Earth Liberation Prisoners — September 2008

Wel­come to the Sep­tem­ber 2008 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. As peo­ple will soon see, ELP’s pris­on­er lists have grown yet again. If we exclude the Geek anar­chist, Vagge­lis Botzatzis, and the two Amer­i­cans Richard Sills and Michael Sykes (all of whom are list­ed by ELP as ‘Oth­er Pris­on­ers’), there are now 40 list­ed ani­mal & earth lib­er­a­tion pris­on­ers in Europe & Amer­i­ca.

Spir­it of Free­dom

Wel­come to the Sep­tem­ber 2008 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. As peo­ple will soon see, ELP’s pris­on­er lists have grown yet again. If we exclude the Geek anar­chist, Vagge­lis Botzatzis, and the two Amer­i­cans Richard Sills and Michael Sykes (all of whom are list­ed by ELP as ‘Oth­er Pris­on­ers’), there are now 40 list­ed ani­mal & earth lib­er­a­tion pris­on­ers in Europe & Amer­i­ca.

Spir­it of Free­dom
(August 2008)

“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 Sep­tem­ber 2008 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. As peo­ple will soon see, ELP’s pris­on­er lists have grown yet again. If we exclude the Geek anar­chist, Vagge­lis Botzatzis, and the two Amer­i­cans Richard Sills and Michael Sykes (all of whom are list­ed by ELP as ‘Oth­er Pris­on­ers’), there are now 40 list­ed ani­mal & earth lib­er­a­tion pris­on­ers in Europe & Amer­i­ca.

There are also a num­ber of non-list­ed pris­on­ers, who are not list­ed either by their own choice, or because they betrayed their fel­low activists and became infor­mants. And remem­ber these num­bers do not include those peo­ple who are either under House Arrest or on Bail pend­ing Tri­al. Nor do they include the activists whose loca­tions are cur­rent­ly unknown and who are described by the police as “on the run”. See­ing so many good peo­ple removed from their fam­i­lies & loved ones for mere­ly act­ing out of com­pas­sion and a desire to stop envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion and ani­mal abuse is heart­break­ing. Some of the pris­on­ers ELP lists are very well known, oth­ers are less well known. How­ev­er ALL of them deserve our love and sup­port. ALL of the list­ed pris­on­ers wel­come let­ters of sup­port. Even if it’s just a card say­ing “Hi. I’m think­ing of you”. 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, SWIS #640393, Mult­nom­ah Coun­ty Deten­tion Cen­ter, 1120 S.W. 3rd Avenue, Port­land, Ore­gon 97206, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing of six and a half years impris­on­ment hav­ing reached a non-coop­er­a­tion plea-bar­gain with the author­i­ties who accuse him of involve­ment in two 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 Board­er 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).

Rod Coro­n­a­do — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

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).

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, FCI Terre Haute, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, P.O. Box 33, Terre Haute, IN 47808, 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. At the moment Daniel is in tran­sit as he has been ordered to appear before some Grand Juries. Daniel is refus­ing to answer the Grand Jury ques­tions and is gain­ing addi­tion­al prison time because of this (Daniel is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

Jonathan Paul — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Bri­ana Waters, 36432–086, FDC — Seat­ac, Fed­er­al Deten­tion Cen­ter, P.O. Box 13900, Seat­tle, WA 98198, 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 Exeter, 30 New North Road, Exeter, Devon, EX4 4EX, 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).

Mar­tin Bal­luch, (JA Josef­s­tadt), Jus­ti­zanstalt Wr. Neustadt, Max­i­m­il­iang. 3, 2700 Wr. Neustadt, Aus­tria. One of ten Austrian’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Mar­tin is a veg­an)

Christoph, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Austrian’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Christo­pher does not wish to have his full name pub­lished. (Christoph 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).

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. (Rod is a veg­e­tar­i­an).

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).

Jür­gen Faul­mann, Jus­ti­zanstalt Wr. Neustadt, Max­i­m­il­iang. 3, 2700 Wr. Neustadt, Aus­tria. One of ten Austrian’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Jur­gen 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).

Felix Hnat (JA Eisen­stadt), Jus­ti­zanstalt Wr. Neustadt, Max­i­m­il­iang. 3, 2700 Wr. Neustadt, Aus­tria. One of ten Austrian’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Felix is a veg­an).

Jan, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an ‘s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Jan does not wish to have his full name pub­lished. (Jan is a veg­an).

Kevin Kroem­mer, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Austrian’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Kevin is a veg­an)

Sean Kirt­ley WC 6977, HM Prison Blak­en­hurst, Hewell Lane, Red­ditch, B97 6QS, 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).

Leo, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Aus­tri­an ‘s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Leo does not wish to have his full name pub­lished. (Leo is a veg­an).

Daniel McGowan — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

Chris­t­ian Moser, Jus­ti­zanstalt Wr. Neustadt, Max­i­m­il­iang. 3, 2700 Wr. Neustadt, Aus­tria. One of ten Austrian’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Chris­t­ian is a veg­an).

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).

Sabine, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, Aus­tria. One of ten Austrian’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. At the moment Sabine does not wish to have their full name pub­lished. (Sabine 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).

Elmar Völkl (JA Eisen­stadt), Jus­ti­zanstalt Wr. Neustadt, Max­i­m­il­iang. 3, 2700 Wr. Neustadt, Aus­tria. One of ten Austrian’s held on remand accused of var­i­ous ani­mal rights actions. (Elmar 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 FIVE
The Lec­ce Five have been charged with “sub­ver­sive asso­ci­a­tion” accused of dam­ag­ing Esso petrol pumps to oppose the War on Iraq; sab­o­tag­ing the cash machines of a bank which funds an immi­gra­tion cen­tre; and tar­get­ing the multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny Benet­ton in sup­port of Mapuche land rights activists in Chile. All of the defen­dants are cur­rent­ly either under house arrest or released on bail.

ANTIFA PRISONERS

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).

Augustin Kraus, Vazeb­ni veznice, PP‑1, Lit­o­merice, 41 201, Czech Repub­lic. Serv­ing 14 months for his par­tic­i­pa­tion in attacks against local neo-nazis. His charge was “bod­i­ly harm”. He speaks Czech, Slo­vak and Pol­ish. You can also write him short post­cards in Eng­lish. (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, 100 East 2nd St, Mon­roe, Michi­gan 48161, 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

Common Ground Community Garden Celebrates Success with Party on 6 September!

After a year and half of green-fin­gered, com­mu­ni­ty-spir­it­ed direct-action, we — the organ­is­ers of Com­mon Ground Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­den — are cel­e­brat­ing suc­cess … and we invite all our friends,

Common Ground fete flier frontCommon Ground fete flier backAfter a year and half of green-fin­gered, com­mu­ni­ty-spir­it­ed direct-action, we — the organ­is­ers of Com­mon Ground Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­den — are cel­e­brat­ing suc­cess … and we invite all our friends, neigh­bours and sup­port­ers to join in the fun!

