Mountain Valley Pipeline is a 303 mile long natural gas pipeline  from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia that began construction in 2018 that has been, and continues to be, resisted through lawsuits, tree-sits, aerial blockades, walk-ons, lockdowns, car barricades, and most recently sabotage and arson. 

In July the supreme court filed an emergency order ruling the immediate resumption of the construction of the pipeline and dismissing existing litigation.
In September a judge granted temporary injunction against six protestors, barring them from returning to the site.

Machinery sabotage and arson has taken place in these three months, and the most recent communique A CALL TO WAR AGAINST THE PIPELINE says

“we believe that mvp is financially precarious and can still be stopped through relentless destructive actions, alongside the scaling-up of the existing campaign to cause disruptions and delays. to this end, we call upon like-minded individuals and groups to travel to so-called virginia and west virginia to inflict maximum economic damage against mvp by any means at your disposal. we must demoralize the enemy and prove that their project is doomed to never be completed. A map of the pipeline showing incomplete water crossings can be found at tinyurl.com/mvprfuckers. […] We have seen campaign after campaign fail to stop pipelines over the past decade, and we cannot afford to keep losing.[…] warriorup.noblogs.org and tension.noblogs.org are good starting points to find information on various arson and sabotage techniques.
[…]the only way to stop the deterioration of the climate from getting exponentially worse is to immediately halt the expansion of new fossil fuel infrastructure, and to shut down and dismantle existing infrastructure. wherever you live, there’s a pipeline near you that you can go shut off yourself.”

Image credit: @thegreatunwashed_

The intensive badger cull is in full motion and though no new zones have been authorised, 29 will continue across in England which could result in up to 24,000 murdered in September and October on top of the 210,000 already killed since it began in 2013. However, saboteurs and activists, acting on intelligence and data from previous years, were on hand to take action to prevent killing and protect local populations. Derbyshire Against The Cull were the first to publish their disruption of free-shooting, where the wild animals are shot at night, and was soon followed by cage traps being destroyed by Underground Badger Syndicate. Multiple hunt sabotage groups from across the country have also been active day and night. Though the scale of the cull is bleak, the survival of consistently targeted setts reaffirms the importance of localised action.

Anti-cull action will continue throughout October but cannot be done without support. Many are active night and day, seven days a week. Fuel costs alone are enough to determine how active they can be so donations of any size can help go a long way. Underground Badger Syndicate specifically have set up a fund raiser for their continuous efforts throughout the cull. Tip-off’s are also incredibly important. Though there are groups and individuals specifically dedicated to the cause, anyone can make a difference simply by checking their local badger sett. You never know what you may find, including other items of wildlife destruction nearby as seen by Manchester Hunt Sabs.

The Llandeilo Farmers Hunt have disbanded following financial pressure and a lack of support from landowners. This is a reminder of how important these two factors are for the sustainability of a hunt. It was noted that the hunt attracted very few mounted riders, which is an essential stream of income, and what riders they did have were likely put off by the presence of South Wales Hunt Saboteurs. Some hunts sabotage themselves through their own actions. For example, last season the huntsman was evicted by an angry landowner as the hounds chased his sheep. Events like this act as nails to a hunts coffin. Sabotaging a hunt like this, on top of saving wildlife on the day, can also add further nails to their coffin. Some hunts may seem fair from the possibility of disbanding but, as seen by a recent confirmed amalgamation of the East Sussex & Romney Marsh Hunt with the South Down & Eridge Hunt in England, even hunts with a history of violence and police backing can fall. It was also announced that the Ecclesfield Beagles have folded, a Hare hunt who had famously been the target of a raid by the Animal Liberation Front in the 1980s.

Throughout September, hunt sabotage groups across the UK have been active in disrupting efforts of hunts in training new hounds against fox cubs and leverets, often taking place in the early hours of the morning, with many active during multiple days of the week. This training process is vital for the main hunting season and, when left unchallenged, often results in multiple wild animals being killed during a single hunt meet. The efforts made by saboteurs not only has saved many lives, it also creates complications for the training process which may be detrimental for hunting during the upcoming main hunting season. This month has been extremely busy for groups as, in addition to this, have also been organising and taking part in fundraisers, recruiting new members and taking part in other action such as the badger cull. Donations and messages of support are always appreciated and help with expenses and keeping spirits high.

Two main updates from the Campaign Against the Fur Trade this month.

First, the pressure is continuing against Marc Jacobs, with CAFT dishing out the numbers to call to let them know what you think of their death trade. Pressure continues outside Marc Jacobs stores to let their customers know about the suffering behind the brand. See @caftusa for details.

Second, an anonymous group released around 7,000 mink from a farm in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, making state news. It would seem that most have not been found. Long may the mink live free <3

Since the beginning of the badger cull operation in the UK, over 200k badgers have been killed. Badgers are a protected species in the UK, but because cattle farmers blame them for bovine tuberculosis, every year an intensive cull is organised in specific areas of England in an attempt to reduce the numbers down to 30%.

Many groups, hunt sabs and individuals fight the badger cull day and night, looking for traps to smash, searching for shooters to move on from setts and causing a nuisance to every single person who gets involved in the murder of badgers.

UBS, like every year, is out there in the fields getting wet and muddy and terrorising hunters and farmers wherever they walk. Since the beginning of September they have smashed badger cage after badger cage, toppled the hunting towers they find on the way and destroying all other wildlife murdering traps they stumble upon.

They reached out to let us know that they are in need of economic support to carry on being the absolute pain in the ass they are to hunters and that they’ve set up a fundraiser. If you can afford it, please send UBS some coins. As they are a completely independent group they do not receive funding from any organisation, so your help will be immensely appreciated.

You can find UBS on:
Instagram: @undergroundbadgersyndicate
Facebook: When The Wild Things Come At Night.

https://donorbox.org/the-big-anti-cull-fundraising-bucket-for-ubs

SOLIDARITY!

Last month a RICO indictment came against 61 people alleged to be a part of Defend the Atlanta Forest. RICO(Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) carries sentences of up to 20 years, some named in the indictment already face charges of Domestic Terrorism carrying between 5 and 30 years by itself. The fund taking donations to support legal defense is the Atlanta Solidarity Fund.

The Defend the Atlanta Forest struggle is being engaged with in many directions and with many tactics from legal, to clandestine attack and sabotage, to planned mass non-violent direct action protest.

Clandestine action, claimed through communiques, continue to include such things as sabotage of machinery involved in construction, attacks on funders/contractors, attacks on the police, and the public identification of police officers. Interestingly during the last week of action in Atlanta, various parts of Norfolk Southern’s rail infrastructure was sabotaged. The communique claiming the rail sabotaged stated “our original intent was not propaganda of the deed, but to cause economic harm. However, in light of the recent RICO charges, we realized that people might need a little encouragement on how to respond. Norfolk Southern owns and operates many railroads across the country east of the Mississippi.” 

The petition organized by Vote To Stop Cop City is currently in a legal battle as the signatures in the petition are verified and counted. This petition, if accepted, would put to a vote the lease that allows the Atlanta Police Foundation to build cop city on the land.

Shortly after religious individuals chained themselves to construction equipment, a new group, Block Cop City, announced plans for a mass action on Nov. 13 to halt construction of the facility. The group says it plans to hold a 70-city tour in the runup to the mass action and then a convening in Atlanta beginning Nov. 10 and ending with the mass action at the construction site. Block Cop City, says November’s action will not engage in the tactic of property destruction and economic sabotage used in March and at other points over the last two years. The group plans instead to engage in a tactic known as “non-violent direct action.”