German police remove railway protestors locked down in defense of trees

by | Feb 18, 2012 | Biodiversity & Habitat Destruction, Obstruction & Occupation

By The Local

Police cleared 1,000 protesters from a park at the Stuttgart 21 construction site overnight, making way for further work on the controversial rail project. Protesters set up barricades and some even encased their arms in concrete.

City officials said on Wednesday morning they were pleased with how the operation in the Schlossgarten park went. They said 2,500 officers had encountered little violence.

But protesters, who were trying to protect 176 trees that authorities say need to be cut down or moved as part of the project, charged that police had been overly aggressive during the eviction and had even attacked people with batons.

A spokesman for the protesters, Matthias Herrmann, called the operation “hectic and escalating.”

But a Stuttgart police spokesman said that there had been only “occasional baton use” when protesters attempted to set up a barricade. A 38-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly set off fireworks near officials, according to police.

Others protesters had to be forcibly cut away after they chained themselves to trees. Some used pallets to erect barriers on access roads, police said. Two even encased their arms in concrete and police were still figuring out how to deal with them as of mid-morning.

Stuttgart 21 is a multi-billion-euro project that aims to transform the Baden-Württemberg state capital into a major European transport hub by laying 57 kilometres of new track and rebuilding the city’s main train station underground while turning it around 90 degrees.

But many have baulked at the cost of the plan and what they say will be damage to the local environment. Violent protests flared in 2010, but the government has insisted that construction must continue. On Sunday, protesters tried to mount heavy equipment to prevent the cutting down of trees but were removed by police in a prelude to Wednesday’s eviction.

At the park, protesters had set up dozens of tents and tree houses before the police operation began at about 3 am. Officers first asked protesters to leave on their own – which some did – before they began the eviction.

Stuttgart 21 project spokesman Wolfgang Dietrich said the police operation had gone “very well” because protesters had, for the most part, abstained from violence. Authorities could begin felling trees as early as Wednesday afternoon.

From The Local: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120215-40749.html

Activists occupying planned nuclear site in the UK

by | Feb 17, 2012 | Biodiversity & Habitat Destruction, Obstruction & Occupation

By John Vidal, The Guardian

Environmental activists have occupied the site of what is planned to be Britain’s first new nuclear power station since 1995, and on Friday accused EDF of “ignoring democracy” and starting work on the £10bn project without permission to build the station.

Eight people have occupied the semi-derelict Langborough farmhouse on land due to be cleared within weeks to make way for the twin-reactor Hinkley Point C power station. The £100m preparatory earth works, which were formalised today in Paris with David Cameron and Nicholas Sarkozy signing an agreement, will remove a volume of soil and rock four times the volume of Wembley stadium from the 500ha site, destroy a site of special scientific interest and several historic buildings.

EDF today admitted they did not have permission to start building the power station but said the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) had accepted their application for a Development consent order (DCO). The IPC will take around a year to decide on the DCO and, if EDF’s bid is successful, would allow the company to build on the site. In addition, a spokesman said the company had received permission from West somerset district council to begin “preparatory works”.

“We have consent for site preparatory works, which is essentially doing the levelling and putting in infrastructure like roads. We have a separate application with the IPC. If we do not get the DCO then we would reinstate the earthworks,” said a spokesman. “We hope to start work soon, in the spring.”

But the protesters said the preparatory works were so large they constituted the effective start of the power plant construction and rendered the consultation period, when arguments for and against the power station could be heard, meaningless. “The government has steam-rollered this through. Either EDF is behaving in a grossly insensitive way by clearing 500 hectares of land, or they know that they will get permission to build the nuclear station. If it is a done deal then the consultation is bogus. The democratic process has been dispensed with completely”, said Theo Simon, one of the eight protesters now in the farmhouse.

The group, who call themselves the Barnstormers, have been issued iodine pills in the case of a nuclear accident by the local council. “We are here for the long haul. We have a lot of support from local people who have brought us food and wood. We are hoping other people will come to the site,” said one.