Since open­ing the gar­den in May 2007, we have resist­ed being crim­i­nalised while fight­ing for green, com­mu­ni­ty-man­aged space in our neigh­bour­hood. Since turn­ing a coun­cil owned derelict plot into a beau­ti­ful com­mu­ni­ty gar­den, we and our neigh­bours have ignored injunc­tions, protest­ed evic­tion attempts and even faced arrest. But final­ly, we have not only def­i­nite­ly won new sites for at least one com­mu­ni­ty gar­den, but Com­mon Ground itself has been grant­ed a legal license! Suc­cess*!

Read­ing Grass­roots Action (RGA)** who run the gar­den, have been work­ing with Kates­grove Res­i­dents Asso­ci­a­tion (KRA) and have man­aged to agree the license for Com­mon Ground with Read­ing Bor­ough Coun­cil (RBC), which sees the gar­den being insured by KRA and re-opened to the pub­lic until the coun­cil demol­ish the exist­ing build­ings***. We have also vis­it­ed three sites in Kates­grove which could be used for one or more long-term gar­dens. We have cho­sen our pre­ferred sites and hope to agree terms as soon as pos­si­ble****.

To cel­e­brate this suc­cess, we will be hold­ing one more com­mu­ni­ty event at Com­mon Ground Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­den on Sat­ur­day 6th Sep­tem­ber — and this time we have the full con­sent of the coun­cil! The event, run­ning from 2–9pm, will fea­ture fun for all the fam­i­ly such as games includ­ing a raf­fle, face-paint­ing, fresh food and drink and a live graf­fi­ti exhi­bi­tion pro­duced by local artists. In addi­tion, we will have diverse acoustic music from acts includ­ing Lon­dons ‘Babar Luck’ and ‘The King Blues’ as well as oth­er local acts. And of course, vis­i­tors will be able to find out more about what else we are up to and get involved in the new com­mu­ni­ty gar­den in Kates­grove.

We would real­ly love to wel­come every­body to the gar­den one last time and thank every­one who has sup­port­ed the project, so we hope to see you there!

But thats not all… Sup­port­ers of Com­mon Ground are organ­is­ing an all-night after par­ty at a near­by venue! There will be a room for band (punk, ska etc) and a room for DJ’s (hiphop, drum n bass, dub­step, tech­no etc) and con­firmed acts include Bro­ken Note and the Bath Dub Soundsys­tem. See you there!

Thanks,
‘Com­mon Ground’, part of ’Read­ing Grass­roots Action’.

NOTES FOR THE EDITOR:

* Whilst we are cel­e­brat­ing, we want to thank every­one who has sup­port­ed us for mak­ing this project a seri­ous of suc­cess­es from day one. Com­mon Ground has always been about bring­ing peo­ple togeth­er, mobil­is­ing peo­ple into tak­ing action to improve our com­mu­ni­ty with­out wait­ing for those in pow­er to do it for us (we reck­on you might wait for ever oth­er­wise!). It has been about a small piece of land tak­en back under com­mu­ni­ty con­trol and used to ben­e­fit the neigh­bour­hood, in con­trast to the usu­al sit­u­a­tion where resources are used sole­ly to make prof­its and ben­e­fit boss­es and share­hold­ers. In this way, Com­mon Ground was a suc­cess every time peo­ple joined us to ignore injunc­tions, each time we saw off evic­tion days, each time peo­ple took the ini­tia­tive to work in their gar­den. It has been a suc­cess as it was respect­ed by young peo­ple, as it was enjoyed by local work­ers and fam­i­lies and as diverse peo­ples — from squat­ters and anar­chists to res­i­dents of all back­grounds — had con­ver­sa­tions we wouldn’t oth­er­wise have had. So, thank you!

** Read­ing Grass­roots Action (RGA) aims to help increase the col­lec­tive pow­er of ordi­nary peo­ple like our­selves, improv­ing our liv­ing and work­ing con­di­tions and cre­at­ing new demo­c­ra­t­ic insti­tu­tions which act as exam­ples of the world we want to see. We are guid­ed by our hope of one day liv­ing in a soci­ety of gen­uine free­dom and equal­i­ty, with all resources com­mon­ly owned and demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly organ­ised by every­one for every­one. Sev­er­al peo­ple involved in Com­mon Ground were already RGA mem­bers and in April 2008 the groups became one and the same, with RGA look­ing for­wards to help­ing cre­ate a long-term com­mu­ni­ty gar­den in Kates­grove and mov­ing on to tack­le oth­er cam­paigns in Read­ing. If inter­est­ed in join­ing or sup­port­ing RGA, peo­ple are encour­aged to email us at rgacollective(AT)hotmail.co.uk.

*** The build­ings from Crown Street round to the begin­ning of Sil­ver Street have unfor­tu­nate­ly been left by RBC to fall into a state of dis­re­pair over the last few years. We would pre­fer them to be ren­o­vat­ed, as we believe they could be brought back to life as good-look­ing and use­ful build­ings. How­ev­er, RBC wish to demol­ish them as soon as pos­si­ble, as they hope to sell yet more pub­licly owned land to a pri­vate prop­er­ty devel­op­er.

**** RBC have offered three poten­tial sites which could be used for green, com­mu­ni­ty space in Kates­grove. Of these, the site on the cor­ner of Southamp­ton Street and the one on the cor­ner of Elgar Road are our favourites. Over the next few months, RGA and KRA will work to agree terms with RBC in order to gain access one or both of these sites. We appeal to the local com­mu­ni­ty, and to any­body who sup­ports this project to get in touch, and any help with work or dona­tions would be very wel­come!

rgacollective@hotmail.co.uk
http://www.rgacollective.org.uk

Support Portuguese anti-GM activists.

All over Europe, cit­i­zens engage into civ­il dis­obe­di­ence and direct action in resis­tance against cul­ti­va­tion of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied crops. Only in Por­tu­gal, peo­ple that have applied this strat­e­gy are offi­cial­ly labeled as ter­ror­ists. Please help pulling the Por­tuguese activists out of their iso­lat­ed posi­tion and express your sol­i­dar­i­ty by sign­ing the peti­tion!

SIGN PETITION

All over Europe, cit­i­zens engage into civ­il dis­obe­di­ence and direct action in resis­tance against cul­ti­va­tion of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied crops. Only in Por­tu­gal, peo­ple that have applied this strat­e­gy are offi­cial­ly labeled as ter­ror­ists. Please help pulling the Por­tuguese activists out of their iso­lat­ed posi­tion and express your sol­i­dar­i­ty by sign­ing the peti­tion!

