Author: sparki

Mass Action in Germany:“Who attacks Lützerath, attacks our future”

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pic via Ende Gelande

cross-posted from Ende Gelande

Lützerath, 08.01.2023

The action alliance “Lützerath Unräumbar” has announced massive resistance against the destruction of the village of Lützerath at the edge of the Garzweiler II open pit lignite mine. In view of the acute threat of eviction of the village, various actors of the climate justice movement have joined forces to form the alliance. Together with the activists, who have occupied Lützerath for two years, they want to defend the village and oppose the expansion of open pit mining in order to prevent the climate crisis from worsening. For the 17.01.2023 “Lützerath Unräumbar” has called for a united day of action. Already in the coming days, individual groups of the alliance want to resist the currently ongoing preparations for the eviction and against the demolition of the village.

Luka Scott, spokesperson for “Lützerath Unräumbar” (Ende Gelände), comments:

“Germany has just again failed to meet its far too lax climate targets because too much coal is being burned. But instead of finally phasing out coal immediately, Lützerath is to be destructed. This will set off a new climate bomb – with catastrophic consequences. And while the lignite excavator is heading straight for Lützerath, the first ship carrying liquid fracking gas has arrived in Wilhelmshaven. Yet liquid gas is just as much a climate killer as coal. In Lützerath we will stop these climate crimes. We from the alliance Lützerath Unräumbar will fight for every tree, for every house, for every meter in this village. Because whoever attacks Lützerath, attacks our future.”

RWE wants to demolish Lützerath to get to the coal seam underneath. In this way, the energy company wants to mine 280 million tons of lignite in Garzweiler alone. The Green Minister for Economic Affairs in North Rhine-Westphalia, Mona Neubaur, and her party colleague, Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck, cleared the way for this after talks with RWE. Yet several scientific studies prove that this is not necessary to secure the energy supply. Instead, the mining and burning of lignite, which is particularly harmful to the climate, would make it impossible to comply with the 1.5-degree limit and become an obstacle to the necessary energy transition.

Soraya Kutterer, also spokesperson for “Lützerath Unräumbar” (Extinction Rebellion) explains:

“The federal government is under lobby influence, this is no secret. Through this influence for the profit interests of the large corporations, the lignite under Lützerath is to be dredged. This will exceed the 1.5 degree limit for Germany. Together we fight for the preservation of Lützerath, the preservation of our livelihoods and against the lobbying influence of the fossil industry.”

Dina Hamid, spokesperson for “Lützerath Lebt” adds:

“Since the police operation in Lützerath started last Monday, we realize again why we have not yet got out of coal. Our state protects here with much money and commitment the profits of RWE. But we protect life. We defend Lützerath because we love Lützerath and because we finally want to decide democratically what energy we produce and for what.”

The action alliance “Lützerath Unräumbar” unites very different groups from different spectrums of the climate justice movement, including Alle Dörfer bleiben, ausgeco2hlt, Ende Gelände, Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Future, Die Kirche(n) im Dorf lassen, Interventionistische Linke, Kohle erSetzen, Letzte Generation, Scientist Rebellion, RWE & Co. Enteignen, End Fossil: Occupy! and Ums Ganze. The fact that they are joining forces and being active over a longer period of time and at the same location is a new quality in the movement for climate justice in Germany.

Contact:
Luka Scott: +49 177 9705757 | Spokesperson of Ende Gelände
Dina Hamid: +49 1575 3980 277 | Spokesperson of Lützerath lebt
Carla Hinrichs: 03023591611 | Spokesperson for Letzte Generation

Here you can find photos of current actions: https://www.flickr.com/photos/194773835@N02/albums as well as https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAmz6r

The Final Straw: Stop Evictions at Winnemucca Indian Colony

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cross-posted from The Final Straw

On Tuesday, December 13th, I spoke with Kyle Missouri, a resident of the Winnemucca Indian Colony in Humboldt County, Nevada where a longstanding conflict between residents and the Winnemucca Tribal Council has come to a head recently with the evictions of elders, youths, and other residents into the snow.

Listen in.

