In brief ...

UK
London - Esso Blockade and Lastminute.com HQ targeted
Bristol - Critical Mass
Norwich - Jet petrol station blockade

Germany
Evershagen - Shell garage blockade

New Zealand
Whanganui-a-Tara - Tour of EEEVil

North America
Asheville - Bank of America targeted
San Francisco - Critical Mass
Portland - Anti-dam action
We are also aware of actions in Chicago, Palm Beach and Minneapolis but havn't got full details yet


In Detail ...

BRISTOL: CRITICAL MASS

This morning saw a good natured and fun critical mass reclaim the streets of Bristol from car-culture! A good crowd of 40 to 50 riders gathered in the centre ready to move off in a carnival of cycling in solidarity with protests against the G8 and to draw attention to the chaos of climate change.

The crowd moved off towards Temple Quay, the new financial heart of Bristol, down Baldwin Street, over the bridge and down towards the roundabout that connects to Bristol Temple Meads, then over into temple quay where we found a mural on the floor 'We Have the Power' – very apt! Then on towards Broadmead and onto the bottom of the M32 and round back to the fountains. A good mornings work!

The reception was almost totally positive, flyers were handed out to pedestrians and fellow cyclists and drivers explaining what this was all about. Lots of people waved, cheers and beeped as we passed. There were bemused faces in corporate Bristol as the be-suited Temple Quay was invaded by pedal-power!

This event just going to show how people can reclaim a public space from the relentless grind of the rat-race and build some community. Unlike the G8, we care about climate change and got off our ass to do something!

 http://bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id - For full coverage.


LONDON: ESSO STATION BLOCKADE FIGHTS THE PIPE

London Rising Tide and Friends descended on Chelsea Tractor country on Friday night in a protest against the G8’s pathetic attempt to “consider” climate change and to reduce CO2 emissions.

The Tigers and Clowns blockaded the E$$O station at Fulham Rd for over two hours to highlight Exxon Mobil/E$$Os role in bankrolling our future down the pipe. Their support for the Liquid Natural Gas pipeline coming to a city near you is paving the way for new Gas Fired power stations, locking us into another 30 years with these emission-spouting beasts. The emissions from these stations are comparable to the existing Coal Fired
ones!

Because the tankers carrying this gas have to come from Qatar and are so huge, they cannot navigate the Suez Canal so have to circumnavigate Africa, freezing the gas as they go. In terms of emissions this makes the final figures at use almost as high as energy derived from coal. LNG is NOT a clean fuel!

The protest went well with the overwhelming majority of people, including car drivers… were positive to the message that we were giving out. The Police arrived after about thirty minutes, but after telling us to stay out of E$$Os forecourt, we remained for another hour: their threat of “ten minutes of you’re in the van” being the usual bravado. A good time was had by all, and the Tigers will continue to prowl…… (contact  london@risingtide.org.uk)

STOP THE PRESS:
With the pipeline converging on two fronts the protest three camp in the Brecon Beacons has just been served with an eviction notice and are now on high alert for Monday 11th. Activists are now dug-in and locked-on up trees with support from local people, ready to resist. They need your support. If you can get down there, ring the camp hotline on 07917383517, or email  bristol@risingtide.org.uk.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/373084.html - For full coverage and photos.


ASHEVILLE: BANK OF AMERICA TARGETED FOR COAL INVESTMENT

Today dozens of cyclists paid a surprise visit to Bank of America to protest their financial backing of coal companies as a part of the International Day of Action Against Climate Change and G8. After tying up downtown traffic, the 30-strong bike ride descended on the downtown Asheville headquarters of Bank of America. Once there, a number of people dumped coal in front of the main entrance, while another person spontaneously sacrificed their bike lock and locked the front doors shut.

With police still not in sight, the bike ride continued on to another Bank of America branch, where participants plastered the bank in stickers, handed out flyers to customers, and held banners reading, “Stop Banking on Climate Change” and “Climate Chaos: Brought to you by Bank of America.”

The protest was held in solidarity with the massive anti-G8 protests in Germany, where leaders of the 8 richest countries continue to drag their feet on making any meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The bike ride was organized by Asheville Rising Tide, a group dedicated to confronting the root causes of climate change.

