Support Imprisoned Water Protectors

from It’s Going Down

The Freshet Collective works in close partnership with the Water Protector Legal Collective, the Water Protector Anti-Repression Crew, and other allied groups and individuals to meet the many different legal needs of Water Protectors who have been involved in the struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock. We work to aid in jail support, bail support, criminal defense, and education efforts.

After nearly a year of putting their bodies on the line to fight the Dakota Access Pipeline and protect sacred land, there are still water protectors being held as prisoners for standing up for sacred water and land. It is essential that we continue to support them to remind them that they are loved.

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North Dakota Dismantles #NoDAPL Oceti Camp

from Unicorn Riot

Cannon Ball, ND – The water protector camp that for months formed a beachhead against Dakota Access Pipeline construction was destroyed midday Thursday, February 23rd. A combination of law enforcement and military units forced aside the last inhabitants so the remaining structures could be demolished, while a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) helicopter orbited overhead.

The Army Corps of Engineers’ deadline of Wednesday, February 22nd, demanding water protectors clear out of the main #NoDAPL camp, passed without law enforcement entering the camp, although several journalists were attacked (see our full report).

The main camp, which several weeks ago hosted thousands of people, known as Oceti Sakowin or Oceti Oyate, often called ‘Oceti’ for short, was dismantled with 46 arrests reported on Thursday (AP).

If you missed the heavily militarized eviction of the main #NoDAPL encampment, here is a snippet from our #LIVE feed https://t.co/R36xX5Yw17 pic.twitter.com/IlvqH9qzXu

— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) February 24, 2017

The eviction force was comprised of a variety of agencies including the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, North Dakota Highway Patrol, Bismarck Police Department, the North Dakota National Guard, and federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Out-of-state law enforcement from the Wisconsin State Patrol (WSP) was also deployed under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC). [See our Nov. 26th report with WSP EMAC deployment and budget documents.]

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Florida: Rally at Coleman Federal Prison for Peltier and Against Pipelines

from Sabal Trail Resistance

Further details can be found here

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Street Blockaded with Fire in Protest of Dominga Mine, Chile

by Johana Fernández / Diario El Dia

translated by Earth First! Journal

[On February 6, 2017] the peoples’ movement named Chao Pescao [loosely translated to Goodbye Fish] installed themselves on the road that joins Los Choros with Route 5 and Punta de Choros. People from Los Choros, belonging to the Higuera commune, blocked all access on the road using barricades to express their rejection of the Dominga mining project.

On their Facebook page, the protesting group published, “The road into Los Choros is closed. We are bored of the authorities’ corruption and the [@$%] Delano with his #Dominga mine. If there is no respect for the communities then there is no respect for you. Save La Higuera, Los Choros is resisting. No to Dominga.” […]

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An Update on Getting the Sabal Trail Pipe-Sitters Out of Jail

Early yesterday morning, STR received word there are two people inside a stretch of pipeline along FL-200 near the Halpata Tustanaki preserve in Dunnellon. They refused to come out until the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Sabal Trail (and the whole Southeast Market Pipelines project) was revisited to fully include an assessment of impacts environmental justice communities and school children along the route and in the blast zone for accidents.

Instead of meeting their reasonable demand for an adequate EIS, they met with threats of tear gas and K-9 dog attacks, and ultimately were dragged out from 250 feet deep into the pipe, where they were locked to each other and to a concrete box.

An Anarchist Look at the Forest Fires in South-Central Chile

from Insurrection News

Received and translated on 22.02.17:

An anarchist look at the forest fires in south-central Chile and the attempts of the power to take advantage aiming at the Mapuche and anarchist subversion.

For a couple of weeks, the expansion of various firefighting areas in the forest industry business in the south-central part of the country has been reported in Chile. These fires were spread over various territories and have resulted in irreparable damage to various natural ecosystems and native forests, reaching homes and causing the deaths of people and a large number of animals in what is already a true ecocide that is still continuing.

These forest fires and their consequences have become the subject of the news agenda in recent weeks, with the political, business and media class (dis)informing and imposing a version of the origin of the fires that omits- or leaves last – any responsibility on the part of forestry companies. In turn, given the magnitude of the catastrophe, several groups and organizations seek to support the devastated territories and criticize from various positions the way the government has tackled the problem.

As anarchists, enemies of this and any society, but part of a context that we cannot elude with our silence, we want to propagate a few ideas to sharpen the practical criticism against the domination towards the earth and those who inhabit it.

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Hambach, Germany: Reflections on the Red Line Action

