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SchNEWS 686 - Blowing in the Wind

Jo Makepeace | 07.08.2009 18:21

Protests continue at the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle Of Wight, where sacked workers are occupying the factory, and the protest becomes national... plus, the Scottish Camp For Climate Action starts at the site of a current protest camp against open-cast coal mining at Mainshill near Glasgow, protesters end a week-long camp outside Highgate Farm in Lincolnshire, which breeds ferrets and rabbits for the vivisection industry, the murder of Russian human rights activist Natalia Estemirova in Chechnya last month causes us to look at the Russian-backed despotic regime in Chechnya, and more....

WAKE UP!! IT'S YER ALWAYS BLACK & WIGHT...

SchNEWS, Issue 686, Friday 7th August 2009

======================================================================

BROWING IN THE WIND

DESPITE COURT ORDER, VESTAS ACTION GOES NATIONWIDE...

The campaign against the closure of the wind turbine manufacturer
Vestas’ site in the Isle of Wight, instigated by sacked workers
occupying the factory two weeks ago (see SchNEWS 685), has continued
this week with a broad coalition of activists and locals assembling to
show solidarity with the workers.

The six workers that currently remain in the factory are being
supported by a multitude of campaigners from climate action groups,
trade unions and socialist networks, as well as concerned locals, who
have all gathered (accompanied by a thumping bicycle sound system) to
oppose the loss of hundreds of jobs, damage to the local economy and
the loss of an opportunity to develop a key green industry.

Vestas successfully applied for a re-possession order on Tuesday
(4th) and, despite saying that they were in no hurry to turf out the
barricaded workers, served them with an eviction notice which will be
carried out with the help of bailiffs at some time after 12pm today
(7th). However, campers on the roundabout outside the factory have
stressed that no matter what the outcome, the protest will continue
and are calling for people to grab ‘a bag of tricks’ and
camping gear and get over to the protest site by midday today.

Along with demonstrators on the ‘Magic Roundabout’ on the
St Cross industrial estate, a second site has been established in
Cowes, much to the delight of the amazingly supportive locals.
Protesters scaled the 30m walls of Vestas-owned workshops on Tuesday
4th, and have been on the roof ever since. They have been displaying
pro-worker solidarity banners to the passing yachters attending the
Cowes Regatta and anyone entering the busy port. Police have, with no
sense of irony, been barricading these campaigners in with anti-vandal
paint and massive fences, although with solar showers being set up and
a huge stock of supplies, the protesters have no intention of going
anywhere.

Representatives from the transport union RMT, who are supporting the
ex-employees, have met with government officials who have agreed to
work towards reinstating the redundancy packages previously taken away
from the demonstrators inside the factory. These same officials have
also reported that they have been in talks with Vestas to try and
either encourage them to sell the facility or re-open, ideas which
have been flatly rejected by the company. However, Vestas’
compliance is not required if the business were to be nationalised,
and this is now the primary focus of all campaign efforts.

Two of the ex-Vestas operatives who left the stand-off earlier this
week have since embarked on a tour, meeting with interested parties
and giving talks. Those still at the camp remain upbeat and determined
to continue in their campaign, retaining at its heart the plight of
hundreds of workers who now find themselves unemployed in an island
economy devastated by the economic crisis.

* A rally is to be held in Newport town centre on Saturday 8th, all
available support is needed. A national day of solidarity is also
scheduled for next Wednesday (12th), for details see
 http://savevestas.wordpress.com



======================================================================

PLUGGING INTO THE MAINSHILL

The first instalment of the UK climate camp trilogy of low-impact
living and high-impact direct action opened this week with the
Scottish Camp For Climate Action. The Mainshill Solidarity Camp, on a
planned open-cast coal site in Lanarkshire near Glasgow, is the venue
– and though the camp goes from 3rd-10th August, the protest
site will of course continue afterwards. This new woodland protest
occupation was taken in mid-June after Scottish Coal were given
permission to mine despite the opposition of the local district (See
SchNEWS 681) and has since become a sustainable community.

