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After 7 years, the EF!AU has reached its 50th birthday! To celebrate this fact, the evolution of the movement and how the Update has reflected this, the 'EF!AU 1st 50 Reader' is being put together. We need ideas, comments, any amusing or good unpublished photos, distribution help. Contact us via Manchester EF! Laminated stickers also now available, 10p each or contact us for bulk orders.
A local FoE anti-quarry campaigner & one other have been found guilty of 'conspiracy to cause criminal damage and recklessly endanger life'. This follows the cutting of the railway line out of Whatley Quarry in September '96. The decision's being appealed before the (stiff) sentencing, due late August. Meanwhile, ARC are appealing the stop to the expansion plans.
It all got a bit mixed up at the recent Salisbury RTS. Party-goers found themselves sharing 2 stalled tanks with soldiers and discussing the ethics of going out and shooting people, as the traffic piled up...
Worthing residents celebrated the 2nd anniversary of the arrival of CCTV, making the public the focus of their own handmade CCTV cameras, and presenting a birthday cake to one of the real ones. Crime has risen by 19% in the town since the cameras were put up.
The EF! & RTS websites have had to move. See the contact list for the new address.
At the suggestion of local FoE and Worthing Borough Council, two neighbourhoods celebrated Green Transport Week by organising their own community street parties. Turfed-over tarmac, sandpits, and a trampoline replaced the traffic. Funds raised will go to community projects.
Huntingdon Life Sciences, the UK's biggest contract animal testing laboratory, have lost their second largest shareholder, and half the workforce at the Cheshire lab are to be made redundant. To help keep up the pressure to close it down, contact HDSC.
At Faslane, although the local Council won the appeal against the peace camp and could evict immediately, they have contacted camp residents to ask for “talks” in early August. Faslane folk are intrigued, but remain on alert.
Do you live in mid-Wales or the English borders? Interested in the eco non-violent direct action movement but frustrated by the sparsity of like minds in this very rural and lowly-populated area? Contact Hereford EF!
Arthur's Wood, the new Manchester Airport camp is in need of enough dwellers to start another camp, plus usual polyprop donations etc. 3 people were arrested and bailed off site.
If you attended either of the parties in Brixton or Tottenham, RTS need your help. There were several arrests and a couple of police assaults on partygoers. Phone RTS ASAP, 0171 281 4621 or 0961 398257.
London RTS are putting together a book about the RTS movement. Contributions welcome: photographs, press cuttings etc (will be returned). Send to John, RTS, 75 Kitto Rd, Telegraph Hill, London SE12 5TN, or artactivism@gn.apc.org
Although the McLibel appeal date is not until 1999, they have two weeks to lodge their appeal bundles - all 200,000 pages - and pay £20,000 pounds extra for transcripts! And if they don’t? Appeal struck out.
Undercurrents 10 underway for November release. If you know of a story that needs telling, or want support in making your own feature, get in touch.
The latest offering from SQUALL includes features on Freemasonry, the Countryside Alliance, global activism & the GAndALF fiasco.
Someone's putting together an anarchist anthology, in a very accessible-to-all-ages style. 2-5 page articles are still needed, and graphics. E-mail: TFSparrow@aol.com
Heron Land Developments want to build 2,500 houses, industrial units and a retail park adjoining Chepstow...on 300 acres of pasture, copses, ponds, 30 kms of hedgerows, a SSSI, part of the Offa's Dyke path, and Saxon and Iron Age sites. 'In return', HLD have 'offered' a 2nd bypass! - contact 01291 624901.
At a peaceful blockade of a barge at a Nigerian oil installation (owned by US multinational Chevron), Chevron-hired soldiers shot and killed two protesters and wounded 30 more. Chevron has devastated the ecology and communities of Ondo. See Njaja@compuserve.com.
The Liverpool Dockers, compelled to end their 30 month dispute, will still struggle against exploitation and casualisation, here and globally. They led the London ‘March for Social Justice’ in May, and more is planned - call 0181 372 0908.
At the BNRR, the Brum fire brigade & ambulance service have been told by police not to come to the aid of protestors - there'll be 'urine & flea grenades waiting'. Yegads, those violent terrorist protestors again...!
