Australian Climate Change protestors block trains and ports

14th July 2008

Australian climate camp action14th July 2008
In the last few days Aus­tralia’ Cli­mate Camp was estab­lished at New­cas­tle, Aus­tralia. Yes­ter­day, peo­ple from the camp chained them­selves to a coal train, block­ing access to Car­ring­ton coal ter­mi­nal for most of the day and cost­ing the com­pa­ny an esti­mat­ed 1.2 mil­lion US dol­lars. Today, more cli­mate camp activists are block­ing work at the world’s largest coal port at Koor­a­gang.

Aus­tralian coal train and world’s largest coal port peace­ful­ly block­ad­ed.

As the G8 lead­ers fail to achieve any mean­ing­ful agree­ment on tack­ling cli­mate change, thou­sands of activists from Britain to Aus­tralia are spear­head­ing a rad­i­cal approach to the issue. Inspired by pre­vi­ous Camps for Cli­mate Action at Drax and Heathrow, six “Cli­mate Camps” are tak­ing place across the world through­out July and August in what is dubbed “the Con­ver­gence for Cli­mate Action” [1].

In the last few days the first camp was estab­lished at New­cas­tle, Aus­tralia. Yes­ter­day, peo­ple from the camp chained them­selves to a coal train, block­ing access to Car­ring­ton coal ter­mi­nal for most of the day and cost­ing the com­pa­ny an esti­mat­ed 1.2 mil­lion US dol­lars [2]. Today, more cli­mate camp activists are block­ing work at the world’s
largest coal port at Koor­a­gang [3].

The events in Aus­tralia will be fol­lowed by camps in Ger­many, the UK [4] and three across North Amer­i­ca into late August. Each camp has the same mes­sages of edu­ca­tion on cli­mate change and direct action against some of the major pol­luters and oth­er cli­mate crim­i­nals. Coal is a strong theme, fea­tur­ing as the prin­ci­ple tar­get in a num­ber of coun­tries.

“We are run­ning out of time,” said Liz­beth Hal­lo­ran from Aus­tralia, where hun­dreds of peo­ple have already gath­ered. “The G8 are mak­ing piti­ful nois­es and insult­ing our intel­li­gence with their so-called tar­gets. With world lead­ers so clear­ly the pup­pets of the cor­po­rate prof­it motive, it is ordi­nary peo­ple who have to put the brakes on cli­mate change when nobody else will.”

The camps share the same four key objec­tives: show sus­tain­able alter­na­tives in action, share skills and knowl­edge, build a grass­roots move­ment against the root caus­es of cli­mate change, and take direct action, which is seen as a pro­por­tion­ate and nec­es­sary response to the scale of the prob­lem. There is also a recog­ni­tion that there needs to be a ‘just tran­si­tion’ [5] to bring about an envi­ron­men­tal­ly and social­ly respon­si­ble soci­ety.

“Two years ago we start­ed off as six hun­dred peo­ple in a field in York­shire, but it sparked some­thing mas­sive world­wide,” stat­ed Con­nor O’Brien, a spokesper­son from the UK’s Camp for Cli­mate Action. “Now we know what­ev­er we achieve in our local strug­gles this sum­mer, they are ampli­fied by the achieve­ments of the five oth­er cli­mate camps around the world, the many more planned for next sum­mer, and the year-round world­wide social move­ment that is both resist­ing run­away cli­mate change caused by the pur­suit of eco­nom­ic growth at all costs, and build­ing path­ways to a sus­tain­able future.”

The camps bring togeth­er diverse ele­ments of the anti-glob­al­i­sa­tion, social jus­tice and envi­ron­men­tal move­ments, unit­ed by the recog­ni­tion that gov­ern­ments and cor­po­ra­tions are part of the prob­lem and there­fore can­not be part of the solu­tion. As well as tak­ing direct action against some of the root caus­es, they seek to pro­mote sus­tain­able solu­tions to the chal­lenge of cli­mate change.