Some local residents live at the site, which contains tree houses and
tunnels, whilst others have been campaigning against Scottish
Coal’s applications to expand its coal-mining operations in the
Douglas Valley for years. However, their objections to the trashing of
their local environment have been consistently ignored by the
authorities, and owner of the land - Lord Home - who is being
investigated for a £150m money laundering fraud. Just three
weeks ago they learned of another proposal for open-cast coal mining
in the valley.

Drilling at Mainshill had been carried out by Welsh-based contractor
Apex. Preparatory work for the mine by Apex such as tree-felling and
bore sample drilling had already breached seven conditions of the
planning approval, with regards to studies to ascertain the presence
of certain endangered species such as badgers and bats, which the
occupiers know to be present on site. Open-cast mines have been
operational in the area for the last four years, and pulmonary
illnesses have risen by 60% in the same time.

Direct action is already underway though, with anonymous activists
disabling a conveyor belt on Wednesday night (5th) at Scottish
Coal’s Glentaggart site. This belt carries coal from the mine to
Drax power station in Yorkshire (the site of the first Climate Camp
2006 – see SchNEWS 558).

Over 100 campers are already at the location expanding the camp and
police presence has been low-key so far with cameras set up on the
perimeters, although word was leaked last night of all police leave in
the central section of Scotland suspended, with forces on high alert.
So far, however, there has been none of the harassment of Kingsnorth
last summer. In the next week there will be workshops, discussions and
opportunities to link up with other people, groups and campaigns.

* See  http://climatecampscotland.org.uk and
 http://coalactionedinburgh.noflag.org.uk

* When this camp finishes, it’s off to Pembrokeshire for the
Welsh Camp For Climate Action, August 13th-16th – see
 http://climatecampcymru.org, then the London camp August 27th-Sept 2nd
- see  http://climatecamp.org.uk



======================================================================

RABBITING ON

Animal rights activists have been camping it up this week outside
animal breeders, Highgate Farm, near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire.
Highgate Farm, owned by Geoffrey Douglas, supplies ferrets and rabbits
to the vivisection industry.

Twenty-five activists occupied the road side next to the farms main
entrance in what they say is “only the beginning of a major
campaign”. The camp lasted seven days and was apparently
‘a pretty fluffy affair’. According to one camper we spoke
to “It was really good – the farmer was furious and police
seemed to be pretty reasonable. We think they’re worried
it’s gonna be the next Newchurch” (See SchNEWS 509). The
mood was slightly dampened after one Deliverance style inbred threw a
dead rabbit onto site.
Our camper said “There will be more camps – the only
reason this one was packed up was to prevent the council from getting
a legal order to clear the road-side”.

Highgate Farm has seen plenty of previous action. See SchNEWS 677
‘Slipping the Net’ for how Netcu failed in their
prosecution of activists.

For more on this and and innumerable other AR actions check out
www.shac.net and www.directaction.info



======================================================================

ROTTEN TO THE CAUCASUS

The murder of Russian human rights activist Natalia Estemirova in
Chechnya on July 15th was the latest blow in the campaign against
those trying to hold the authorities to account for a decade of
atrocities in North Caucasus. SchNEWS looks at the brutal repression
in Chechnya by the Russian-backed despot.

Are the Russians complicit in the wave of repression and
assignations being perpetrated by the Chechen government in order to
cover up human rights atrocities? Read the full story...

The murder of Russian human rights activist Natalia Estemirova in
Chechnya on July 15th was the latest blow in the campaign against
those trying to hold the authorities to account for a decade of
atrocities in North Caucasus. Natalia was one of the most active
members of long-running Russian human rights organisation Memorial,
based in the Caucasus. Since Russian forces invaded Chechnya for the
second time in recent history in 1999 (Russian Cossacks first invaded
over 400 years ago), Natalia had not only documented human rights
abuses in the region, but tried to hold the Russian and Chechen
authorities to account for their role in the bloodshed.

