Respect existence or expect resistance!
Early this morning activists blocked Stancliffe Stone a subsidiary of Marshalls PLC for three and a half hours using two tripods.
The action was done to show that regardless of the camp being evicted from 9 Ladies site, that Marshalls or Stancliffe Stone are still very easy to shut down and that activists can cause economic damage in a peaceful non violent way.
At lunchtime today, a meeting of companies involved in nanotechnology industries was invaded and disrupted by a group of people opposed to technologies of social control.
The protest took 3 main parts. Firstly, an information gathering exercise to gain further details of who is involved in what, for future actions. Secondly, the hall was visited and made extremely unplesant by a well-known substance for stinking out conferences: comfrey in water left to rot for a couple of months, and fish bait. visitors to the hall an hr after said people were holding their noses and not staying, and the smell was hideous. Leaflets were also given out. The third aspect was the seizing of the tannoy and a communique being read out. This coincided with a talk on nanotech which drowned it out, and was heard in every room through the museum. Leaflets were also scattered down. Two of these people were held by security until the police arrived, took down the name and address and date of birth that the two claimed were theirs, quick check to make sure there was no warrant on the names given, and then released.
Nanotechnology is the newest weapon against diversity, rebellion, difference, autonomy and freedom. The US military is, of course, the biggest investor as it tries to ensure total domination of all life on the planet. The British government has also invested £90 million in nanotechnology and most industries and universities* are developing interests in the field.
Genetic engineering was recognised as having massive social and ecological implications and this ensured worldwide resistance against it. Nanotechnology, which has the ability to transform all matter, has far more dramatic effects and needs drastic action to confront this new assault on diversity of life.
Nanotech, and its links to biotechnological, informational and cognitive sciences, provides the state with yet more tools with which to control all dissent and iron out all life into a homogeneous, manipulable mass. Be it advances in surveillance technologies, the ability to disable neural transmitters and break apart DNA strands by remote control, artificially create ‘workaholism’ in labourers, or ‘stamp out’ physical and mental difference, nanotechnology puts mind control, body control, social control and control of the natural world more firmly in the hands of the state, the corporations and the ruling elite.
Just as biotechnology was sold to us as a green technology that would feed the world, so nanotech is being heralded. Both instinct and reason tell us to take action against these new technologies before we lose our last liberties to them.
Leeds action is a UK first!
However, we were beaten by North Americans taking their clothes off in October — Action in Chicago by THONG at nanocommerce 2004 — (Topless Humans Organised for Natural Genetics) — see
http://www.chicagothong.org/nanocommerce.php?photo=061 for amusing photos and also
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004/10/nano-industry-hits-bottom.html for industry reaction
and before that, a 30 Jan 2004 protest of the groundbreaking of the Molecular Foundry, a new Dept of Energy nanochemistry facility at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, CA USA;
and those pesky Continental-types:
actions/protest against nanotech/converging technologies in Grenoble by piecesetmaindoeuvre (anti tech activists — disrupting nano-conferences) — seewww.piecesetmaindoeuvre.com
* These are easy targets
* Get scared, then get active!
For those who, like many of us, have buried our heads in the sand about this new technology, but have decided it is time to learn and to act, the following information should assist:
http://www.etcgroup.org — campaigning but non-radical group with info on nanotech; see ‘The Big Down’ report
http://www.wtec.org/ConvergingTechnologies/Report/NBIC_frontmatter.pdf- info from the “other side”
http://www.leedsef.org.uk/atomtech.htm — earth first! website with an 8 page nanotech article somewhere on it!
Prof. Bill Davies has announced his resignation from the notorious ‘Bridge Across the Bay Company’ after protests last week at the Lancaster Enivironment Centre.
Lancaster Earth First! have been informed that Professor Bill Davies, who was one of the directors for the company investigating the possibility of building an 11mile bridge across Morecambe Bay from Heysham to Barrow has sent an email explaining that he is no longer a director of the company.
Visit Lancasteraction.co.uk for latest updates…
earthfirst@lancasteraction.co.uk
About 20 protesters made quite a ruckus at Thursday’s “Champion Canterbury Awards” in Christchurch.
Attendees to the awards, including Helen Clark and the Christchurch mayor, were greeted with drums, chants, heckles (‘Why don’t you get a real job?’ was a favourite) and banners.
There were three key targets of the awards: Solid Energy for planning to decimate Happy Valley on the West Coast with their proposed Cyprus Mine; Crop & Food who are currently testing ’roundup-ready’ GE onions; and the Cancer Society who spend a massive amount of their budget on vivisection.
Protesters dressed in $2‑shop suits managed to get into the conference, despite the heavy police presence, enjoyed a few glasses of complimentary wine and stormed the stage just prior to the award ceremony beginning. They had ample time to chant, scream and explain what they were opposed to. They also carried a banner that read “Don’t Award the Capitalist Hoard”.
The police that were outside intimidating the protesters panicked and quickly turned to race inside but ran straight passed the three protesters as they casually made their own way out.
No arrests resulted, though numerous people were threatened.
Helen Clark was reported as saying that she thought she was in for a night of “Theatresports” before she realised it was “just the local anarchists”.
The Christchurch Press reported the events in a couple of columns. They tried to defend themselves as the primary sponsors of the event but, instead, summed up the protesters standpoint with accuracy unusual in mainstream media.
“[The awards] are an unabashed celebration of the virtues of capitalism… A tiny band of protesters called themselves “anti-capitalists” … deplored the honouring of those who “exploited” or made profits from the community, animals and the environment.”
