­ing a pup­py from hor­rif­ic con­di­tions. 2) res­cu­ing over 100 ani­mals from a pet breed­er who was lat­er pros­e­cut­ed for ani­mal abuse. Also await­ing tri­al for SHAC activ­i­ty. (Sarah is a veg­an)

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. (Diet unknown).

THE LECCE DEFENDANTS
The Lec­ce Defen­dants 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

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. (Diet unknown).

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

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

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. (Diet unknown).

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

Yuri Yure­vich Milevskiy, SIZO #7 kam­era 38, g. Brest, ul. Kar­la Mark­sa 86, 224000 Belarus. On remand for fight­ing with neo-nazis. (Diet unknown).

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. (Diet unknown).

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. (Meat Eater).

Richard Sills (Address Unknown, USA). Serv­ing 15 months for bomb hoax­ing a Uni­ver­si­ty say­ing they would be tar­get­ed by the ALF if they didn’t stop their ani­mal exper­i­ments. (Diet unknown).

Michael W. Sykes, 696693, 3855 Coop­er St, Jack­son, MI 49201, USA. Youth held on remand accused of anti-sprawl arsons, crim­i­nal dam­age, spray-paint­ing an anar­chist sign and burn­ing the Amer­i­can flag. (Diet unknown)

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. (Fran is a veg­an).

MOVE

MOVE is an eco-rev­o­lu­tion­ary group who car­ried out protests in defence of all life. All move pris­on­ers describe them­selves as veg­e­tar­i­ans. 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

Earth Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers Sup­port Net­work
elp4321@hotmail.com
http://spiritoffreedom.org.uk

CAMPESINOS FIGHT AGAINST GM SOY — PARAGUAY

9.10.2008
Farm­ers occu­py large Brazil­ian-owned farms to block the entry of genet­i­cal­ly-mod­i­fied soy.

Campesinos in the depart­ment of San Pedro occu­pied Brazil­ian-owned farms on Oct. 1 to block the entry of trans­genic soy, and began plant­i­ng oth­er crops such as sesame and yuc­ca on the plots.

Biohazard (red)9.10.2008
Farm­ers occu­py large Brazil­ian-owned farms to block the entry of genet­i­cal­ly-mod­i­fied soy.

Campesinos in the depart­ment of San Pedro occu­pied Brazil­ian-owned farms on Oct. 1 to block the entry of trans­genic soy, and began plant­i­ng oth­er crops such as sesame and yuc­ca on the plots.

Some 120 campesinos occu­pied two 600-hectare (1,480 acre) farms, accord­ing to local media reports.

Cristi­no Per­al­ta, the San Pedro cor­re­spon­dent of the dai­ly ABC Col­or, said that the farm­ers imme­di­ate­ly began plant­i­ng the sesame and yuc­ca after occu­py­ing the plan­ta­tions.

”There was no law enforce­ment inter­ven­tion,” he said. ”The group´s leader Flo­ren­cio Martínez said that the occu­pa­tion marked the start of the recov­ery of Paraguayan ter­ri­to­r­i­al sov­er­eign­ty.”

San Pedro is con­sid­ered Paraguay´s best farm­land, but it is also the country´s poor­est depart­ment. Pres­i­dent Fer­nan­do Lugo worked as a bish­op there for a decade.

Land is con­cen­trat­ed in the fewest hands in Paraguay than in any oth­er Latin Amer­i­can coun­try. Only 351 landown­ers hold 9.7 mil­lion hectares (24 mil­lion acres), while, accord­ing to civ­il soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions, there are more than 350,000 fam­i­lies with insuf­fi­cient quan­ti­ties of land or no land at all.

The demon­stra­tors said that they took over the Brazil­ian-owned plan­ta­tions in protest of what they called the government´s fail­ure to imple­ment land reform. Paraguay has also seen oth­er campesino protests against trans­genic soy plan­ta­tions and the indis­crim­i­nate use of farm­ing chem­i­cals.

Lugo had request­ed that the campesinos give his gov­ern­ment 100 days start­ing Aug. 15 to seek financ­ing for land reform. The peri­od ends on Nov. 22.