We talk about his family’s roots in the Indian Colony, some background on the place and the conflict with the so-called Roja Council, the contested lithium mine at Thacker Pass and the court challenge to evictions, banishment and house demolition this Thursday, 12/15/22. Check our show notes for links to other sources of information, ways you can show up and places you can donate.

  • You can follow Kyle on facebook under the name Kyle Missourii (like the state with an extra ‘I’ at the end)
  • Also see interviews with Elders who’ve been evicted and updates on Instagram at @Neweneensokopa
  • Learn more about background and legal support by following Water Protector Legal Collective on social media and more at linktr.ee/waterprotectorlegal
  • And donate to the cashapp for supporting displaced families at $defendWIC. They’re looking for more lawyers who can support the efforts as well as journalists who can be on the ground and talking about this situation or reaching out for interviews.
  • You can watch the court hearing this Thursday linked in the latest update at Water Protector Legal Collective’s website, waterprotectorlegal.org
  • Kyle’s recent interview with The B&B Indigenous Podcast (appearing about an hour 8 minutes in)

 

Five Atlanta training center protesters charged with domestic terrorism

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Credit: Steve Schaefer

cross-posted from EF! Journal

By Tyler Estep, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Five activists protesting Atlanta’s new public safety training center have been arrested and charged with domestic terrorism, the GBI announced Wednesday — one day after the latest clash between authorities and activists at planned site for the controversial development.
Dozens of arrests have been made since activists began taking up residence on the site — and engaging in more extreme actions — in an attempt to stop the training center’s construction.
But the charges announced against those arrested this week are believed to be the most serious to date.
“Yesterday, several people threw rocks at police cars,” GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles wrote in a press release. “Task force members used various [violent] tactics to arrest individuals who were occupying makeshift [sic] treehouses.”
Those tactics included tear gas and pepper balls.
Members of  “Stop Cop City” coalition were scheduled to hold a press conference at 10 a.m. Wednesday. But DeKalb County police had access to the press conference site — a piece of former DeKalb County parkland adjacent to the training center property — blocked off [in order to prevent word of their violence reaching the general public].
Authorities  said they found “explosive devices” after Wednesday’s efforts to clear the forest. [The word of the police was taken at face value, despite them constantly making up stories to make themselves look better, because this reporter is way to lazy to actually investigate anything]
The Atlanta City Council approved last fall a land lease paving the way for the Atlanta Police Foundation to build the sprawling $90-million training facility on more than 300 acres of city-owned forest in southwestern DeKalb County.
The James M. Cox Foundation, the “charitable” arm of Cox Enterprises which owns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has contributed to the training center fundraising campaign. It is among several Atlanta-based foundations that have contributed.
In the year-plus since the land lease was approved, a coalition of activists — anarchists, police abolitionists, environmentalists and everyone in between — has pushed back against the concept, seeing it as the city doubling down on police militarization and other controversial tactics even in the wake of 2020?s [George Floyd uprising].
Conventional protests and opposition efforts have also taken place. But more extreme tactics have included vandalizing police property and the homes and offices of contractors tied to the training center’s construction, setting fires and throwing Molotov cocktails at police and taking up residence in the forest.

Citizen Monitors Document Damaged Roads, Felled Trees on Contested Logging Plan in Jackson Demonstration State Forest

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photo credit Earth First! Caption: silt runoff from logging road 359 in the Red Tail THP. Silty mud on the road measures 5 inches deep in places, the devastating result of heavy machinery work in wet weather. The fine particle mud can be seen flowing off the road down towards the Noyo River, where the silt will make the water inhospitable to salmonids and other fish species.

For immediate release

  • Dec. 14, 2022
  • Contact: Naomi Wagner (707) 502-6181, (707) 459-0548
  • Andy Wellspring (707) 367-470

 

Citizen Monitors Document Damaged Roads, Felled Trees on Contested Logging Plan in Jackson Demonstration State Forest

Ft. Bragg, CA-Citizen monitors were out in Jackson State Demonstration Forest (JDSF) on Monday and Tuesday this week to check on a contested timber harvest plan (THP) known as Red Tail, which they say is a prime example of the mismanagement typical of CalFire’s antiquated Management Plan. CalFire, the managing agency for the 50,000-acre publicly-owned forest both writes and approves timber harvest plans that are then put out to bid by private timber companies. Activists are calling for a complete moratorium on all logging and road-building activities in Jackson until the old management plan is replaced to address urgent issues of climate change and cultural protections.  Not only is the Management Plan inadequate, but CalFire also disregards its’ own rules, activists say.