SIGN PETITION
———————
http://gopetition.com/online/21252.html

ON WEBSITE
——————–
http://solimove.liveinfo.nl/
On our web­site you find arti­cles exam­in­ing clos­er the action of Movi­men­to Verde Eufemia and the results it pro­duced. We also elab­o­rate on the ques­tion of civ­il dis­obe­di­ence and ter­ror­ism, and pro­vide infor­ma­tion about the shape of resis­tance against GM in Europe. We invite every­one, both por­tuguese cit­i­zens and mem­bers of the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in our dis­cus­sion. Our web­site has por­tuguese and eng­lish trans­la­tion.

CONTACT US
——————–
solimove@googlemail.com
If you have ideas for sup­port or have ques­tions, please do not hes­i­tate to con­tact us.

BACKGROUND
———————–
One year ago, the Por­tuguese Movi­men­to Verde Eufemia (MVE) went into an action of civ­il dis­obe­di­ence. In a sym­bol­ic but deter­mined act they destroyed less than 1 hectare of the first field of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied corn in the region of the Algarve, pre­vi­ous­ly declared GMO Free Zone by local author­i­ties.

In the days fol­low­ing the action, the wide media atten­tion MVE received insti­gat­ed a large polemic, res­onat­ing into lay­ers of the gen­er­al pub­lic, the envi­ron­men­tal move­ment itself, aca­d­e­mics and even the gov­ern­ment. Nev­er did any envi­ron­men­tal action achieve so much atten­tion in the recent his­to­ry of Por­tu­gal.

The ini­tial media high­lights were not so much on the sub­ject of the action, the pres­ence of GMO in Por­tu­gal, but rather on the spec­tac­u­lar nature and the ille­gal aspect of it. How­ev­er in a sec­ond phase atten­tion shift­ed as well to the debate on GMO, and its dan­gers. For that rea­son alone, the action of MVE was con­sid­ered by many peo­ple with envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns as a great suc­cess.

Because of that suc­cess, the cur­rent Por­tuguese gov­ern­ment respon­si­ble for a pol­i­cy in favour of GMO has respond­ed strong­ly in an attempt to iso­late the activists of MVE and oth­er envi­ron­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions strug­gling against GMO, through a strat­e­gy of crim­i­nal­iza­tion. This strat­e­gy came to the point of even label­ing the action as a ter­ror­ist act (Europol EU Ter­ror­ism Sit­u­a­tion and Trend Report 2008). Some peo­ple that have been brought in rela­tion to the case by the police are there­fore fac­ing the risk of being pros­e­cut­ed with­in this con­text of ter­ror­ism. In gen­er­al, it became hard­er to act against GMO in Por­tu­gal. Indi­vid­u­als or orga­ni­za­tions who attempt, run a high risk of being under sus­pi­cion and sur­veil­lance by author­i­ties.

One year lat­er, the oppor­tu­ni­ty of the anniver­sary of this con­tro­ver­sial but influ­en­tial action is used to launch SoliMoVE, Grupo de Sol­i­dariedad com o Movi­men­to Verde Eufemia. The objec­tives of Solimove are:

* To show all actors involved in the debate that the action of MVE is not an iso­lat­ed case in the Por­tuguese his­tor­i­cal con­text, and cer­tain­ly not in the cur­rent inter­na­tion­al con­text, where these types of actions are com­mon, par­tic­u­lar­ly against the cul­ti­va­tion of GMOs.
* To build under­stand­ing of the term civ­il dis­obe­di­ence, its val­ue as an active and engaged form of civ­il soci­ety par­tic­i­pa­tion, and its neces­si­ty in safe­guard­ing the peo­ple and the envi­ron­ment from the threat of genet­ic con­t­a­m­i­na­tion.
* To pro­vide an inter­na­tion­al plat­form for any indi­vid­ual or orga­ni­za­tion, wish­ing to express its moral sup­port towards MVE and its action.
* To defend the free­dom of expres­sion of all cit­i­zens against GMOs.

solimove@googlemail.com
http://solimove.liveinfo.nl/

Today’s news from Glengad, Erris, Co. Mayo

August 31, 2008
A lunchtime Gar­da vis­it to Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp & evening block­ade of Shell com­pound

Shell to Sea camp incursionAugust 31, 2008
A lunchtime Gar­da vis­it to Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp & evening block­ade of Shell com­pound

Today’s main news events from the epi­cen­tre of resis­tance against Shell — a vis­it about lunchtime from the Gar­da brass (plus lack­eys inc. rov­ing video oper­a­tor), lat­er a prac­tice run for the Shell to Sea flotil­la, fol­lowed by a block­ade of Shel­l’s Glen­gad com­pound in the evening.

Today at about 1pm a del­e­ga­tion of Gar­dai called to the Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp, osten­si­bly about inform­ing campers of sec­tion 8.1 of the Pub­lic Order Act. While annoyed by their pres­ence on the camp, the Gar­dai were pre­vent­ed from snoop­ing around the mar­quees, though the use of a video cam­era by Gda. Burke (old foe) to fol­low young chil­dren around roused right­eous ire in their par­ents. Once they deliv­ered their utter­ly point­less mes­sage they were escort­ed off the site to the road and their wait­ing squad car and van.

In the late after­noon, S2S Flotil­la exer­cis­es were held off the Glen­gad com­pound and the marine protest/action squadron used the fine weath­er today to sharp­en their nau­ti­cal skills. Exer­cis­es last­ed an hour, fol­lowed by a quick show­er and off to the next S2S activ­i­ty.
Shell picket
At 6:45 pm local res­i­dents and Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Campers mount­ed a block­ade of the gates of the Shell Glen­gad com­pound. This caught the Gar­dai off bal­ance, and they deployed only in sparse num­bers, very slow­ly, and remained firm­ly ensconced in their vehi­cles. After an hour of blockad­ing, locals and campers returned to the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp for tonight’s par­ty on the fore­shore (a cel­e­bra­tion of our mutu­al capac­i­ty for resis­tance to the cor­po­rate jug­ger­naut and a bit of R&R too!).

Still no sign of the Soli­taire. The clock is well-burnt now — she remains in Killy­begs har­bour but she’s still a loom­ing threat that must be met.

The need for peo­ple to come here and help in the strug­gle to save Erris and stop the Great Gas Rob­bery remains urgent. Come to Glen­gad if you can!

http://www.corribsos.com

BIA vans trashed

On the night of Fri­day 29th August the region­al head­quar­ters of the Bor­ders and Immi­gra­tion Agency in Por­tishead were the tar­get for a response to the rou­tine vio­lence of forced removal, deten­tion and deportation.We made life more dif­fi­cult for the thugs in uni­form by putting their vehi­cles out of oper­a­tion with a volatile mix of paint strip­per on body­work, glass etch­ing flu­id on win­dows, locks gl

On the night of Fri­day 29th August the region­al head­quar­ters of the Bor­ders and Immi­gra­tion Agency in Por­tishead were the tar­get for a response to the rou­tine vio­lence of forced removal, deten­tion and deportation.We made life more dif­fi­cult for the thugs in uni­form by putting their vehi­cles out of oper­a­tion with a volatile mix of paint strip­per on body­work, glass etch­ing flu­id on win­dows, locks glued, tires burst, lights spray­paint­ed, mir­rors and wipers removed, as well as some good old fash­ioned mechan­i­cal sab­o­tage on all 7 vehi­cles in the car park. If a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing well. “Racist thugs work here” was the mes­sage paint­ed on the build­ing.
We stand against the state’s steadi­ly creep­ing fas­cism of racist immi­gra­tion poli­cies designed to tight­en the grip of cap­i­tal over all of our lives, of tri­alling sur­veil­lance and con­trol tech­nolo­gies such as ID cards and bio­met­ric pass­ports first on for­eign­ers before impos­ing them on every­one, of the cre­ation of a sub class whose repres­sion jus­ti­fied by media hys­te­ria and the pow­ers that be. In sol­i­dar­i­ty, for a response to every abuse and for fight­ing back in the social war.

