Down with the Glen Canyon Dam?

Krista Langlois / High Country News

Glen Canyon Dam, with Lake Powell spreading out behind it.

In 1963, Glen Canyon was pronounced dead. Glen Canyon Dam had submerged its fabled grottoes, Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings and slickrock chutes beneath the stagnant water of Lake Powell, and forever altered the ecology of the Grand Canyon just downstream.

For wilderness lovers, the 710-foot-tall concrete wall stuck out of the Colorado River like a middle finger — an insult that helped ignite the modern environmental movement. In 1981, the radical group Earth First! faked a “crack” on the dam by unfurling a 300-foot-long black banner down the structure’s front. The Sierra Club’s first executive director, David Brower, considered the dam’s construction a personal failure and spent the rest of his life advocating for its removal. And in his iconic novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, author Edward Abbey imagined a group of friends secretly plotting to blow up the dam and free the Colorado River.

In real life, though, Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell made it possible for millions of people to live and grow food in the arid Southwest. Together, the dam and the reservoir store precious snowmelt for year-round use, help generate electricity for 5.8 million homes, and enable states from the Upper Colorado River Basin to fulfill their legal obligation to deliver water to downstream states. Last year, the federal government underscored its support for the dam by finalizing a plan that will guide management for the next two decades.

Even so, an unprecedented interest in dam removals and the specter of climate change have created fresh hope for those who want to see the drowned canyon resurrected. From 1990 to 2010, the population of the American Southwest grew by 37 percent, even as the amount of water flowing into the Colorado River system shrank amid a historic drought. More people using fewer resources means that neither Lake Powell nor Lake Mead, the downstream reservoir created by Hoover Dam, have been full since 1999. And climate change promises to squeeze the water supply even further, with future droughts expected to bring even hotter and drier conditions. (more…)

Week of Action Against Speciesism: October 30 to November 5

from La Rebelión de las Palabras

translated by Earth First! Journal

From October 30 to November 5, International Week of Action against Speciesism

An international call for a week of action against speciesism, from October 30 and November 5, has been launched through social media. It encourages folks to carry out all kinds of actions, from street propaganda (paintings, posters, distribution of leaflets …) to workshops/forums and debates in your meeting spaces, to self-organizing various actions against specific businesses with the tools that each person may consider appropriate, to mass mobilizations and demonstrations. May each one be organized as it suits each one involved, and may they shake all the cages. In memory of Barry Horne and all the human and nonhuman victims of speciesism and domination.

Both individual and collective measures of struggle are valid; from diffusion actions to mobilizations.

Solidarity between species is not just a written word!

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Italy: Hunter’s Training Center Sabotaged, Hundreds of Animals Liberated

from Frente de Liberación Animal

translated by Earth First! Journal

Training Center for hunting was sabotaged, and 200 quails and partridges were released in Prevalle (Brescia), Italy

On the night of September 2-3, the owners of this business of death found: broken glass, overturned and destroyed furniture, open cabinets and cages, plus all the animals were released; about 200 quail and partridges, which were being used for training hunters.

***SPANISH***

Centro de entrenamiento de caza saboteada y liberación de 200 codornices y perdices en Prevalle (Brescia) , Italia

En la noche del 2 al 3 de septiembre los dueños de este negocio de muerte fue lo que se encontraron; cristales rotos, muebles volcados y destruidos, armarios y jaulas abiertas y todos los animales liberados, unas 200 codornices y perdices, las cuales eran usadas para entrenamiento de cazadores.

Canada: Barricades Taken Down Outside Caledonia, Ending Occupation

from Red Power Media

Barricades erected by Six Nations people near Caledonia have been dismantled, marking an end to an occupation that lasted for nearly a month.

An OPP spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that officers intercepted the development on Monday. A “verbal interaction” occurred between land defenders and OPP officers and they were subsequently instructed to leave, said Rod Leclair. Officials are on-site clearing leftover debris, he added.

The issue is linked to a contentious move by the Six Nations Elected Band Council to place a parcel of land into a federal corporation, ostensibly defaulting on a promise entered into by Ontario and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in 2006 to stem the Caledonia Standoff, a protest that grew to a fever pitch after Indigenous people occupied a subdivision called the Douglas Creek Estates.

