World’s Biggest Waste Incinerator Shut Down

Detroit’s terrible incinerator has been shut down, supposedly due to economic failure. The Global Justice Ecology Project team worked with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) and local community groups to publicize the pollution caused by this incinerator, which became the subject of a mass mobilization after this year’s World Social Forum. Click here for more.

Chevron CEO’s Speech Interrupted, Direct Action Against Coal in Scotland, IMF Weekend of Resistance, and more…

Activists with Change Chevron infiltrated and interrupted a speech of Chevron’s CEO, and turned it into convo bout their toxic pollution in Equador. After activists confronted the CEO, one audience member shouted, “keep standing up to them!”

Direct Action in Scotland
In Scotland, two anonymous posts on Indymedia show that direct action against coal mining infrastructure has started once again. Last week a post on Indymedia Scotland said that “extensive damage has been caused to a mining machine at the Broken Cross open cast coal mine in South Lanarkshire.” Today, a post on Indymedia UK said that this morning “people locked the haulage gate of Mainshill Open Cast Site on the B7078 with a d-lock preventing coal trucks entering the site and transporting coal to the Ravenstruther Rail Head.” Both actions were carried out in solidarity with The Happendon Wood Action Camp and the people of the Douglas valley who are “facing an onslaught of coal mines from Scottish Coal.”

300 March Against IMF and World Bank Debt
On the 8th of October, as the IMF and World Bank meetings got underway, an estimated 300 protesters took to the streets, carrying “chains of debt” to the IMF and World Bank, marching with them to the White House-and finally draping the paper chains over the White House Fence, and getting away with it! The march went right past the front and back doors of the World Bank and wound around the IMF before proceeding to the White House. A giant “Loan Shark” puppet was constantly circling, like a real shark smelling food. Jubilee and other activist groups participated in the demonstration.
On October 9, a second night march against the IMF and World Bank meetings was met with police violence and and an illegal mass detention where people were detained and released individually. This skirts close to violating the terms of court settlements and legislation against meaningless arrests stemming from IMF protests in 2000 and 2002. After the Saturday night march against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank was dispersed by the DC metropolitan police, affinity groups used the situation to attack targets in the Friendship Heights shopping district. Windows along the main strip including Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, a Microsoft office, and an ATM at a bank were hit in the middle of the night. Anticapitalist and anarchist graffiti was seen along the Galleria walls and behind banks.

SHAC Protest in DC
On the 8th of October, animal rights activists stormed the lobby of Goldman-Sachs, protesting their continued status as a shareholder of Fortress, the lifeline of Huntingdon Life Sciences. As this is the weekend of the IMF and World Bank meetings, protesters against Huntingdon Life Sciences have chosen to focus on financial institutions that invest in Fortress or otherwise are connected to HLS for this week. The Friday timing caught security by surprise at Goldman-Sachs, and protesters were able to storm into the lobby blowing air horns and wielding bullhorns. Nomura, another major stockholder in Fortress, had their doors held open for bullhorns before security was able to close and lock them.

Civil Liberties Defense Center Releasing Benefit Album

See more info about this awesome new album at the link below:
CLDC_OneSheet

Boreal Boycotts are Back, and more

Less than five months after some logging companies and large environmental groups declared a truce to the “war in the woods” a remote Ontario First Nation is calling for renewed boycotts against Weyerhaeuser Corporation, one of North America’s largest lumber producers. In an open letter today to loggers, retailers and investors Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister states that “[w]e continue to call for the boycott and divestment of Weyerhaeuser Corporation due to their violation of our human rights as Indigenous Peoples.” The letter goes on to say that “[w]e will work with our supporters to promote, monitor, and enforce this position.”
Contact Joseph Fobister for Grassy Narrows. 807-925-2745 or David Sone for Earthroots. 416-599-0152 x.13. For primary source documents email david.sone@gmail.com

Feds Delay Wolf Release
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today again delayed releasing a pack of eight wolves — badly needed to bolster the dwindling number of Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest — into the Arizona wild. The Engineer Springs pack would infuse new genetics into a wolf population suffering from inbreeding. The Mexican wolf population has declined or stayed stagnant for four years. Just 42 animals were counted in the wild in a survey in January, which was a 19-percent decline from the year before. A new count will be conducted in January 2011. Only one Mexican wolf has been released into the wild from the captive-breeding program, without having previously been removed from the wild, over the past four years. That was in November 2008.