Urgent Update — Navy arrive to protect Shell — Beach on lockdown illegaly

August 29, 2008
Urgent call­out for sup­port

In the past two hours a mass of State and Shell secu­ri­ty has assem­bled in Broad­haven bay includ­ing a heav­i­ly armed navy ves­sel.

This is to pro­tect the first attempt at lay­ing the off­shore sec­tion of pipe.

LE OrlaAugust 29, 2008
Urgent call­out for sup­port

In the past two hours a mass of State and Shell secu­ri­ty has assem­bled in Broad­haven bay includ­ing a heav­i­ly armed navy ves­sel.

This is to pro­tect the first attempt at lay­ing the off­shore sec­tion of pipe.

The Gar­dai sealed a sec­tion of beach beside the camp ille­gal­ly for an hour before retreat­ing and now rear­riv­ing.

The bay is awash with secu­ri­ty ves­sels, gar­dai water units and also a large Navy ves­sel, pos­si­bly “The Orla” which is armed with a canon and small­er guns.

This is the largest recent attempt at crush­ing any resis­tance to the Shell project.
There is also a heavy Gar­da pres­ence on land with pro­test­ers being intimidated,filmed and harassed.

Sol­i­dar­i­ty need­ed!

—
Anti-shell flotilla
Today’s activ­i­ty off Glen­gad marks yet anoth­er esca­la­tion of the state’s response to protests against the destruc­tion of Erris and the Great Gas Rob­bery. The arrival in the bay of the LE Orla about 12 pm today with her 39 crew onboard may be intend­ed to show the Irish peo­ple that the state will tol­er­ate no protest or action by any­body, not least Ireland’s cit­i­zens, against Shell’s plans.

The involve­ment of the Naval Ser­vice in the ‘polic­ing’ of Broad­haven Bay for Shell is a first for Ireland’s navy – the first time one of their ships has been called upon by the Gar­dai as ‘back-up’ for a police oper­a­tion against protests.

Accord­ing to a Defence Forces spokesman, the LE Orla (which was for­mer­ly a British naval gun­ship patrolling Hong Kong) ‘was request­ed by Gar­daí as back-up at Broad­haven Bay, Co Mayo. It is there as an aid to the civ­il pow­er. It was request­ed to assist Gar­dai and pro­vide them with a plat­form at sea.’

When asked if an Irish naval ship had been involved in a sim­i­lar oper­a­tion before, he replied: ‘Not to my imme­di­ate knowl­edge.’

He added: “The Naval Ser­vice has been in dis­cus­sions with the Gar­dai about this oper­a­tion. Any oper­a­tion we under­take will be with the Gar­dai. We will not be involved in any oper­a­tion inde­pen­dent­ly of the Gar­dai.’

Shell sub­con­trac­tor activ­i­ty in the bay has increased today, espe­cial­ly with the deploy­ment of the winch­ing barge today to some­where near its oper­at­ing posi­tion when the Soli­taire comes. News this morn­ing is that the Soli­taire has left Killy­begs har­bour and is some­where on the high seas between there and Broad­haven Bay. Its arrival there is expect­ed tomor­row at the lat­est. Locals and Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp res­i­dents are on high alert, and if peo­ple can come over the next 24 hours to help peo­ple in the effort to stop Shell on the beach and in the bay they will meet with a very big wel­come indeed!

Defence Forces spokesman quotes via www.breakingnews.ie

—–

So heres the lat­est after a long and tense day here in the wild west from today.

The police pres­ence was increased this morn­ing in the area,both on land and water,that was the indi­ca­tion that some­thing was about to hap­pen

At around mid­day the dredger plat­form was towed in.

Peo­ple then start­ed to assem­ble from the var­i­ous points in the area and about 40 cops then went onto the beach and said noone was allowed to go there as it was a\ “restrict­ed area”.
The legal­i­ty of this move was chal­lenged in front of the TG4 cam­era and after half an hour the cops fucked off.and loi­tered there­after for a few hours

The winch ves­sel was then towed across the bay

Just as they were about to go in the winch ves­sel turned around and head­ed back to the pier at Ballin­glass — seem­ing­ly just a prac­tice run who knows.

All this time there were about 5–7 secu­ri­ty and Gar­da water unit boats patrolling the bay as well as the L.E Orla ‚a Navy bat­tle­ship with a big fuck off can­non on the front as well as small­er weapon­ry.

This is a full scale state and cor­po­rate assault on the bay,make no mis­take.
The Solitaire,the main pipe-lay­ing ship which Shell only have for a lim­it­ed peri­od etc is still in Killybegs,but is rumoured by both TG4 and RTE to be leav­ing Sat­ur­day morn­ing.
Sev­er­al Erris fish­er­men are still at sea stand­ing guard over their lob­ster pots which Shell must remove to com­mence work.

They are fac­ing extreme intim­i­da­tion.

Hope some of ye can make it down or maybe do an action where ye are.

Sol­i­dar­i­ty.

Shell to Sea visit Shell’s boats & picket begins again in Rossport & UK actions call-out

29.8.2008

29.8.2008
Yes­ter­day, with work in Broad­haven Bay still delayed, a small Shell to Sea marine team paid a vis­it to the cur­rent Shell water nerve-cen­tre based at Bal­ly­glass pier. Cur­rent­ly moored off Bal­ly­glass is a barge con­tain­ing winch­ing cable, the recent­ly returned Vlaan­deren VII which ran aground at Glen­gad two weeks ago and also the Zenne which is the back­hoe dredger that last Fri­day dropped tonnes of debris with­in feet of pro­tes­tors. Also around the area were a num­ber of oth­er small­er Shell boats.

The Shell to Sea pad­dlers were made up of mem­bers of the Sham­rock squadron (the J. Con­nol­ly, J. Larkin, M. Collins) & Emer­ald squadron (the Grainne) along with 2 mem­bers of the inter­na­tion­al flotil­la (the Guy Fawkes of York­shire squadron and the Robin Hood of Not­ting­ham squadron).