Accord­ing to campesino leader Elvio Benítez, the gov­ern­ment ”con­tin­ues with­out find­ing a solu­tion to the lack of land of thou­sands of our com­pa­tri­ots, while the Brazil­ians´ pres­ence is get­ting big­ger and big­ger. We can´t do any­thing else but occu­py the Brazil­ian-owned hacien­das because the soy crops are caus­ing defor­esta­tion, elim­i­nat­ing nat­ur­al forests and con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing peo­ple with its pes­ti­cides.”

Penan mount logging road blockade

Penan mount log­ging road block­ade
8 Octo­ber 2008

Penan com­mu­ni­ties in Sarawak, Malaysia, have mount­ed a road block­ade against the log­ging com­pa­ny Inter­hill in an attempt to stop the destruc­tion of their last remain­ing rain­forests.

The Penan orga­nized the block­ade after nego­ti­a­tions with Interhill’s rep­re­sen­ta­tives at the com­pa­ny’s tim­ber camp failed.

Penan mount log­ging road block­ade
8 Octo­ber 2008

Penan com­mu­ni­ties in Sarawak, Malaysia, have mount­ed a road block­ade against the log­ging com­pa­ny Inter­hill in an attempt to stop the destruc­tion of their last remain­ing rain­forests.

The Penan orga­nized the block­ade after nego­ti­a­tions with Interhill’s rep­re­sen­ta­tives at the com­pa­ny’s tim­ber camp failed.

‘We are ask­ing Inter­hill to respect our Native Cus­tom­ary Rights and to stop log­ging our remain­ing pri­ma­ry forests,’ a Penan spokesman said.

The block­ade, in the Mid­dle Baram area of Sarawak, is being organ­ised by the Ba Abang, Long Item, Long Kawi and Long Pakan com­mu­ni­ties. A sim­i­lar block­ade was erect­ed in the area in June 2006 but was dis­man­tled by the police after two weeks.

The block­ade comes short­ly after Penan women raised a cry of alarm over cas­es of sex­u­al abuse and vio­lence by log­ging com­pa­ny work­ers in the region.

The Penan tribe are nomadic hunter-gath­er­ers. Many now live in per­ma­nent set­tle­ments, but con­tin­ue to rely on the for­est for their exis­tence.

Inter­hill is a Malaysian com­pa­ny, and has been log­ging pri­ma­ry rain­forests in Sarawak since the 1970s.

Source: Bruno Manser Fund

Back­ground info: www.survival-international.org

Halloween land squat, Birmingham — housing crisis

POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENT OF GREEN FIELD SITES FOR HOUSING

The issue of a lack of good qual­i­ty, well main­tained homes for social rent has long been an issue in Birm­ing­ham

Poor qual­i­ty and bad­ly main­tained rent­ed homes cause a vari­ety of prob­lems for their occu­pants includ­ing poor health.

POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENT OF GREEN FIELD SITES FOR HOUSING

The issue of a lack of good qual­i­ty, well main­tained homes for social rent has long been an issue in Birm­ing­ham

Poor qual­i­ty and bad­ly main­tained rent­ed homes cause a vari­ety of prob­lems for their occu­pants includ­ing poor health.

Dur­ing cold­er months the issue of insu­la­tion is a major prob­lem with those on low wages or ben­e­fits not being able to heat their home prop­er­ly. AND IT IS YET ANOTHER SOURCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE caused by a lack of insu­la­tion

On Sep­tem­ber 1st 2008 JUSTICE NOT CRISIS action group scaled the Town Hall in Birm­ing­ham to protest at the coun­cil’s social hous­ing pol­i­cy.

On Thurs­day 30th Octo­ber JUSTICE NOT CRISIS are squat­ting a piece of vacant coun­cil hous­ing land and set­ting up the JOHN LINES HOMELESS VILLAGE. We intend to cel­e­brate Hal­loween on the Fri­day and stay for as long as pos­si­ble.

For full up to date info please vis­it the web site at www.justicenotcrisis.wordpress.com
email us at justice.not.crisis@googlemail.com

We are cam­paign­ing for:

1. That the coun­cil release some of their hous­ing land to hous­ing asso­ci­a­tions so that they can use £100m worth of gov­ern­ment grants to build 2,000 new homes for social rent.
2. We oppose the build­ing of 1,000s of new homes on green field sites in and around Birm­ing­ham as part of the coun­cils aspi­ra­tion to build up to 60,000 new homes.
3. We want to see the coun­cil improve their homes to a much bet­ter stan­dard than the laugh­able “decent homes stan­dard”.