Funding for Bat Disease Research
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that it is providing $1.6 million for several new studies of the disease known as white-nose syndrome that has decimated bat populations in the eastern United States over the past four years. While the funding is an important step, the federal government must do still more to address what has been called the worst wildlife decline in North American history.Biologists fear the bat disease — associated with a fungus previously unknown to science — will show up this winter in the upper Midwest, Alabama and other areas of the South, and parts of the western United States. Last winter, white-nose syndrome jumped across the Mississippi River into caves in Missouri and western Oklahoma. So far, nine bat species have been documented with the fungus, two of which were already listed as endangered before the onset of the disease.

Urgent: Navy Training Threatens Marine Sanctuary

The Navy has proposed changes to its Northwest Training Range Complex off the northwest coast of the US, such as increasing use of sonar and explosives along crucial whale migration routes and, astoundingly, in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. This article explains what the Navy proposes and what people can do before the public comment period ends. Thanks for anything you can do to spread the word, since people are so often unaware of what happens in the oceans.

Comments on the Navy document can be sent by e-mail through the project’s website.

Biggest Day of Climate Action in History, Direct Action in Canada, Enviro-Arrest!, more…

Around 7347 events in 188 countries rallied to change causes of climate change with 350.org yesterday during a day of Work Parties. Work parties organized for the sake of clean energy, community and mutual aid took place from Afghanistan to Aukland, New Zealand, to Iceland, Argentina and more. Work parties ranged from installing solar panels to fixing bikes for free to mobalizing against corporations. In San Francisco, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) took over Chevron stations, and delivered cleaning supplies to Chevron CEO John Watson’s home in Lafayette, CA (youtube). Check out some photos.

In other direct action news, Sierra Club Prairie, RAN and Greenpeace set up sixty 200 litre rain barrels outside of Alberta’s congress, showing how much oil Total will dump into Alberta’s ecosystem every 30 seconds if they are given permits to create another massive open pit mining project in Alberta along with a wet tailing permit. See more info at RAN’s Understory Blog.

In other news, the head of the company that caused the toxic sludge spill last week has been arrested in Hungary. According to the New York Times he is being charged with criminal negligence.

Speaking of the New York Times, they recently released a front page article claiming that scientists had solved the mystery behind the mass die-off of bees in the US. It turns out that the Times article didn’t mention Bayer’s toxic pesticides (especially neonicotinoids, a class of neurotoxins that kills insects). It totally accepted the report’s claims that viral fungus is to blame for killing bees, while totally glossing over the fact that the author of the report is none other than Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk, who has received huge financial grants from Bayer in recent years. More on this at Commondreams.org.

Animal Liberation: 20,000 Mink Freed in Sweden, Sabotage in Turkey

Animals liberated in Sweden

Anonymous
“During the night of October 4 all 20,000 mink were released from a fur farm outside Skillingaryd. Although most Swedes are against fur farming, there are currently 1.4 million animals trapped in cages. This is contrary to Swedish animal welfare legislation, but with the tacit acceptance of a paralyzed government. Our action during the night is a reaction to an industry that does not respect the law, democracy or animal welfare. There is now a wild population of mink in Sweden, which originated from fur farms. There is evidence that animals raised in captivity successfully re-adjust to a life of freedom when they are given the chance. Our goal is to close the farm and that the cages remain empty. Forever. For mink on Animals’ Day”

anarchists attack Hasdal Massacre House of Istanbul
from Anarchists for Animal Liberation
“On October 16, 2009, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality killed nearly 70 puppies at their concentrate camp which go by the name of Hasdal Shelter. Their massacre reason was suspicion of rabies. Ever since that day, we couldn’t forget this massacre. We couldn’t be unresponsive to what they did, and we won’t. Those responsible for this massacre shouldn’t sleep well in their beds.
Accordingly, on the night of September 7, 2010, we attacked the Hasdal Massacre House. We carried out various sabotages and writing activities in the shelter terrain.
This action was first reaction of the precautionary signal for the slaughtered animals by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. Abusers and
Murderers! If you continue to make torture or behave cruelly towards to animals, we will try harder acts.”