The pad­dlers had made their way about the 1km out to the boats before the Shell safe­ty and secu­ri­ty boats react­ed.
After about an hour pad­dling around the area the Shell to Sea team head­ed into Bal­ly­glass Pier to greet the Gar­da boat which was just launch­ing from the RNLI slip­way. The gar­daí polite­ly refused the request of a race from the J. Con­nol­ly (Sham­rock squadron) after which the team then made their way to the pub­lic slip­way where they were met by shore sup­port.

Mean­while marine train­ing con­tin­ued for the activists prepar­ing for the Soli­taire and asso­ci­at­ed boats.

——–

Rossport picketShell to Sea pro­test­ers stepped up their cam­paign against Shell’s off­shore pipe-lay­ing oper­a­tions by mount­ing a pick­et at the Shell com­pound, Glen­gad, Erris Co Mayo, Ire­land.

A dai­ly pick­et was main­tained at the Bel­lan­aboy refin­ery site from the sum­mer of 2005 till recent­ly. This is the first time since 2005 that a pick­et has been staged at the Shell ‘Secu­ri­ty Zone’ in Glen­gad. The pick­et start­ed at 7am and last­ed till 9am, dur­ing which time Shell secu­ri­ty, who were ready to leave after their overnight shift, remained on site for the dura­tion. Shell work­ers arriv­ing for work at the site remained out­side. The pick­et was stood down vol­un­tar­i­ly at 9am and the work­ers left and entered the com­pound con­se­quent­ly.

The orig­i­nal Bel­lan­aboy pick­et was effec­tive­ly bro­ken by the unlaw­ful and vio­lent behav­iour of An Gar­da Síochá­na which began on Octo­ber 3rd, 2006 and con­tin­ued through 2007. The Bel­lan­aboy pick­et dimin­ished sig­nif­i­cant­ly dur­ing that whole peri­od and into 2008, under­stand­ably, because of a sus­tained assault by the State against its own cit­i­zens, result­ing in much phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal injury to the com­mu­ni­ty and its sup­port­ers.

Today’s pick­et saw the return of many on the receiv­ing end of that attack and it has to be said that the women of Erris, many of whom have been bru­talised by An Gar­da Síochá­na in the past, were the first to return to the camp and the refreshed pick­et.

Mean­while, a Shell to Sea marine team took to the water from Inver pier to pay a vis­it to some Shell & Gar­da boats moored off Bal­ly­glass pier on the oppo­site side of that stretch of water. Apolo­gies, no pics in this report yet of that lit­tle expe­di­tion. Maybe lat­er.

No sign of the Soli­taire yet, prob­a­bly due to the fol­low­ing fac­tors:

1) Bad weath­er.

2) The Chief Pat O’Donnell’s suc­cess­ful defence of his pots from Shell thieves aboard the High­land Nav­i­ga­tor. Pat’s gear remains in the path of the Soli­taire and per­haps only the rul­ing of a judge can resolve that dis­pute, unless the Soli­taire steams through regard­less.

3) Stiff and grow­ing resis­tance.

——

Urgent Call For Actions Against Shell & Allseas

NOW IS THE TIME- Sup­port Shell to Sea, Ire­land. ANY DAY NOW the biggest pipe lay­ing ship in the world, the Soli­taire, is due to arrive. The ship is owned by ALLSEAS. Shell are attempt­ing to ille­gal­ly con­struct the off­shore sec­tion of the high pres­sure raw gas pipeline. Our com­mu­ni­ty are deter­mined to resist Shell here in Mayo, Ireland…but we need your help!

Actions are ongo­ing and will inten­si­fy with the arrival of the Soli­taire. There is a role for every­one, regard­less of age, expe­ri­ence, avail­abil­i­ty and skill. The areas you can help with are end­less and par­tic­u­lar­ly in the fields of camp sup­port, water based skills, legal, cook­ing, med­ical, media and of course direct action.

The atmos­phere is resur­gent in the area, with a fresh burst of con­fi­dence evi­dent among both locals, nation­al and inter­na­tion­al Shell to Sea activists. This is a gold­en oppor­tu­ni­ty to rein­vig­o­rate the fight against this project in a mean­ing­ful and effec­tive way.

Shell can only hold onto the rent­ed Soli­taire for a lim­it­ed peri­od of time and all efforts to hin­der its progress will seri­ous­ly dam­age Shel­l’s plans. ANY dis­rup­tion pro­vides us with a real oppor­tu­ni­ty to delay the project sig­nif­i­cant­ly.

The chop­py waters of Broad­haven Bay will hope­ful­ly aid us in our actions but we need you too!

Come to Erris!
Con­tact: email rossportsolidaritycamp@gmail.com & phone 0851141170

Or take action at home

http://www.allseas.com/uk
Allseas UK Lim­it­ed
Address: Knyvett House The Cause­way
City: Staines, Mid­dle­sex
Post­code: TW18 3BA
Tele­phone: +44 1784 898038
Fax: +44 1784 898030

Irish Embassy and Shell HQ Lon­don
Shell garages across the coun­try.

SMASH SHELL
rossportsolidaritycamp@gmail.com
http://www.indymedia.ie/mayo,
http://www.shelltosea.com
http://www.rossportsolidaritycamp110mb.com

ELF vandalises Seminis Office in Melbourne, Australia

The Mel­bourne office of Sem­in­is, a com­pa­ny which sells GM fruit and veg­etable seeds, and is owned by Mon­san­to, was van­dalised on the morn­ing of the 27th of August by the ELF.
The ELF cov­ered the build­ing in slo­gans declar­ing Sem­in­is as ‘scum’ and Earth rapists.

The Mel­bourne office of Sem­in­is, a com­pa­ny which sells GM fruit and veg­etable seeds, and is owned by Mon­san­to, was van­dalised on the morn­ing of the 27th of August by the ELF.
The ELF cov­ered the build­ing in slo­gans declar­ing Sem­in­is as ‘scum’ and Earth rapists.

Devonport submarine base blockaded by Trident Ploughshares, one arrest

Around thir­teen activists from anti-nuclear direct action group Tri­dent Ploughshares took the police by sur­prise when they block­ad­ed Devon­port naval dock­yard, near the cen­tre of Ply­mouth, in the ear­ly hours of Fri­day, 22 August, 2008. One man was arrest­ed. The Roy­al Navy base is used to refit nuclear sub­marines, includ­ing the Tri­dent nuclear mis­sile-car­ry­ing Van­guard fleet based at Faslane, Scot­land.

Devonport anti-nuke lock-onDevonport anti-nuke ladder blockadeAround thir­teen activists from anti-nuclear direct action group Tri­dent Ploughshares took the police by sur­prise when they block­ad­ed Devon­port naval dock­yard, near the cen­tre of Ply­mouth, in the ear­ly hours of Fri­day, 22 August, 2008. One man was arrest­ed. The Roy­al Navy base is used to refit nuclear sub­marines, includ­ing the Tri­dent nuclear mis­sile-car­ry­ing Van­guard fleet based at Faslane, Scot­land.