-End-

Con­tact: UK Camp for Cli­mate Action media team on 0793 209 6677 or 07772 861 099; email: press@climatecamp.org.uk. Our web­site is at http://www.climatecamp.org.uk

Notes for edi­tors

1. The glob­al Camps for Cli­mate Action are:

New­cas­tle, Aus­tralia, 10th ‑15th July ( http://www.climatecamp.org.au), tar­get­ing coal export­ing from Aus­tralia Ham­burg, Ger­many, 15th-26th August ( http://www.klimacamp.org)
Unit­ed States ( http://www.climateconvergence.org)
— West Coast Con­ver­gence, 28th July-August 4th, Eugene, Ore­gon, resist­ing Liqui­fied Nat­ur­al Gas devel­op­ment
— North East Coast Con­flu­ence, 30th July-3rd August, High Falls, New York.
— South West Con­ver­gence, 5th- 11th August, Louisa Coun­ty, Vir­ginia, tar­get­ing coal and ura­ni­um min­ing.
2. See http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gpSZdMNkmFJv-LPVY0Q2LB4_mslg
3. See http://www.climatecamp.org.au/2008/jul/13/nine-climate-camp-activists-stop-work-kooragang-co
4. The UK Camp for Cli­mate Action will be tak­ing place near Kingsnorth Pow­er Sta­tion, Hoo, Kent, from 3rd — 11th August. Ener­gy giant E.ON are push­ing to build the first coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in the UK for 30 years at Kingsnorth.
5. “Just Tran­si­tion” is the prin­ci­ple that changes to employ­ment or activ­i­ties made for the sake of envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty should be fair and not cost work­ers or ommu­ni­ties their health, wealth or assets; and that those affect­ed by these changes should take a lead­ing role in cre­at­ing new poli­cies and solu­tions.

pho­tos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28555566@N06/

Their web­site is here:
http://www.climatecamp.org.au/

West Coast Climate Convergence; Canning and trainings and glitter, oh my!

August 12th, 2008

West Coast climate lock-onAugust 12th, 2008
From July 28 — Aug. 4th over 400 peo­ple gath­ered on a pes­ti­cide-free farm in Coburg, Ore­gon to learn, share, orga­nize and net­work. Work­shops and keynotes cov­ered issues from the I‑5 bridge expan­sion (Colum­bia Riv­er Cross­ing) to grow­ing veg­ta­bles year-around. The week high­light­ed fos­sil fuel devel­op­ment projects through­out the West, and then cre­at­ed a space for peo­ple to learn the skills need­ed to fight them.

The phrase direct action has been invoked in many ways for many move­ments. Often, in the cli­mate move­ment it is used to describe non-vio­lent civ­il dis­obe­di­ence that direct­ly con­front and seek to phys­i­cal­ly halt fos­sil fuel devel­op­ment projects, such as lock-downs to equip­ment and road block­ades. At this year’s West Coast Con­ver­gence for Cli­mate Action, we spoke of direct action as not only tak­ing action against dirty fos­sil fuel projects, but also tak­ing action for com­mu­ni­ty solu­tions and sus­tain­abil­i­ty!

The week led up to a day of civ­il dis­obe­di­ence on Mon­day, which con­sist­ed of two major acts of dis­rup­tion, street the­ater and ral­lies. It was awe­some to learn about the details of pro­posed dirty ener­gy projects, then hear the per­son­al sto­ries from impact­ed com­mu­ni­ties fight­ing them, and then final­ly orga­nize and take action in the efforts to stop them.

The first action tar­get­ed the I‑5 expan­sion due to pro­posed increase indi­vid­ual car and truck traf­fic, which would increase neg­a­tive health issue in sur­round­ing areas, increase green­house gas emis­sions, and dri­ve depen­den­cy on oil. Maya, who learned her climb­ing skills at the con­ver­gence, climbed across a promi­nent Port­land bridge drop­ping a ban­ner that read, “6 more lanes = more sick peo­ple, no I‑5 expan­sion”. Below her, con­ver­gence atten­dees per­formed the­ater involv­ing huge card­board bum­mers, as well as hero­ic bicy­clists.