Camp AARDVARK (Arboreal Activists Reinforce Decent Values Against Redevelopment Killing) has been set up to protect St Mary's Churchyard, the very last green open space in Southampton, from being developed by a partnership of Church of England plc, the higher education establishment and the usual property speculators. Base Camp and houses in some of the 40 mature trees are already up and running.
Plans reveal most of this beautiful churchyard being covered in buildings and tarmac.
Aardvarkers are all from Southampton - one was christened in the church - and the campaign has loads of local support, but wouldn't mind some climbing gear too, and visitors. The Council has final say on the proposal, so we plan to make very clear to them that people wish to preserve the site as is.
[ Contents ]Apparently modern-day sheep-rustlers have their eye on Dolly the cloned sheep. Security has been tightened around the Roslin Institute, in Midlothian, and police have been alerted, after warning was received from a mystery group who stated The cloning of a sheep is against nature and our objective is to kidnap Dolly, neuter the animal and release her among a flock of sheep...
[ Contents ]From A SEED Europe: It has been brought to our attention through various sources that Adrian Franks of Eco-Action France (& EF! France) is an infiltrator selling information on activist groups to corporate clients. He has claimed to be working very closely with organisations and networks (such as Corporate Watch UK), but is almost unknown to them. To his clients he acts under the surnames Mayer and Lechene. His intelligence agency, Risk Crisis Analysis, is registered in both France and the UK under Adrian Lechene. According to sources, he has created a corporate-oriented information-market on the activities of European activists. We have made clear to the companies he was in touch with that much of the information they received was inaccurate and that they will receive nothing further. For further information on his activities, and the investigation, go to http://www.xs4all.nl/~respub/adrian.
[ Contents ]Tyneside Action for People and Planet, known to their friends as TAPP, are up to all sorts. On National Bike to Work Day, activists dressed as security guards leafleted cars in the city centre with official looking Vehicle Immobilisation Notices, identifying them as dangerous. Cars parked at the Department of Environment headquarters were particularly targeted - one day surely isn't much too expect from them after all - but the DOE responded by reporting TAPP for littering! Other TAPP projects: monthly cycling actions are being held to claim back a cycle route under ownership of the road construction firm Robert McAlpine; the plight of 160 mature trees about to die in the name of road widening is being highlighted, and Country Watch is taking action against animal snares and farm animal abuses.
[ Contents ]Two months on, Prague's Global Street Party is still making the pages of the newspapers, which describe it as the biggest confrontation between demonstrators and police in Czechoslovakia for ten years, and the scene of the worst police violence since 1968. It occurred late in the day, when police moved in on the crowd with truncheons, eventually detaining and interrogating 64 people, a third of whom were under 18, some for up to two weeks. Reports say that while injured people were taken to the hospital, police continued mistreating them there even in the presence of physicians. Media and human rights organisations (who have all made statements that the rights of those detained were infringed) were not allowed access. Despite all of this, officials have now stated there will be no police charged for any breaches of law. However, there is a lot of public awareness and anger about their behaviour on the day, and they will be in the spotlight at Prague's next party, on 29th September (meet 2pm, Palackeho square). Meanwhile, the activists being charged are in desperate need of donations to help with legal fees, and ask also that people in the UK make formal complaints to the Czech embassy about the state's handling of the party. Send donations c/o Czech EF!.
[ Contents ]On American Independence Day, the dodgy types at Menwith Hill spy base traditionally invite local dignitaries to drop in for tea. Menwith Hill women activists made it a bit more difficult this year, holding a mobile picnic on the public footpath that crosses the visitors' car-park driveway, and releasing helium balloons with petitions attached to them, protesting against the Cassini Probe which carries 72.3 pounds of plutonium. Meanwhile, the current expansion of Menwith Hill, recently taken over by US Space Command, continues - and the new 'golf balls' are specifically for receiving infra-red pictures from satellites.
