Category: RT Press Releases

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

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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Blockaders Halt Border Wall Construction in Southern Arizona

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Photo: Ryan Fatica

cross-posted from Unicorn Riot

Blockaders Halt Border Wall Construction in Southern Arizona

By Ryan Fatica

Cochise County, AZ – Seventeen feet above the ground, towering over the native Sonoran grasses and oak saplings of the surrounding bajadas, a group of young people stretched out languidly in the sun, chatting and laughing and playing guitar. In a line to their east, the double-stacked shipping containers beneath them stretched out for over a mile; to their west, the wild grassland lay undisturbed.

On Thursday, at the southern base of the Huachuca Mountains along the U.S./Mexico border, there was little sign of the fight that had unfolded in previous days. The quiet morning stood in contrast to the international geopolitical drama unfolding through this expanse of oak grassland stretching off into Mexico.

Locals say this area is usually quiet, with no evidence of the border crisis they hear about on the news.

In the distance, the crack of a quail hunter’s shotgun disappeared into the silence.

But cutting through the otherwise pristine terrain is a gash of splotched red, blue and yellow stretching patternless through the countryside—column after column of shipping containers stamped white with serial numbers and indecipherable codes, remnants of their nautical journeys.

“They could plant one here but, we’re here,” said Carlee, a blockade participant, as she perched on the edge of a shipping container in the empty space where the next container would lay. As she spoke, she watched long, white clouds drift over the far-off mountains of Mexico.

Since Nov. 29, a loose collection of locals, environmental activists, hippies and migrant solidarity workers have been putting their bodies in the way of the machines. They have successfully delayed the work crews for a week and a half, who had been rushing to drop as many shipping containers into the wilderness as possible before Arizona Governor Doug Ducey leaves office in early January.

What began as a tentative experiment in disruption, escalated to a full-fledged encampment earlier this week. When workers switched to night shifts so they could work unimpeded, blockaders started camping on the site to keep watch.

“We would have two people on each machine trying to stop them,” said Carlee. “And they would just kind of maneuver around people and get really close. And they tried, but we stayed up all night, just making sure that they wouldn’t start moving and going down the hill to excavate more of those trees over there.”

Ary, another blockader, said that at first the workers refused to stop working despite the danger posed to those standing in their way. “At first, they were really driving their machines around us really fast,” explained Ary, as he lay among his friends atop the stacked containers. “Even just the other night, they were still doing that and digging the ground right from under our feet with their excavators, driving very close to people. I think that that just really shows how much money means to these people rather than human life.”

Thursday was the first day the workers didn’t come to the site at all. A private security guard working with the contractors remained on site, sitting in his truck and sometimes chatting casually with protestors to pass the time.

On Friday, workers reported to the site and asked that blockaders allow them to remove their heavy equipment. They loaded up the machines and drove off down the road. For now, at least, it appears the campaign has successfully shut down destruction at this site. Whether work will continue at another section of the border remains to be seen.

“This is what winning looks like,” a protester commented.

“It’ll get built if no one’s standing here,” said Logan, seated atop the double-stacked containers. “At the very least we’re able to sit here and stop as much of this from occurring while whatever forces above us decide what they’re going to do.”

In Jan., Governor Ducey will be replaced by incoming governor-elect Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who has said she will remove the shipping containers when she takes office. But for his last few months in power, since he started dumping miles of shipping containers along the border near Yuma, Arizona in August, Governor Ducey’s $95 million gubernatorial swan song has raged through the mountainous terrain in Southern Arizona, destroying miles of wilderness in its path.

“This is not really even a wall,” said Ary, referring to the stack of shipping containers beneath him. “I look at it like this monument to xenophobia. It’s like art. It’s like this really, really fucked up art piece that the Republicans are making here.”

The stack of containers, which stretches through southern Cochise County, was created by AshBritt, a disaster response contractor based in Southern Florida. The company has been working under contract with the State of Arizona since at least August when they started to build a 3,820-foot long strip of double-stacked shipping containers along the border in Yuma. On Oct. 23, the company signed an additional contract with the state to begin work in Cochise County.

AshBritt conducts operations across the country in the wake of natural disasters, from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey in 2012. In 2018, AshBritt came under fire from watchdog groups and the Federal Elections Commission for an illegal donation to a pro-Trump super PAC.

Despite nearly two weeks of disruption by those seeking to block the makeshift wall, law enforcement has refused to intervene, in large part because it’s unclear what, if any, laws the blockaders are breaking. The destructive operation they are blocking is taking place on the Coronado National Forest, which falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government. The National Forest Service released a statement Nov. 30 warning visitors to the forest to stay away from the construction. According to the statement, the federal government views the construction project as “unlawful” and potentially dangerous.