The ral­ly then moved along the water­front to the head­quar­ters of North­west Nat­ur­al Gas Co., a com­pa­ny who would own and oper­ate new pipelines pro­posed through Ore­gon asso­ci­at­ed with Liq­ue­fied Nat­ur­al Gas (LNG). In front of the build­ing three young women locked them­selves to each oth­er, block­ing the entrance to the build­ing while lead­ing chants. The group sang, “Palo­mar is No Solu­tion, LNG is New Pol­lu­tion” as well as, “You can’t Fool us, We’ve been Watch­ing: No More Green­wash­ing”.

The Con­ver­gence was co-spon­sored by Ris­ing Tide North Amer­i­ca, Glob­al Exchange and Rain­for­est Action Net­work, as well as local groups includ­ing: Ener­gy Options, Friends of Liv­ing Ore­gon Waters, Colum­bia Riv­er Clean Ener­gy Coali­tion and Cas­ca­dia Earth First!

Over­all it pumped me up, gave me some new ideas, and fueled me to work hard­er and have more fun in our fight for a bet­ter future!

Here are a few trin­kets about the week:

-One of the most pop­u­lar work­shops was led by a com­mu­ni­ty mem­ber direct­ly impact­ed by Liq­ue­fied Nat­ur­al Gas (LNG) devel­op­ment in Wash­ing­ton. Not only did she come to speak about LNG, but she led a work­shop about can­ning, dry­ing and freez­ing fruits and veg­eta­bles in prepa­ra­tion for decreas­ing food avail­abil­i­ty due to fuel prices and cli­mate change.

-The NW Nat­ur­al action was orga­nized as a women’s action. We chose to do this for a few rea­sons, includ­ing because we were find­ing that the “sexy” roles were often being tak­en by young men in the group, while women were doing a lot of sup­port and behind the scenes orga­niz­ing. As we orga­nized we came up with ways to make the action super fun, includ­ing by cov­er­ing our­selves and our lock-box­es with glit­ter and heart-shaped stick­ers. One of our banner’s read, “Pipeline thru my heart” with a map of Ore­gon with a drawn pipeline through it. This actions was awe­some, inspir­ing and fun!

-All of our keynote speak­ers were amaz­ing! Includ­ing: Louise Benal­ly with Black Mesa Water Coali­tion, Jane Williams with Cal­i­for­nia Com­mu­ni­ties Against Tox­ins and John Sundquist with River’s Turn Farm.

Here are some videos, and more cov­er­age (includ­ing a hilar­i­ous right-wing blog inter­pre­ta­tion) to learn more:

youtube video of Post Con­ver­gence ACTIONS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4cR-8sJHQU

Ore­gon­ian Video of No I‑5 Expan­sion ban­ner hang:
http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/08/protesters_climb_onto_morrison.html

Gen­er­al Cov­er­age of Cli­mate Con­ver­gence:
http://www.kval.com/news/26195294.html
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=125947&sid=4&fid=1
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Slaughterhouse burned to the ground, Sweden

The Swedish ALF, Djurens Befrielse­front, has claimed respon­si­bil­i­ty for a fire at a slaugh­ter­house in Lövud­den on Fri­day night, July 4th. By the time the fire brigade arrived on the scene, noth­ing could be sal­vaged.

Slaughterhouse burned to the groundThe Swedish ALF, Djurens Befrielse­front, has claimed respon­si­bil­i­ty for a fire at a slaugh­ter­house in Lövud­den on Fri­day night, July 4th. By the time the fire brigade arrived on the scene, noth­ing could be sal­vaged. The slaugh­ter­house was due to open on Sep­tem­ber 1 and slaugh­ter moose, elk and oth­er wildlife. The own­er report­ed that insur­ance will not cov­er the entire loss and rebuild­ing may not be pos­si­ble.