[ Contents ]Donald Dewar, Secretary of State for Scotland, was recently given a 'souvenir' from Coalburn by the Scottish Opencast Action Group: two full carrier bags of coal dust were handed over at the Scottish Office with the message, Collected from the lungs of children living next to opencasts. There's more where this came from! Scotland is more threatened by opencast now than ever before as opencast companies see Scotland as having laxer planning laws and fewer people to object. The demo, to the tune of pipes and drums, coincided with 'Minerals '98 - Making More of Life', a UK-wide week to celebrate mineral extraction. Said a Coalburn local - It is outrageous that Minerals '98 have been given £64,000 by the DTI and Department of the Environment to 'celebrate' opencasts! No-one is giving a penny or a thought for the communities whose lives are made miserable by all the traffic, dust and noise. Contact SCAG - 01501 785202.
[ Contents ]The idea: to hold a celebration of the Diversity of Life in the grounds of the Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, where Dolly was cloned. It's time we got heard - it's time to TAKE ACTION two days of celebrating biodiversity near the Roislin Institute-bring your imagination and leave your inhibitions.... The plan: to have a mass (nude) invasion of the grounds, with loads of interesting and thought-provoking performance, costumes, musicians etc, and then....who knows? The main idea is that it will raise in a simple and direct way all the moral & ethical implications...imagine if we get arrested for performing natural procreation, whilst Frankenstein scientists open Pandora's box with no-one to stop them. Contact Gwynedd & Mon EF!
[ Contents ]On July 4th five women safely and openly removed GE crops from a field release site in Oxfordshire. This action launched the GenetiX Snowball, which aims to inspire growing numbers of people to accountably and openly remove GE plants. Despite a hefty police presence, the women pulled up 200 plants before being arrested for criminal damage. The women placed the plants in marked bags and contacted the Environment Agency, asking them to dispose of the crops as biohazardous waste. Police later released the women without charge. The women had previously openly declared their intention to pull up the plants to farmers, crop owners Monsanto, and the police. The women left behind personal statements of their reasons for taking the action and a pledge of nonviolence, accountability, and respect for human life and the environment. Monsanto are now seeking injunctions against the five women, banning them from interfering with crops on any of their 70 listed British release sites, and asking for unlimited damages...unfortunately for the gene dictators, there are others all to happy to "interfere". On July 18th a second snowball action was planned, but it turned out that the farmer had already stopped growing GE crops because he distrusted the technology! Groups around the country have taken up the invitation to take part in further rounds, expected on the first and third Saturdays of each month. To take part contact GenetiX Snowball for a campaign pack.
[ Contents ]While New Labour announced their White Paper on Transport, which says little about the rights of pedestrians and cyclists, London Reclaim the Streets solved all our problems with their Green, Black and Red paper. It bans private cars from city centres, redirects the saved money into making public transport free, rules that car ads must carry a government health warning, and converts the M25 into the world's largest circular organic allotment. Simultaneously there occurred a large-scale subvertising round of London billboards in order to redecorate Ford's latest advertisements with tube maps and bicycle posters to celebrate the paper's release. Hoorah.
[ Contents ]On the morning of the RMT rail trade union strike by 10,000 workers, London activists climbed onto the roof of a tube train at Bank and shut down the eastbound Central Line, in support of the tubeworkers' stand against privatisation. 'Fat cats' offered to buy Bank station, handing out peanuts and explanatory leaflets to passengers. Underground (corporate greed) signs were subverted to read 'Laughing all the way to the Bank'. Three activists were arrested, charged and released later the same day.
[ Contents ]The mass demo on 11 July against Hillgrove Farm, breeders of cats for vivisection, was supposed to start with a rally, followed by a protest at the farm. But Witney Carnival was on, and police didn't want animal rights protesters mingling with 'real' people! So they put a 5 mile exclusion zone around Witney, under the Public Order Act '86. A change of plan - hundreds of protesters gathered at a service station near Oxford to march into the city centre towards the University, where the cats go. A small group got past the police into the city, and 2 larger groups held impromptu street parties. All met up at a major roundabout, and occupied it for some time, before being ushered back to the services. Legal advice suggests the exclusion zone was unlawful. Hillgrove will close down; it's only a matter of time.
