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.

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Tenth Blockade of Logging Equipment in Ancient Białowieża Forest

Harvester Blockaded

Early in the morning of July 18 over 20 activists from Poland and Czech Republic converged on a logging harvester and proceeded to lock-on all around the machine with pipe lockons and banners. The Forestry Department guards removed all support and media from the site attempting to take away their phones to prevent their actions from being filmed and photographed. The operator of the harvester was then instructed to keep the machine running. This continued for several hours exposing the attached activists to the risk of intentional injury, with the operator of the machine warning the activists that the machine might move uncontrolably as it runs out of fuel. Yet while being separated from the media and support group and despite the noise, heat, dripping oil and the danger, the locked-on forest defenders remained there for several hours and continued to call for immediate stopping of all the logging and for biodiversity experts to inspect the logging location. The forest guards made no attempt to remove the blockaders till finally the contractor operating the harvester agreed to seize work for the day and remove the equipment from the forest.

Białowieża Forest is the last remnant of primodial forest that once stretched across the European Plain. With its ancient trees draped in multitude of mosses, lichens and fungi it is a hotspot of biodiversity supporting the largest wild herd of European Bison, populations of Wolves, Lynx and 180 bird species, including three-toed woodpeckers and Eurasian pygmy owls.The survival of this ecosystem is at stake as large portions of BiNational Park on the Bielorussian side have been selectively logged over the years for its oldest and largest trees. Now this is extensively happening on the Polish side of the forest with over 40,000 cubic meters of lumber harvested in 2017. Bark Beetle outbreak is being used as justification for salvage logging during which the bark containing the eggs of the beetle is left on site, unafected species such as oaks are cut as well while the Polish enviromental minister Jan Szyszko, who is behind this wave of clear cutting, has set up a series of lumber shell companies involving some of his closest relatives.

Numerous international calls for immediate stop of logging included the Unesco Congress in Cracow on July 3rd adopting a resolution for immediately halt to all logging and wood extraction. This meeting and decission took place as direct actions and blockades were occuring in the forest. The govermental response was to contine logging and advocate the removal of Białowieża Forest from the International Registry of Unesco World Heritage Sites. As of July 18 the European Comission joined in condeming the logging and taking the Polish Goverment to the European Tribunal to which Minister Szyszko responded by increasing the amount of law enforcement sent to the forest.

Since May on the frontline of resistance to this lumber grab has been the Camp for the Defense of the Białowieża Forest bringing together a coalition of activists, journalist, artists and natural scientists engaging in continous series of blockades and actions. While the state and private media has engaged in a constant campaign attempting to vilify the activists resulting in harassment of forest defenders by more conservative members of the local populace while young people with backpacks are regularly stopped and searched in the area and blockaders experience waves of repression and violence. This dynamic has only underlined the importance of international support and solidarity to the Białowieża Struggle.

“Nie było nas był las, nie będzie nas będzie las.” : “The forest preceeds us and will follow us.” Has been the motto of Polish partizans fighting in the forests during World War II and even though the first part of that slogan still resonates and holds true today the second: whether the forest will remain after us, is in question and depends on the reponse this destruction will evoke in all who embrace the importance of biodiversity, biocentrism and ecojustice.

Camp for the Forest‏:
email: dlapuszczy@nullgmail.com
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Dates of the mobilisation tour


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Meanwhile some dates of our information and mobilization tour are fixed. Please share them with people living in the respective cities!

The Hambach Forest has been occupied for five years, but it is more threatened than ever. This winter, they want to clear important parts of the forest and many tree occupations are threatened by evacuation. But our resistance will be just as massive! With numerous actions and blockades the destruction has to be stopped and we want to bring some of them closer to you. We will briefly present the forest, explain our plans for the upcoming clearing season and show you how to become active. Afterwards there will be a small climbing training for those who are interested.
Here are the tour details:

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Amsterdam: Coal Port Blockade and Camp

JUNE 23rd. to 26th.

Code Rood (Code Red), a disobedient action coalition against the fossil fuel industry, will block the Harbor of Amsterdam, the world’s largest gasoline port and second largest coal harbour. The Port imports and stockpiles coal from Columbia, Russia and South Africa, to be burned to power the European electrical grid.

A camp with its infrastructure of legal support, media, food and wellness (dealing with repression) will be set up in the vicinity of the port at a later to be announced location. Focus is being put on digital security with privacy pre-action workshops organized for climate activists which stress the importance of using Linux, preferably Tails and encryption (GPG) and utilizing e-mail accounts only to be used for the action itself.

It’s CODE RED for the Climate and the Planet!
See You in the Port of Amsterdam on June 24th.!

(http://klimaatactie.nl/ registration form for the preparing conference in Amsterdam – March 4 2017)

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