Southeast Climate Convergence march visits Richmond climate criminals. Two lockdown at Bank of America

August 11th, 2008

No nukes no coal bannerAugust 11th, 2008

Despite a mas­sive police pres­ence through­out the city and our major action plan derailed by law enforce­ment harass­ment, 50 activists snaked their way through Rich­mond today in an un-per­mit­ted march, pay­ing vis­its to sev­er­al cli­mate crim­i­nals. Car­ry­ing ban­ners read­ing, “No Nukes, No Coal, No Kid­ding” and “Social Change not Cli­mate Change,” peo­ple marched to the head­quar­ters of Massey Ener­gy, Domin­ion, Vir­ginia Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Qual­i­ty, and Bank of Amer­i­ca.

At Massey Ener­gy, a noto­ri­ous coal com­pa­ny involved in moun­tain­top removal coal min­ing, activists sur­round­ed the entrance and yelled, “Hands off our moun­tains!.” The group then moved on to the Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Qual­i­ty which recent­ly rub­ber stamped Dominion’s dirty coal plant in Wise Coun­ty, VA. Next the group brought the par­ty to Domin­ion, who is build­ing the afore­men­tioned coal plant as well as propos­ing a new nuke plant in Louisa Coun­ty, VA. Chant­i­ng “No coal, no nukes, we won’t stop until you do!” the activists attempt­ed to take over Dominion’s plaza but were repelled by police on hors­es. In a show of inter­species sol­i­dar­i­ty one horse bucked a cop off its back.

To wrap things up for the day, the crowd moved on to the the tow­er­ing Bank of Amer­i­ca build­ing, one of the largest fun­ders of the coal indus­try. In impres­sive feat of stealth two activists man­age to infil­trate the beefed up secu­ri­ty at the build­ing and locked to a sign out­side of the cus­tomer entrance. Marchers sup­port­ed the lock­down with a die in on the side­walk. Police even­tu­al­ly cut free the two that were locked down and charged them with tres­pass­ing.

All in all it was a great day. While the police may have foiled our orig­i­nal plans they couldn’t stop us alto­geth­er. Pret­ty much every build­ing in Rich­mond con­nect­ed to a cli­mate crim­i­nal had cops staked out at it and sev­er­al activists cars were fol­lowed any­where they went. Despite this we had a suc­cess­ful march and lock­down. Lets con­tin­ue the strug­gle for cli­mate jus­tice in the south­east!

Billionaire’s for Coal strike in Bank of America’s home state, 4 protests in 3 days

July 11th 2008

Bank of America, Asheville protestJuly 11th 2008
Today Asheville Ris­ing Tide’s bil­lion­aire bloc descend­ed on Bank of America’s region­al head­quar­ters to demand that BoA con­tin­ue to invest their mon­ey in coal. The Bil­lion­aires for Coal car­ried signs read­ing “More Prof­it, Less Moun­tains” and sipped on dirty (coal) mar­ti­nis to applaud BoA for its fund­ing of moun­tain­top removal coal min­ing as well as the new gen­er­a­tion of dirty coal plants. The Asheville Police Depart­ment did an excel­lent job of block­ing access to the bank entrance and the ATM sure­ly scar­ing off a num­ber of bank cus­tomers.

Two days before, activists with Croatan Earth First! vis­it­ed three Bank of Amer­i­ca branch­es in Raleigh and Chapel Hill. The activist entered the banks rais­ing a ruckus and hand­ing out fliers to cus­tomers until being forced to leave. The mot­ley crew of bil­lion­aires then pro­ceed­ed to demon­strate out­side and inform­ing the pub­lic of BoA’s dirty deeds. A few weeks before sev­er­al activists were detained by police in Char­lotte, NC (BoA’s home­town) for hang­ing anti-coal poster’s in the neigh­bor­hoods of sev­er­al BoA exec­u­tives homes. After inten­sive inter­ro­ga­tion, they were let go with­out charge (remem­ber kids, nev­er talk to cops).

