New Forest Occupation Announced in Germany!

Submitted to EF! Journal (translated from German)

The Eppenberg Forest is occupied!

Since Feb 15, 2019, we – activists from the Hambach Forest – have been occupying the Eppenberg Forest. An area of 40 acres is supposed to be cut down for an industrial area despite the fact that there are industrial areas nearby that have large, unsold parts.

We can’t comprehend that people continue to feel entitled to nature. And since nature can’t defend itself, we decided to be its defenders.

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Marius Mason Transferred to Federal Prison in Connecticut

By KP

After nearly 10 years at the federal prison in Ft. Worth, Texas, longtime “Green Scare” defendant, trans prisoner and Earth First!er Marius Mason has finally been transferred to a facility closer to family and friends. As of the week of March 25, Marius is now at FCI Danbury in Connecticut. He had requested this move, but it was not clear if that request would be granted until he was actually in the new location. Danbury is classified as an FSL, or Federal Satellite Low Security, which is just a step up from a camp.

Marius’ transfer to Connecticut means he will be hundreds of miles closer to his children, volunteer attorney, and lifelong friends. We are hopeful that this move will allow for approved visitors to visit him more often. Currently, he’s been getting an  average of 2 or 3 visits a year, because of the overwhelming time and money involved in travel to Carswell in Ft. Worth.

At this date, Marius is just getting his bearings, and trying to figure out the new schedule, culture, and systems at Danbury. He could use a reminder that he is not alone in this major transition. Please consider writing him a letter of support in the short term.

So far, we do not know if FCI Danbury will accept Marius’ chosen name on envelopes. For the time being, please address the envelope to “Marie (Marius) Mason” or “M. Mason” while the actual letter inside should be written to Marius.

Marie (Marius) Mason #04672-061

FCI Danbury

Route 37

Danbury, CT 06811

 

More updates will be posted once Marius has more information and answers. Please check back on his website, twitter, and facebook  Thank you all for your continued support!

Mutual Aid Group Reports from Pine Ridge As Flooding Crisis Grows

by Fort Collins Mutual Aid Network / It’s Going Down

A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in so-called South Dakota across Native communities in the wake of massive climate change fueled flooding. Blizzards and heavy rains have flooded homes and cut off access to roads along with knocking out power to the area. Many have noted that the State has been slow to respond in comparison to other areas hit by the flooding in the MidWest, only furthering the day to day humanitarian disaster of settler-colonialism compounded by climate change and crumbling infrastructure. Currently, several autonomous mutual aid groups are mobilizing to offer aid. The following is a report back from the Fort Collins Mutual Aid Network. Check the bottom of this post for various resources from the Dandelion Network on how to support these efforts

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What’s Known About the Murder of a Social Leader in Northern Brazil

By Daniel Giovanez/Peoples’ Dispatch

A triple homicide last week in northern Brazil took the life of a regional coordinator of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), her husband, and a friend.

Dilma Ferreira Silva, 47, who was affected by the Tucuruí hydro power plant and was an MAB coordinator since 2005, was killed in her home in the Salvador Allende settlement, in the rural area of Baião, Pará state. Her husband, Claudionor Costa da Silva, 42, and Hilton Lopes, 38, a family friend, were also murdered. (more…)

David Bernhardt Sued for Gutting Sage Grouse Plans

BOISE, Ida. ― Four conservation groups sued Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Idaho federal court today over their recent decisions to gut protections for greater sage grouse across millions of acres of public land in the West.  A copy of the lawsuit is available here. The groups are Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and Prairie Hills Audubon Society.  (more…)

Water Protectors Protest at Enbridge Drill Site on Mississippi River

from It’s Going Down

(Ball Bluff, MN) On March 22nd, members of the Ginew Collective supported by Northfield Against Line 3 exposed an Enbridge drilling worksite on the eastern shore of the Mississippi River on the proposed Line 3 route.

Construction workers in Enbridge vests were engaged in what appeared to be core sampling for a Horizontal Directional Drill (HDD) to bore Line 3 under the Mississippi River. No work permits were posted or produced upon repeated inquiry of onsite workers. (more…)

Marking 200 Day of Active Resistance to the Mountain Valley Pipeline

by Appalachians Against Pipelines / It’s Going Down

A message from Philip who is involved in one of the tree sits outside of Elliston, VA, which is actively blocking the Mountain Valley Pipeline, (MVP). The statement marks 200 day of active resistance to the pipeline.

These sits have now been up for an incredible 200 days.

In those 200 days the Tarpington Municipal Library has expanded from a half dozen books at the bottom of a tote to a motley assortment of books sprawled across a bookshelf, several crates, both tree sits, and at least one car. If I remember one thing from my time here it will certainly be the books I read.

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The Green Scare: How a Movement that Never Killed Anyone Became the FBI’s No. 1 Domestic Terrorism Threat

by Alleen Brown / The Intercept

Joe Dibee’s 12 years on the lam came to an end last August, when Cuban authorities detained the 50-year-old environmental activist during a layover in Havana and turned him over to the United States.

More than a decade earlier, police and FBI agents had arrested a dozen of Dibee’s associates in the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front within the span of a few months. They were charged with conspiring to burn down factories that slaughtered animals for meat, timber mills that disrupted sensitive ecosystems, government facilities that penned wild horses, and a ski resort perched on a pristine mountaintop. Dibee, a former Microsoft software tester known for his ingenuity, had slipped away in the midst of it all.

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Report Shows Banks Vastly Increased Financing Fossil Fuels Across the Globe

From Native News Online

On Wednesday, the Indigenous Environmental Network released the Bank on Climate Change Report, in partnership with Rainforest Action Network, Banktrack, Sierra Club, Oil Change International, and Honor the Earth.

The report, endorsed by over 150 organizations around the world, reveals that 33 global banks have provided almost $2 trillion to fossil fuel companies since the adoption of the Paris climate accord at the end of 2015. The amount of financing has risen in each of the past two years.

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US Judge Halts Hundreds of Drilling Projects in Climate Change Ruling

by Cassidy Randall / The Guardian

In the first significant check on the Trump administration’s “energy-first” agenda, a US judge has temporarily halted hundreds of drilling projects for failing to take climate change into account.

Drilling had been stalled on more than 300,000 acres of public land in Wyoming after it was ruled the Trump administration violated environmental laws by failing to consider greenhouse gas emissions. The federal judge has ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages US public lands and issues leases to the energy industry, to redo its analysis.

The decision stems from an environmental lawsuit. WildEarth Guardians, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Western Environmental Law Center sued the BLM in 2016 for failing to calculate and limit the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from future oil and gas projects. (more…)