The block­aders, main­ly from the local Tamar­i­an affin­i­ty group and the Lon­don-based Muriel Lesters, obstruct­ed the main access road into the site at Camel’s Head. Dock­yard work­ers arriv­ing in vehi­cles were pre­vent­ed from enter­ing for half an hour, from around 7.30am on the last work­ing day before the Bank Hol­i­day week­end. The activists used two long met­al lad­ders, a lock-on tube with a chain attached, bicy­cle chains, a wheel­chair and their bod­ies to com­plete­ly block the incom­ing car­riage­way.

Police even­tu­al­ly arrived and had to divert traf­fic for a fur­ther hour, until the police cut­ting team final­ly arrived. At this point, the block­aders and their sup­port­ers agreed to leave, giv­en that most work­ers had already entered the base. They were able to keep all their ban­ners, lad­ders and oth­er blockad­ing equip­ment.

After releas­ing him­self from an arm lock-on tube (which had been passed through one lad­der and also chained to the cen­tral crash bar­ri­er), Daniel Vies­nik, 33, from Lon­don got up and then lay down again on the red line mark­ing the lim­it of the Min­istry of Defence prop­er­ty. He was sub­se­quent­ly joined by Irene Willis. After ignor­ing police requests to move, Mr Vies­nik was arrest­ed and car­ried away to a van. He was tak­en to Charles Cross police sta­tion and held for around three hours before being charged with obstruc­tion of the high­way and released. He was bailed to appear before Ply­mouth Mag­is­trates’ on 5th Sep­tem­ber.

Devonport anti-nuke die-inOn Sat­ur­day morn­ing, the group tied anti-Tri­dent ban­ners to promi­nent bridges and round­abouts on roads going into Ply­mouth. Lat­er, in the city cen­tre, they dressed them­selves in white ‘radi­a­tion suits’ and some of them attract­ed the atten­tion of passers-by with a ‘die-in’, their ‘corpses’ sprin­kled with ‘nuclear fall­out’ ash. Oth­ers leaflet­ed shop­pers and engaged inter­est­ed locals and sol­diers from the near­by Ter­ri­to­r­i­al Army cen­tre in dia­logue about the nuclear men­ace on their doorstep and pro­pos­als to turn the site into a nuclear sub­ma­rine grave­yard.

One of the block­aders said, “Plans to replace or upgrade the Tri­dent sys­tem con­tra­vene our inter­na­tion­al treaty oblig­a­tions, which is hyp­o­crit­i­cal and ille­gal. We would like to see the British gov­ern­ment lead by exam­ple in push­ing for glob­al abo­li­tion of nuclear weapons and stop wast­ing bil­lions of pounds of pub­lic mon­ey on these instru­ments of mass mur­der. Local work­ers should be retrained to use their skills for more peace­ful pur­pos­es.”

Fri­day’s block­ade was the top sto­ry report­ed on local BBC TV news and was also cov­ered by local ITV news, local radio and the Ply­mouth Her­ald news­pa­per.

Tri­dent Ploughshares is com­mit­ted to dis­arm­ing the UK Tri­dent nuclear weapons sys­tem in a non-vio­lent, open, peace­ful and ful­ly account­able man­ner.
The group is organ­is­ing a Big Block­ade at Alder­mas­ton, Berk­shire – Britain’s nuclear bomb fac­to­ry – sup­port­ed by the Cam­paign for Nuclear Dis­ar­ma­ment (CND), on Mon­day, 27 Octo­ber, meet­ing on 26 Octo­ber. Check the Tri­dent Ploughshares web­site for fur­ther details and to request a brief­ing pack. Arrestable block­aders and non-arrestable sup­port­ers are need­ed. There will be a week­end of non-vio­lent direct action train­ing in prepa­ra­tion for this action on 20–21 Sep­tem­ber in Lon­don. New­com­ers are warm­ly invit­ed to attend (it is also pos­si­ble to attend the train­ing just for one day).

Main­stream media cov­er­age of Devon­port block­ade:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7576964.stm (video)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7576219.stm
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/Nuclear-protest-dockyard/article-283835-detail/article.html

—-

Non-vio­lence train­ing work­shop 20–21 Sep­tem­ber

There will be a week­end work­shop of Tri­dent Ploughshares non­vi­o­lence
train­ing, focussing on prepa­ra­tion for the Octo­ber 27 Alder­mas­ton Big Block­ade at Waltham­stow Friend’s Meet­ing House, 1a Jew­el Road, off Hoe Street, Waltham­stow, Lon­don E17 4QU on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day 20th and 21st Sep­tem­ber.

The full week­end is pri­mar­i­ly for peo­ple think­ing of becom­ing mem­bers of Tri­dent Ploughshares and mak­ing an ongo­ing com­mit­ment. Peo­ple just wish­ing to pre­pare for the block­ade are wel­come to attend for the full week­end, but may also choose to attend on the Sat­ur­day only.

There is no charge for the work­shop, but par­tic­i­pants are asked to con­tribute towards expens­es if they are able to.

Con­tact Ali­son to reg­is­ter and for more details:
E‑mail: alison.crane [at] ntlworld.com
Tel: 01785 611 768 or 0845 4588 362 or 07886 972 319

Repression of Ecotopia camp & 30 arrested at die-in in Turkey

Urgent call for sol­i­dar­i­ty, please for­ward wýde­ly

Shock­ing repres­sion in Turkey!

Don't nuke the climate bannerUrgent call for sol­i­dar­i­ty, please for­ward wýde­ly

Shock­ing repres­sion in Turkey!

Greens, envi­ron­men­tal­ists, peace and nature sup­port­ers, and NGO’s from all over the World gath­ered on the 9th of August to join the 20th inter­na­tion­al Eco­topia gath­er­ing being held at Sarikum nature reserve in Sinop, Turkey. Eco­topia gath­er­ings pro­mote sus­tain­able ways of liv­ing, har­mo­ny with nature, and dis­cuss social jus­tice issues. This year, Eco­topia has sup­port­ed local anti-nuclear groups, raised con­scious­ness of nuclear issues and pro­mot­ed alter­na­tive ener­gy sources. How­ev­er, for the last week, local police have been exert­ing supres­sion on the camp by mak­ing reg­u­lar vis­its, and fol­low­ing and intim­i­dat­ing par­tic­i­pants out­side of the camp.

On Wednes­day 20th August, 6 inter­na­tion­als and 5 Turk­ish peo­ple were placed under cus­tody while stag­ing a peace­ful vig­il out­side the Atom­ic Ener­gy Agency (TAEK) in Sinop. Police have also shown supres­sion towards locals of Gerze town who approached the Eco­topia camp to request sol­i­dar­i­ty against the Ther­mal Coal Plant planned for con­struc­tion in their town. Today, the 22nd August, approx­i­mate­ly 10 armed offi­cers, ordered by the gov­er­nor of Sinop, raid­ed the Eco­topia camp to threat­en force­ful evic­tion if the sýte was not emp­tied with­in 3 hours. In sum­ma­ry, 2 days before our legal per­mit for he site ends, it has been force­ful­ly demand­ed that we shut down activ­i­ties imme­di­ate­ly.