The protesters also staged their own “Corporate Backscratch Awards” outside, with awards like ‘eco-terrorist’ for Solid Energy, ‘bio-hazard’ for Crop and Food and ‘animal torture’ for the Cancer Society.
None of the camps were willing to accept their awards on the night, so were visited Friday morning where they were delighted to see the protesters again and gratefully accepted the awards.
Two South Island students began a hunger strike today in protest of the proposed“Cypress” mine in Happy Valley. The students will confine themselves to a small platform suspended from a tree on the road to Stockton, near Granity on the West Coast.
“What we are doing may seem dangerous, but the dangers posed by the Cypress Mine are far greater. We want to illustrate the hunger and suffering that global climate change will cause, to empathise with those who have no voice in the world.” stated Fiona Gibson, one of the hunger strikers.
A number of protestors from around New Zealand have also occupied the site of the proposed mine for the second time.
The proposed mine will extract 500,000 tonnes of coal from the mine each year for 10 years, mostly for export. Protestors say the mine will cause massive loss of vegetation, and destroy habitat for endangered insects and kiwi. [ Read more ]
Thieves broke into Business Homes’ new business park in Wakefield last week and stole the 60 cameras and sensors that made up its “state of the art security system”.
The theft was particularly embarrassing given that two of the site’s occupants are HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and HM Prisons Service.
“This was a seriously sophisticated system,” insists director Simon Houlston, prompting me to ask how the burglars did away with it.
“There are cameras hooked up to a central office in Blackburn,” he says. “If the men watching the screens see a burglar they send a message out on loudspeakers to the office warning them to leave.
Unfortunately, in this case the thieves just didn’t listen. “One other person did, though. The old lady next door later told us she had heard the voice of God, last night, telling her, in a strong Lancashire accent, to leave the vicinity as soon as possible.”
(from The Telegraph)
A (belated) action report from the Stop Bayer GM campaign.
The Bayer Cropscience building at North Newbalds had all 56 of it’s windows broken. The message “No GM — Not Now, Not Ever” was spraypainted on a wall. The windows were doubleglazed so although only the outer panes were smashed the whole lot will probably have to be replaced. One window had both panes broken and a litre of white gloss paint was thrown through to add to the disruption and expense. Let Bayer be aware — if they become the main GM offender again, we’ll be back.
This was one of 4 actions against Bayer that happened over the last month as a warning to Bayer to stay out of GM crops.
The 4 actions were the closing of a succesful campaign using direct action against Bayer AG — who WERE the major GM players in the UK and are still major the world over. This campaign saw over 50 varied and diverse actions in a few months, part of a 17 year history of direct action against GM crops the world over.
See www.stopbayergm.org for particulars of the other Bayer actions.
There have been reports of more actions to send notice to Bayer, just before their AGM, that if they DO continue to push GM crops in the UK they will be hit again.
Here are the first 2 reports in.
Date: Thursday 22 April 2004
On the night of Thursday 22nd April, Newbury town centre surrounding Bayer Plc’s UK headquarters was flyposted and stickered with ‘Don’t Buy Bayer’ stickers to let them know that although the campaign is ending, they are being watched and any further attempts to grow GM in the UK will be met with direct action.
The poster read as follows:
BAYER OUT OF BIOTECH!
Bayer were pushing for GM Maize to be the first GM crop commercialised in the UK, but thanks to a campaign of direct action and sabotage and years of GM field trials being trashed, they have abandoned their plans to grow the Maize and will not carry out any further tests of GM crops.
AND STAY OUT
This is a victory for direct action and if Bayer try to introduce GM crops in the future they will be met with increased resistance.
NO GM!
Date: 29th April 2004
Bayer’s wholly owned subsidary, HC Starck, was visited on Thursday night for a quick spraypainting. THe message Bayer — STAY out of GM was spraypainted on the front wall as a gentle reminder that if they do intend to ever plant in the UK we will target them once more!
Two Bayer facilities in Essex were hit in a night-time raid by anti-GM activists in the early hours of Friday 23rd April 2004.
As part of the send-off to Bayer after their decision to pull out of GM crop trials in the UK, locks were glued, windows smashed and slogans painted at two separate installations belonging to Bayer Diagnostics in Halstead, Essex.
The message of the graffitti was loud and clear: “BAYER OUT OF GM — AND STAY OUT!!” Bayer be warned: you know what to expect if you attempt to pursue GM in the UK in the future…
see manila indymedia for a report of a Bayer action in the Philippines.
also see www.boycottbayer.org
Bye Bayer
e‑mail: contact@stopbayergm.org
Homepage: http://www.stopbayergm.org
8 pages of news of GM actions and campaigning in the UK and beyond.
UK news
Amaizing Grace — Bayer abandon Chardon LL
Wot no trials — only one UK GM field trial in 2004
Off with their heads — Bayer sack bioscience bosses
Whine and Cheese parties (a Supermarket special) — reports on supermarket actions, stopping GM animal feed and spotting newly labelled GM foods
British Biopiracy — English Nature to allow bioprospecting in UK nature reserves
International news from
Australia (Bonza no canola!), New Zealand, US, Canada, India, Phillipines and the CBD in Malaysia
pdf download: http://www.geneticsaction.org.uk/news/XUpdate/GUissue26.pdf
txt download: http://www.geneticsaction.org.uk/news/XUpdate/GUissue26.txt
More information on the Genetix Update, the Genetix Update archive and how to subscribe to the paper version of the update go to http://www.geneticsaction.org.uk/news/genetixupdate.htm