Bank of Amer­i­ca is guilty of fund­ing such noto­ri­ous human rights abusers and eco­log­i­cal destroy­ers as Massey Ener­gy, Arch Coal, and Peabody Ener­gy. They have recent­ly hand­ed over heaps of cash to com­pa­nies such as Duke Ener­gy that is cur­rent­ly build­ing the 800 MW Cliff­side coal plant in Cliff­side, NC.

Spirit of Freedom (July 2008)

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)

Prisoner Solidarity 8Pro­duced 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 July 2008 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. As a num­ber of ELP sup­port­ers will be aware, ELP has tra­di­tion­al­ly ded­i­cat­ed our newslet­ters to fall­en friends, who have either been killed or seri­ous­ly injured as a result of their protest activ­i­ties. For the past few months ELP has­n’t car­ried any ded­i­ca­tion and we hoped that we would not have to ded­i­cate anoth­er newslet­ter to a fall­en friend again. How­ev­er last month, ELP received the heart­break­ing news about the death of Marie Vesco. Marie was a French activist liv­ing in Eng­land. She was involved with a num­ber of groups includ­ing ‘Food Not Bombs’. On Wednes­day the 4th of June 2008 Marie was cycling to the Car­ni­val Against the Arms Trade when a Four Wheel Dri­ve
vehi­cle (an SUV if your Amer­i­can) swerved across two lanes hit­ting Marie. A sec­ond vehi­cle then also hit Marie. Marie died instant­ly: she was just a few days away from her 20th birth­day. Marie is remem­bered as a warm, loud, fun, viva­cious fig­ure with an infec­tious laugh that was always ready to help oth­ers. ELP under­stands that at least two Crit­i­cal Mass cycle rides have already been ded­i­cat­ed to Marie. Like­wise in mem­o­ry of Marie ELP is ded­i­cat­ing this newslet­ter to her mem­o­ry. The loss of Marie is a blow for the move­ment and our thoughts are with her fam­i­ly and friends.

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).

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, Colum­bia Coun­ty Jail, 403 Jack­son Street, Portage, Wis­con­sin 53901, 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, 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).

Gregg Avery TA7450, HMP Win­ches­ter, Rom­sey Road, Win­ches­ter, SO22 5DF, Eng­land. On remand accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to his involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (Gregg is a veg­an).

Natasha Avery NR8987, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx. TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. Jailed for breach­ing her parole con­di­tions imposed on her for telling a fox hunt­ing mur­der­ing scum what she thought of them. Also await­ing tri­al accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to her involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign. (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, Anti­rep 2008, Post­fach 101, 1070, Vien­na, 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.

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).

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).

Sarah Gis­borne, LT5393, HMP Down­view, Sut­ton Lane, Sut­ton, Sur­rey, SM2 5PD, Eng­land. Serv­ing 5½ years for con­spir­a­cy to cause crim­i­nal dam­age fol­low­ing the dam­ag­ing of 8 vehi­cles owned by peo­ple linked to Hunt­ing­don Life Sci­ence. Due for release at the end of July (Sarah 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).

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.

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)

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.

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.

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).

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).

Andrew Stepan­ian #26399–050, FCI But­ner Medi­um II Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, PO Box 1500, But­ner, NC 27509 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 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).

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).

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

Wembley Anti-Academy Tent City Facing Eviction: Party And Resist!!!

On Tues­day 15 July 2008 Brent Coun­cil rep­re­sen­ta­tives will attend Willes­den Coun­ty Court at 10.30am to seek a court order for the imme­di­ate evic­tion of the Wem­b­ley Sports Ground Tent City Occu­pa­tion.