[ Contents ]At 4am on June 4, the eviction and clearance of Polish EF!'s St Anna mountain camp began, with residents isolated by a barrier and an official media ban. Over several days activists were violently removed by about 85 anti-terrorist police and climbers. Many trees were felled with their occupants still in them, and 24 arrests were made. On the final evening, activists planned to stay on the ground to continue resistance, but were attacked by the local skinhead group. Later, after collecting those who had been arrested, campaigners moved on - to occupy two houses in the nearby village of Wysoka, further along the proposed route. By the end of the month the bulldozers followed. They were originally held off by a barrage of stones from the rooftops, but eventually both houses were destroyed, once again with protesters still in them. Resistance will continue - further info and a video are available from EF! Poland.
[ Contents ]Spring is definitely in the air here at Big Willow Eco Village at Crystal Palace, and it has brought with it two things - sex and plants. The first is irritaing eco-warriors pairing up and taking off in a romantic haze thinking of each other, instead of the eviction. The second means that the plants have grown so tall all over the site that its almost impossible to recognise it! The owners of the development site have asked the campaigners to leave, not as a result of the tidings of Spring, of course, and as we go to press the decision over whether a Judicial Review of the scheme can go ahead will be taken. Unusual tunnels are at the ready if the legal system plays its usual tricks.
[ Contents ]Direct action came to the Royal Agricultural Show when the Kenilworth Croppers openly cut 75% of a GE display crop. The wheat, produced for 'improved bread making qualities', had been kept under close guard at the show all week, following the safe 'decontamination' of a GE wheat field at Cerea's '98. The wheat contains antibiotic marker genes, which could lead to antibiotic resistance in humans, and which the government's own advisory body has ruled as unsafe and so banned from future experiments. The developers have ignored the warning and are continuing to display their wheat as part of a 'public education project'.
A group of ramblers on an evening stroll in the countryside last week were most surprised and alarmed to find that the footpath they were following near a farm, near Ponteland, was blocked by a crop of genetically manipulated oil seed rape. The ramblers, disgusted that this unpredictable, uncontrollable, unnecessary, unwanted and dangerous crop was being grown in the north east, had no alternative but to destroy it, to stop the spread of pollen & help end the Genetix Experiment. RAGE! Ramblers against genetic engineering.
Elsewhere, a group calling themselves the Wardens of Wiltshire pulled up another lot of Monsanto's GE rape. Police came along but no arrests were made. Whilst 12 people did the decontamination work, 25 other locals came along to offer support, one saying: "We and others before us are neither 'eco-warriors' nor 'super heroes'. We are simply concerned mothers, fathers & other ordinary people that are unwilling to accept Monsanto force-feeding us genetically engineered crops - or their expensive and misleading PR campaign that is trying to sell them to us." That is the 27th site to be rescued from GE crops, and as yet no charges of criminal damage have been pressed by any of the biotech companies involved.
And a blackbird & friends announced they'd be landing on a GE field in Tyneside, only to find someone had already harvested the rape - poor hungry bird.
[ Contents ]400 people, including David Bellamy and therefore the TV cameras, turned out in the rain for the Teigngrace National Rally, to walk through (?) rivers. Latest development there was when the quarry company who wants to dig up the place, realised that the upcoming public inquiry may get them in trouble for bulldozing Twinyeo Farm, which, as the home of a Saxon lord, is mentioned in the Domesday Book. So they returned to the scene of the crime to dig up the foundations in the hope of destroying its historical significance once and for all. Luckily they were spotted and an injuction was taken out to stop their sneaky vandalism.
[ Contents ]South Downs folk again took the government at their word and took back their 'freedom to roam' - 200 people mass-trespassed and camped over, reclaiming areas incorrectly signposted "Private - No Right of Way" and picnicking on Balmer Down, which dates back to the Iron Age. Walkers expressed shock at recent wanton destruction of hundreds-of-years-old beeches on Offham Down, but were impressed at the rapid recovery of the herb-rich turf, rescued from ploughing by campaigning last year. Only 10 of Brighton Council's wildlife-rich old down pasture sites have formal public access, though all 53 are supposed to. Take them back on the regular trespass days.
