Message of Solidarity to Mapuche from rebuild tripod

Evicted and Destroyed in the last months police action, Tripod, is back again.  Located at the strategic road crossing it has once again become a meeting and rally point for forest defenders from different occupations throughout the  forest.  The tripod is back with additional barricades, skypods and monopods defending the forest from encroaching cutting.

As many in the forest on those defenses await the next action of police repression, a call of  Solidarity with the Mapuche goes from one frontline of ecological destruction to another, to the struggle protecting the planet and Mapuche autonomy from logging and extrationist exploitation.   Mapuche people, who have never stopped fighting the colonialist domination, have come under inceased repression involving Pinochet era anti terrorist law directed at the  opposition and the political underground.  Four prisoners of the Chilean state have just endured over 116 day hunger strike which has won the following concessions: revoking the condition of pre-trail detention and dropping anti-terorist charges.  Lots of respect and Solidarity!! Included as well is an invitation to share your stories of resistace and if possible visit Hambacher Forest and the COP Conference of Polluters in Bon Nov 4th.

For the Earth!

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Communication and Transparency

On Monday a photographer made an announced appearance in th forest.  The first clue that something was amiss was that he showed up escorted by the police to the edge of the forest.  Once inside and having made contact with people in the forest, the usual media questions perteining to the struggle were instead replaced by his statements such “You act excatly like you claim the police does.” This person claimed to be a freelancer with no official media affiliation who took lots of interest in trying to photograph forest defences which he was asked not to photograph.  All of this resulted in this person being asked to leave and not come back without setting up an appointment. Soon after this took place the police contacted an outside person connected to the occupation and informed them that they were dissapointed that access to the forest was closed to the people from the outside and revealed that the photographer was in the process of taking photos for a police journal for an article titled “Transparency and Communication”.  His bahaviour in the forest was neither, transparent nor very communicative.  But as Orwell stateted if something is repeated often enough it becomes the “truth”.   That is perhaps why we were then indirectlly asked by the contact cop to publish this same article that he has written himself on our blog.  The answer was not no but simply no answer.

Reminder to newer people to the struggle not to talk to the cops.  Anything you say can and will be used against you and your friends while they routinely disinform especially those they are trying to get any intelligence out of as this case clearly shows.

 

 

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Solidarity with Bure Struggle under repression

Last week our Comrades in Bure France who are resisting against a planned radiation storage facility by Andra were raided by aproximately 80 gandarmes who broke through the doors of House of Resistance. The pigs who also closed off the surrounding roads and broke windows of the cars and vans parked in the vicinity have seized the usuall loot of weapons of mass communications in the forms of computers and phones. They were able to compromise the encrypted drives and are now thretening charges to the people who can be linked to the electronic content. This is yet another example of how the state engages in ever increasing sureilance and repression dinamic that is so crucial to functioning of the viscious loop of exctractionism and disaster capitalism. Facing such massive resources used not for addressing social and ecological issues but for imposing the state of planetary ecological disintergration it is that which is being targeted and destroyed that becomes our biggest and most powerfull weapon. That is the communities we form and which are aready part off, solidarity, mutual support and song and rhytm.

Comrades at Bure, You are not alone in your fight, remember that Hambi zone of occupation is also your home where you can share your songs and music of the resistance and even at the distance you are still connected with and inspire many struggles worldwide such as the anticoal struggle in Hambacher Forest.

FOR THE EARTH!!

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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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Continue ReadingTenth Blockade of Logging Equipment in Ancient Białowieża Forest