Earthfirst! Winter Moot 5th-7thfeb north-east england

EARTH FIRST! WINTER MOOT6pm Fri 5th - Sun 7th Feb 2010North-east England
"A weekend of networking, reflection, strategic discussions & campaign planning for anyone involved in ecological direct action who believes in non-hierarchical organisation and directly confronting the forces responsible for the destruction of the Earth and its inhabitants"

For enquiries, offers of facilitation & help, ideas for workshops and TO LET US KNOW YOU ARE COMING! email : wintermoot@earthfirst.org.uk
Further info, nearest train station, directions and location announcement will be up on our website nearer the time: http://www.earthfirstgathering.org.uk/
More about the MootThe EF! Winter Moot is an opportunity for people who feel affiliation with the ideas behind Earth First! to network, discuss and reflect on the UK ecological direct action movement and to plan for the future.
Following a popular discussion at 2009's EF! Summer Gathering 2010's Moot also aims to hold discussions on the theme of "readying ourselves for unpredictability and instability in the UK and globally". The current & impending crises of economics, ecology, energy & society fundamentally alter the terrain of struggle; this in turn impacts both the practice and possibilities for a radical ecological movement.

2010's Winter Moot is to be held in County Durham, an area with a large number of opencast coal mines, both active and at the application stage. The weekend will include opportunities to meet with activists involved locally in campaigns against these.
Cost including vegan food & crash-pad accommodation £20-£30 (depending what you can afford-but please don't blag-even the organisers will pay).
If you have particular accommodation, access or dietary needs or are bringing children it would help us to know as soon as possible so we can plan suitable facilities; whoever you are please do try & drop us an email at least a week in advance so we can gauge how many to cater for.
http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/

Free Tadzio Mueller

Over the past week, tens of thousands of people from across the planet have taken to the streets of Copenhagen demanding real and just solutions to climate change. But on the streets, as well as inside the UN Climate Change Conference, delegates and ‘outsiders’ alike are doubting that the conference will reach a deal that isn’t a disaster for most of the world.

Inside the Bella Centre, where the UN delegates are meeting, numerous critical voices have been marginalised through technical and procedural manoeuvres. Others, like Friends of the Earth International, have had their accreditation revoked. Outside, the policing of protest has been consistently draconian and occasionally brutal.

On Saturday 12 December, almost 1,000 participants in a ‘Climate March’ through Copenhagen were arrested. On Monday 14 December, hundreds more were arrested at a party in the city’s Christiania district following a public meeting, addressed by Canadian journalist Naomi Klein and others. On Tuesday 15 December, Tadzio Mueller, a spokesperson for Climate Justice Action, was arrested by undercover police officers following a press conference at the Bella Centre.

This morning, on Wednesday 16 December, Tadzio appeared before a judge on a number of charges relating to his public support for today’s Reclaim Power demonstration. The declared aim of Reclaim Power – also supported by social movements, many conference delegates and other civil society actors – is to hold a People’s Assembly at the Bella Centre, to discuss real solutions to climate change. At this morning’s court hearing the judge decided to hold Tadzio for a further three days, after which he will reappear in court. There are reports that the hearing was closed to the public.

Meanwhile, hundreds more protesters have been arrested today and there have been numerous reports of police brutality and the extensive use of batons, pepper spray and tear gas. We have also heard of further arrests of individual activists by undercover police officers.

We, the undersigned, not only lend our support to those in Copenhagen seeking to push for real and just solutions to climate change, but also demand the following:
• The immediate release of Tadzio Mueller (video of arrest) and all other climate prisoners;
• A halt to the criminalisation and intimidation of activists, including the pre-emptive detaining of protesters in Copenhagen;
• The immediate re-instatement of accreditation withdrawn from NGOs and other critical voices at the Climate Summit

(This Open Letter was drafted by the editors of Turbulence: Ideas for Movement, of which Tadzio Mueller is an editor.)

Initial Signatories (name and affiliation):
• Ben Trott (Turbulence editor)
• David Harvie (Turbulence editor, University of Leicester)
• Michal Osterweil (Turbulence editor, US based lecturer, UNC Chapel Hill)
• Keir Milburn (Turbulence editor)
• Rodrigo Nunes (Turbulence editor)
• Kay Summer (Turbulence editor)
• Naomi Klein
• Katja Kipping (Member of the German Bundestag)
• Ulla Jelpke (Spokeswoman for internal affairs of the faction DIE LINKE in the Bundestag)
• Alexis Passadakis (Member of the Coordination Committee of Attac Germany)
• Dr. Simon Lewis (University of Leeds and UN accredited science advisor in COP15)
• Emma Dowling (Lecturer, University of London)
• Ingo Stützle (editor, ak - analyse & kritik)
• Zoe Young (writer and film maker)
• Friends of the Earth International

Incinerator projects dropping like flies

While the politicians have decided not to even pretend to try to keep global warming below 2 degrees, ordinary people are succesfully defeating waste incineration.

Recycling rates in the UK have been increasing by 3% per year
The Government and the incinerator industry has been pushing for new incinerators to be built, in some cases with PFI funding, in almost all cases with long contracts that will require waste & cash for 25 years or more.
Friends of the Earth's complete waste solution
There are still a lot of proposed projects
Friends of the Earth's UK waste page

Derby incinerator turned down at planning
Surrey dropping incineration
Luton dropping out of the waste PFI
Rufford (Sherwood Forest) inquiry adjourned until after Easter 2010
North Devon incinerator plans 'mothballed'
Tockwith, North Yorkshire
Telford and Wrekin Council unanimously reject Sita’s waste incinerator proposal
Sita withdraws Ernesettle plans
Oxfordshire – Sutton Courtenay and Ardley
(Indefinite?) delays in Hull
Invergordon
Dunbar proposals defeated -
Cornwall planning victory (to be followed by a victory at the public inquiry next year?!)
Cardiff incinerator plan dropped

As a result of this, DEFRA’s list of PFI projects only has 2 projects left for approval with Hull, Derby and Dorset leaving the list in the last few days. Also many approved PFIs are still not built

Keep Metro Public (KMP)

The Keep Metro Public campaign intend to turn to passenger organsing after councillors on the Passenger Transport Authority decided to sell the Metro to German State company Deutsche Bahn. It is the jobs that are being sold; not the trains or track. They had a demonstration on Thursday the 17th of December at Central Station but went and stood outside when management told them to.

Bike Park Barricaded

A new border between Newcastle's safest and only public indoor bike park and the Toon has been installed at Central Station. The bike park is now only accessible to passengers with a train ticket due to the new ticket barriers. The bike park was popular with visitors to the city centre and with Metro passengers. This new attack on cycling will increase the revenue from the cities many car parks, while bikes are forced to rust outdoors.
Central Station Management said: "It's because of Terrorism".
Central Station Security said: "It's because it's Private Property. I agree it should be Nationalised but it will still be Private Property".