June 11th 2013 Call Out

The third anniversary of the international day of solidarity with Marie Mason, Eric McDavid, and other longterm anarchist prisoners is quickly approaching!

**June 11th 2013 Callout Statement **

June 11th is the international day of solidarity with Eric McDavid, Marie
Mason, and other longterm anarchist prisoners. If you are planning on
doing an event for the day, please email us at june11[at]riseup[dot]net. You can find
resources, information about events from previous years, and word on
upcoming events at june11.org. Read on to see our thoughts on what it
means to do longterm solidarity, on how Eric and
Marie inspire us, and to learn how June 11th began.

The state stole Eric McDavid and Marie Mason from us in 2006 and 2008 respectively. In the years since their arrests, repression has come to feel less like a specific event and more like an inescapable, ongoing nightmare. Sentenced to 22 years and 20 years, respectively, Marie and Eric remain in cages to this day, and know this nightmare more intimately than most.

Fearless Summer: Join a National Movement Against Extreme Energy

Cross posted from We Are Fearless Summer

Over the past few years we’ve witnessed a rising tide of courage from the frontlines; communities from the pinewoods of East Texas to the hollers of West Virginia have come together to defend the land and the people from the ravages of extreme energy.  Yet with every new frack-well drilled, pipeline laid, and mountain blasted, the extraction industry pushes our planet closer to irreversible tipping points.

But now we are coming together as a movement to push back.

For too long we have struggled separately and we are running out of time.  If we are going to reclaim our future, we must begin to speak with one voice.  That’s why we are calling for the national movement against extreme energy to join in a summer of coordinated action.   As this industry continues to escalate its attack of life on earth, we must respond by asserting our dignity and escalating our action for a livable future. In the face of unfathomable ecological destruction and looming runaway climate change, we must take the kind of bold action that is necessary to save the planet.  We must all draw our lines in the sand.  We must face our fears together ; we must take our future fearlessly into our hands and change business as usual.

Will you join us in ringing in a #FearlessSummer?

Defend Native Forests, Resist GE Trees: May 26-June 1, Asheville, NC

Resist the Tree Biotechnology 2013 Conference

May 26 – June 1 Asheville, NC

Join Earth First!, Global Justice Ecology Project and the STOP GE Trees Campaign for a week of resistance to genetically engineered trees. At the end of May the International Tree Biotechnology 2013 Conference is taking place in Asheville, NC. This conference is a gathering of many of the major players in the genetically engineered tree business and we intend to greet them with spirited protest.

Timber and utility corporations want to plant millions of acres of genetically engineered trees throughout the South to burn for electricity, as well as to continue supplying the unsustainable lumber and paper industries. These trees would be engineered to produce their own pesticides, grow straighter and faster, tolerate manufactured pesticides, produce sterile seeds, and reduce lignin content (this is what makes the wood in a tree strong enough to stand up). If these traits escaped into native tree populations, the effects would be devastating and irreversible.

Showdown at Shell! Extreme Energy Development vs Indigenous Peoples

Help a delegation of First Nations and Alaska Natives to attend Shell AGM in the Hague, Netherlands to stop extreme energy development on their homelands

Help send an Indigenous delegation to the Shell AGM

The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation has joined forces with the UK Tar Sands Network and the Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign to attend the Shell Annual General Shareholder Meeting in the Hague, Netherlands this May to send a message to Shell executives and shareholders that enough is enough.

Shell’s Extreme Energy projects are the “bottom of the barrel” kind of oil and gas projects. Many of the last pristine areas on earth are within Indigenous lands. Extreme energy includes fracking, tar sands, and deep sea off-shore drilling. Indigenous Peoples bear the brunt of extreme energy development through loss of land, clean water, and clean air. Many still live sustainably off the land.

Protests, Lawsuits and Arson: South American Mine Resistance

 

 

Thousands of indigenous peoples led by CONAIE (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador) converge on Quito in March 2012 after a 15-day march demanding an end to open pit mining and new oil concessions. (Amazon Watch)Three stories of mines resistance from our southern neighbors:

• Four hundred protesters stormed the planned site of the Minas Conga mine in Yanacocha, Peru, and set fire to construction equipment yesterday. Minas Conga would be the biggest gold mine in Peru, and has been the target of sustained protests from local indigenous residents who say the mine would destroy their water supply. In July, police killed five protesters in anti-mine clashes; the deaths led to a pending complaint to the Inter-American Human Rights Court.

• On April 3, 30 protesters crashed the opening of the Expominas trade fair in Quito, Ecuador, where the government was seeking to coax new investments in mineral and oil mining. Protesters crashed the inaugural speech by singing a rewritten version of the popular hip-hop song “Latinoamérica” by Calle 13: “You cannot buy Intag, you cannot buy Mirador, you can’t buy Kimsacocha, you can’t buy my Ecuador.”

Ecuador is home to a powerful (largely indigenous) anti-mines movement. Leftist President Rafael Correa’s support for big mining has been a major factor costing him support from much of his former base.