On Tues­day 15 July 2008 Brent Coun­cil rep­re­sen­ta­tives will attend Willes­den Coun­ty Court at 10.30am to seek a court order for the imme­di­ate evic­tion of the Wem­b­ley Sports Ground Tent City Occu­pa­tion. Par­ty Fri­day night. Meet the locals and get involved.

The Wem­b­ley Tent City Occu­pa­tion opposed to the Wem­b­ley Park Acad­e­my school and all UK school pri­vati­sa­tion asks for sup­port­ers, protest Willes­den Coun­ty Court, join the cam­paign, squat the sports ground now and get ready for direct action.

Help make this the biggest pub­lic oppo­si­tion to the Blair lega­cy that sold off UK schools to pri­vate investors who have no inter­est in edu­cat­ing chil­dren, oth­er than how much prof­it it is going to make them, prof­it from your hard-earned tax­pay­er’s mon­ey.

Expe­ri­enced NVDA peo­ple are need­ed. Join the protest, or just vis­it. Your knowl­edge would be great­ly appre­ci­at­ed. your bod­ies will be more appre­ci­at­ed.

It’s time to resist!

Protest the Willes­den Coun­ty Court, Acton Lane, Willes­den, on Tues­day 15 July, 10.30am.

Meet those involved this Fri­day, 11 July, from 3.30pm till late at the “Back on site or pre-evic­tion par­ty? — you decide!”

Wem­b­ley Tent City Occu­pa­tion, Bridge Road, Wem­b­ley.

Near­est Tube: Wem­b­ley Park (Met­ro­pol­i­tan Line)
Turn left out the sta­tion, walk up the hill to main junc­tion on Bridge Road, turn left, walk 100 metres, turn left into the gate way to Wem­b­ley Park Sports Ground and you’re there.

Bus­es: 83 from Gold­ers Green Stn, 302 from Ken­sal Rise Stn, 297 from Willes­den Bus Garage

Tent City Occu­pa­tion (see here for con­tact details)

http://www.tentcityoccupation.co.uk/

Pre­vi­ous cov­er­age

Anti-Acad­e­my Teach­ers Take To The Trees
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/5074

Wem­b­ley Sum­mer Camp Open: Squat The Land, Smash School Pri­vati­sa­tion
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20984

Wem­b­ley Teach­ers Say No To Pri­va­tised School­ing
http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/06/wembley-teachers-say-no-to-privatised.html

200 School Pupils In Huts On A Con­struc­tion Site
http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/06/200-school-pupils-in-huts-on.html

The Boil on Bus­son’s Butt
http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/07/boil-on-bussons-butt.html

Save Our Schools 22-minute film avail­able on Reel News issue 13
http://www.reelnews.co.uk/

Tent City Occu­pa­tion
http://www.tentcityoccupation.co.uk/

Bristol Tree Felling Protest

July 8th 2008
A protest organ­ised by the Snuff Mills Action Group attract­ed a very healthy turnout last night despite adverse weath­er con­di­tions. Around 250 peo­ple turned out to express their dis­gust at Bris­tol City Coun­cils approval of a plan­ning appli­ca­tion to fell 27 trees in a con­ser­va­tion area.

Snuff Mills protestJuly 8th 2008
A protest organ­ised by the Snuff Mills Action Group attract­ed a very healthy turnout last night despite adverse weath­er con­di­tions. Around 250 peo­ple turned out to express their dis­gust at Bris­tol City Coun­cils approval of a plan­ning appli­ca­tion to fell 27 trees in a con­ser­va­tion area.

Grove Wood on Black­ber­ry Hill in Sta­ple­ton has been part of the hos­pi­tal site since it was orig­i­nal­ly built to house French pris­on­ers of war dur­ing the Napoleon­ic Wars but was sold off at auc­tion last year to Mr Hus­sain Jafari Najafaba­di of Clifton for £39,000 as part of the Gov­ern­ments dri­ve to sell off sur­plus state owned assets. The land forms part of the con­ser­va­tion area that runs from East­ville right through to Dow­nend.

