Great Plains Activist Accused of Vandalizing Liquor Delivery Truck in Whiteclay

from Earth First! Newswire

LINCOLN, Nebraska – Activist T.R. McKenzie was arrested yesterday, May 24, on charges stemming from an incident on May 3, 2013, where a group confronted a delivery truck. Allegations include someone flashing a knife and telling the driver to leave town while others threw beer containers into the street. The truck’s two front tires were also slashed. (Bravo, to whoever the warriors were behind this bold act!)

McKenzie is an activist with DGR, which has kept up a campaign against the liquor stores in Whiteclay. For the purposes of dialogue it is crucial to discuss this campaign and its tactics. But more than that, it is important now to stand in solidarity with McKenzie and all others under state repression—regardless of whatever infighting (or “horizontal hostility”) might be occurring within the movement. 

McKenzie was picked up in Lincoln prior to his scheduled appearance at a press conference at the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, where he was planning to speak about the most recent in a long history of documented code violations and human rights abuses committed by alcohol sellers in Whiteclay, Nebraska.

This poster was released by Deep Green Resistance, McKenzie is actively involved with DGR Great Plains

McKenzie was held for six hours at the Lancaster County Jail on charges of theft, criminal mischief, third degree assault, and terroristic threats. He was released on bond the same day as his arrest.This arrest comes in the wake of several weeks of protests and encampments on the outskirts of Whiteclay.

“Most of those sleeping at the protest camp are women and children,” McKenzie said shortly after his release. “We are all working to draw attention to the devastation caused to the Lakota people by the sale of alcohol in Whiteclay.”

Whiteclay has a population of 14, yet 4 liquor stores in the town sell 12,500 cans of beer each day.

Coal Headquarters Shut Down By Demonstrators Locked to Tank of Dirty Water

Residents Protest Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining, Health Impacts and Sludge Expansion

by Charles / RAMPS

BRISTOL, VA.— Three residents of Central Appalachia and supporters with Mountain Justice chained themselves to an industrial tank of black water in front of Alpha Natural Resources’ Bristol, Va., headquarters to protest Alpha’s mountaintop removal strip mining and coal slurry operations across the region.

“I’m risking arrest today because mountaintop removal has to end now for the future viability of Appalachia,” says Emily Gillespie of Roanoke, Va., whose work with the Mountain Justice movement is inspired by Appalachian women’s history of non-violent resistance. The tank of water represents coal contamination from affected communities across the Appalachian region.

The group called for Alpha to stop seeking an expansion of the Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment in Raleigh County, W.Va. “We want Kevin Crutchfield, CEO of Alpha Natural Resources, to produce a signed document expressing that they won’t seek the expansion of the Brushy Fork Impoundment before we leave,” Junior Walk, 23, from the Brushy Fork area said.

“I live downstream from Alpha’s Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment on Coal River. If that impoundment breaks, my whole family would be killed,” Walk said,

67 Year Old Willits Man Locks Down To Machinery, Stops Work

Cross Posted From Save Little Lake Valley

Bob Chevalier, a 67 year old Willits resident, locked himself to an excavator this morning and stopped Caltrans work. He did this to protest and bring attention the Army Corps of Engineers’ (ACE) failure to hold Caltrans accountable to the conditions ACE set forth for Caltrans to begin work. Bob and a 73 year old woman were subsequently arrested by the California Highway Patrol and taken to jail in Ukiah.

Mr. Chevalier took action this morning so that you will know the following:

In a February 2013 letter, ACE granted an unusual exemption and conditional approval for Caltrans to begin construction activities. One of the conditions for beginning construction was that Caltrans could provide assurance that they would receive full funding for their mitigation plan at the May 7th CTC meeting. At that meeting last week, Caltrans received less than the full amount they need to carry out their mitigation plan. Mr. Chevalier and SOLLV are calling on the Corps to maintain their integrity and hold Caltrans accountable for the success of the mitigation process.