The recent press release prepared by Natalia, with damning
revelations about the brutal Kadyrov regime's new abductions,
extrajudicial executions and public shooting of people in a Chechen
village, must have been too much even for the Chechen dictator. Head
of the Memorial board, Oleg Orlov, pointed the finger squarely at
Kadyrov, acting with Russian complicity. “I know for sure who is
responsible for the killing of Natalia Estemirova,” he said.
“We all know it is Ramzan Kadyrov, president of the Chechen
Republic. Ramzan threatened Natalia, insulted her, believed her to be
his personal enemy. We don't know whether it was Ramzan himself who
ordered Natalia's murder or if his close associates did it to please
the ruling authority. President Medvedev seems satisfied to have a
murderer as a head of one of Russia's republics.”

Natalia's murder is the latest in a line of assassinations of people
investigating atrocities covered up by the Russian establishment in
the region. Three years ago journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered
following a campaign of intimidation by the Russian and Chechen
authorities (see SchNEWS 569). Following international outrage over
the murder of Russia's bravest investigative journalist and a
perfunctory police investigation, a trial was held earlier this year,
at which three men were acquitted. A retrial was recently ordered by
the Russian Supreme Court following international pressure.

In January this year, human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and
journalist Anastasia Baburova were shot dead in the centre of Moscow.
Stanislav had represented the family of a Chechen girl raped and
strangled to death in 2000 by a Russian colonel who had just been
released early from prison, as well as other Chechens tortured by
Russian forces.

The escalation of violence in the last year against those
investigating atrocities in Chechnya seems to match an upsurge in
disappearances in the region. NGOs operating in the region estimate
these disappearances at between 3,500-5,000 since the outbreak of the
second 'war', with the years 2006-2008 seeing a decline. However,
according to Memorial, the last year has seen an increase in
disappearances, reportedly at the hands of the police. With no
official database of those missing and unidentified bodies ('we don't
do body counts') it is left to the volunteers of Memorial to carry out
the task. Memorial was in the process of compiling a list of the
missing when Natalia was murdered, after which it suspended its work
in Chechnya.

This, no doubt, has long been the intention of the Russian and
Chechen authorities, who have been obstructing human rights work for
years. The Russian state has brought in new laws making it harder for
foreign NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to
operate, whilst closing down domestic ones such as the
'Russian-Chechen Friendship Society' (see SchNEWS 531).

The relatives of the disappeared who braved official intimidation and
reprisals in approaching these NGOs, now have no-one in the region to
turn to with the departure of the last independent monitors of the
actions of Kadyrov's thugs. Relatives of alleged insurgents recently
had their homes burnt down as his regime has become bolder in its hunt
for the remaining opposition fighters.

Russia officially declared an end to its counter-terrorism operations
in Chechnya in April, after ten years. The havoc caused by Russian
forces and the henchmen of the Kadyrovs in this time has led the
toothless European Court of Human Rights to pass judgement over 100
times on Chechnya. However, the realpolitik of the West's need for
Russia's vast natural resources, and support over Iran has prevented
any meaningful action on these abuses.

The situation is also far from rosy in neighbouring Caucasian
republics. In Ingushetia, independent journalist and outspoken critic
of the local regime, Magomed Yevloev, was murdered in police custody
last year, while extrajudicial executions and torture by state forces
are now commonplace as the insurgency has spilled over from Chechnya.
Similar cases have also been reported in Dagestan by federal security
forces and local police.

Originally set up in 1991 to remember the victims of Stalin's
repression, Memorial has embarrassed the Russian authorities over its
documenting of abuses in the North Caucasus. Last November, its St.
Petersburg office was raided and hard disks with the entire digital
archive of the atrocities committed under Stalin were confiscated.
Such official intimidation is hardly surprising given the current
regime's fondness for the good old days of Uncle Joe – according
to Putin, “Stalin and the Soviet regime were successful in
creating a great country”.

As the region becomes a no-go area for human rights workers, the
North Caucasus appears to be going the way of former Soviet Republics
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (See SchNEWS 498), where all opposition
has been quashed by brutal despots who murder dissenters with
impunity.

