New eviction of barricades

Police is evicting barricades in the forest.
7:30 The contact cop calls us.
Since 8:30 we hear the machines.
8:45 50 cops and security guards are in the forest.
9:30 Eviction tank leaves the forest. At the forest entrance there is still police.
11:00 In the morning there were two sitting blocks in front of the barricades to prevent their eviction. Two people were taken into custody and taken to the GeSa (Gefangenen-Sammelstelle, prisoners collecting center) in Aachen.
All barricades were evicted.
At the moment, a car parked in the forest is still surrounded by the police.
Police were briefly seen in Gallien.
12:18 Police have withdrawn from the forest.
Everyone is free again.
Thanks to all who helped here today.

Continue ReadingNew eviction of barricades

Blockade forces trucks to leave lumber in the forest, priest responds with fabrication of assault

Clergy Decapitators
The ancient Białowieża Forest continues to be logged at times late into the night and from early hours of the morning by more than 3 harvesters capable of downing more than 500 trees a day.
However following a week long intermission the anti logging resistance strikes again. When the trucks loading lumber which is presently spread through out the forest have been observed by morning patrols, over 30 activists left the Camp for the Primal Forest. After reaching the nearby location, 6 lock-on doubles, later joined by two more, locked on with metal pipes to a 18 wheeler loaded with lumber and to another one that was practically empty. The activists have locked on on top of the lumber load, on the sides and in the back and to lumber supports on the partially empty vehicle. Banners were dropped from the top, sides and front of the vehicles. Support and media group were present throwing sandwiches, books, and isomats onto the trucks and across the police lines. The drivers of the trucks climbed on top, tore off some of the banners and threatened those attempting to retrieve the material with a knife. There was a constant stream of support from the visitors to the park and locals, stopping by and expressing their gratitude and appreciation for defending this last European lowland primodial forest. A local astroturf group Santa financed by the Polish Forestry Department also made an appearance. They attempted to engage and distract the activists through ridicule, insults and threats. Their confrontational tactics were quickly dissolved when many visitors to the park attempted to communicate with this Crypto Industry, Pseudo Eco group.

Continue ReadingBlockade forces trucks to leave lumber in the forest, priest responds with fabrication of assault

Indigenous Women Led Environmental Struggle in 2016

found on earthfirstjournal.org from telesur

Women are leading the struggle in Latin America against environmental destruction as well as Indigenous rights, but they often face assassination, jail, threats and violence.

They not only fight against gender inequality, but also demand wider societal transformation of a patriarchal system that doesn’t work for them as women — even though it is working exactly how it’s supposed to.

That is, the inequality and commodification that drives the capitalist system exploit women, keeping women in a second-class caste system. At the same time, women’s participation in social struggle is their way of asserting and vocalizing their own worth in a system that doesn’t value them.

This devaluation results in violence against women that is not a matter of isolated incidents or individual “bad apples.” Instead, violence against women, especially Indigenous women and women of color, is a structural component of the capitalist, colonial state.

Capitalism and colonialism — both patriarchal systems — don’t see inherent worth in women’s bodies and the work they do, and instead commodify them. This positions violence against women as a justified and structural part of the state that upholds these systems.

 

1. Maxima Acuña — Peru

Acuña is an Indigenous farmer in Peru who led her community to fight off U.S. mining giant Newmont, which reportedly attacked Acuña and her family. But she has refused to abandon her land and her resistance has successfully halted Newmont’s plans to open the US$4.8-billion Conga open-pit gold and copper mining project for the “foreseeable future.”

The proposed Conga mine project would threaten the local ecosystem with contamination of the cyanide-leaching, open-pit mining process and transform at least one local lake into a waste pit.

Acuña’s fight has been an inspiring story as a victory for small Indigenous farmers against transnational corporate power.

She was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2016.

2. Machi Francisca Linconao — Chile

Machi Francisca Linconao is an important spiritual leader of the Mapuche people imprisoned since 2013 and still awaiting trial. Indigenous movements say her imprisonment is part of a strategy to criminalize the Mapuche fight for their ancestral lands. Her health is in now danger, and activists are calling for her release.

Linconao was accused of arson along with 10 others, which led to the deaths of two powerful landlords, Werner Luchsinger and Vivianne Mackay. However, the evidence that was used to detain her, using an anti-terror law, remains suspect with the main witness retracting her statement.

3. Milagro Sala — Argentina

Sala is a lawmaker and leader of the Tupac Amaru movement who was arrested in Jujuy on Jan. 16, 2016, after staging a month-long sit-in against Jujuy province’s Governor Gerardo Morales, an ally of President Mauricio Macri.

Leader of the 70,000-strong Tupac Amaru organization and a representative in Parlasur, the parliamentary bloc of South America’s Mercosur, Sala led protests against the Macri government’s neoliberal policies alongside other activists.

She previously faced charges of incitement, which were later dropped, but before she could be released a fresh warrant was handed down, alleging illicit association, fraud and extortion.

Since Argentine President Mauricio Macri supports her arrest, Sala is now dubbed the first political prisoner of Macri’s administration. She has said that justice bends to the “whim” of the president and his governors. Prominent human rights defenders and organizations have also labeled her arrest “illegal.”

The U.N. and the OAS have demanded her release.

4. Berta Caceres — Honduras

Berta Caceres, assassinated in March despite police protection, was a key leader in the Lenca struggle against the Agua Zarca Dam, a controversial development project in the community of Rio Blanco that was put in motion without consent from local communities. She, along with other residents, led a successful campaign to halt the construction of the dam, but the community has continued to face systematic harassment. Her family is still awaiting justice.

She won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015. Her assassination rapidly sent shock waves across the country and sparked outrage over her death.

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Artist in Residence Call Out

Hambacher Forest is not a canvas, it is not a medium and it is defininitevely not a location for product placement and/or guerrila marketing. It is however an ecological foundation of interconectness and a spring of creativity and imagination in the spirit of resistance, solidarity and collaboration all of which like its ecosystem are under a constant assault and in a perpetual need of allies . It is in that very spirit that a call goes out to all artists, wrtiters and musicians dealing with the subject of radical ecology, repression, climate change, feminism, GLBT and animal rights issues: Join the resistance to Lignite Mining and all monocultural constructs by climbing and residing in the free treehouses and platforms, protecting this millenarian forest.
Rebel against the art establishment and join other creatives and cultural refugees who instead of being pushed to the margins have taken to the frontlines of the strugle for equality, liberation and justice. Bring and share your imagination and skills not just into the Forest, but also to the Degrowth School of Klima Camp in Rhineland(August 21st to 30th), the COPP summit in Bonn in November 3-5 and for the Hambach Skillshares Camp in the Fall.
See You in the Forest!!

Continue ReadingArtist in Residence Call Out