In Turkey, where democ­ra­cy is regress­ing, the author­i­ties do not tol­er­ate the advo­ca­cy of their peo­ple to lýve a safe, sus­tain­able and healthy life. In addi­tion, author­i­ties in the Turk­ish state and Sinop (where it it planned to build one nuclear tech­nol­o­gy cen­tre and 3 Ther­mal Coal plants) are dýs­turbed by the increas­ing local atten­tion on these projects, and are reluc­tant to allow peo­ple’s aware­ness and knowl­edge to grow inde­pen­dent­ly. As par­tic­i­pants rep­re­sent­ing more than 30 coun­tries, we are ask­ing for your sol­i­dar­i­ty, and request you to send the fol­low­ing text to the Turk­ish author­i­ties using the con­tact infor­ma­tion giv­en below.

For a nuclear-free world and a more demo­c­ra­t­ic Turkey, let’s block the phones and fax­es of the Turk­ish author­i­ties!

Eco­topia 2008 par­tic­i­pants

EYFA (Euro­pean Youth For Action)

SINYAD (Sinop Nük­leer­siz Kent ve Yaþam Derneði)

———————-

To whom it may con­cern,

We have been informed that the Eco­topia meet­ing being held at Sarikum nature reserve in Sinop, which was announced and received approval of its per­mit many months ago, is now under­go­ing a peri­od of intense police sup­pres­sion. This event is legit­i­mate and legal, and we are demand­ing that the pres­sure is released. We will keep our­selves informed on how this sit­u­a­tion devel­ops and will fol­low up on this request if nec­es­sary.

Name/organization:

Coun­try:

Sig­na­ture:

————————
CONTACTS:

Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Ýçiþ­leri Bakan­lýðý (Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs)
Tele­fon: +90 (312 )425 72 14
Fax: + 90 (312) 418 12 60
e‑mail: basin@icisleri.gov.tr

Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Sinop Valil­iði ( Gov­ern­er­ship of Sinop)
Tel : 0(368) 261 15 00 -
Fax: 0368 261 15 02 — 261 55 05 -
e‑mail: valilik@sinop.gov.tr, webmaster@sinop.gov.tr

———————————————

LÜTFEN ÇEVRENÝZE DAÐITINIZ…

Acil Dayanýþ­ma Çaðrýsý – 22 Aðus­tos 2008, Sinop

Dünyanýn dört bir yanýn­dan yeþiller, çevre­cil­er, doða ve barýþ yan­lýlarý ve çeþitli örgütler olarak bu yýl 20.‘si yapýlan “Ulus­lararasý Eko­topya Buluþma“mýzý gerçek­leþtirmek üzere 9 Aðus­tos’­ta Sinop Sarýkum’­da top­landýk. Bu yýl Eko­topy­a’nýn amacý yer­el anti-nük­leer guru­plar­la dayanýþ­ma saðla­mak, yenilenebilir ener­ji kay­naklarý ve sosyal adalet konu­larý üzerinde bil­inç art­týr­mak­tý. Bu etkin­lik doðay­la uyum­lu ve sürdüre­bilir bir yaþam hay­al­im­izi kýsacasý ‘eko­topy­amýzý’ kamp deney­im­imizde somut­laþtýrdýðýmýz, ekolo­jik bir yaþamýn mümkün olduðunu gördüðümüz, gös­ter­diðimiz, her katýlanýn evine bam­baþ­ka biri olarak döndüðü, her sene tekrar­lanan 15 gün­lük ortak düþümüz, ütopy­amýzdý. Ancak özel­lik­le son bir haf­tadýr aralýk­sýz devam eden polis ve jan­dar­ma baskýsý bu düþü bir kabusa çevir­di.

Önce, Sinop’­ta­ki Türkiye Atom Ener­jisi Kuru­mu (TAEK) önünde 20 Agus­tos Çarþam­ba günü nük­leer ener­jiyle ilgili olarak hak­lý bil­gilendirmek amacýy­la yap­týðýmýz barýþçýl bir eylem sýrasýn­da 6 yabancý uyruk­lu, 5 TC vatan­daþý, 11 arkadaþýmýz gözaltý­na alýndý. Ardýn­dan bizlere destek olmak için gelen ve yaþadýk­larý bölgede kurul­masý düþünülen ter­mik santrale karþý ses­leri­ni daha fazla duyura­bilmek için bizler­den destek bekleyen Gerze halký sadece biz­im­le görüþtüðü için jan­dar­manýn baskýlarý­na maruz kaldý. Son olarak da bugün bölge jan­dar­masýn­dan gelen yak­laþýk on kiþi­lik grup, hemen kamp alanýný terk etmem­iz gerek­tiði­ni, aksi halde zor kul­la­narak kam­pý daðý­ta­cak­larýný söyledil­er. Öze­tle izn­i­mizin bitme­sine iki gün kala etkin­liðimiz tehditler­le engel­len­m­eye çalýþýl­mak­tadýr.

Demokrasinin giderek ger­ilediði Türkiye’de, bugün otoritelerin artýk yaþamýn savunul­masý­na dahi taham­mülü kalmamýþtýr. Yine görülmek­te­dir ki üç ter­mik ve bir nük­leer teknolo­ji merkezi kurul­masý plan­lanan Sinop’­ta etk­ili güçler ve TC devleti Sinop halkýnýn uyanýþýn­dan ve fes­ti­val­im­ize giderek artan ilgisin­den rahat­sýz olmak­tadýr. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti hiçbir biçimde örgütlü ve bil­inçli bir toplum iste­memek­te, giderek bir polis devle­tine dönüþmek­te­dir. Yak­laþýk 30 ülke­den Eko­topy­a’nýn katýlým­cýsý bireyler olarak bizler, bu baskýlarýn giderek art­masýn­dan endiþe duyuy­oruz.

Siz­leri de aþaðý­da­ki hazýr met­ni kuru­munuz ya da ken­di­niz adý­na, iletiþim bil­gi­leri­ni verdiðimiz Türk kurum­larý­na gön­der­erek biz­im­le dayanýþ­maya çaðýrýy­oruz.

Dünyamýzýn gele­ceði ve daha özgür bir Türkiye için bakan­lýðýn ve Sinop valil­iðinin fak­slarýný kil­itleye­lim!

Eko­topya 2008 Katýlým­cýlarý

EYFA (Euro­pean Youth For Action)

SÝNYAD (Sinop Nük­leer­siz Kent ve Yaþam Derneði)

Sayýn Yetk­ili;

Aylar öncesin­den Türk otoriteler­ine ve Sinop Halký­na duyu­ru­lan “Eko­topya Buluþ­masýnýn” Jan­dar­ma baskýsýy­la engel­len­mek istendiði­ni haber almýþ bulun­mak­tayýz. Bütünüyle yasal ve meþru olan etkin­lik üzerinde­ki baskýlarýn ortadan kalk­masýný talep ediy­oruz. Aksi halde ulusal ve ulus­lararasý kamuoyu olarak olayýn takipçisi ola­caðýmýzý bildirmek ister­iz.

