150 recently evicted families have occupied land owned by the mayor of Sao José (Florianopolis), Djalma Berger, who is accused of rampant corruption. The new neighbourhood has survived all attacks so far due to strong community help.
A new neighbourhood called ‘Ocupaçäo Contestado’ has been born in San Jose! Plank by plank, canvas by canvas, recently evicted community residents in José Nitro are building their homes and their history in a space that bears the name of ‘Ocupaçäo Contestado’. Continue reading “Sao José evicted Occupy land, Build new village”
Currently enduring their fifth day of incarceration after barricading themselves inside the Keystone XL pipeline. Help get them out with a donation to their legal fund.
WINONA, TX – MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012 7:30 AM – Several protestors with Tar Sands Blockade sealed themselves inside a section of pipe destined for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to stop construction of the dangerous project. Using a blockading technique never implemented before, Matt Almonte and Glen Collins locked themselves between two barrels of concrete weighing over six hundred pounds each, aided by Isabel Indigo Brooks who went in with them .
Located twenty-five feet into a pipe segment waiting to be laid in the ground, the outer barrel is barricading the pihttp://tarsandsblockade.org/pe’s opening and neither barrel can be moved without risking serious injury to the blockaders.
Matt Almonte
The barricaded section of the pipeline passes through a residential neighborhood in Winona, TX. If TransCanada moves ahead with the trenching and burying of this particular section of pipe, it would run less than a hundred feet from neighboring homes.
Tar sands pipelines threaten East Texas communities with their highly toxic contents, which pose a greater risk to human health than conventional crude oil. TransCanada’s existing tar sands pipeline, Keystone XL’s predecessor, has an atrocious safety record, leaking twelve times in its first year of operation.
“TransCanada didn’t bother to ask the people of this neighborhood if they wanted to have millions of gallons of poisonous tar sands pumped through their backyards,” said Almonte, one of the protesters now inside the pipeline. “This multinational corporation has bullied landowners and expropriated homes to fatten its bottom line.”
Recently, over 40 communities worldwide planned actions with Tar Sands Blockade during a week of resistance against extreme energy extraction and its direct connection to the climate crisis. A growing global movement is rising up against the abuses of the fossil fuel industry and its increasingly desperate pursuit of dangerous extraction methods.
“I’m barricading this pipe with Tar Sands Blockade today to say loud and clear to the extraction industry that our communities and the resources we depend on for survival are not collateral damage,” said Collins, another blockader inside the pipe and an organizer with Radical Action for Mountain Peoples Survival (RAMPS) and Mountain Justice, grassroots campaigns in Appalachia working to stop mountaintop removal coal mining.
“This fight in East Texas against tar sands exploitation is one and the same as our fight in the hollers of West Virginia. Dirty energy extraction doesn’t just threaten my home; it threatens the collective future of the planet.”
Glen Collins
“At this late stage, doing nothing is a greater danger than the risks of taking direct action to stop destructive projects like Keystone XL,” said Ron Seifert, a spokesperson for Tar Sands Blockade. “That’s why folks working with groups like RAMPS, the Unist’ot’en Camp fighting a natural gas pipeline in British Columbia and Tar Sands Blockade are willing to use everything including their own hands and feet to ensure we all have a safe climate and healthy, thriving communities.”
HUNGER STRIKE CONTINUES
Today also marks day 5 of the Houston Hunger Strike in which Gulf Coast activists with Tar Sands Blockade are going without food to demand that Valero divest entirely from the Keystone XL pipeline and invest in the health and wellbeing of the communities it’s poisoning.
Diane Wilson and Bob Lindsey still on hunger strike in prison..
Diane Wilson and Bob Lindsey are undertaking a sustained hunger strike in solidarity with the Manchester community in Houston. Their hunger strike began with an act of civil disobedience on November, 29th when they locked their necks to tanker trucks attempting to enter the Valero refinery in Manchester. They refuse to eat until the following demands are met:
1. Velero completely divest from Keystone XL and all forms of tar sands exploitation
2. Velero invest in the health and well being of the Manchester community
3. Valero refinery shut down and vacate the Manchester community
UPDATES HERE:::BAIL MONEY STILL NEEDED:::WRITE TO PRISONERS:::NEW ACTIONS:::
This week’s move by George Osborne to cap benefit rises below inflation at 1% is the final deadly touch in a toxic series of measures likely to lead to unprecedented homelessness in the UK.
Osborne’ announcements, bringing misery to millions, seem like a parody of the mad upper class Tory, they have found a hatchet man who gleefully enjoys his job!
The final logic of Capitalism is war. The excuse of a ‘chemical weapons’ in Syria is as false as Saddam’s secret weapons. This time round more millions of innocents will die, to boost the profits of the US ‘War Economy’ Corporations who control the US Congress. This time round there is little protest, nobody believes they can be serious, but this war is becoming daily more certain. Now is the time for the US and UK public to stop a barbaric air blitz…
NATO poised to invade Syria – U.S. fleet on Syrian coast, 10,000 troops ready to go
On 14-N, day of the General Strike, our companion ALFON, was arrested in the neighborhood of Vallekas. After several days of confinement and interrogation in the dungeons of the Spanish State, he was sent to permanent prison, thanks to higher orders of the judiciary and the power of the government delegation, to this must be added the pressure of the mass media “communication “.Continue reading “Alfon.. LIBERTAD. Freedom for General Strike comrade NOW!”
Bolivian government manages to split resistance to highway with a spurious consultation process.. Friday December 7
Often dubbed ‘the most beautiful place on Earth’, Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS in Spanish), is the crown jewel of the Bolivian Amazon, famous for its huge trees, astonishing wildlife, and fresh water. Its incredible natural and cultural significance have earned it the status, until now, of a double protected area — as a National Park and an indigenous reservoir. Continue reading “Bolivia Buys Majority to Destroy Tipnis”
6th DEC. last Update.. unfortunately we were right. Cateel was devastated with at least 28 dead, hopefully the report/warning below, which came out 1 day before and was read by over 3000 people on the net, helped some people escape to safety.
”Davao Oriental Governor Corazon Malanyaon said initial reports indicated that in one town, Cateel, 95% of the buildings had been damaged. Twenty-three people had drowned or were buried under fallen trees or buildings there, she said…..” The massacre toll has risen to at least 500 with more than 400 others reported missing and about quarter of a million people made homeless. At least three cities on Mindanao’s east coast remain cut off after bridges collapsed and roads were swept away by floodwater.The sheer numbers of refugees have overwhelmed the Philippine disaster agencies prompting government to call for international aid to help cope with the mega disaster.The death toll is expected to continue rising.
This fishing village is one of many in line for a direct hit from Bopha’s 275kph winds tomorrow. Photo from Google Earth today 3/12/2012 . Notice the houses on waterfront! Google doesn’t name the village , its near Boston, beside Cateel, Bayan ng Cateel, Mindanao, and not far from Lligan city, which was devastated last year Super-typhoons can only form over 30C water.. Climate Change is directly to blame. Climate Criminals of the Oil Companies sit back in total luxury while their victims in Cateel Bay face annihalation. As they become more common, climate related disasters may allow prosecution of the big Oil Companies, as they could be sued for billions for dumping CO2 in the air for profit, with clean alternatives available.
have occupied land owned by the mayor of Sao José (Florianopolis), Djalma Berger, who is accused of rampant corruption. The new neighbourhood has survived all attacks so far due to strong community help.
The Free 