Despite these proclamations, federal officials have refused to intervene—in the shipping container piling or its opposition. On Thursday afternoon, five law enforcement agents from the U.S. Department of Agriculture drove past the encampment. When approached by a camper, they identified themselves as federal agents, but said that as far as they could tell, the encampment was not in violation of any federal laws, which allow camping on national forest land.

With the feds apparently refusing to act and acres of precious wilderness at stake, people are choosing to act directly rather than waiting for those in power to sort out their tangled web of jurisdictional disputes and political power games.

“This is exciting to me because it’s one of the times that we are seeing direct action make a tangible difference in real time,” said Egg, who came down from Tucson to participate in the encampment.

The blockaders expressed a variety of reasons why they were motivated to act: concern about wildlife corridors for jaguars and other creatures, destruction of precious wilderness, government overreach, the perception that the project is motivated by racism and xenophobia, and solidarity with migrants.

“Endangered species come through here, people come through here,” said Logan, a blockader, referencing the riparian corridor of oak and juniper stretching north to south down from Miller’s Peak. “All life has moved, has migrated, historically. That’s just part of the way the world works. I think cutting it off doesn’t make any sense. It’s very disruptive to communities, both human and non-human. It’s important to keep open the free flow of life.”

“This border right here is a deep laceration of separation,” said Ary. “It is a line that makes an ‘other.’”

UC Strikers Unfurl Massive Banner at Cal-UCLA Game Demanding a Living Wage

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

25 November 2022

image cred: Diablo Rising Tide

 

BREAKING: UC STRIKERS UNFURL BANNER AT CAL-UCLA FOOTBALL GAME, ACADEMIC WORKERS CONTINUE TO DEMAND FAIR BARGAINING AND A STRONGER CONTRACT

Press contact: Britt Dawson (858) 699-1784 britdaws@gmail.com

Hi-res pictures available upon request.

Berkeley, CA– At the Cal–UCLA football game today, a group of striking UC Berkeley academic workers and allies scaled two flagpoles and raised a 30-foot banner calling on the University of California to stop unfair labor practices and to agree to pay their academic workers a living wage.

Dressed as referees, two climbers—fern Wildtruth, a UC Berkeley PhD student, and Christina Liu, a community ally—scaled two 40-foot-high flagpoles and unfurled a banner reading “Flag on the play: Unfair labor practice #fairUCnow #UAWonstrike.” The banner is calling attention to a strike—now in its 11thday—by 48,000 graduate student-workers and postdoctoral scholars affiliated with the United Auto Workers union. “UC needs to pay us enough to afford basic needs—like food, shelter, and child support,” says Britt Dawson, a striking graduate student-worker at UC Berkeley. “The typical salary for a graduate student instructor at UC is just $24,000—half of the living wage for a single adult in the counties where UC Berkeley and UCLA are based.[1] Many of our members have children, and many of them are rent- and food-insecure as the result of UC’s disregard for their workers’ basic needs.”

The strike—the largest ever in U.S. higher education history—has been called by the unions representing student and postdoctoral workers following 17 months of unsuccessful collective bargaining, during which UC consistently refused to pay crucial academic workers a living wage. During negotiations, UC has repeatedly violated U.S. labor law, and dozens of complaints for unfair labor practices have been filed against the administration. [2]

“Strikers aren’t asking for anything outrageous. Graduate student salaries are only about 1% of UC’s

image cred: @curtis_V0llmar

budget, but we do so much of the teaching and research at the University,” said fern Wildtruth, one of the two climbers and a striking PhD student at Berkeley. “We’re asking for a living wage in compensation because we need that to be able to focus on our work. I’m really distressed when I hear from my international peers how much of a barrier the $15,000 in extra tuition that they need to pay is. But one of the things that we’re trying to get included in our contract, and which it seems like U.C. is finally looking into, is public transit passes; we need to be re-structuring everything to make the collective behaviors that reduce global heating the default.”

The group of students and allies—who are not affiliated with the UAW union leadership—say that the strikers are ready to do what it takes to win, including striking into the spring if necessary. As the semester ends and final grades loom, it’s up to UC to start taking bargaining seriously if they want business as usual to continue on the ten UC campuses. High-resolution pictures upon request.

1) See the MIT Living Wage Calculator, created by Amy K. Glasmeier: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/06001,https:/*livingwage.mit.edu/counties/06037__;Lw!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xIYrtpEdeh0BU4TRt6bvUy-yOLJhp5kcvYVWa1MBTK80-V5tS0D1xDZGVeZrpBXQgEqJ4fIm5f2UE2zLiXVDDJ-QMsk$

2.) For a tracker of UC’s unfair labor practices, see: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.fairucnow.org/ulp/__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xIYrtpEdeh0BU4TRt6bvUy-yOLJhp5kcvYVWa1MBTK80-V5tS0D1xDZGVeZrpBXQgEqJ4fIm5f2UE2zLiXVDv14-aws$

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