Professional Documents
Culture Documents
May 2008
Action Update
A quarterly round-up of ecological and other direct action from around Britain and beyond
answer! testers get on with it. When the blockade
was lifted at 12noon at a negotiated
The genetics industry, against a backdrop time everyone left including the DLocks
of rapidly rising food prices due to climate and chains with no arrests. The only
chaoscrop failures, pressure on land from thing the cops were keen to keep was a
the demand for biofuels and the increasing large Sainsbury's banner which had been
costs of inputs such as oil, is again trumpet redecorated with antiGM messages.
ing about how 'GM can feed the world'. This is of course nonsense as the recent UN They apparently felt it should be re
report on the future of agriculture confirmed: conducted by 400 scientists and ap turned to the rightful owner. The activ
proved by 54 countries the report concludes that GM cannot provide the answer to ists couldn't really say no to such a gen
world hunger – instead it is smallscale farmers and agroecological farming meth erous offer of delivering their antiGM
ods that will save the day. Despite this the government kowtows to the industry, message back to the supermarket
talks about coexistence (of GM, conventional & organic crops) and encourages GM chain...
companies to come and have another go in this green & pleasant land! Over £50 Evidence from other actions shows that
million of government funding goes into GM research annually, compared with the impact does not stop once the block
£1.6 million for organic agriculture. GM soya, maize & beet are imported for anim ade is lifted, but the entire day will be
al feed, worldwide rice supplies have been contaminated by the old foe Bayer, and lost. Meetings will have to be resched
last year BASF attempted the first UK 'trial' plantings since 2003; this year they're uled, worktime caught up on, other of
having another go, along with friends at Leeds University. BASF is hoping that their fices will be furious about not being able
potatoes will be the first GM crop to be commercially grown in this country. A lot to get in touch, and so on.
of 'secret' research is also happening at University facilities. As one protester said: Says Mr Potato: “An excellent sunny day
“It's time to put the boot in once again, dear friends so dust off your shears and out... if it could not be spent on the al
lockons and go reprint those leaflets & stickers.” lotment, the next best place is lying on a
roadway. The pressure on GM compan
www.agassessment.org www.earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/geneticscrop ies has not gone away.”
www.earthfirst.org.uk
Leave it in the Ground!
New Earth First! campaign against open-
cast coal mining set up!
A new open cast coal mine site is about
to get under way in beautiful Derbyshire
unless we stop it. Lodge House site
which is east of the village of Smalley
and spans either side of Bell Lane, is one
of seven new sites that UK Coal is to
open cast.
The area is about to be devastated. Des
pite objections from local councils, resid
ents and local environmental groups the
Secretary of State granted planning per
About Earth First! mission in 2007. often turn the area into business parks,
The 122 hectare site will have one mil housing and industrial estates. Accord
Earth First! is about direct action lion tonnes of coal ripped out over 5 ing to their website in some cases they
to halt the destruction of the Earth. years and UK Coal claims that it will be return it to farmland and charge the
We believe we can make a real dif returned back to its natural state after farmers rent or in low grade land grow
ference by doing it ourselves rather wards. However residents fear there energy crops. They are apparently even
than relying on leaders, govern may be more to the plot, as they were into wind power, but have yet to erect a
ments or industry. excluded from parts of the planning single turbine.
meeting under grounds of commercial Coal is not clean energy and is a major
We're a loose network of people, confidentiality. According to campaign contributor to climate change. With the
groups and campaigns coming to ers UK Coal are one of those companies new onslaught of proposed power sta
gether for ecological direct action that looks to maximise their profits by tions, UK Coal are looking to cash in on
and we believe in nonhierarchical raping the land and profiting from it any climate devastation and destruction un
organisation. way they can. After coal extraction, they less we stop them.
The area is rich with wildlife and backs
The name Earth First! is a banner onto Shipley County Park. Some houses,
anyone who shares a similar philo (the sort of place you dream of living in)
sophy can work under. have been shuttered up and items like
toys, dog kennels and other personal bits
In the UK people have been taking remain looking like something from a
direct action using the Earth First! hurried evacuation from a war zone.
name since the early 90s – stopping UK Coal has stated that the site will be
road building, the quarrying of returned to farm land, but they are able
coal, rock and peat, freeing our to expand beyond the 122 hectares
fields of genetically modified crops, without needing further planning per
protesting against climate crimin mission. www.leaveitintheground.org.uk
als, fighting corporate power and
much, much more.
If you believe action speaks
louder than words, then Earth
TAKE ACTION!
First! is for you. To combat open cast mining a new action group “Leave it in the Ground”
has formed, supported by Earth First! with an invite to a Picnic in the Park
The Earth First! Action Update
brings you a quarterly collection of and a mass trespass. See the land before the destruction starts, meet the
news and updates on ecological dir locals and have fun. Bring banners, music, food, and sturdy footwear.
ect action from the UK and beyond.
You can pick up copies from your
local social centre, or even better:
Come and Discover Derbyshire!
subscribe and get it direct. The next Picnic in the Park and Mass Trespass
issue will be out in August, so if
you've got news to share about 26 May '08, 12 noon, Bank Holiday Monday
th
Action Update c/o The Basement, 78a Penny St, Lancaster LA1 1XN