Mr Jafari has a record of plan­ning vio­la­tions (most of which have been grant­ed ret­ro­spec­tive­ly) and, it is alleged, has been heard to be brag­ging of his long term plan to turn the site into a hotel and con­fer­ence cen­tre. His busi­ness deal­ings are car­ried out under a num­ber of alias­es.

Short­ly after pur­chas­ing the wood, the new landown­er set about cut­ting down trees with impuni­ty and sit­ed a por­tak­abin with­in sight of the main road, near the entrance to the Wood.

Bris­tol City coun­cil took no action and when he sub­mit­ted a plan­ning appli­ca­tion to fell the trees lin­ing the road, locals thought that con­ser­va­tion area sta­tus would prob­a­bly lim­it health and safe­ty work to prun­ing alone, giv­en the mas­sive impact on visu­al ameni­ty that felling would have.

Bris­tol City Coun­cil grant­ed the per­mis­sion cit­ing that the list­ed wall was being under­mined, a sew­er was affect­ed and high­way obstruc­tion.

The protest last night was the first of its kind in the cam­paign to save Grove Woods and Snuff Mills Action Group Spokesman Steve Mick­lewright said:
“We want to know the real ratio­nale behind this deci­sion, we are very sus­pi­cious about what’s hap­pened here and we want prop­er answers imme­di­ate­ly”.

He went on to say
“Come on Bris­tol City Coun­cil, do your job and stop pan­der­ing to rogue devel­op­ers.”

This full details of this cam­paign can be obtained from the link below, and the online peti­tion can be accessed also.
http://snuffmills.blogspot.com/

Illegal Arromight Arrest — The Footage

After telling one activists to stop using the mega­phone as it was annoy­ing the work­ers inside and the activist car­ry­ing on, he was arrest­ed for sec­tion 5, but with four activists and only two police offi­cers the games began. All charges have been dropped! What a sur­prise! See the videos below for the footage “bet you cant run as fast as me…”

After telling one activists to stop using the mega­phone as it was annoy­ing the work­ers inside and the activist car­ry­ing on, he was arrest­ed for sec­tion 5, but with four activists and only two police offi­cers the games began. All charges have been dropped! What a sur­prise! See the videos below for the footage “bet you cant run as fast as me…”

VIDEO 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=spS578gQus0 — lead­ing upto the arrests
VIDEO 2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZVRKvJSTW7c — the fun con­tin­ued

Relat­ed Links-

www.sequani.wordpress.com
www.westernanimalrights.wordpress.com
www.shac.net
www.netcu.wordpress.com
www.arcops.wordpress.com
www.fitwatch.blogspot.com

WARN / ACAB
Home­page: http://westernanimalrights.wordpress.com

AMP-Ohio Utility Headquarters Overtaken by Earth First! — No More Business as Usual for Environmentally Destructive Profiteers

Earth First! activists demand can­cel­la­tion of pro­posed coal-fired pow­er plant in Meigs Coun­ty, Ohio

AMP-Ohio occupation

Earth First! activists demand can­cel­la­tion of pro­posed coal-fired pow­er plant in Meigs Coun­ty, Ohio

Colum­bus, OH — At 11:30am Mon­day morn­ing (8/7/2008), about 100 Earth First! activists occu­pied the head­quar­ters of Amer­i­can Munic­i­pal Pow­er, an elec­tric util­i­ty that pro­vides statewide ser­vice to mem­ber com­mu­ni­ties.

As part of an ongo­ing series of direct actions, activists con­front­ed CEO Marc Gerken and demand­ed that AMP-Ohio can­cel its plans for con­struc­tion of a new and wide­ly opposed coal-fired pow­er plant in south­east Ohio.

Dozens of activists charged the build­ing and occu­pied the lob­by, dis­abled video cam­eras with sil­ly string, danced on fur­ni­ture, banged on pots and pans, and deliv­ered anti-coal mes­sages to employ­ees with chants and songs. Five activists locked them­selves down in the lob­by and two activists climbed the flag­poles in front of the build­ing, hoist­ing signs that read “no new coal!” and “we won’t stop until you do.”