Fourth Generation Oklahoman, Founder of the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House, Locks Himself to KXL Construction Equipment

Cross Posted From Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance
Follow this developing story at GPTSR’s website

Wewoka Oklahoma-Monday, May 13th, 7 am

Early this morning Bob Waldrop, 60,
fourth generation Oklahoman and prominent Oklahoma City community member
walked onto an active construction site for the Keystone XL pipeline in Seminole County and
locked himself to an Excavator, a piece of heavy machinery used in the
construction of the pipeline. Waldrop took a stand today in defense of the
land and the human and non-humans that depend upon it to survive.

Waldrop, as a founding member of the Oscar Romero Catholic Workers House,
is a part of Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, a growing coalition of
groups and individuals dedicated to stopping the expansion of Tar Sands
infrastructure throughout the Great Plains. His action follows an
escalating number of work-stopping actions, of which there were five in
April alone, in Oklahoma.

Indigenous Peoples Stop Dam Construction With New Occupation at Belo Monte Site

Cross Posted from Amazon Watch:

Altamira, Brazil – Some 200 indigenous people affected by the construction of large hydroelectric dams in the Amazon launched an occupation today on one of the main construction sites of the Belo Monte dam complex on the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon. The group demands that the Brazilian government adopt effective legislation on prior consultations with indigenous peoples regarding projects that affect their lands and livelihoods. As this has not happened, they are demanding the immediate suspension of construction, technical studies and police operations related to dams along the Xingu, Tapajos and Teles Pires rivers. Shock troops of the military police were awaiting indigenous protestors when they arrived at the Belo Monte dam site, but they were unable to impede the occupation.

The indigenous protestors include members of the Juruna, Kayapó, Xipaya, Kuruaya, Asurini, Parakanã, Arara tribes from the Xingu River, as well as warriors of the Munduruku, a large tribe from the neighboring Tapajós river basin. The indigenous peoples are joined by fishermen and local riverine communities from the Xingu region. Initial reports indicate that approximately 6,000 workers at one of the main Belo Monte construction sites, Pimental, have ceased operations as a result of the protest. The occupation, according to the indigenous communities, will continue indefinitely or until the federal government meets their demands.

ALF Releases 29 Rabbits from Barcelona Factory Farm

Cross posted from Bite Back:

received anonymously (translation):

29 Rabbits Liberated From a Factory Farm in Barcelona

On the night of April 13, 2013, Animal Liberation Front activists opened the cages of thirty rabbits who were to be killed in a few days. The initial goal was to get many more out, but when we arrived we saw that because of their enormous size and weight it would be impossible to liberate the number we had thought, so with great effort we carried away our backpacks full of our new and surprised friends.

If you’ve ever seen the terrified eyes of an animal in a cage and then felt their heart beating next to yours at the time of their release, you know exactly the meaning of Animal Liberation. After seeing them locked in small cages without soil, and then later see them walk and feel the wild life, you know that while you have strength, you won’t stop fighting for Total Liberation.

We’re not going to ask for their cages to be larger or comfortable.
We’re not going to ask that the conditions in which they are tortured in experiments are ‘improved,’
We’re not going to ask that when they are killed, that it be done ‘humanely’…

A Call For More Meeting Disruptions!

by Rabb!t, Earth First! Newswire

As the saying goes: dress for the job you want [to undermine], not the one you have [been].

Lately, environmental activists have been shedding the flannels and camo and straightening their ties in order to infiltrate meetings, conferences and symposiums, disrupting dirty energy projects at the point of decision. Not only can you stop a lot of bulldozers by interrupting the executives who order the bulldozers—you also get to see the looks on those execs’ faces as they realize that all their power and money suddenly appear insubstantial in the face of passionate cries and steel bicycle locks.

Just yesterday, the Pittsburg Post-Gazette reported, protesters fed up with mountaintop removal coal mining crashed PNC Financial Services Group’s annual shareholder’s meeting. According to participants, PNC is one of the nation’s largest financiers of mountaintop coal mining. The activists, most of whom were from the Earth Quaker Action Team, called out the names of board members and asked them to state their position on mountaintop removal. PNC’s chairman and CEO, James Rohr, tried to continue the meeting in spite of the disturbance, but finally gave up, calling the meeting off about 15 minutes after it started.