The IPC’s examination and decision making is likely to take nearly a year, by which time the site will have been cleared of all vegetation.

“This is like someone who has not got planning permission digging the foundations of a new house. The extent of the activity, the clearance of most vegetation, hedges and trees, the excavation of more than 4 million cubic metres of soil and rocks, the re-routing of underground streams, the creation of roads and roundabouts, major changes to the landscape … mean it is effectively the beginning of construction of the proposed Hinkley C nuclear power station,” said the Stop Hinkley C spokesman Crispin Aubery.

In a separate development, the local authority warned EDF that the planning process for the reactor had stalled because the company had not given them the money to allow them to scrutinise the planned work.

“There are still key issues to be resolved at a local level before this development [of the building of the reactor, not the preparatory work] can take place. The legitimate rights and concerns of the local community are far from settled – in fact, the planning process is currently stalled while we wait for the developer, French company EDF, to agree vital funding for the necessary scrutiny of the development process,” said the Sedgmoor district council leader, Duncan McGintty.

“This scrutiny is fundamental to make sure that the interests of the residents who will bear the impacts of the development are fairly and properly represented. It is also a part of a legal requirement under the formal consent procedure set out by the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC).”

From The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/17/activists-occupy-nuclear-site-edf

Judge won’t stop Sea Shepherd from pursuing whalers

by | Feb 17, 2012 | Obstruction & Occupation

By The Associated Press

A US federal judge in Seattle has declined to immediately restrain the activities of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group.

Judge Richard Jones said he would issue a written ruling later, but that he’s inclined to deny a request for a preliminary injunction made by Japanese whalers against the Washington state-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

The whalers – the Institute for Cetacean Research – said the Sea Shepherd group has attacked and rammed their ships off Antarctica during the whaling season, and asked the judge to order them to stop. Some of the clashes have been shown on the Whale Wars reality TV show.

Sea Shepherd activists use stink bombs and other nonlethal means to interfere with the whalers. The group argues that its activities are supported by international law, that the court doesn’t have jurisdiction in the Southern Ocean, and that it’s the whalers who have rammed its vessels.

“It is a victory for the Sea Shepherd, for environmentalists. It’s a victory for the whales,” said Charles Moure, an attorney with the Seattle firm of Harris & Moure representing the Sea Shepherd.

Read more from Stuff.co.nz: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/6438110/Judge-won-t-halt-anti-whaling-groups-activities

Following oil spill, Venezuelans protest lack of clean water

by | Feb 16, 2012 | Obstruction & Occupation, Toxification

By the Associated Press

Hundreds of protesters blocked streets and burned tires in eastern Venezuela on Wednesday to demand clean water after a recent oil spill polluted rivers and streams that supply local storage tanks.

“We have not had water for a week,” said Maria Rodriguez, an angry 26-year-old housewife who joined the protest in the city of Maturin. “We don’t have water to cook and bathe, and we don’t have the money needed to buy bottled water everyday.”

Crude oil began spilling from a ruptured pipeline on Feb. 4 near Maturin.

Monagas state Gov. Jose Gregorio Briceno declared a “state of emergency” following the spill, halting water distribution and closing schools in the state’s capital of Maturin, which is located approximately 255 miles (410 kilometers) northeast of Caracas

Representatives of Venezuela’s state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, have not revealed how much oil leaked into the river.

Read more from ABC News:

Protesters Symbolically Occupy North Carolina Coal Plant

Protesters Symbolically Occupy North Carolina Coal Plant

by | Feb 15, 2012 | Direct Action, NEWS, Obstruction & Occupation

By Huffington Post

Protesters from Greenpeace demonstrated against “the destruction and pollution caused by coal” at a North Carolina power plant on Monday, according to a press release.

Activists entered the grounds of the Progress Asheville Power Station in the morning and secured themselves to a coal conveyor belt, according to Greenpeace. They also scaled a 400 foot smoke stack and draped a large protest banner.

