Month: November 2013

Darwin: Rowdy anti-election action as anarchists burn campaign posters and also activists’ banner

325: On Friday the 6th of September as the farce of Australia’s federal election came to a close we decided to breathe some more fire into the mix.

50 + political posters with the names, faces and political parties who claim to want to “represent” us were collected throughout the night and as we descended on a footbridge across Trower Rd we noticed some do-gooder activists had already visited. With a banner reading “Don’t vote for Abbott, preserve your lifestyle” being immediately removed, covered in petrol and blanketed in party posters we set the kindling ablaze and had 2 banners hanging over the road below it; “FUCK THE VOTE” and “FREEDOM NOW.” They greeted the traffic and the authorities that arrived to deal with it. It was rather pretty when it all went up 5 metres off the ground across three lanes of traffic.

We will not vote at the ballot, we will vote with fire, we will not vote at the polls but we’ll do it with poles.

Much respect to all fire starters in Australia, we march forward with much inspiration. To all comrades imprisoned and on the run – eternal solidarity.

– Darwin (almost) Ninja League

Bandung, Indonesia: ELF torch manufacturing plant of bulletproof vests for police and military

325: Communique

The police are the enemy. This is our final statement that is not negotiable. Police are not born to be friends, as individuals and as an institution, and can not be excluded from the list of enemies that must be addressed by for our attacks. As an institution and as individuals, the police goal is to protect civilization and the exploitation it is doing to the earth.

The objective of the police -as well as the other repressive instruments- is to secure the money and investment interests for the sake of the anthropocentric way of life as it is today. The police are not for representing our interests. Instead, the police are one of the thousands of faces of outrage alive today. Police must be attacked, as hard as possible. Continue reading “Bandung, Indonesia: ELF torch manufacturing plant of bulletproof vests for police and military”

Kyrgyzstan: crowd attacks Australian gold miner’s office

18 October: A crowd of about 200 people on Friday attacked the local office of Z-Explorer, an Australian company developing a gold field in southern Kyrgyzstan, in what appeared to be another violent conflict over the privatisation of the country’s resources.

A subsidiary of Australian-listed Manas Resources, Z-Explorer discovered the Shambesai deposit in 2008 and in 2012 it received a licence to develop the field, which holds estimated gold reserves of 8.8 tonnes. A bulldozer on its way to the deposit on Friday was met by an angry crowd, Jyldyz Akmatova, public affairs officer for Z-Explorer, said from the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. Continue reading “Kyrgyzstan: crowd attacks Australian gold miner’s office”

West Papua: a growing movement against plantations

A Growing Movement Against Plantations in West Papua

“We, the indigenous people of Yowied Village reject corporations coming on to our land in Tubang District for the following reasons:
there is not so much land around Yowied Village.
Our lives are dependent on what our environment can provide.
Where will the future generations go?”

The sign is tied with coconut leaves, a signal that it is a ‘sasih’ marker, a traditional means to forbid passage. Similar signs can be seen in almost all villages in the area. They are backed up by an agreement between all villages in the area that no-one should give up their land, under pain of death. It’s a desperate first act of defiance to a modern world they know has no place for them. A plantations mega-project has been imposed on Merauke, West Papua, and 2.5 million hectares of forest, grassland and swamps – the ancestral lands of the Malind people – are being targeted for oil palm, industrial timber and sugar cane. Continue reading “West Papua: a growing movement against plantations”

Indonesia: Kulon Progo Farmer Tukijo Freed From Prison

Hidup Biasa, October 3: Tukijo finally walked free from Yogyakarta prison this morning, to be welcomed by his family, farmers from Kulon Progo and supporters of their struggle. There was no holding back the emotion as his friends hugged him in turn – a pointless and vindictive ordeal was over at last.

Tukijo is one of the thousands of farmers along the Kulon Progo coast who are defending their land from an Australian mining company in partnership with the local feudal leader. He was snatched from his fields by police in May 2011 and sentenced to three years in prison for doing nothing more than telling a company worker to get off the land.

After nearly two and a half years in prison, Tukijo will now be able to return to his farm to plant chillis and watermelons once again, as the land has not yet been taken over by Indomines for its iron sand mine. Whether due to it’s tumbling share price, a fall in demand for iron from China or the farmers’ determined resistance, the mining company’s plans have been put back again and again. Continue reading “Indonesia: Kulon Progo Farmer Tukijo Freed From Prison”

Bulgaria: Assault on prisoners in Sofia Central Prison, October 17

Slackbastard:

Jock Palfreeman is a young Australian currently serving a 20-year prison term in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2009, under highly dubious circumstances, he was convicted of murder. You can read more about his case in Belinda Hawkin’s book Every Parent’s Nightmare (Allen & Unwin, 2013) and at the Free Jock website. I received the following communication from Jock Palfreeman yesterday. It contains an account of an assault upon him and a group of other prisoners on October 17. I republish it below, at his request.

On the [Bulgarian Prisoners’ Rehabilitation Association]’s blog I have up until now not written much if anything about myself in an attempt to keep the Association’s blog neutral and equal for all issues and prisoners in Bulgaria and specifically Sofia Central Prison. However, I have done this at the expense of not reporting the prison’s attacks against myself for my unionism and solidarity with other prisoners, in an attempt to reform the corrupt prison administration, however on Thursday 17th of October an incident occurred involving myself that must be published. Continue reading “Bulgaria: Assault on prisoners in Sofia Central Prison, October 17”

Mapanyukki, Indonesia: Riots and attacks against police in resistance to land eviction

325, 23 October: … Yesterday when I was cooking, me and subcommandante ***** heard about some eviction quite near to Pandan Raya, in Mapanyukki. We heard in the radio that two of the police were severely injured by molotov cocktails and we rushed to the place. But by the time we get there its all tear gas and the confrontation have calmed down, but you can see how the police forces were very large, including some military trucks, it was a full force eviction. But the occupants fought very hard too. The little boys fights with arrows, molotov cocktails, the women, rocks, but the tear gas easily dispersed them. I can still feel the pain in my eyes as we passed through the former battleground. This eviction grew unease to the comrades because its like signal for Pandan Raya as the next target. …