The Red Tail monitors split into two groups each day, with one group holding protest signs at the entrance to the THP, just east of Fort Bragg off Highway 20, to alert the public to logging in the “People’s Forest.” Another group entered the THP area adjacent to the Camp One campground and the Egg Taking Station, to document alarming levels of runoff on rutted roads carrying sediment from recent rains towards the salmon spawning grounds below. Activists photographed sediment in the South Fork Noyo and reported it was “not looking too pristine” after only 2 inches of rain and 7″ season total. Many trees had been felled across a class 3 water course marked WLPZ [Watercourse and Lake Protection Zone]. Other photos showed large openings in the canopy, making a mockery of the “Old Forest Development Area” (OFDA).

“It is distressing to see that the rules governing OFDAs (Older Forest Development Areas) CAL FIRE’s Option A are being disregarded.  In the 2016 Management Plan, two continuous corridors of unbroken canopy are called for, one stretching East to West, one North to South, across the entire forest.  However, logging in the Red Tail THP, along with other THPs, has created hundreds of acres of breaks in the canopy, fragmenting wildlife habitat and increasing dryness of the forest floor,” said coastal resident and monitor, Chad Swimmer.

An “Older Forest Development Area” area is supposed to be managed by CalFire for characteristics such as large older trees and snags, connecting it to wildlife corridors. The 345-acre Red Tail THP did contain mostly second-growth redwoods and a few old growth trees before cutting reduced its numbers. Trees measuring up to five feet, or 60” in diameter have been cut.

“Taken all together, these kinds of operations – especially in the winter – create a huge disturbance in the forest. It’s a perfect picture of the usual industrial logging -just extraction – certainly not moving towards older forest development. Who would live there after the habitat is gone?” commented veteran THP monitor, Linda Perkins, referring to the plight of endangered species who need old forest habitat.”

Another citizen monitor, Andy Wellspring, said of the two days in Red Tail: “We are monitoring all THPs that CalFire has approved in this State forest. It is very saddening to see that the largest trees in Red Tail have been cut, even though they provide the most canopy, which both provides habitat for so many species and shades the forest floor and prevents fires. I urge the State to pursue equal co-management with the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians immediately. These logging operations must end until equal co-management with Tribal people can restore this forest.”

Created in 1947 under a mandate “to produce high-quality timber products” alongside recreation and wildlife, timber sales provide the annual operating budget and pay the salaries of CalFire employees managing Jackson. This year, however, the State gave CalFire $10 million for “non-timber related” activities after declaring no new timber contracts would be offered. Activists would like to see CalFire buy out Willits Redwood Company’s contract on the Caspar 500, another highly contested Jackson plan.

Protests in Jackson have been non-stop since 2021, with twelve arrests for nonviolent civil disobedience, including six in Red Tail and six at the Natural Resource Building in Sacramento while protesting to protect the forest. No charges have been filed. The Coalition to Save Jackson Forest is waging a State-wide campaign to turn JDSF into a different kind of demonstration, one of equal co-management with the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, descendants of the original inhabitants of Jackson Forest, under a new Mandate based on respect, restoration and recreation and without commercial logging.

Photos:

Big trees down: photo credit Earth First! Caption: One of many log decks in the Red Tail THP in JDSF that show large trees cut in what is supposed to be the Older Forest Development Zone.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xkj_prKQmz9wVssJlEomuEEGQXfgUV_t/view

 

muddy road:  photo credit Earth First! Caption: silt runoff from logging road 359 in the Red Tail THP. Silty mud on the road measures 5 inches deep in places, the devastating result of heavy machinery work in wet weather. The fine particle mud can be seen flowing off the road down towards the Noyo River, where the silt will make the water inhospitable to salmonids and other fish species.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/110H0H-cdrtdlYfjP5bnb9lxDyAwxvL1r/view?usp=sharing

 

Red Tail THP graphic:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rggIyZd0iLQ85nYZ91H6s51hnZlaO8vu/view

 

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