Hamilton: NEB Pipeline Hearing Gets Glitterbombed

from It’s Going Down

On October 18th, 2016, the National Energy Board (NEB) held a hearing in Hamilton over Enbridge’s Line 10 pipeline expansion plan. The NEB is a sham organization that exists only to lend legitimacy to destructive industrial projects. Even the federal government has trouble justifying this group of corrupt bozos, who have proven themselves willing to approve any project regardless of environmental or human risks. In this instance it’s the scumbags at Enbridge who need a rubber stamp from the NEB to increase the capacity of their Line 10 pipeline, running from Hamilton to New York State. Like everything Enbridge does, this project is a terrible idea that will only contribute to global warming, environmental destruction, and the expansion of the Alberta tar sands. And as usual, Enbridge has ignored the sovereignty of impacted Indigenous communities, preferring instead to pay them off when possible or ignore them when they stand in the way.

Needless to say, we are against this project.

Fuck Enbridge and everything they do, and fuck the NEB.

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Project FANG: A Support Fund for Earth and Animal Liberation Prisoners

from Project FANG

Project FANG is a much-needed attempt to fill a gap in the ongoing support work for earth and animal liberation prisoners in the United States. Below is detailed information about the fund; we extend an invitation for prisoners and their supporters to use it. For now, the fund is limited to earth and animal liberation prisoners in the United States and their visitors. With additional funding, we hope to expand access to the fund in the future. You can donate by going to projectFANG.

As people with loved ones, friends, and comrades in prison (and in some cases, as people who have done time ourselves), we know how necessary and reinvigorating visits can be. They help us stay connected with one another and with the struggles we all care about. They help us overcome the separation of walls and wire. Unfortunately, visits are cost prohibitive for many of our friends, families, and comrades.

This project aims to help with the financial strain imposed on the families and loved ones of prisoners by providing cash allowances for travel expenses to and from prisons. The funds will be available in two separate amounts. Tier 1 will be a $300 allowance. Tier 2 will be a $500 allowance. If you will be using the fund, please carefully consider how much you, as a visitor, will need for travel expenses. Things to keep in mind might include: airfare/busfare/trainfare, car rental, hotel rental, money for the vending machines at the prison, et cetera. While we encourage you not to be afraid to ask for what you need, keep in mind that other people will be accessing this fund. If Tier 1 is enough to meet your needs, then that is what you should apply for. We also strongly encourage visitors to use any excess funds to further support prisoners, which might mean putting money toward commissary, ordering books for prisoners, or simply donating the money back to project FANG.

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Daniel McGowan’s Letter of Support Doubles Contributions for Marius Mason

from Free Marius Mason

Daniel sent a letter of support to his email list and doubled the contributions in one day. Please consider doing likewise!

Below is Daniel’s letter:

…Eco activist, anarchist and trans political prisoner Marius Mason has been finally approved for college courses and is trying to fundraise for them. The fundraiser has not been going very well to be honest. Can you help?

https://www.generosity.com/ education-fundraising/marius- mason-s-education–2

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Dedicated Activists: The Next Big Threat For North-American Oil

by Nick Cunningham / OilPrice.com

Oil producers and pipeline developers are having a rough time trying to get their product to market, running into resistance from protestors and seeing projects fall by the wayside.

The latest came from Royal Dutch Shell, backed out of a plan last week to build an oil train terminal in Washington State. The rail terminal would have received 400,000 barrels per day of oil from the Bakken, but Shell said that the project no longer made sense with the ongoing slump in crude oil markets, and crucially, because capital availability is getting tighter.

The setback is only the latest in a string of defeats for developers of energy infrastructure around the country. Also last week, city planners in San Luis Obispo rejected a proposed rail terminal that would service a Phillips 66 refinery in central California.

Yet another oil train terminal met defeat in Benicia, CA, a project that would service a refinery owned by Valero. Moreover, the U.S Surface Transportation Board, a federal rail regulator, affirmed Benicia’s right to reject the terminal, a decision that is important because it grants local communities more power to deny permits for energy infrastructure, which should raise an alarm bell for energy developers around the country. The Huffington Post summed up the latest developments nicely with a headline reading “West Coast Deals Four Major Blows to Big Oil.”

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Series of Arsons Along DAPL Causes $2 Million in Damages

screenshot from KCCI

by Kim St. Onge / KCCI

Anti-Mining Campesino Shot Dead by Police in Peru

from No a la Mina

translated by Earth First! Journal

At least one person died on Friday [October 14] in an Andean region of Peru after a confrontation between police and community members who blocked the main access road into the copper mine Las Bambas, one of the largest in the country, owned by MMG Ltd,  a subsidiary of Chinese firm Minmetals. The community members protested the large amounts of dust and noise which the trucks cause as they transport copper from the mine.