“By targeting coal industry investors, we can undermine their financial support which they depend on to continue operation. The less money they have, the less coal they can extract and burn. In the face of cataclysmic climate change, we do not have time to wait for government regulations. We must directly intervene now!” said Jennifer Clayson, who participated in the ride.

 http://risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/2007/06/08/asheville-rising-tide-confronts-bank-of-america-for-investments-in-coal-industry/ - For full coverage and photos.


PORTLAND: LA PAROTA DAM FINANCIERS TARGETED

On Friday, Stop La Parota PDX launched its campaign to pressure companies with ties to the financing of La Parota Dam to sever all connections to the destructive project.

Activists held a colorful demonstration in front of the Lloyd Center Sears to demand the Sears Holding Corporation cut all ties to Grupo Carso. Grupo Carso is the financial umbrella of Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim Helú, who has publicly declared that Grupo Carso subsidiaries will be involved in every aspect of La Parota.

La Parota, a 765-megawatt hydroelectric dam slated for the Papagayo River in Guerrero, Mexico, is a classic infrastructure expansion project resulting from trade agreements like NAFTA and the FTAA in the worst of ways. The dam would submerge 43,000 acres of forest and farmland along the river’s banks, displacing at least 25,000 mostly indigenous campesinos (subsistence farmers) from the Communal Lands of Cacahuatepec. Already, indigenous resistance to the dam has been met with imprisonment and murder.

The CFE made no attempt to include the campesinos in the decision-making process regarding La Parota. In July 2003, without giving notice or seeking permission, the commission simply sent in machinery to build two tunnels to divert the flow of the Papagayo. Farmers from surrounding communities responded with road blockades and encampments to keep CFE equipment out of the area. The ongoing roadblocks have been largely successful, and the CFE has been forced to pull out most of its equipment. In Chilpancingo, the state capital, the protesters were 30,000 strong. Their message was clear: “We are ready to die for the land.”

The demonstration was held both in solidarity with the resisting campesinos as well as the resistance in Germany to the G8. La Parota is a manifestation of the global system of oppression created by organizations like the G8 to further the interests of transnational corporations at the cost of people and environmental integrity.


SAN FRANCISCO: ANTI-G8-CLIMATE CHANGE SOLIDARITY MASS BIKE RIDE

Painted yellow flags flapping in the evening sun read "V8, not G8," "No G8, No Climate Change," "Climate Justice," "Rising Tide," "Bay Rising; Not Capitalism, Not Rising Bay," and Flood the Streets Before the Ocean Does."

The resurgent European global justice and anti-capitalist movements successfull battle with the G8 were being celebrated in San Francisco along with other cities across the planet.

Towards a hundred bicyclist participated through the evening's solidarity anti-G8 and anti-climate change ride in a winding ride through the street and neighborhoods of San Francisco. Rising Tide, a radical international anti-climate change network, had called for a day of action, and cites around the US and the planet responded.

The local Bay Rising Affinity Group call read in part: "Use pedal power to challenge oil addiction, to show solidarity with anti-G8 mass mobilizations in Germany and resist the polluting economic and political system of the G8. This global system is at the root of our ecological and social problems; climate chaos, lack of heath care, housing and education, war and empire, more prisons, the rich getting richer, low wages and lousy jobs, pollution, and attacks on immigrant, worker and civil rights. As the megalomaniac G8 leaders meet in police-state Germany, behind fences, cops and soldiers, intent on leading us further towards catastrophic and irreversible climate chaos, we must shout, scream and roar 'no more'."

Occasional chants of "fight warming, not wars," "Fuck the G8" and "we all live in a police state" to the tune of the Beatles "yellow submarine" as a heavy presence of police in cars, on bikes and on motorcycles, Highway Patrol and Sheriffs following the ride, harassing a few band a motorcade of block away for much of the ride. People ignored their provocations as the mobile pedal powered festival snaked through the city. Neighbors and tourists stopped watched, took photos or waved.

