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  • Monday, June 5th, 2017

    Monday, June 5th, 2017

    Fight Toxic Prison 2017 Convergence ends with Rowdy #CloseCarswell Noise Demo

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    from FightToxicPrisons.org

    After 3 days of networking, movement building and organizing at the Fight Toxic Prisons (FTP) Convergence in Denton, TX, approximately 50 organizers and revolutionaries from across the country gathered outside the Carswell federal prison Monday morning, June 5, 2017. The protest marched to the remote back gates of the facility, which is located on a massive military base that has a long history of environmental contamination and contains a repressive, secretive Administrative Unit.

    Today’s demonstration kicked-off of an international effort to demand the immediate closure of Carswell’s Administrative Unit, a unit similar to draconian Communication Management Units. The Carswell Admin Unit has been used to isolate female and trans political prisoners as well as prisoners with serious mental health needs.

    Armed with a mobile sound system and bullhorn, the demonstration was able to create a loud disruption for guards and establish contact with prisoners across the razor wire fences with amplified chants of “You are not forgotten, you are not alone, we will fight to bring you home!”

    Prisoners replied with waves and raised fists as they viewed banners reading “Close Carswell Admin Unit Now!”, “Free Aafia Siddiqui” and “Fight Toxic Prisons.”

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    Demonstrators highlighted political prisoners currently held in the facility, such as Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, Marius Mason and Ana Belen Montes, all of whom have experienced extreme sentences and isolation as a result of their political and/or religious affiliations.

    They also noted a decade of extensive complaints regarding abuse, mold and medical neglect among the general population, handing out a printed collection of these stories in the surrounding neighborhood and passers-by.

    For more info visit CloseCarswell.wordpress.com and FightToxicPrisons.org

    If you want to help support the above prisoners, please see their websites-

    Dr. Aafia Siddiqui: www.aafiamovement.com

    Marius Mason: www.supportmariusmason.org

    Ana Belen Montes: www.prolibertad.org

    You can help spread the #CloseCarswell campaign by circulating this information and these photos.

    You can help build pressure to close the Carswell Administrative Unit by calling the government agencies which oversee the federal prison system.

    Call the Federal Bureau of Prisons (202) 307-3198

    and the Department of Justice 202-353-1555

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    (more…)

  • Monday, June 5th, 2017

    Monday, June 5th, 2017

    June 11th: Our Words are Our Weapons by Sean Swain

    from It’s Going Down

    As humans, we are the lucky beneficiaries of three biological developments that greatly contribute to our long-term survivability. The first one is the structure of our jaw which is conducive to eating meat and taking in proteins that non-meat-eating mammals don’t get. That’s the only one of the three that’s irrelevant to the discussion.

    The second of the top three biological developments that contribute to our long-term survivability is our cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is the outer-most layer of the brain, and is principally responsible for conceptual thought. Because of our cerebral cortex, we can imagine things that we cannot see. We can conceive of stuff we did not experience.

    The third biological development that contributes to our long-term survivability is our opposable thumbs. Our opposable thumbs are pretty useful. They gave us the ability to carry things and to share with others. They gave us the ability to use and manipulate tools.

    This is really important when you consider that we humans are, really, the least fit for survival on the planet, all things being equal. We are most dependent upon tools, upon stuff outside of ourselves. All other species pretty much get by on what they were born with. You don’t see beavers putting on scuba suits or monkeys in the rain forest wearing rain coats. No other species requires assistance in locomotion or cooks their food on barbecue grills because their digestive tracts are so sensitive. Just us. So, without the opposable thumb to develop all the tools we need, we would have sputtered out a long time ago.

    (more…)

  • Sunday, June 4th, 2017

    Sunday, June 4th, 2017

    Agua Zarca Financial Backers Withdraw Funding

    from The Guardian

    The international funders behind the hydroelectric dam opposed by murdered Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres are withdrawing from the project, the Guardian can reveal.

    Three financial institutions had pledged loans worth $44m for the Agua Zarca dam on the Gualcarque river, which is considered sacred by the Lenca people and which Caceres campaigned against before her death.

    Her murder last year triggered international outrage and piled pressure on the international backers to pull out of the project amid a campaign of intimidation against communities opposed to the dam.