The unelected, hereditary council want the Burtch lands, located near Brantford, to be independent from the Canadian government, citing expropriation concerns. It validates its position through a letter signed by former Ontario premier David Peterson which says the land will return to its original state and status under the Haldimand Proclamation, an official order of 1784 that gave land to the Haudenosaunee people for their military allegiance to the British during the American Revolutionary War.

(more…)

Ende Gelände: The Battle for Coal on the Potato Field

by Janek Rovensky and Petr Zewlak Vrabec / Political Critique

Ende Gelände – two words that have become synonymous with a nonviolent, radical, mass- and non-hierarchical movement for climate justice in Europe. On the last weekend of August, thousands of people wearing the distinctive white overalls with a reversed pick and a hammer were shouting these two worlds: “Ende Gelände! Ende Gelände! Ende Gelände!”

All of them took part in this year’s civil disobedience action on the premises of coal mines, power plants, and the related infrastructure of RWE’s energy company in Rhineland. They returned to the same spot after two years, and showed that it’s not easy to step into the same river twice. The police this year were clearly determined to prevent anyone from even approaching the mine or power plant fence.

Hundreds of cops manoeuvred with tear gas cans strapped to their uniforms and several helicopters flying over their heads like one well-trained organism. Friday was a field day: the protests were halted at the road, three miles from the actual fence, for the whole day.. Only a few dozen people reached the mine entrance, and shortly after were attacked by RWE’s employees and later detained.

On Saturday, the luck returned to the protesters. Literally thousands of people managed to bypass the mobile police cordons and reached the rails, on which all the coal from the mines is transported to power stations. The battle of the day unfolded on the potato field, beside the tracks: stumbling policemen vs. stumbling protesters. The police tried to surround the demonstrators. Eventually, they succeeded – but not entirely: several small groups of activists sneaked through the tight cordons and blocked the rails for most of the afternoon, giving photographers a lot opportunities to take photos of people dragged around by policemen in riot gear.

(more…)

Hurricane Irma Headed Towards Earth First! Journal Office

Faithful readers,

Yet again, a giant hurricane is headed our way to remind us of our insignificance in the grand scheme of things. Irma is currently a Category 5 hurricane (that’s house-leveling status) and is a few days away from probably wreaking havoc through the Florida peninsula.

We are doing what we can to prep the office to protect our magazine archive, what computers we have left, and our tenacious office cat, Greasy. Last year the hurricane scare was a false alarm, and we’re hoping this one misses us, too. But the radio, TV, internet, and our friends and family are telling us a deadly storm is headed our way, and our local grocery stores are already out of water (and plastic bags). And none of us in the collective our native Floridians. So we’re prepping.

We’ll likely be posting to the newswire, answering emails, and generally being in touch less than normal, until this hurricane passes or kills us. We are also in the middle of doing layout for the fall issue of the magazine, so expect that to possibly be delayed a little bit. Or a lot, if… you know.

Last year, some of y’all graciously donated to help us buy plywood, concrete screws, and other necessities for hurricane prep. Thank you! This year we are doing better financially and we ask that any money you were considering sending to the Journal for hurricane-related support instead be donated to non-government, non-Red Cross organizations lending assistance to the people of Houston. They need our support.

Stay wild,
EF!J Collective

Ranchers and Politics are Killing Oregon’s Endangered Wolves

by Erik Molvar / The Hill

This undated file image provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a gray wolf. (Associated Press)

As wolves are recolonizing the wide-open spaces of the West, they are running into a buzzsaw of political meddling at the hands of a ranching industry that yearns for the glory days of its forebears, who killed wolves to the brink of extinction generations ago.

In eastern Oregon, public controversy has erupted over the kill order issued this month by state wildlife officials for two members of the Harl Butte wolf pack in northeastern Oregon, the latest in a long and bloody history of political deals, deception and feuding over the ranching industry’s perceived “right” to kill native wildlife to ease its mind and further its profits.

Unlike many western states, the Oregon has its own Endangered Species Act, adopted in 1984 to protect wildlife rare or imperiled in the state. Wolves immediately became an endangered species when the law was adopted, and it wasn’t very controversial because the species was completely extinct in the state at that time.

