Mar 2016 – The Free

Occupation for refugee centre in Calais: 8 comrades on trial today Friday

An update on the court case of the 8 friends arrested for squatting an empty homeless shelter in Calais, from Calais Migrant Solidarity.
Today, the trial scheduled to take place at the court in Boulogne-sur-Mer was postponed until Friday, April 1. All 8 had accepted to be tried today, under the comparution immediate(fast track procedure); yesterday 3 friends were released until the trial and 5 kept in detention to ensure that they would come to court.

However, 3 of those in prison, were not able to be transported to appear in person before the court. This was due to lack of organisation of transport from the prison to the court. Due to the delay, the right to be tried today, was not granted to them, even though it was their express wish to do so.

In a video conference call between the prison and court, the 3 expressed their wish to be tried in person and not by video conference. This resulted in their release today, after 4 days of incarceration, until the trial on Friday, April 1.

We call for support and solidarity for those on trial for trying to provide a home to those who have none, in the face of the repression of the state whose responsibility it should be to provide those homes!

Come to support outside of the court in Boulogne-sur-Mer at 14:00 Friday, April 1st.Bring your friends, send messages of support, resist evictions and squat the lot!

Refugees pay own imprisonment; Turkey ‘detains’ parents of unaccompanied refugee children

UndercoverInfo

From the refugee frontline in Greece we present two dispatches – shocking reports. One concerns how refugees are now being made to pay for their own imprisonment; the other is about how the Turkish authorities have been cruelly threatening at least one refugee family whose children have been separated by recent events. In the meantime, while thousands of refugees are being bussed away from the border crossing at Idomeni, elsewhere the myriad of small-scale mutual aid and solidarity operations run by ordinary Greeks at a local level to assist refugees are seeking solidarity. Three weeks back we published an article about two such mutual aid groups in Athens who squatted buildings to function as support centres for refugees. Below is a statement and an urgent appeal for solidarity from another non-state, non-NGO refugee support centre – Cafe Soli on Chios.

UPDATE: Anarchists in Athens have opened up a new refugee…

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Andrés Bódalo: “If they jail me, the SAT union will resist”

UPDATE:::ANDRES IS NOW IN PRISON!!! see video

The Provincial Court has ordered the entry into prison for Andrés Bódalo, for assault against authority. The union claims that the SAT agricultural union will not surrender.

by Carmela Negrete Andrés Bódalo, a member of the Andalusian Union of Workers and a councillor for the Podemos (We can do it) party, during a demonstration against the Gag Law.

Strategies to crush strikes
A Court hearing condemns to 3 years in prison Andrés Bódalo of the SAT
Andrés Bódalo is Jaén city councilor since June 2015. In the Andalusian Union of Workers (SAT) is responsible for social movements, which is linked to the Marches of Dignity and all social mobilizations. It was also in the Podemos in the Congress of Deputies by Jaen. The Provincial Court of Jaen has ordered his imprisonment for allegedly assaulting a policeman. Continue reading “Andrés Bódalo: “If they jail me, the SAT union will resist””

Anarchists Monica and Francisco Sentenced to 12 years in prison

Update 1st April: Pepe Galán, Francisco lawyer, says he “totally disagrees with the statement that they are the perpetrators” and thinks that “there is no evidence in this regard.” And he will appeal the verdict.

The good news that they were cleared of being a terrorist organisation and the finding that the supposed terrorist group doesn’t exist should apply equally to all the defendants from the Pandora and Piñata anti anarchist police raids, undermining their future trials!

Today March 30, 2016, it was notified to lawyers and companions the judgment of the National Court condemning the anarchists Monica Caballero and Francisco Solar to 5 years in prison on charges of “injury”, plus 7 years for “damage with terrorist purpose “, with a total of 12 years in prison for each. They were acquitted of charges of “belonging to a terrorist organization and conspiracy” against the Monastery of Montserrat. Demonstrations will begin today against this ridiculous sentence.

‘We are presented with the challenge of extending the struggle and solidarity, to defend our ties and our ideas, denying that their world is reduced to the four walls that keep them incarcerated.Our jailed comrades will always be present in our struggles and our daily lives.There is no “inside”, nor is there an “outside” only enemies of the state and authority.Death to the state and long live anarchy! (translated from Indymedia Barcelona)

….media circus inventing the ''shocking destruction'' after the ”bomb” which Monica and Fran are accused of planting in the Zaragoza Basilica, symbol of the Catholic/Fascist dictatorship… State demanded 44 yrs jail each with zero evidence.

….photo shows media circus inventing the ”shocking destruction” after the ”bomb” which Monica and Fran are accused of planting in the Zaragoza Basilica, symbol of the Catholic/Fascist dictatorship… State demanded 44 yrs jail each with zero evidence. Continue reading “Anarchists Monica and Francisco Sentenced to 12 years in prison “

Eureka! and Oh Shit! moments as Microbe Science takes off

Climate Change is Putting World’s Microbiomes at Risk?

Researchers are only beginning to understand the complexities of the microbes in the earth’s soil and the role they play in fostering healthy ecosystems. Now, climate change is threatening to disrupt these microbes and the key functions they provide.

by jim robbins. from Environment 360 with thanks

The spores of an opportunistic soil fungus, Penicillium sp. View gallery. Photo: PNNL

In 1994, scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory moved soil from moist, high-altitude sites to warmer and drier places lower in altitude, and vice versa. In 2011, they returned to the sites and looked again at the soil microbes and found that they had done little to adapt functionally to their new home. That’s a bad sign, experts say, for a world convulsed by a changing climate. Continue reading “Eureka! and Oh Shit! moments as Microbe Science takes off”

Bees in Europe recover after pesticides restricted

Bee populations in Europe see improvement after three toxic neonicotinoid herbicides are partly banned from their environment

by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer

Some resurgence in honey bees

After banning the herbicides clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, three years ago, Europe is already beginning to see a resurgence in bee populations. All three of these herbicides are still being used in the USA, where honeybee populations continue to rapidly decline.

If the rest of the world doesn’t begin cutting back on herbicide use significantly, as Europe has already started to do, then pollination of important vegetable and herb crops will likely diminish by 33 percent or more in the coming decade.

This will directly influence agricultural economy, limiting the availability of a large assortment of healthy crops that were once made readily available through the tedious work of natural pollinators.

Nature’s best pest control mechanisms already coexist in the environment. By continuing to take wide scale chemical approaches to the annihilation of pests, we throw off the intricate balance that is needed to sustain healthy ecosystems for future agricultural abundance. Continue reading “Bees in Europe recover after pesticides restricted”