    The Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Copinh) – the campaign group Caceres co-founded – has long demanded that investors withdraw and make reparations for the human rights violations linked to the project. (more…)

  • Sunday, June 4th, 2017

    Sunday, June 4th, 2017

    Political Prisoner Birthday Poster For June 2017 Is Now Available

    from Prison Books

    Hello Friends and Comrades,

    1. This Month, June 11th is the International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. Do something fierce in your community to commemorate these prisoners.
    2. Continue to support the troops facing 80 years and 8 felonies fighting against the clown regime.
    3. Here is the political prisoner birthday poster for June.(11″x17″ PDF, 2.45MB) Also available in color here, and as a shareable PNG here (imgur link). Print it out and plaster your community, both in commemoration of these freedom fighters and to advertise locally for a political prisoner letter writing night. Get together with some friends in your town to send birthday cards to these fighters in our struggle. It’s an easy way to help remind them that they aren’t forgotten. If you make one, remember—don’t use anything like white-out, stickers, tape or glitter on it. We also recommend that you put a return name and address and their name and prisoner number on the card, lest the authorities “lose” the envelope and forget where it is going. If you would like to add a birthday or sign up for our poster mailing list (not a listserv, one email per month), or if you would like to contribute in another way to increasing the profile of US political prisoners, email us at ppbirthday@riseup.net.
    4. (more…)

  • Saturday, June 3rd, 2017

    Saturday, June 3rd, 2017

    Virginia Residents Disrupt Mountain Valley Pipeline Surveying Again

    from the Earth First! Newswire

    Against the will of residents, survey crews are again attempting to access properties in the Bent Mountain area of Virginia after a judge issued an injunction against property owners blocking surveying for the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).

    Circuit Court Judge David Carson ruled on May 26 that barring surveyors from their work would do “irreparable harm” to the Pittsburgh based multimillion dollar corporation EQT Midstream. According to the Roanoke Times, Coles Terry, one of the landowners fighting the surveyors responded to the ruling with, “It went exactly like I thought it would. It’s the big guy against the little guy. It’s a billion-dollar project. They don’t care about us. It’s all about money.”

    The surveyors, from Holland Engineering based out of Holland, MI, wasted little time in getting back to work. Or at least they tried to. On May 31, survey crews accompanied by private security guards returned to the Bent Mountain community only to be confronted once again by angry residents. Holding a banner reading, “We Cherish. We Will Defend Water & Land,” community members successfully prevented the survey team from getting onto the property. After a standoff at that property the survey crew moved further down the road and set up equipment briefly before being informed by locals that they were trespassing on another piece of land they did not have legal permission to be on. Shortly thereafter the survey team packed up for the day without having conducted any work. Police were also on the scene and reportedly took the ID’s of those present. (more…)

  • Friday, June 2nd, 2017

    Friday, June 2nd, 2017

    Eco-Prisoner Kevin Olliff Has Been Released from the Halfway House!

    from Support Kevin and Tyler

    Kevin has spent the last year in a halfway house, following almost three years in prison, and today he was released! He still has two years of probation left, but is excited for this new stage of freedom.

    From Kevin:

    I cannot sufficiently express my joy today. My time operating via direct action for animals has come to an end, but reflecting on this ordeal, I have no regret, only gratitude.

    After thirty-six years imprisoning and gassing generations of minks, the East Fork Mink Ranch no longer exists. Those minks who avoided recapture and made it have already had great grandchildren, and I am long forgotten. But I will never forget them, or that night, for the rest of my life.

    Thanks to all those who have stood with me and Tyler in this fight. Follow your passion.

    [From the Earth First! Prisoner Support Project Eco-Prisoner List: Kevin is an animal liberation activist who was imprisoned in Illinois from August 2013 to May 2016 for “possession of burglary tools,” an Illinois state charge, as well as conspiracy to violate the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a federal felony charge. The charges were related to the release of 2,000 mink from an Illinois fur farm, which permanently closed down as a result of the action.]

  • Thursday, June 1st, 2017

    Thursday, June 1st, 2017

    Still on the fence about coming to the Fight Toxic Prisons Convergence?

    from FightToxicPrisons.org

    It’s not too late to stick out your thumb out, jump on a train, catch a bus, or hustle up some funds for a red eye to Texas. Flying into Dallas is among the cheapest airports in the country.

    Among all the reasons to be there, you will be in the company of: Barrett Brown, Ramona Africa, David Hill, Kari Ann Bouchee, Arianna Staiger, Mark Cook, Bypolar, the Black Women’s Self Defense League, the June 11th assembly, the Earth First! Prisoner Support Project, Mothers Against Police Brutality, and more… [See partial list of speaker bios below]

    Check out the full schedule here.

    Plus we will wrap it all up with a protest at the Bureau of Prison’s facility known as the “Hospital of Horrors,” Carswell Federal Medical Center. Last month we celebrated Marius Mason getting out of Administrative Segregation there and being able to touch the Earth for the first time in seven years. Now we want to get everyone else out of that isolation unit and shine a light on that shady facility.

    If you can’t make it to Texas, consider kicking in a donation towards the costs of organizing. Additional funds will go into prisoner support efforts.

    And if you don’t actually know what the hell we are talking about by “toxic prisons,” check out this excellent expose that just dropped today, titled “America’s Toxic Prisons: The Environmental Injustices of Mass Incarceration.”