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Graz, Austria: A New Stage of Struggle Against the Water Power Plant

from Contra Info

Text about the ongoing fight against the water power plant (“Murkraftwerk”) in Graz, Austria. The original is German and it was published in the anarchist newspaper REVOLTE in Vienna in the septembre-issue.

A new stage of struggle against the water power plant in Graz (Austria) start of clearance season: 1st of October

The fight against the water power plant in Graz (“Murkraftwerk”) is highly visible since the beginning of this year. There were various
actions like squatting of trees and excavators, camps and direct action at the river bank against this object of prestige. It’s also a
discussion about so-called “green energy”. Thousands of trees got already cut down and thousands of others are supposed to follow in
autumn…

The construction of the power plant and the attendant central storage channel (“Zentraler Speicherkanal”) are going to change the city of Graz drastically. Until now the inner city was consisting mainly of savaged river banks, where thousands of trees were giving cover for different groups of people: people doing sports or walking, animals, youngsters hanging out. They all should give way to the restructuring of the area, so that the needs of the financially strong middle class can be met.

One of these projects is for example the construction project “timber in town”, developed and realised through the company “Hohensinn
Architektur”, “Kovac Immobilien” and the help of the Technical University of Graz. New and expensive flats and workplaces should arise,
where since decades there are people with low income living in small cottages – at the Grünanger, which is known as “a place of social
conflict”.

(more…)

Philippines: Lumad Communities Resisting Extractive Operations

from Ruptura Colectiva

translated by Earth First! Journal

The courage, leadership and perseverance of human rights defenders in Mindanao, especially women lumad, is a lesson of humility and inspiration for us.

The Philippines and more specifically Mindanao – the second largest island in size, located in the southern tip of the country, rich in natural resources and minerals – are being plundered by transnational and multinational corporations that carry out extractive operations with impunity for violations they commit against human rights. (*1) The Philippine Government provides paramilitary forces to suppress and eliminate people belonging to the lumad (*2) communities [Lumads are said to be composed of 17 entholinguistic groups, all found in southern Philippines] in Mindanao if they confront both the neoliberal agenda of the government and transnational and multinational corporations.

Women in the lumad communities are taking the lead in organizing resistance and defending their communities, while facing many challenges related specifically to their gender when they carry out actions to promote and defend human rights against the collusion of corporate interests private and government.

AWID spoke with Cristina Palabay, a human rights defender in Karapatan [the Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples’ Rights], about why the human rights struggles in the Philippines are stronger than ever, at the same time that they face tremendous challenges.

(more…)

2016 Complaint Against WWF for Violating Indigenous Rights Abandoned

by Stephen Corry / Counterpunch

WWF-funded park guards attacked this Baka woman’s village and assaulted her with pepper-spray. Photo: Survival International.

[also read: Survival–WWF OECD talks break down over tribal consent ]

Survival International has today [September 5, 2017] abandoned trying to get a resolution to our formal complaint that the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is violating international standards about corporate responsibility, and is reverting to using public pressure to try and stop the abuses.

Survival made the complaint in February 2016, in an attempt to stop the conservation giant from contributing to the mistreatment of tribal peoples, and it was admitted under the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) process in Switzerland, where WWF is headquartered.[1] Surprisingly, this is the first time that an NGO has been seen as subject to the same guidelines as other multinational corporations. This is a great leap forward for those who think non-profits must also be held accountable for any negative consequences of their work.

The complaint detailed Survival’s allegations that WWF was party to the theft and control of the lands of Baka “Pygmies” in Cameroon, and that the Baka were suffering catastrophic levels of abuse as a result. We said that WWF had made no attempt either to apply its own policy on indigenous peoples, or to abide by the OECD guidelines, which are designed to prevent human rights abuses arising from corporate activities.

The guidelines are recommendations to multinationals which stress the duty to “avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts.” Multinationals must take responsibility for the consequences of their actions, and cannot hide behind a government’s failure to uphold human rights. Simply abiding by local legislation is no yardstick for anyone claiming a moral position: That’s what underpins the whole concept of human rights, and is why international laws and conventions are necessary.

Although WWF’s own policy requires that the organization ensure proper consent has been given to projects on indigenous peoples’ lands, and construct systems to handle problems, Survival believes that WWF has done neither.

(more…)