Earth First! Summer Solstice Newsletter Now Available

Welcome to the newest edition of the EF! Newsletter, Earth First! Newsletter #11: Litha 2013. This PDF contains compiled news events for the second quarter of this year. Earth First! News (EF!N) is a project of the Earth First! Journal with the intent of making EF! movement media more decentralized and easily accessible. We encourage people to copy and distribute this publication. Send it to prisoners, mail it to your anti-tech friends, cram bundles in exhaust pipes—whatever you can to get the word out there! Who’s ready for a fearless summer?

From Turkey to Myanmar, Trees Become Triggers for Revolution

from wikipedia

by Carl Pope / Huffington Post

The protest sweeping Turkey began with trees — specifically, the last remaining downtown green space in this ancient capital, a park in Taksim Square. Protestors began gathering peacefully to try to stop government plans to replace the trees with a shopping mall. Disturbingly, the government and police overreacted viciously, clearing the square with powerful hoses mixing water and tear gas. Now, according to the Interior Ministry, 53 civilians and 26 police officers have been injured, and the protest movement has spread to 48 cities with over 900 arrests so far.

Could Golden Dawn Bring a New Wave of Eco-Fascism from Greece to the US?

The “Green Wing” logo of Golden Dawn, a fascist political party of Greeks and apparently now Greek-Americans

by Panagioti / Earth First! Newswire

In times of social upheaval, it seems a given that the far-right elements of an industrial empire will present themselves as a counter force in an attempt to allure some of the righteously indignant and, often painfully ignorant, folks who perceive themselves as a “middle class” in need of protection and salvation.

That is undoubtably the case with Greece today, where  members of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn have begun firmly establishing themselves in political office, in the ranks of law enforcement, and now, with a larger street presence than ever before.  

New Documentary Debunks Monster Dams

Cross posted from Root Force

Damocracy the movie has been released, chronicling the struggles of communities a world apart to defend their rivers from monster dams masquerading as “clean” energy: the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River in Brazil and the Ilisu Dam on the Tigris River in Turkey. Watch it here.

The 34-minute documentary is an excellent primer on the problems posed by mega-dam projects anywhere in the world, from their environmental and social impacts (including a greater global warming impacts than coal plants) to the way they are forced through over widespread opposition by affected communities, often by means of shady legal tactics.

Kayapo Dancers vow to defend their territory from Brazil’s plans for the Belo Monte Dam in 2008

The Belo Monte and Ilisu dams are classic examples of the type of globalized infrastructure that is meant to prop up the global economy and send resources flowing to the wealthy at the expense of all people and life on earth, with indigenous and other land-based cultures often the most affected.

Please watch the film and forward it around, or host screenings to help publicize these struggles. Both dams have already been canceled once before, and continue to face fierce opposition.  May they both go the way of La Parota!

Keep Reading

New Ag-Gag Bill Introduced in North Carolina on Same Day Butterball Worker Pleads Guilty to Cruelty

Posted from Green is the New Red

North Carolina is the latest state to consider a new law targeting whistleblowers, undercover investigators, and journalists who expose factory farms. The legislation was introduced on the same day that a fifth Butterball employee pled guilty to criminal cruelty to animals — charges that wouldn’t be possible without the undercover investigations that bills like this aim to criminalize.

The wave of legislation called “ag-gag” bills has been met with increasingly mainstream media exposure and outrage, such as the excellent front page story in the New York Times this week.

North Carolina’s SB 648, the “Commerce Protection Act,” is a good example of how corporations and industry groups are responding to the media backlash.

Turkish Villagers Fight to Keep Gold Mining, Cyanide Out of Sahinli

Residents of a northwestern Turkish district on Monday protested a mining company for its alleged practices of leaching gold out of rock with cyanide.

Environmentalists and locals gathered in the Şahinli village of Lapseki district in front of the village teahouse, where the Environment and Forest Ministry was to hold a meeting to inform people about the gold mining process.

Davut Şahin, head of the village in Çanakkale province, said they would not allow gold mining in their village. The ministry meeting in the teahouse was canceled due to the protest, agencies reported.

The locals held banners reading, “We do not want any gold prospecting in Şahinli,” while some hit tin cans with sticks during the protest.

News reportedly spread among locals that a Canadian firm planned to mine the area using gold cyanidation, a method that dissolves gold in a cyanide solution in order to extract the precious metal from low-grade ore. Residents took to the streets in protest.

Read the rest here:

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=-2011-03-16