from Hambach Forest

The Red Line action on Sunday 19. of February brought 1300 people to the Hambacher Forest with buses coming from Netherlands, Belgium and Cologne. Hundreds of people walked from surrounding villages and the Buir train station to the sounds of a Rhythms of Resistance percussion band and converged before roadblocks into the forest. Here the introduction speech took place. Michael Zobel (who leads the forest walks) openly asked newcomers to raise their hands, with at least half of the participators doing so. After walking into the forest, making sure that all stay on trails to reduce erosion, the first talk inside the forest took place at the „Lake“, where an activist duet sang covers of popular tunes redone with ecological and climate lyrics. Next stop was OakTown, where activists wearing carnival masks and wigs waved from tree houses, lowering wicker baskets to be filled with gifts and donations for the occupation. The humorously referred to as „mayor“ of OakTown, Clumsy, demonstrated abseiling down the rope and talked about living up in the trees. Next on the tour came the newest treehouse village: Gallien. Here the visitors were serenaded by a forest defender sitting on a monkey bridge between tree houses playing guitar. The forest-walkers‘ interest in the occupation led to many conversations with the activists, resulting in organizers hurrying people away to keep the walk on schedule. After walking all across the forest, hot meal and warm matcha tea was shared with all. Before the action the police were asked to identify themselves and several raised their hands. Their presence could be explained by both gathering of intelligence for future eviction actions and for reasons of public relations. Their presence was met with clapping by some of the participants. This was not the easiest thing to accept for many forest defenders who have, are and will continue to deal with physical repression from the Police. In a line two people side by side, the red clad participators formed a line, and with banners and flags marched down the old A4 highway, separating the remaining forest from the clear-cut area with the mine. Here a banner was dropped by camouflage clad activists in the trees. Most people in the line were wearing red, had red banners and included a generational cross section which besides many children and elderly folks also included members of the local motorcycle club. Stretching a long strip of red fabric down the highway, the action symbolized drawing a a border, a red line, from which we will not accept or allow the continuing destruction of the Hambacher Forest and CO2 emissions associated with RWE Operations.

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Activists Occupy Pipeline in North Florida

from Earth First! Newswire

Two people fighting the Sabal Trail Pipeline have occupied a stretch of pipeline in Dunnellon. Mario and Luigi say they’ll stay put until officials revisit the Environmental Impact Statement to include environmental justice communities and school children.

The protesters released a statement shortly after entering the pipe. “We are taking action against the Sabal Trail Pipeline because we don’t need more energy infrastructure poisoning this land. The world and our future generations are at risk, so we are demanding the immediate halt to this toxic project.”

So far there have been reports of dozens of police on the scene, some with dogs that they are using to threaten Mario and Luigi. They are also being threatened with teargas by the over-reacting cops, who are ignoring the worker’s as they bang on the pipeline with hammers in a pointless attempt to drive the dedicated water protectors out.

For constant updates, check out the Sabal Trail Resistance Facebook page.

Honduras: José Santos Sevilla, Earth Defender, Murdered

from Conflictos Mineros

translated by Earth First! Journal

Foto: El Heraldo Honduras, 17 Feb 2017

José Santos Sevilla, a leader in the Tolupán tribe, is another example of what it means to be an Earth defender in Honduras. In the municipality of Orica this environmentalist was murdered during the morning hours when five people broke into his home and shot him repeatedly.

“The professor and indigenous leader José Santos Sevilla was murdered by gunshots by five men who broke into his home in Montaña de La Flor,” [43 miles] north of Tegucigalpa, affirmed Bertha Oliva, coordinator of the Committee of Family Members of Those Detained and Disappeared in Honduras.

Oliva affirmed that with Sevilla, “it was the same as with Berta Cáceres and this coincides with what was said in the report by Global Witness, that Earth defenders and environmentalists are in danger of being murdered.”

The indigenous leader was professor in the Ceiba community. Although it is not known why he was murdered, Global Witness had warned of the risks to this indigenous community of Tolupán, made up of 18,000 people from 28 different tribes, who are defending their ancestral lands.

The Orica Mayor, Alexander Rodríguez, said that he will make sure the facts get investigated. The publication, “Honduras: The Most Dangerous Place to Defend the Planet,” denounced the more than 120 murders of defenders since 2010, and which, according to investigations and community complaints, consists of crimes in which those responsible are the “rich elite and powerful people of the country, among them members of the political class.”

In Honduras, environmentalists have been getting murdered for opposing hydroelectric dams and mining projects, since these are imposed on indigenous land, affecting the ecosystems and communities’ rights.

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France: Protests and Attacks Against the CIGEO Nuclear Disposal Project in Bure

from Insurrection News

On Saturday, February 19, in Bure, in the north-east of France, a demo took place in the forest to support the occupation there and then on to the research lab of the planned nuclear waste disposal facility CIGEO. In the process, the ANDRA (French nuclear waste disposal agency) was pushed back more or less symbolically to a section of its illegally constructed wall in the forest. A small action report.

More than 700 people took part in Bure’s February 2017 events, which in the late afternoon resulted in violent protests and massive attacks against the site of the nuclear waste disposal agency ANDRA.

For over a year, the progress of the nuclear waste disposal project CIGEO has been effectively hampered by the resistance of the anti-nuclear movement in Lorraine. In spite of evictions, wall construction and legal attacks and counter-attacks, the forest occupation in the Bois Lejuc and the protest against the apocalyptic-industry-thousand-century-project also extends beyond the region. So there were more or less symbolic expressions of solidarity in other cities – hundreds came to the action day.

Already on Tuesday and Thursday there were nocturnal actions and attacks on the laboratory and its greenwashing department, resulting in considerable damage to the barriers that had been partially replaced by NATO wire rolls. A large bunch of cops prevented people from reaching the buildings in the afternoon, however, large sections of the remaining fence, reinforcements, dead trees and much more were constructed into barricades during a multi-hour field battle. While the cops were attacking and bombarding the demonstrators with tear gas as well as offensive and / or concussion grenades, numerous demonstrators attacked infrastructure and handlers of the nuclear capital decisively and vehemently for two hours. There were several injuries on both sides and at least three arrests.

There will be further decisive processes in the coming week and this spring. Support the forest occupation, support Bure!

The anti-nuclear struggle in Bure dismantles nuclear companies everywhere!

(via Linksunten Indymedia, translated by Insurrection News)

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