[Update: Read George Lakey's personal account of the action here]

ALF Destroys 200 Fur Traps in Ontario

Cross Posted from Bite Back

received anonymously:

“As of March 2013 we have removed and destroyed approximately 200 fur traps in Ontario. The traps were snares and Conibears intended to murder beaver, rabbits and other innocents. Tragically we were too late for two rabbits and one raccoon, whose bodies and internal organs had already been eaten into by snares. We will be forever haunted by our memories of their bodies, we will forever continue removing traps and we encourage others to get in the bush and help smash the fur industry. Look for tell tale signs of traps and trap lines; flagging tape tied to branches, repeated tracks entering the bush, and poles or sticks protruding from bodies of water especially near beaver lodges, where trapping is frequent. Join the burgeoning ranks of trap saboteurs!

ALF”

TWAC Storms Prison Industry Giant GEO Group’s HQ in Boca Raton

[Update: As of 10:40 am, four TWAC folks who were occupying the GEO lobby have been arrested. The police removed the doors to the building to get them out. Sounds like that might be an inconvenience! We are told donations towards legal support can be made here. Check out a video from the corporate media here. For those who missed the story last week, TWAC organizers also confronted the history of colonization and genocide in St. Augustine by disrupting a re-enactment of Ponce de Leon "discovering" Florida. Bad-asses.]

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Hot New Video! 

TWAC storms the GEO Group HQ in Boca Raton

by EF! Newswire

The movement powerhouse which has come to be known across the country as TWAC, the Trans and Womyns’ Action Camp, has done it again!

This morning at 9am, following the first east coast TWAC camp, which took place in south Florida, activists stormed the lobby of GEO Group a prison-for-profit corporation located at 621 NW 53rd Street, Suite 700, Boca Raton, FL, 33487.

TWAC occupying GEO Group lobby

Two folks u-locked themselves to lobby doors, keeping them open long enough for a crowd to enter and disrupt business as usual for GEO Group (who is still reeling from an ass-whooping by FAU students which got their name kicked off the Boca campus’ new sports stadium.)

As of 10am, we’ve received updates that police have locked exterior doors to building with 5 activist remaining inside blocking office doors.  A crowd of 40 remains outside chanting and raising a ruckus. The entire road into the business complex of the GEO corporate office has been blocked by law enforcement!

TWAC, which was born out of the Earth First! movement in the Pacific Northwest, has become a leading example of linking struggles to grow a more effective solidarity-based grassroots direct action movement.

Women and trans folks out there feeling like you missed out? Don’t fret. TWAC Cascadia will be holding an ecodefense action camp this Summer in western Oregon, July 23-29, 2013: “a week of discussion, skillshares, networking, workshops, story telling, and action.”

The morning’s TWAC press release had this to say, in English and Spanish, about GEO Group:  

Tar Sands Blockader Disrupts Valero-Sponsored Golf Tournament, Demands Accountability for Manchester

A Tar Sands Blockader disrupted the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio this afternoon during the PGA golf tournament. Douglas Fahlbusch was a standard bearer for the event and used the opportunity to bring attention to Manchester, a low income, predominately Latin@ community in Houston’s toxic East End where Valero operates a refinery that consistently violates EPA and TCEQ (Texas Commission for Environmental Quality) laws and regulations.

Once the tournament reached the 18th hole, Doug changed the sign, ordinarily used to display the players’ names and scores, to read “TAR SANDS SPILL. VALERO KILLS. ANSWER MANCHESTER.” He refused to leave the green and was dragged the entire way off the premises by police.

“Business as usual is over, between the BP spill, the current Arkansas spill, and daily life in Manchester,” Fahlbusch said. “Why won’t Valero tell the Manchester people what it is they are breathing every day?”