Ýsim / Kurum :

Ülke:

Ýmza:

ÝLETÝÞÝM BÝLGÝLERÝ:

Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Ýçiþ­leri Bakan­lýðý:
Tele­fon: +90 (312 )425 72 14
Faks: + 90 (312) 418 12 60
E‑posta: basin@icisleri.gov.tr

Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Sinop Valil­iði
Tel : 0(368) 261 15 00 -
Faks: 0368 261 15 02 — 261 55 05 -
e‑posta: valilik@sinop.gov.tr , webmaster@sinop.gov.tr

————-

30 arrest­ed at die-in dur­ing envi­ron­men­tal gath­er­ing Eco­topia in Turkey

Sinop (Turkey), 23rd of August. This after­noon, Turk­ish police arrest­ed 30 for­eign­ers from at least 18 coun­tries and 3 Turk­ish cit­i­zens who took part in a peace­ful “die-in” action in front of the Sinop province Governor‘s res­i­dence in Sinop.

On request of the Ger­man Embassy the Sinop Police Head­quar­ters claimed that nobody was tak­en under cus­tody.

The protests are direct­ed against the plans to build a Nuclear Tech­nol­o­gy Cen­tre in the Sinop region. Par­tic­i­pants are mem­bers of envi­ron­men­tal­ist move­ments world­wide. They want to draw atten­tion to the fact that nuclear ener­gy is dan­ger­ous, pol­lut­ing and expen­sive. Instead of invest­ing in nuclear tech­nol­o­gy, Turkey should use its great poten­tial for solar and wind pow­er, as well as increas­ing ener­gy effi­cien­cy.

“The Turk­ish state seems to be very afraid of their cit­i­zens learn­ing how dan­ger­ous nuclear pow­er is. That is why author­i­ties do not tol­er­ate any protest, espe­cial­ly when for­eign­ers are involved. We are seri­ous­ly con­cerned about the denial of free­dom of speech in Turkey.”, says Niklas Hart­mann from Ger­many.

The action took place while the camp is under threat of evic­tion.

—

24.8.2008
22:54h.
The 32 arrest­ed peo­ple are sit­ting at the police sta­tion still. There is no offi­cial state­ment of arrest or cus­tody. When embassies asked for infor­ma­tion on arrestants police actu­al­ly denied to have tak­en peo­ple into cus­tody(…).
The group has been split into small­er groups and tak­en to hos­pi­tal for the com­pul­so­ry check on tor­ture and is now back at the sta­tion. They have been refused access to their lawyer, a cer­ti­fied trans­la­tor and to con­tact their embassy and even access to food and water.
Rumours have it that our lawyer was told by the police that peo­ple did­n’t want to see him.

Peo­ple have been asked to sign papers in Turk­ish with­out trans­la­tion. Before the promised release they will have to see a pros­e­cu­tor, even though they are not for­mal­ly arrest­ed.

23.20h: first group of 6 peo­ple got released, prob­a­bly because they signed the papers. We’ll deal with it now.

To be con­tin­ued…

01:25h.
Every­body fol­lowed by under­cov­er police all the time. Sev­er­al peo­ple picked from the street that had noth­ing to do with the action! Final­ly, nobody has seen the pros­e­cuter, but every­body out now. Police want­ed to deport us from town back to camp site before every­body was released. Sit­u­a­tion was real­ly threat­en­ing. Peo­ple now stay­ing with trade unions. More tomor­row.

————-

[press release] Police threat­ens Eco­topia camp in Turkey with evic­tion

23.8.2008
In the moment, the par­tic­i­pants of the 20th Eco­topia inter­na­tion­al envi­ron­men­tal­ist gath­er­ing at Sarikum nature reserve, Sinop, on the Turk­ish Black Sea coast, are await­ing and prepar­ing for force­ful evic­tion of their camp site by the Jan­dar­ma (Turk­ish Police), which are already present with under­cov­er agents and sev­er­al cars. The 70 par­tic­i­pants from over 30 coun­tries will peace­ful­ly resist this unjus­ti­fied raid. The off­i­cal rea­son for the announced evic­tion was the announce­ment of the inten­tion to take part in the week­ly per­mit­ted press con­fer­ence of the local anti-nuclear ini­tia­tive SÝNYAD (Sinop Nük­leer­siz Kent ve Yaþam Derneði).

Approx­i­mate­ly 10 armed offi­cers, ordered by the gov­er­nor of Sinop, had already raid­ed the camp on Fri­day to threat­en force­ful evic­tion if the site was not emp­tied with­in 3 hours. Lat­er, this dead­line was post­poned to the next morn­ing. Two days before, six par­tic­i­pants of the camp togeth­er with local activists were arrest­ed dur­ing an action in front of the office of the Turk­ish Nuclear Ener­gy Agency (TAEK) in Sinop. After only ten min­utes of spread­ing fly­ers and hold­ing a ban­ner, they were phys­i­cal­ly aggressed by under­cov­er police with­out any pri­or warn­ing. They were held in a police sta­tion for sev­er­al hours and fined for not obey­ing police orders. Police have also shown supres­sion towards locals of Gerze town who approached the Eco­topia gath­er­ing to request sol­i­dar­i­ty against the Ther­mal Coal Plant planned for con­struc­tion in their town.

“We are shocked by the behav­iour of the police and local author­i­ties who did not allow any peace­ful protest to hap­pen. They have also been con­stant­ly threat­en­ing par­tic­i­pants of the camp and deny­ing them, as well as locals, the right to pub­li­cal­ly express their opin­ion. Now they have can­celled the camp just because we announced that we would like to take part in an offi­cial­ly per­mit­ted anti-nuclear protest. This is not what we con­sid­er to be free­dom of speech! ”, says Lenka Kukuro­va, rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Euro­pean Youth for Action (EYFA), the net­work that sup­ports the Eco­topia gath­er­ings.

The protests are direct­ed against the plans to build a Nuclear Tech­nol­o­gy Cen­tre in the Sinop region. The 20th inter­na­tion­al Eco­topia gath­er­ing is tak­ing place in Turkey this year, to sup­port local move­ments to keep Turkey free of nuclear pow­er. Par­tic­i­pants of the camp are mem­bers of envi­ron­men­tal­ist move­ments world­wide. They want to draw atten­tion to the fact that nuclear ener­gy is dan­ger­ous, pol­lut­ing and expen­sive. Instead of invest­ing in nuclear tech­nol­o­gy, Turkey should use its great poten­tial for solar and wind pow­er, as well as increas­ing ener­gy effi­cien­cy.

For back­ground info:
http://ecotopiagathering.org
http://www.eyfa.org