[ Contents ]The police threat to evict Ashton Court protest camp if they didn't leave by the Ashton Court Festival weekend seems to have been a lot of hot air. Local activists tatted down one camp, but the other went on alert ready to resist forcible removal...which never happened. So the campaign is back in full swing, ready for September's 'habitat translocation'. That's where Pioneer Quarry company arrange to slice off the top layer of the meadow and put it somewhere else, on different soil; thereby "protecting" the 89 species that just possibly liked their habitat where it was. To help stop this nonsense, contact the camp on their mobile phone.
[ Contents ]Undercover cops who'd set up a secret camera in a Tayside farm's barn and parked up in their unmarked car, hoping to catch some of the Scottish folk who are decontaminating their country by removing genetics test crops, had to run for their lives when the car exhaust set the barn on fire. Both the barn and the car were destroyed, and the damage is estimated to be well into the thousands... a police spokesman is quoted as saying, "Everyone is laughing their socks off." Except the farmer, who may well have decided he's had enough of his test crop even before any activists turn up!
[ Contents ]Members of Rainbow Keepers and Tira Nigra were regularly terrorized by Ukrainian Security Service (USS, the former Ukrainian KGB) while attempting to organize actions against the recent Annual Meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in Kiev. USS officers threatened to use physical violence against anybody participating in actions. Eventually, after a banner and leaflet action, 5 activists were arrested without a warrant and sentenced to several days in jail, where they went on hunger strike against their treatment. This kind of treatment is not new to Ukranian campaigners, many of whom have experienced interrogation and have had homes raided & belongings confiscated...
[ Contents ]By Corporate Watch Box E, 111 Magdalen Road, Oxford OX4 1RQ, 01865 791391, mail@corporatewatch.i-way.co.uk.
'The Earth is not dying, it is being killed. And those who are killing it have names and addresses'. - Utah Phillips
BEGINNING, important: check with other activist groups in case they've done the work already! Start with the company's annual report - they will send it if you ask nicely. If a non-PLC, look up the relevant business directories. For structure, try Who Owns Whom. For production info, try Kompass vol.1. Try also market research guides and industry reports. Always note your sources to insure against libel
LIBRARIES: as well as the business section, check out reference. Look for Who's Who, the Directory of Associations and Professional Bodies, trade journals (e.g. Mining Journal, The Engineer), and local history books. If you can get to London, visit the City Business Library, Westminster Reference Library, or the British Library Business Info Service. Alternatively, get to your University library.
INTERNET: for leads and contacts, join an activist listserver, e.g. listserve@mizzoul.missouri.edu. Top infosites to start at: http://www.essential.org, http://www.corpwatch.org or http://www.oneworld.org.
NEWSPAPERS, NEWSLETTERS ETC: Financial Times, Investor's Chronicle, Private Eye is good for leads but quoting is a libel risk! Find internal newsletters (e.g. BP Today) for recent contract awards, new offices etc, careers offices have them sometimes. Look in Business Surveys' Research Index, which covers most major papers & mags.
WHO ARE THEY? Directory of Directors, Debrett's People of Today, and Who's Who will get you people biographies. You have a legal right to inspect shareholder listings at a company’s registered office - see Corp.Watch Issue one p. 16 for details.
WHERE ARE THEY? Ffind the red postal address directories in the library for locations, or MacMillan's Key British Enterprises. Companies House (in many city centres) will get you home addresses for £1, or a full company search for £3.50 (ph. 01222 380 30) but you may be asked for a name & ID.
WHO KNOWS WHO? Yhe annual report must declare any donations of over £200; for more call the Labour Research Dept (ph. 0171 928 0621). For lobbying activity, try the Directory of Associations & Proff. Bodies. The Register of Members’ Interests should tell you who benefits from what.
PR STRATEGY: find this out in PR Week or Marketing, or the PR Consultancy Yearbook.
FURTHER RESEARCH: once you have your basic profile, examine it for anything dodgy or interesting, and follow up. Ask questions as... a journalist, a student writing a thesis, a job-hunter... pick a flattering angle on the company (their community projects/'green' image-improving etc) to win confidence. Visit: see what lorries stop, look through windows, check rubbish bins, try walking straight in and being lost. Talk to employees. Get a job with the company, if you can stand it!
