Activists Shut Down All Tar Sands Pipelines Crossing US-Canada Border

by Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams

Five activists shut down all the tar sands pipelines crossing the Canada-U.S. border Tuesday morning, in a bold, coordinated show of climate resistance amid the ongoing fight against the Dakota Access pipeline.

The activists employed manual safety valves to shut down Enbridge’s line 4 and 67 in Leonard, Minnesota; TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline in Walhalla, North Dakota; Spectra Energy’s Express pipeline in Coal Banks Landing, Montana; and Kinder-Morgan’s Trans-Mountain pipeline in Anacortes, Washington.

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Track Blockades and Sabotage Continue in Hambach Forest, Germany

submitted to Earth First! Newswire

Due to the international “too little and too late” agreements of COP21 and despite rapidly progressing Climate and Eco-Social degradation of the Planet the Hambach Open Cast Lignite Mine, the largest net CO2 emitter in Europe continues to be operated full steam 24/7 by Fossil Fool Energy Giant RWE, who have just officially commenced 2016/2017 cutting season of the millenarian Hambacher Forest.  Seeing no other recourse or method of action to prevent this ecological destructon in the name of profit and national energy “security” the Hambacher Forest defenders continue the 4 year struggle of resistance with the following latest actions of blockades and sabotage:

No Borders, No Prisons Blockade of railroad tracks in both directions from the Mine to the surrounding Power Plants.

 

On 07.10.2016 at 16:30 five blockaders jumped out on to the track in front of a slow moving coal train and managed to slow it down further and stop it. At the same time a cable was thrown over the electrical lines powering the train causing an electrical shortage. The stopping of the train was quickly followed by digging the gravel out from underneath the rails and railroad ties and placing lock-on tubes underneath and locking on. This turned out to be very effective in that the cops had no easy access to the lock-ons and the rails themselves had to be cut in several places for the activists to be removed.  These segments of track needed to be completely replaced after the action. The specialized technical police who usually deal with lockons and climbing situations did not make their appearance but instead the job was outsourced(or we should really write “in-sourced”) to the RWE contracted rail-workers cutting the rails and arrestees being taken to local fire stations to have the tubes removed. The police also, perhaps because of the short notice, did not show up with their usual videography teams but instead asked to use the cameras of the RWE securities. The value of this photographic evidence was, however, debatable as all activists sported facial paint intended to obstruct facial features.  The Cops detained the five activists till for several hours. None of the 4 female and 1 male individuals gave their personal information and having also damaged their fingerprints were released in the early hours of the following morning without their names being recorded. Not before however they had earrings pulled, suffered sexist and verbally abusive language and had clothing and shoes destroyed. Which leads full circle to the necessity of actions such as this one with an anti-repression focus.

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Ladislav Kuc Sentenced to 23.5 Years for Explosion at McDonalds in Košice, Slovakia

from The Slovak Spectator

The man who caused the explosion at the Košice branch of McDonalds and who sent an explosive device to a local vet was sentenced to 23.5 years in the strictest prison, and to a preventive supervision of three more years after he is released.

The Košice District Court found Ladislav Kuc guilty of both crimes – as well as eight more minor crimes and misdemeanours – on September 29. Back on December 28, 2011, he caused an explosion in a litter-bin outside a McDonalds fast-food shop in Košice, the SITA newswire wrote. Moreover, he sent an explosive device in a book to a Košice-based veterinary doctor who does sanitation works for the city and to the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice. Kuc was also convicted for the production of explosives, illegal arming, extortion and intimidation.

The verdict is not effective yet, as both Kuc’s lawyer and prosecutor appealed it, and the Košice Regional Court will have to further process the case.

The defendant’s lawyer finds the verdict too strict, not taking into consideration that her client suffers from a mental disorder. Originally, Kuc faced charges of terrorism and was convicted. This April, the Supreme Court re-qualified his charges to the level of public threat and returned the case to the district court. Then, the prosecutor changed the charge but he still required a sentence at the top end of the scale – from 20 to 25 years.

It was a mere matter of luck that nobody got killed or injured in the explosion or sent explosives, which caused only material damage. [Earth First! Newswire Editor’s Note: This same argument is consistently used by prosecutors and law enforcement to increase sentences and public disapproval of Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front activists, despite the fact that after decades of property destruction, liberations, and arson, no ELF or ALF cell has caused harm to a living being, human or animal, through their actions. To our knowledge, in this case there is nothing to suggest that the lack of injury or death was an accident.]

Kuc committed the crimes in the name of the protection of dogs’ lives, arguing that a dog’s life is worth more than a human life.

[EF! Newswire Editor’s Note: For more info on Ladislav, keep an eye on the Earth First! Eco-Prisoner List.]

Earth First! Journal Collective is Back After Hurricane: Please Send Support to Haiti

Newswire readers,

We’re back at the office, which survived the mild storm that hit as Hurricane Matthew thankfully took a turn into the ocean and passed us by. We’d like to thank all of you who reached out to see how we were doing, and those of you threw us a couple bucks to get us plywood for the windows and other hurricane prep materials.

Matthew may have missed us, but it has killed hundreds of people in Haiti (reports say 500-800 victims so far) and over 20 people in the United States. They need our help, but please: Do not send donations to the American Red Cross! Haitians are urging people to keep their money away from the organization, which has taken money “for Haiti” in the past and spent it on themselves instead.

To help with disaster relief in Haiti, we recommend reading this Call from Haiti for Solidarity Not Charity from the Rapid Response Network, and/or donating to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund. If you have other suggestions, email us at collective[at]earthfirstjournal[dot]org.