* See also www.memo.ru/eng/index.htm



======================================================================

THE GARDA THEY COME

A recent spate of court cases stemming from protests at the Rossport
Solidarity Camp (See SchNEWS 683) has seen mixed results for Shell to
Sea activists. Iollain O’Mongain, Eoin O’Leidhin and Niall
Harnett all had Section 6 ‘breach of the peace’ charges
dismissed, while the Section 11 trespassing case against Eoin Lawless
was also dismissed due to lack of evidence.

Harnett and Lawless however, were convicted on other charges. Along
with another activist, Maura Harrington - who has already done two
stints in Mountjoy Prison this year for actions against Shell (SchNEWS
668) - they were all convicted under Section 8 public order charges:
failure to obey the directions of a Garda. Harnett and Harrington both
received four month sentences – in Harrington’s case after
refusing to sign a ‘good behaviour bond’ which would have
prevented her from taking part in further protests. (The ironically
named) Lawless was also offered the chance to sign a bond and
reluctantly accepted in order to avoid a jail term.

While Harrington is currently out on bail pending appeal, Harnett is
currently in Castlerea prison in County Rosscommon; letters are much
appreciated. His address is: Niall Harnett, Castlerae Prison,
Harristown, Castlerae, Co. Rosscommon. If you cannot send post, please
sent messages of support to  rossportsolidaritycamp@gmail.com

* See also www.corribsos.com



======================================================================

DOWN UNDER FIRE

Desert war games involving 30,000 US and Australian troops rehearsing
Afghanistan manoeuvres in the Australian bush was interrupted last
week after seven activists occupied the land – with two lasting
for the full eleven days – stopping the live fire phase of the
exercise. It was similar to the action by Ofog in June in Sweden (See
SchNEWS 680).

The Talisman-Saber ‘09 military exercise at the Shoalwater
Military Exercise Area in central Queensland is a biennial event - in
2007 it was also interrupted by protests and a rare white humpback
whale (See SchNEWS 594). This year again there was a range of protests
including community events, leafleting the troops, conducting a hokey
cokey at the perimeter of the military zone, stopping army trucks and
occupying the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area.

On the last day of the exercise the final two activists - Yulanji
Bardon and Emily Nielsen - handed themselves into military police and
were arrested for trespassing. Of the other five, three were also
arrested, and two not, having voluntarily walked off the site. Emily
said “These exercises are not just a ten-day long game of laser
tag as Brigadier Bob Brown and the media would have us believe. They
represent Australia joining the United States in the illegal invasions
of Iraq and Afghanistan where thousands of civilians have been
killed.”

Groups stayed in camps dotted around the range, forcing the limit of
live fire. In a parody of the US coalition’s inability to find
al Qaeda in the Afghan hills, again, despite helicopters, military
dogs, and thousands of soldiers patrolling the land, they still
couldn’t find protesters living in tents in the bush! In a
separate action earlier in Talisman-Saber ‘09, four Christian
peace campaigners were discovered – by soldiers playing
insurgents.

* See www.peaceconvergence.com



======================================================================

JUNGLE MISSIVE

While the threatened destruction of migrant camps and mass
deportations in Calais has yet to materialise, No Borders activists
are continuing in their struggle against increased police harassment
of the thousands of migrants currently in Calais (See SchNEWS 682,
684, 685).

Aside from continued raids on the ‘jungle’ –
makeshift camps in scrub-land surrounding Calais – and migrant
squats, in which migrants have been arrested, beaten and photographed,
the police have also resorted to such lowdown tactics as spraying
water hydrants used in camps with tear gas, preventing access to water
in 35° heat.
Activists have continued to monitor police actions and stage regular
patrols, which they maintain have kept the police in check. On
Wednesday, activists at the scene reported how police threatened
migrants with gas and flash-balls (plastic bullets) but retreated
after being confronted by a patrol.

Although it now looks like the destruction of the camps is no longer
imminent, the French Immigration Minister, Eric Besson, has reasserted
that the ‘jungle’ would be dismantled “before the
end of the year” and activists are still calling out for
volunteers to get themselves to Calais and show their support.