WSPA reports that the protesters’ banner, which is visible for several miles, reads “Duke Energy: The Climate Needs Real Progress.”

According to The Charlotte Observer, 16 protestors were arrested at the Asheville plant.

The plant’s owner, Progress Energy, said its goal was to protect the safety of “the trespassers to first responders, as this is large and dangerous equipment,” reported Fox Carolina. Interactions between protesters and local police were reportedly “very cordial.”

Greenpeace activist Robert Gardner said in a press release, “This plant runs on destroyed mountains, it spews out air pollution, it causes climate change and it poisons the water and the earth. If Duke merges with Progress, the new owners have a responsibility to the people of North Carolina to move to clean energy.”

Progress is currently in the process of merging with Duke Energy, although the consolidation has been delayed by federal regulators, according to to The Charlotte Observer.

Reuters reported Monday that the Obama administration is expected to unveil new rules limiting carbon emissions from new coal-fired power plants. An energy policy analyst told Reuters, “The proposed rule is certainly expected to send the message that coal is dead.”

From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/greenpeace-progress-asheville-power_n_1274532.html

Photo by Bart van Dijk on Unsplash

Colombian police violently removes anti-dam protestors

by | Feb 15, 2012 | Obstruction & Occupation, Repression at Home

By Polinizaciones

ESMAD (riot police) in Huila, Colombia began the forced removal of the fisher-people, campesinos, miners, day laborers and others who have been blocking the diverting of the Magdalena River for the Quimbo Dam early Tuesday morning. The diverting of the river was being blocked by a peaceful occupation of the area known as Domingo Arias. The ESMAD used tear gas, pepper spray and brutal force to corral the people protecting the Yuma/Guacahayo/Magdalena River. At least six people have been injured, including Asoquimbo member Luis Carlos Trujillo who lost an eye.

Since noon Monday, ESMAD blocked the entrance to the Paso del Colegio Bridge to all traffic except the Quimbo´s constant traffic of workers, engineers and machinery. The President of Asoquimbo, Elsa Ardila, members of regional organizations, Local, National, International Press as well as Observers from the International Observatory for Peace were not permitted to enter, effectively creating a black out of what the State was doing in the area. Only after some journalists did an interview on the air stating they were being kept out and blasting the message from a car, media with documentation from the Ministry of Communication were allowed to enter. Meanwhile, independent journalist and human rights observers were denied entry.

During the ordeal elders, children and expecting mothers were not spared from the baton strikes, punches, kicks and shoves with shields of the ESMAD. One child was removed from their parents and later was returned only after. The people, who were forcibly removed, were taken out in six Chivas (local rural buses) that rushed past those outside and the groups of people were not permitted to interact Those removed were taken back to the towns closest to their community. In the last two Chivas, the fisherman of Hobo forced the drivers to stop and jumped out to unite with those who had been blocked out.The people occupying the banks of the river were within 30 meters of the shore, which is an area that is legally permitted to the inhabitants of the country as a public area to inhabit freely. When the ESMAD came at everyone with violence, the Defenders of the River held hands and stood in the water. Tear gas and violence were then used to force people out. The Mayor of the Municipality of Paicol, Norberto Palomino Ríos, supporting the National Government and Emgesa, issued the order for the forced removal of about 200 affected people in the area.

While the local autonomous environmental organization CAM pronounced in a meeting with the Minister of Interior last week they would be present for the forced removal, no one ever showed. Both the Vice Ministers of Environmental and the Interior refused to give any statements to Miller Dussan of Asoquimbo, during the removal while being blocked from entering the site. Meanwhile the Ombudsman from the Paicol Mayor’s Office road in the boats used by Emgesa workers and watched the removal from the construction site across the river.
Currently the affected people of the Quimbo Dam are healing themselves to move forward with the necessary actions to Defend the Yuma-Guacahayo-Magdalena River.