Leaflets were passed out. City busses honked support. We ended the ride with a bike drawn soundsystem at at Dolores Park, the heart of the city and across the street from the house where Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman contributed to "The Blast" newspaper on the verge of the worldwide revolutions of the early 1900's.

 http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/06/08/18426169.php - For full coverage and photos.


NORWICH: JET PETROL STATION SHUT DOWN

During this morning’s rush hour twelve activists from Norwich Rising Tide braved the East Coast storm warnings and set off to shut down their local Jet petrol station as part of the International Day of Action Against Climate Change and the G8.

Having met up at silly o’clock in the morning and gathered together banners, rope and ‘Danger, Global Warming’ hazard tape, we arrived at the Jet petrol station on Dereham Road only to find 8 of Norfolk’s finest lying in wait. Ignoring them, we unpacked our banners and stretched them across the three entrances, preventing vehicles from filling up. Passing motorists rushing to work were treated to the sight of us jumping up and down in the rain, waving banners bearing the slogans ‘Closed for a Total Re-think’; ‘Social Change, Not Climate Change’; and ‘International Day of Action Against Climate Change and the G8.’

We handed out leaflets to drivers and pedestrians, explaining that the blockade was part of a series of events taking place around the world to highlight the role played by the leaders of the high-emitting G8 nations in causing climate change, and to show up this week’s so-called ‘climate deal’ for the sham that it is.

One of the banner wavers was heard to shout: ‘We will not stand by and watch the planet burn as the G8 leaders and their corporate bedfellows trivialise the greatest threat facing humanity with a blind faith in techno-fixes and market mechanisms such as fraudulent carbon offset schemes. If we are going to truly solve this problem, we need a rapid transformation to a low-energy society – starting with the dismantling of the oil industry.’

We chose the less well-known Jet as our target to show that there is no such thing as a good oil company. Jet is owned by ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil refiner in the world, and the first Western oil company to enter Iraq after the start of the war. Jet and ConocoPhillips have so far escaped the criticism that has been justifiably heaped upon industry giants like Shell and BP, but they are no different. ConocoPhillips, like all oil companies, destroys ecosystems and communities around the world, and is profiteering from oil wars and climate chaos.

The response from drivers and passers-by was predictably mixed, and although the early arrival of the police forced us to change our plans slightly, the action still served its purpose: to highlight the inability of G8 leaders to truly tackle climate change, and to take action in solidarity with those disrupting the summit in Germany and those already suffering from the effects of climate change around the world.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/372993.html - For full coverage and photos.


LONDON: LASTMINUTE.COM HQ BLOCKADED

An environmental activist was so enraged that lastminute.com continue to push 'short haul' flights whilst knowing the damage they do to the climate, that she super-glued herself to the front door of the company's Victoria HQ.

At 8am this morning, Penny Eastwood – a member of climate action group, Plane Stupid, pasted superglue over her hands and glued herself to the front doors of the building and by doing so blocked staff from entering their offices.

Before she was arrested, Penny said, "Whilst G8 leaders have simply spouted more hot air, I've showed what one woman alone can do to shut down climate criminals."

She added, "Lastminute.com irresponsibly encourage people to binge-fly five times a year. In other words, they're forcing the world towards the brink of eco-meltdown and all for a quick buck!"

Penny Eastwood is one of those planning to attend this summer's Camp for Climate Action at Heathrow.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/372970.html - For full coverage.


WHANGANUI-A-TARA, NEW ZEALAND: TOUR OF EEEEEVIL

Midland Park was the start of the Tour of EEEEEvil with a phat boom-box hailing out loud. first they cycled towards the US embassy. crayons were used to beautify the pavement, being under heavy scrutiny by security guards and police.

The number of protesters had been few, the attention by our friends in blue astonishingly intense - 2 cop cars and one paddy-wagon were following the small group closely.

a cat's leap later, the protesters rang the door-bell of the German embassy to tell them they are all scummy polluters of the environment. next station was the British High Commission where a banner was unfolded to make capitalism history.

finally, the group was not keen on visiting the other embassies of the G8 and cycled through the CBD and dispersed around Victoria St, receiving smiles and applause from some people on the streets.

 http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/73175/index - For full coverage and photos.