INVESTIGATING TIPS: always be friendly with accountants & secretaries. Look for enemies of the company. Interview company reps last, when you have a good case & it’s harder for them to lie to you. Brush up on jargon & background knowledge. Anticipate possible responses. Decide beforehand if you wish to leave your source friendly or hostile to you after an interview. Document your interviews in detail. Use openended questions, putting-at-ease questions. Note what your interviewee doesn't want to talk about. Respect off-the record comments (use as leads only) - but convention is that off-the-record must be said BEFORE the comments are made, rather than in oops, I shouldn’t have said that! - avoid offering o-t-r. Use an alias that you can elaborate on if necessary. Alter your memorable features (glasses/smoking etc). Use a callbox not outside your house. Back up your sources carefully. In writing use devices such as according to... allegedly etc. Keep incriminating notes elsewhere.
WHAT TO DO NEXT: you are limited only by your own imagination (and your feelings about the possible consequences!) Things people have done before include: public awareness-raising on future developments, freephone calling, fax blockades, junkpost campaigns, targetting tenderers, shareholder-educating, site occupations, office occupations (a way to get more info too), work disruption, AGM disruption, getting media onto company dodginess and corruption, taking companies to court for false advertising, illegal operations...and any campaign can benefit from a greasy palms leaflet, to provide info about the relevant companies and their subcontractors, and where to write to/visit them.
FURTHER READING: The Freedom of Information Handbook, David Northmore, Bloomsbury. A Guide to Company Research, Merseyside Trade Union Centre These notes are from a larger guide available from Corporate Watch. They offer various resources, including help at the end of the phone-line, and they would like to hear what you find out too.
[ Contents ]The EF! Action Update - new look; money and distribution offers needed...
23rd July '98
Dear Friend
We hope that you've been enjoying recent issues of the EF! Action Update. It's being produced by a few interim editors, in between Manchester EF! giving it up, and Norfolk EF! taking it on.
You will have noticed some changes; we welcome your comments on the new A3 format, as well as anything else. The idea behind it is that it's more eye-catching as it's different from other publications; also it can be displayed or flyposted easily, thus giving access to info on the ecological direct action movement to more people.
We are working on an EF!AU 1st 50 reader, and more info on that will be available soon. Also coming up hopefully are EF!AU flyers, to encourage people to subscribe and gain access to news they wouldn't otherwise get. Ask for as many as you like, donations to cover printing and postage obviously welcome. We've also produced stickers - now available from Manchester EF!, for the minimum cost price of 10p each - please order a roll, and stick them up wherever. If you order loads it will cost less.
Norfolk EF! are taking Update production on from issue 52. The Update is currently in much debt, to the tune of £600. Each issue costs £350, for printing, mailing, and sending free issues to prisoners, other groups, magazines and info-dissemination points. The trick is to balance the free distribution with the amount of money that comes in via subscriptions, and this isn’t always easy.
So here comes the request....
If you're an individual who already subscribes, thanks. It would be great, if you have the chance, to get friends or family to subscribe, or if you can think of another source of financial support or donations.
If you're a group that receives it and you haven't subscribed, at least think about it. Individuals manage to send us at least £5. Student Union societies have in the past changed the subscription form to read £50, and managed to support us that way. A pub collection can raise £300, and can be a useful way of getting the word out, or if you have other ideas, go for it.
And if you're a group across the seas, it costs a packet to send it to you, so any packets you can send us, would be most appreciated.
If you get it on email, you get it for free, though it costs us, so any support for our direct costs, and to enable us to get it out to others for free is obviously appreciated.
If you're a journalist, thanks for any coverage you may give - a bit of financial support would be also gratefully received, as it is dead certain you earn more than we do.
And whether you are a group or individual, receiving 1, 10 or more, please contact us with offers of distribution, getting the AU into info centres and bookshops. If you can take it into alternative bookshops, and get the money back off them, please go for it. It’s a good way word can get out.
Thanks for your help and interest. We hope you find the Update informative and useful, and will continue to support its existence. We look forward to discussing further AU issues at the EF! Gathering.
Love and rage, The EF! AU Crew.
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