One year ago, protests similar to those against Las Bambas, located in Apurimac, resulted in three deaths.

The victim, a campesino of 42 years of age, is the first in the middle of this social conflict during the current president,  Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s term.

The Apurimac People’s Defense lawyer, Artemio Solano, affirmed that the clash happened during the morning when the police tried to unblock the road which the protesters had blockaded since last Saturday.

Las Bambas […] has been using an alternate route to transport their minerals […]. One of the representatives from the opposition party, Richard Arce, said the campesino died from a bullet wound. The police, on their behalf, reported 20 injured officers […]

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Chile: Unknown People Sabotage “El Agrio” Dam

from Contra Madriz

translated by Earth First! Journal

“During the night of October 11, 2016, some unknown people entered the hydroelectric dam “The Sour One” [El Agrio] which is still being constructed in Curacautin. After forcing open and breaking the doors, they entered the machine room and sabotaged the cables and lighting fixtures.

Before leaving, they installed two bombs inside. One of them was activated and resulted in minor damage to some machines, but the other one failed to go off. Outside of the building, a banner was hung which read, “Mapuche Resistance, Freedom to Political Prisoners. No Dams.”

The next day, some of the dam’s workers saw the damage that had been done, and found the undetonated bomb; they called the GOPE who arrived on-site and described the bomb as being made up of gun powder, battery, cables, a time, and an incendiary mixture.

In the end, the cause has been taken up by attorney Luis Aroyo in Araucanía.

The main dam “The Sour One” is still in construction at kilometer 85 on hte CH 181 route, Curacatin. It is property of the corporation Hidro spa, SA.”

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“Canada”: Protest Camp Against Reservoir Flooding Continues

from CBC via Warrior Publications

Protesters blocking the main gate at Muskrat Falls Sunday. (Katie Breen/CBC)

October 16, 2016

A protest at Muskrat Falls that started Saturday is continuing with no signs of slowing down. Close to 200 protesters gathered Saturday, about 30 there early Sunday morning.

Organizers told CBC they will continue to block the site, even going so far as to not let first responders, sewage vehicles and other essential services such as fuel trucks from going in or out of the facility.

Some at the protest said Nalcor had begun bringing in workers by helicopter, though the company could not confirm or deny that.

“In a couple days they’ll have to shut down,” said Andrea Anderson, who helped plan Saturday’s action. “If this is the way we’re going to have to get this shut down so that Nalcor can listen to what we’ll have to stay then that’s what we’ll do.”

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Petroleum Disaster in the Great Bear Rainforest

by Joyce Nelson / Counter Punch

Photo by National Geographic

Outrage is the only word for what people are feeling after a tug and fuel barge, owned by Texas-based Kirby Offshore Marine, crashed on rocks in the heart of B.C.’s Great Bear Rainforest on October 13. It’s been leaking 200,000 litres (59, 024 gallons) of diesel fuel into the sensitive marine ecosystem ever since.

The 30-metre Nathan E. Stewart tug was pushing the empty fuel barge DBL 55 south from Alaska where it had dropped off its petroleum cargo of 52,000 barrels of oil. It was operating without a local pilot in the complicated waters of the spectacular Inside Passage.

Only three weeks ago, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton, had visited the Great Bear Rainforest near Bella Bella, B.C. and were hosted there by the Heiltsuk First Nation, who have extensive clam, herring, salmon and other fisheries in the region now threatened by the sunken tug’s oil slick.

The Great Bear Rainforest is the largest remaining tract of intact temperate rainforest in the world. It is home to Sandhill cranes, grizzly bears, grey wolves, humpback and orca whales, giant conifers, every species of wild salmon, and many other wild species.

Ingmar Lee, an environmental activist who owns a popular eco-tourism business called C’idawai Point Cabins near Bella Bella, told me by email on Oct. 16 that there is “a veritable holocaust of helicopters flying over our house here at first light this morning. Texas personnel are out there shovelling money in any direction they can.”

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North Dakota: Activists Pause Pipeline Construction, 14 Arrested

from Bismark Tribune, via Warrior Publications

October 15, 2016. Photo by Mike McCleary, Bismarck Tribune.

MORTON COUNTY — Opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline protested at multiple locations near St. Anthony on Saturday morning, causing construction to pause at some work sites before resuming later in the day.

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