Anti-Greenwashing Direct Action in Portland, Call to Climate Justice Action

On the morning of October 5, 2010 anonymous environmental activists representing the interests of the earth and peoples oppressed by green washed business took action against Go Green, a $175 dollar per person business conference. Environmental activists locked the doors to the Gerding Theatre with a chain and a banner reading “ Green is the color of $$, No Excuses! No Compromise!” and tar was spread across the door handles and locks. This action is meant to represent both environmental impacts and social impacts of false solutions to climate change. This action is claimed in the name of all oppressed people and all ecosystems effected by the business elite’s false solutions to climate change.

Climate Justice Action is proposing a week of direct action for climate justice from October 12 – 16, 2010. They released a statement saying, “we are not picking targets. But it is not a day for marches or petitions: it is time for us to reclaim our power, and take control of our lives and futures.”
For more information about the Day of Action: click here

Protest in NYC Against Torture of US Activist, 500 Others in Belgium

No Borders Camp in Brussels, Belgium— (Photos here)
There was a protest in NYC: Belgian Consulate against the police brutality and torture of activists perpetrated against last Friday’s No Borders’ Camp in Belgium.
During the No Border Camp, “a convergence of struggles aiming to end the system of borders that divide us all,” Earth First!er Dr. Marianne Maeckelbergh was arrested for taking pictures while police were making arrests in Brussels, Belgium. While in police custody, she was violently dragged by her hair, chained to a radiator, hit, kicked, spat upon, called a whore, and threatened with sexual assault by the police. She also witnessed the torture of another prisoner also chained to a radiator. This occurred out in the open, directly witnessed by police station authorities who gave the impression that it was standard practice. Police took her ID card, USB stick, the camera with the photos on it, and 25 euros in cash and have refused to return them.

Mairanne is a US citizen, professor at the University of Leiden in Holland, and the author of The Will of the Many: How the Alterglobalisation Movement Is Changing the Face of Democracy.
Please call Belgium’s US Ambassador, H.E. Jan Matthysen at (202) 333-6900 and Belgium’s Ambassador to the United Nations Jan K.F. Grauls (212) 378-6300 to demand the immediate release of the last prisoner and express your outrage at the torture, abuse, and unjust incarceration of Marianne and others.

Greenpeace Direct Action and more

About 60 Greenpeace activists have blockaded part of the European Parliament headquarters in Brussels to protest the widespread use of nuclear technology. They came with four samples of radioactive waste collected at public places near reprocessing facilities in Britain and France and samples of radioactive soil from Niger and Belgium. Activists also raised flags and banners reading “Nuclear waste, no solution.”

Monsanto in Decline
Monsanto is losing out big on their latest gene-saturated soya crops. Their profits have been less than half of what they projected, and farmers are complaining that they’re getting genes they didn’t really want, and that the higher priced seeds are producing less yield than the lower priced ones. Plus, Monsanto is being priced out by generic seeds from China, showing that most people are gravitating towards just growing what makes sense. The Atlantic and the New York Times have both run stories over the past couple of days on the subject of Monsanto’s decline. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are being crammed down our throats, because of Monsanto and Dupont and other transnational corporations’ political lobbying. If Monsanto falls to pieces, one might expect the US government to find some way of bailing them out or subsidizing GMOs, but if those who make the GMOs can’t subsidize the legislators, don’t expect legislation to subsidize GMOs.

Governor to Sue EPA on Behalf of Coal Industry
In other news, West Virginia Governer Manchin is suing the EPA to drop regulations against coal mining in his state. Who has appeared to prop up this sinister case but CEO of Massey Energy himself, Don Blankenship. Both men claim to believe in the power of coal companies to hire miners and coal workers, who put the nations’ energy needs on their backs. One question: Hey, Don, why do you support Mountaintop Removal if you support coal miners? MTR streamlines the workforce, bringing the number of employees necessary to operate a mine down from dozens to a handful. For more, visit Climate Ground Zero.

Mountain Justice Fall Summit
CGZ has an event not to be missed coming up. This October 22nd-24th, the 5th annual Mountain Justice Fall Summit will be held on Kayford Mountain in the Southern West Virginia coalfields. Coming on the heels of Appalachia Rising, we are building momentum and standing together in the coalfields for the abolition of surface mining.