* See www.calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com



======================================================================

YEAH YEAH YEAH

The new Yes Men film is coming this week. The Yes Men Fix the World
features more of their high-level pranks as they expose corporations
to ridicule. This film features their stunt where – speaking as
Dow Chemical – they promised to compensate and clean up the
toxic mess in Bhopal following the 1984 disaster. Also, they pose as
Exxon execs and tell an energy conference about plans to combat
climate change by using the victims of climate change as a source of
energy.

The Yes Men will be at the preview screenings at the Odeon Panton St,
London, 7th-10th August, and the film will go on release in 20 cinemas
across the UK on 11th August, including an 8.30pm screening at
Brighton’s Duke Of York’s cinema. For more see
www.theyesmenfixtheworld.com/screenings.htm

* This week the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal ordered the
Central Bureau of Investigation to arrest Union Carbide CEO Warren
Anderson and produce him before the court without delay. UC and
Anderson are charged with culpable homicide. Anderson absconded from a
1992 court case despite a summons, refusing to take responsibility for
the Bhopal chemical disaster, pay adequate compensation or clean the
site, which continues to be toxic (See SchNEWS 684).
www.bhopal.net



======================================================================

AFGHAN HOUNDING

As the situation in Afghanistan escalates, with mounting casualties
on both sides, court martial proceedings have begun against a British
soldier who refused to fight a second tour of duty in protest against
the war.

Joe Glenton went AWOL in 2007 but handed himself in to the
authorities earlier this year. During a preliminary hearing on Monday
(3rd), Glenton’s lawyer told the court that he planned to fight
the desertion charges, using in his defence expert testimony
questioning the legality of the war. Glenton faces up to two years in
prison if he is convicted.

Last week Glenton delivered a letter to Gordon Brown in which he
condemned the war and the actions of the government. “The war in
Afghanistan is not reducing the terrorist risk, far from improving
Afghan lives it is bringing death and devastation to their
country,” Glenton wrote. “...the courage and tenacity of
my fellow soldiers has become a tool of American foreign
policy.”

While the military is prosecuting Glenton for refusing to participate
in the destruction of a country, the government is now looking into
refusing citizenship to any prospective Brits who choose to protest
against it. In the latest citizenship scheme, people applying for
British passport could face penalties or even a refusal for anything
that could be constituted an “active disregard for British
values” which the Home Office have refused to deny could include
protesting against a war that recent polls suggest a majority of Brits
are against.

* See  http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1400/1/



======================================================================

AND FINALLY

Chill out everyone – climate change is about to meet a higher
power. Residents of the Swiss Alpine villages of Fieschertal and
Fiesch have asked for blessings from the Pope to stop their glacier
from melting. Why didn’t we think of that?

Now the idea that the God of the Catholic Church (which only got
around to apologising in 1992 for burning folks with the insolence to
say that the world was round) is gonna intervene in global warming and
rising sea levels makes about as much sense as, well, their whole
religion. But then these Swiss villagers have got history on their
side...

You see back in the heady days of the late 17th century (1678 to be
exact), the villages asked the then Pope to stop their glacier from
growing; promising in return that they would all live virtuously. And
lo! - the evil glacier did indeed stop growing and eventually started
to recede, proving God’s existence beyond doubt.

So having got what they wanted, a mere 331 years later, the fickle
faithful have now changed their minds and asked for their glacier to
grow back.

But instead of risking appearing so indecisive to God, perhaps they
should just blow out the previous deal by loosening up, indulging in
the seven deadlies and partying more, thus causing God to default on
the original 1678 bargain...

As for their ambition to get his eminence to stick his neck out,
SchNEWS reckons they haven’t got a pope in hell...



======================================================================

Disclaimer

SchNEWS warns all readers, the winds of spare change are blowing
through this unfair land. Honest!

======================================================================

Jo Makepeace
- e-mail: mail@schnews.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.schnews.org.uk

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