• A Chilean court has suspended construction of Barrick Gold’s long- embattled Pascua Lama mine, based on complaints from local indigenous communities that the mine will destroy their water supply. Unfortunately, the injunction does not affect construction in the Argentinean portion of the project, including the process plant and tailings storage facility.

from Root Force

Stop Off-Road Vehicles from Tearing Up the Wild in Eastern Oregon

Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project Action Alert

Stein’s Pillar, in the middle of the Ochoco National Forest. Image source: Hiking blog

A corporate-supported lobby is pushing for extensive ORV (or OHV, Off-Highway Vehicle) trail systems on the public lands of Ochoco National Forest. The Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project (BMBP) is mobilizing a flood of public comments to the Forest Service on the OHV project, which are due in a week. All the info you’ll need to make an informed comment is available below, from the incredible research of BMBP. 

Send email comments post-marked no later than April 15th on the “Ochoco Summit Trail System Project” Draft Environmental Impact Statement to the Ochoco Summit Planning Team, c/o Ranger Slater Turner, via: comments-pacificnorthwest-ochoco@fs.fed.us

Image from the Ochoco Trail Riders

You can also fax or mail comments to the Ochoco Summit Planning Team:
Ochoco National Forest
c/o Ranger Slater Turner
3160 NE 3rd St.
(541)416-6695
Prineville, OR 97754

Learn more about the BMBP, which was founded by Earth First!ers over 20 years ago, in a recent article from the Beltane 2012 edition of the Earth First! Journal, written by BMBP director Karen Coulter. The group is a leading model of grassroots biodiversity activism and the successful strategy of “paper-wreching” the industry-driven permitting process. Read on to see a glimpse of how its done…   

Climate Resistance in Bloom

From Rising Tide North America’s March Update:

UPCOMING ACTIONS AND ACTION CAMPS

• March 16th – 23rd – Tar Sands Blockade Week of Action
• March 18th – 22nd – Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance – Ponca City, Oklahoma
• March 24th – 30th – EF! Climber Guild Climb Camp – Finger Lakes region of NY

Read more from Rising Tide here.

Stop Tar Sands Profiteers Week of Action Kicks Off

[Check out EF! Newswire's featured article on "Deutsche Bags, the Keylime XL Pipeline and a Week of Eco-Action to Remember"]

Grassroots organizations across the US and Canada are taking action from March 16th to March 23rd to demonstrate that TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is a toxic investment.

Over 30 actions and events are planned this week to directly confront the corporate profiteers bankrolling the Keystone XL pipeline and the broader tar sands industry. These actions come at a critical time as investor confidence in Alberta’s tar sands is waning due to major delays and resistance to Keystone XL’s construction timeline.

Red Lake Chippewa Blockade Enbridge Tar Sands Pipelines

Cross-posted from Tar Sands Blockade

For over two weeks now, Nizhawendaamin Inaakiminaan (We Love Our Land) has been occupying land directly above four pipelines across an easement that Enbridge has claimed since 1949 when the company, then called Lakehead Pipe Line Company, installed the first of four pipelines across land owned by the Red Lake Band of Chippewa despite not having an easement from the Red Lake Chippewa Nation. These pipes carry toxic tar sands, Bakken oil, as well as Canadian crude. By threatening the local lakes, these pipes endanger the lives and economic livelihood of Red Lake Band members.

The grassroots group of Red Lake Chippewa and Anishinaabe Indians is joined by blockaders and solidarity activists determined to shut down the pipelines, hold Enbridge to account for stealing land, and protest Enbridge’s proposed expansion of the nearby Alberta Clipper toxic tar sands pipeline.

Day of Action Against Chevron and the Pacific Trail Pipeline

Call for solidarity actions March 30 2013

“No consent? No fracking pipelines, no climate crimes!”

American oil giant Chevron wants to build a destructive pipeline across unceded indigenous territory to carry fracked gas to the coast, and export climate change to the world. We say NO. We do not need fracked gas, we do not want another pipeline and we will not stand by as colonial governments and greedy corporations push us over the climate catastrophe cliff edge. Chevron is the new corporate face of the Pacific Trail Pipeline project, having recently become 50/50 partners with Apache to build a fracking gas pipeline across 500 kilometres of largely unceded land, from Summit Lake to LNG plants planned for Kitimat.

On March 30th we will greet them with resistance across BC and around the world. As politicians put economic growth and industry interests ahead of carbon common sense and indigenous rights, it is up to us take direct action to raise the cost of pushing ahead with the project, and raise the stakes in the PR battle.

We encourage autonomous creative direct action against Chevron and any others involved in the development and financing of Pacific Trail Pipeline. Occupy offices, drop banners, demonstrate in city centers, lock-down at the pumps, subvert the Chevron brand, hand out leaflets… the choice is yours! Everywhere they operate, Chevron exploits land and people for money, often through the use of force, and without taking responsibility for the consequences. Battles against environmental racism and illegal oil wars, movements for indigenous sovereignty and migrant justice – we amplify our resistance by uniting our struggles, so we are calling for solidarity actions and events against Chevron across Canada and around the world.

The Pacific Trail pipeline can still be stopped.