    Partial list of bios for speakers and panelists
     (more…)

  • Thursday, June 1st, 2017

    Thursday, June 1st, 2017

    An Update on the State of the Earth First! Journal Office

    Ibises make good neighbors.

    This has been a gnarly few years for the Journal, and we want to thank all of our supporters for helping us get through some difficult times. With that in mind, we realize we didn’t do a great job of keeping all of our readers updated on our house and office situation. While we thought we were probably losing our house and office early this year, we were definitely losing our minds, and our updates were urgent and sporadic, in tune with your frazzled selves. Now that stuff is secure, we thought we’d let y’all know how we kept the office.

    As many of you know, in a last-ditch effort to try and save this property we’ve been at for four years and which was being sold from under us, we put out an urgent request for help. We knew it was ridiculous to think we could raise enough money to actually buy the property in a matter of hours, but we didn’t know what else to do. At the time we made that post, we had one person—a former EF! Journal short-termer—who was interested in buying the property themselves, and would then let us live here, paying rent. However, it wasn’t a sure thing, and they only had about 2/3rds of the price the house was going for and couldn’t do the whole thing. So in desperation, we asked, and y’all answered. In less than four hours we raised nearly $4,000. It was incredible! But not enough to get anywhere close to helping our one investor buy the property. However, while all you awesome people were donating, we were making last-ditch phone calls to friends and relatives to see if anyone could help. Well, about an hour before we had to go all in or throw in the towel, a current Journal editor’s family member offered to go in on the property with the former short-termer, and pay the last third. They see this as a way to help the Journal, but also as a financial investment for themself: The deal was that the two investors would manage the property, we would pay rent, and they could kick us out any time they wanted, as they plan on selling the property in the future (though they have agreed to give us a good amount of time to get on our feet, and hope they won’t have to sell it until the next group of eco-defenders wants to take the Journal to their bioregion). The other part of the deal was that, while they would help with repairing major infrastructure, such as electrical work, they couldn’t afford to do much more than that, so we would be in charge of doing a lot of the repairs to keep the house in the barely livable condition it was in (which we’d already been trying to do, as the previous owner didn’t do repairs at all).

    We took the deal. The house was purchased by two people—a former EF! Journal short-termer and a current editor’s family member—without the help of the donations we received. They also kindly lowered our rent by $50 a month. The money raised through our “Help save our office!” post is being used to make the house livable through home repairs. There were a few people who donated but specified that they only wanted their money going to the purchase of a house, and they were contacted and reimbursed when requested. Inspectors came and checked the house out and gave us a stack of papers telling us about all the things that needed to be fixed, and we prioritized those in order of most vital to least important. So far the home repair money has gone towards sealing a giant crack in an outer wall; replacing the kitchen window; getting a fridge that actually works; repairing the kitchen sink so it stops leaking (temporary fix, this still requires more work); hauling large amounts of debris out of the yard; and putting in smoke detectors.

    If you donated and have questions or comments, you know where you can reach us.

    Thanks again to everyone who has supported us, whether through donations, offering to invest when we were in a time of need, buying this property, reading and passing along the Journal, sending in pictures or articles, defending the wild in your bioregion, or shouting “Earth First!” in a cop’s face. We love you all.

    For the Wild,
    The Earth First! Journal Collective

  • Thursday, June 1st, 2017

    Thursday, June 1st, 2017

    Protesters Rally Outside of SeaWorld in SD Against New Orca Show

    by Grecia Aguilar / ABC 10

    Hundreds of people flocked to SeaWorld for Memorial Day weekend to check out the park’s newest attraction, Orca Encounter. But not everyone is welcoming the changes.

    A silent protest held this Memorial Day morning, with a loud message.

    “If we don’t speak out, no one else will,” said Ashley Froud, who instead of barbecuing with friends, dedicated her time to a cause she believes in.

    “It’s not that we don’t have jobs, it’s not that this is a phase, we want to be here. We want to be defending the animals.,” she said.

    Froud, like dozens of others joining her, protested outside of SeaWorld as they demanded change.

    (more…)

  • Wednesday, May 31st, 2017

    Wednesday, May 31st, 2017

    GE Trees Update: USDA Releases draft EIS on GE Eucalyptus and Pro GE Tree Meeting Coming up in June

    by Ruddy Turnstone / submitted to Earth First! Newswire

    On April 20th 2017, the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Inspection Agency (APHIS) released their draft Environmental Impact statement (EIS) on ArborGen’s genetically engineered (GE) hybrid eucalyptus.

    The draft EIS recommended that the GE eucalyptus, two lines called FTE 427 and FTE 435 and their subsequent progeny, be deregulated, stating that there would be no significant impact to bringing billions of GE, freeze-tolerant eucalyptus seedlings to the so-called southeastern US. Deregulation permits companies and institutions to commercialize their GE products that were once only allowed in field trials, or that have slipped through government regulation loopholes.

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