We’ll be catching up on emails, letters, news stories, merch orders, and everything else throughout the next week. Subscribers to the Journal will be getting your Fall issue late, as we were sending out magazines in the middle of this madness. Hang tight, there is a fiery cover headed your way.

For the Wild,
The EF!J Collective

Marchers Complete 54-Mile Trek Through Northern California and Confront Logging Company

from A.C.O.R.N.

 

Ukiah, CA— Tribal members and forest activists confront Mendocino Redwood Company at mill site, completing their four day, 54-mile “March to Let the Forest Heal”.

The trek from Comptche to Ukiah called attention to Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC)’s ongoing practice of “Hack and Squirt”. The method uses the herbicide Imazapyr, injected into a wound, to kill millions of tan oaks and madrones, leaving a forest of standing dead trees. Roundup and Garlon are also used to kill brush, which is bulldozed into huge flammable “slash” piles throughout MRC’S 220,000 acre holdings in Mendocino County. Carrying a redwood log and dead tan oak branches to symbolize the destruction taking place in the forest, the marchers braved rain and traffic, including log trucks, along southern Mendocino County rural routes 128 and 253, eliciting “thumbs up” from drivers and picking up more marchers along the way. Led by an intrepid core including local grandmothers, the procession at times swelled to over twenty people walking together.

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ALF England Rescues Seventy-Five Hens

received anonymously from Bite Back

“50 caged hens rescued from intensive farm unit in the south of England. all now safe in their new homes. until all are free ALF”

“25 caged hens rescued from filthy conditions in Norfolk England. ALF east coast”

Berkeley Hunt Revisited

from Bristol Hunt Saboteurs

We started the day outside the Berkeley Hunt kennels on the off chance that they might actually leave to go hunting with us present. We were quickly clocked by hunt staff who were straight on their phones. So we waited, received some words of support from some local joggers and some pissed off glares from passing hunt followers. And we waited some more. A few horses left the kennels on a hack, no hunting gear in sight and no sign of hounds leaving. So we took a drive to look around a few likely meets, all appeared quiet.

With no sign of movement any time soon at the Berkeley and word that a Three Counties sab had been assaulted and a camera smashed by supporters of the Cotswold Vale Farmers’ Hunt, our next move seemed obvious.

After an unnecessary hold up (no thanks to the boys in blue) and a bit of a search around the Deerhurst area, we came across hounds, huntsman and mounted support coming down the road in front of us. As the hunt took off across country, foot sabs finally got an opportunity to stretch their legs and went off in pursuit. It soon became clear that the hunt were heading straight back to their meet, so we watched the hounds get boxed up and the hound van leave before departing ourselves.

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Muskrat Falls Protesters Confront Dwight Ball, Rally Outside Nalcor Energy

from Warrior Publications

A handful of angry Muskrat Falls protesters gathered at a press conference with Premier Dwight Ball, MPs, and MHAs at Memorial University, after a protest outside Nalcor Energy in St. John’s Friday.

“Poisoning children is a crime, not on our watch, not our dime,” the group chanted shortly after the premier entered a room at MUN to announce funding for the university’s Battery facility. 

The protesters were referring to concerns about methylmercury levels from Muskrat Falls.

Some protesters held signs bearing Dwight Ball’s image and the word “resign,” while others wore shirts with the slogan “resign today, save tomorrow,” directed at the premier.

“My God, you’re going to kill people,” shouted one protester as the group’s chant turned to “make Muskrat right,” before the doors closed and the conference got underway.

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Chiapas, Mexico: Communiqué from Two Anti-Mining Camps

from Red Mexicana de Afectados por la Mineria (REMA)

translated by Palabras Rebeldes

We, the Popular Front in Defence of Soconusco 20th June, are maintaining two camps to stop mining in our territory.

Acacoyagua, Chiapas, Mexico

October 4th, 2016

The families that make up the Popular Front in Defence of the Soconusco 20 of June (FPDF) exercise our right to a healthy environment and to water, to protect our land and the patrimony of our sons and daughters.

On September 26th, we decided to guard the roads where the excavation and transport machinery passes for the mining project “Casas Viejas”. As we are the proprietors of the road that the mines use as transportation, in a collective manner we decided it necessary to take care of the reserve of El Triunfo, the rivers of Cacaluta, Cintalapa, and Doña Maria, as well as the coastal mangroves, and guard them against the mining of titanium. In a peaceful manner, with the feeling of unity and solidarity, we organized ourselves to maintain two encampments to stop the looting and polluting of our nature.

The mining project “Casas Viejas” (in the ejidos of Cacoas, Magnolia, and Satélite Morelia) is part of five projects that have been established in the last 15 years. Just in the year of 2009, 49,000 tons were exploited by the “Christina” project and, during the last five years, they have concessioned 21 titles in the municipalities of Escuintla and Acacoyagua. The companies Male S.A. od C.V, Puntal S.A. of C.V., Tristán Canales Reyna y Socios, Honour Up Tranding S.A of C.V., Sociedad Cooperativa Unidad Piedritas y Servicios S.C.L. of C.V. have taken over our territory and put our future at risk.

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Earth First! Journal Office About to be Hit by a Hurricane!

Hey faithful readers,

The EF!J Collective is currently prepping for hurricane Matthew. We’re trying to make sure that the Journal archive, the hard drives, our cat Greasy, and all the other important stuff doesn’t get destroyed when a category 3-5 hurricane hits the office in the next day or two.

There will not be many Newswire updates for a few days, most likely. And if you order Journals or other merch from our site, please expect a delay in shipping.

If you’d like to help us out, you can donate online! We are trying to board up windows and all that good stuff, so every little bit helps. A lot.

See you after the shitstorm!

For the wild,
The Earth First! Journal Collective