Busi­ness as usu­al was dis­rupt­ed for sev­er­al hours while police forcibly removed demon­stra­tors from the prop­er­ty, arrest­ing eight. Bail mon­ey is still need­ed for sev­er­al activists. Please help out by donat­ing to the legal fund at http://earthfirstjournal.org/

Mor­gan Kipler, an Earth First!er from Colum­bus, said that the pro­posed plant “is cur­rent­ly the great­est threat to Ohio’s health, safe­ty, and wel­fare, and must be can­celled imme­di­ate­ly.”

Earth First! oppos­es the pow­er plant for a num­ber of rea­sons. The pro­posed plant would be a major cli­mate change con­trib­u­tor, emit­ting 7.3 mil­lion tons of CO2 into the air every year. The local impact is just as dra­mat­ic: Meigs Coun­ty ranks num­ber one in the state for lung can­cer inci­dence, and num­ber two for relat­ed mor­tal­i­ties.

A study released by the Clean Air Task Force shows Meigs Coun­ty to be in the cen­ter of a tri-state hot zone for pre­ma­ture death rates direct­ly attrib­ut­able to PM 2.5 expo­sures. PM 2.5 is the par­tic­u­late mat­ter released by pow­er plants respon­si­ble for a mul­ti­plic­i­ty of life-short­en­ing ill­ness­es includ­ing can­cer and car­dio­vas­cu­lar and res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­eases.

If the pro­posed AMP-OH plant is built, it will become one of five coal plants with­in a ten-mile radius to the south­ern tip of Meigs Coun­ty. Addi­tion­al­ly, four more coal-fired plants have been pro­posed for con­struc­tion in the area by oth­er elec­tric util­i­ty providers. This is an obvi­ous injus­tice as it forms the back­bone of the high­est con­cen­tra­tion of coal-fired pow­er plants in the coun­try.

The pow­er plant is also a bad deal for elec­tric cus­tomers. Costs of con­struc­tion have esca­lat­ed from $1.2 to $2.9 bil­lion since Octo­ber of 2005, an increase of about $1.7 mil­lion per day over the last 3 years! At a time of cost hikes, nation­wide pow­er plant can­cel­la­tions and rejec­tions, and pend­ing fed­er­al leg­is­la­tion on glob­al warm­ing emis­sions, AMP-Ohio is mak­ing a bad deci­sion for its mem­ber com­mu­ni­ties, the peo­ple of Meigs Coun­ty, and future gen­er­a­tions in Ohio and beyond.

Earth First! said it will con­tin­ue to resist the con­struc­tion of the AMP-Ohio plant with a diver­si­ty of tac­tics.

—–

Earth First! is an inter­na­tion­al move­ment root­ed in bio-cen­trism and direct action. This action con­cludes the Earth First! 2008 nation­al gath­er­ing, which took place in South­ern Ohio from June 30-July 7.

I was for­tu­nate enough to be at the AMP-Ohio head­quar­ters in March, when activists occu­pied AMP’s lob­by and demand­ed that AMP CEO Marc Gerken sched­ule a meet­ing with impact­ed com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to dis­cuss their con­cerns about the Meigs Coun­ty coal plant. Gerken promised to sched­ule the meet­ing, then broke his promise sev­er­al months lat­er.

AMP-Ohio are part of a small army of coal indus­try envi­ron­men­tal crim­i­nals, who are try­ing their hard­est to pol­lute our com­mu­ni­ties and cause cli­mate chaos in order to increase their prof­its. But in order to do that, they’re going to have to get past a small army of envi­ron­men­tal war­riors — like the activists who shut down AMP’s head­quar­ters on Mon­day — who are will­ing to put their per­son­al safe­ty on the line in order to con­front and shut down these cli­mate crim­i­nals.