PalAction is ramping up their attacks aimed at dismantling British complicity in Israeli apartheid.
A year after two PalAction actionists shut down Leicester’s weapons factory Elbit, the group is mobilising for another siege of the factory, starting from May 1st. You can join them at UAV TACTICAL SYSTEMS, Meridian Business Park, Leicester, LE19 1WZ, UK.
According to PalAction, Elbit’s factory in Leicester exported £5million worth of military equipment to Israel in one year. In preparation for the action, PalAction is running a series of talks and workshops on “How to shut Elbit down”. Upcoming in person talks are on 8th April in Newcastle and 9th of April in Bedford. You can also join an online talk, for more info visit their website. The group announces that “the mass action will include hundreds staying put for weeks on end, through day and night, refusing to leave until Elbit does”. Check out palestineaction.org/siege for more info.
Leicester’s Elbit factory has been targeted by PalAction several times before, with the biggest occupation having taken place in May 2021 during Israeli aggression in Jerusalem and Gaza. The siege of the factory by four activists lasted 6 days, with the fire service refusing to intervene and with a huge turnout of community support.
A trial took place early March against three actionists who shut down the factory of APPH in Runcorn two years ago. APPH supplies drone parts to Elbit Systems. One activist was acquitted, while two others plead guilty and will appear for sentencing in Chester Crown Court on Friday, 5th May, possibly facing time in prison.
Several PalAction activists face trial from Monday 27th March for three weeks for shutting down Arconic, a supplier of flammable cladding and parts for Israeli fighter jets. Their case is joined with other actionists arrested in Walsall for possessing items to commit “criminal damage”. PalAction is calling for support in their trials every day from 9.30AM at Wolverhampton Crown Court, WV1 3LQ.
So once again: Join PalAction from the 1st of May in Leicester, LE19 1WZ, and shut Elbit down for good!
HSS has sent us a text to help raise funds so they can sabotage the lynx cull. Hunters want to murder 164 lynx in Sweden starting 1st of March. They only need 442 EUR and have already raised 186 EUR, so this is a very manageable amount that we are sure we can help crowdfund.
On March 1st the lynx cull starts in Sweden and 164 lynx have been sentenced to lose their lives in brutal and ruthless ways. The hunters will tear families apart, torture them to death and traumatize not only the lynx but all the inhabitants of the forest. Because of Swedens new far-right government consisting of hunters, the amount of lynx that will be hunted is record high. As if this were not enough, the lynx is a popular animal to kill in the most sadistic ways. A common hunting method is to have dogs chase them up trees and then shoot them from below. Lynx have also been found strangled, hanged and beaten to death. Hunt Saboteurs Sweden intends to make the hunting difficult and prevent the killing in every possible way to protect the lynx. We will do everything in our power to protect and save these innocent and amazing cats from the hunters bloodlust.
WHERE AND WHEN: Different parts of Sweden from March 1st and forward. We will stay for as long as the economy allows us to.
WHY DONATIONS ARE NEEDED: Unfortunately it costs a lot to sabotage a hunt. The sabs needs food and shelter but also cars and petrol since the hunt is taking place in the woods and sometimes very far away from the society. We always make sure to choose the cheapest options of everything.
WHY TO PROTECT THE LYNX: Hunt Saboteurs Sweden is an anti-hunting and antispeciesist organization that fights for and protects the wild animals against hunters and their psychopathy. We are dedicated to animal liberation. This means we work with groups locally, nationally and worldwide who fight to end domination and injustice.
We take direct action peacefully when needed on the fields to stop the hunt and slaughter of our wildlife. Not everyone can join us on the fields but anyone can play an important role. Fundraising and raising awareness are as important as the sabbing itself.
A comrade sent us a reportback from Lützi, giving us insigt on what is happening first hand. It was originally published on Earth First! Journal and we think you should have a read and find out what’s been happening!
“In small gangs, cops start charging towards groups of protesters, beating up people with batons and pepper spray, kicking and pushing them to the ground. Dozens of people are injured, many with serious head injuries, treated by paramedics, and waiting for a helicopter to hospital.
Lützerath has become a battlefield, where cops defend fossil capital at all costs, enforcing climate catastrophe. From all over Germany, over a thousand police have come to coerce the eviction of Lützerath – the last remaining village being cleared for the expansion of the Garzweiler II opencast mine run by energy giant RWE. For years now activists had prepared for ‘Day X’ – built camps, barricades, tree houses, and tripods, and occupied houses to stop the destruction of the village. They rebuilt community in an area that had long been politically neglected, inhabitants intimidated and paid off, slowly cut off from infrastructure. The last remaining farmer, Eckardt Heukamp, lost his court case in 2022 and had to leave his family farm. This is the second time he’s had to move and see his home destroyed for the expansion of the mine.
Over the last couple of months, since my last visit, even more land has been lost to the mine, even more carbon dioxide has been emitted, habitats lost, political promises broken, livelihoods destroyed. All too clearly, the German state and energy giant RWE show us that they don’t care about our futures, about climate catastrophe, about the web of life that makes human life possible. Even liberal environmentalists are forced to recognise that the government doesn’t give a shit. It’s a coalition with the Green Party that is making this possible. The government will not protect us.
Cops and security forces are taking down structures, violently removing protesters. They have outsourced some of the dirtiest work to RWE personnel – the RWE fire brigade are evicting two tunnellers who locked on underneath the village, and RWE vehicles are used to transport protestors. In close collaboration with RWE, cops use water cannons, horses, and dogs to repress resistance, several people are bitten by dogs. Of course they refuse to investigate the cutting of safety lines, and the dangerous removal of protestors from treehouses and ropes.
Thousands have built and occupied structures, burning barricades, tripods, and monopods. Some take part in sitting blockades and demonstrations, putting their bodies in the way to stop the destruction. 35,000 came today to show that they oppose the eviction. And they are not giving up – groups of protesters have just entered the mine, people are burning police cars, and sabotaging machinery.
They build on a long history of combative resistance in this region of Germany, called the Rhineland. Since the 70s, local groups have fought back against RWE. For over 10 years, the Hambacher Forest occupation resisted (and partially stopped) the destruction of the ancient forest and the expansion of the neighbouring Hambach coal mine – through blockades, sabotage, occupations, building tree houses, tunnels, and many other forms of resistance. The Hambacher Forest occupation, just like Lützerath, has always been not just about stopping a coal mine, but about alternative ways of living and organising together, about solidarity and mutual aid, about anarchist values and practices – a world without coal, police, prisons, and borders, a fight against colonialism, capitalism, patriarchy, and the state.
But this resistance has always been diverse too. In Lützerath, we see black bloc and church groups, students and pensioners, Fridays for the Future and antifascists. We see solidarity with Rojava and the Zapatistas. People coming together who might not otherwise meet, talking and connecting, sharing skills and building community.
Lützerath is the latest of dozens of villages that have been evicted, inhabitants dispossessed under old Nazi legislation, to facilitate the expansion of lignite coal mines, the dirtiest and most carbon intensive form of electricity generation. This eviction takes place three years after the eviction of the neighbouring Hambacher Forest in 2018, which lasted over four weeks and led to the death of a young film maker. The eviction was stopped by the courts in October 2018, and later declared illegal.
Financed by Deutsche Bank and HSBC Bank, among others, RWE are planning to extract a further 280 million tonnes of coal from the Garzweiler mine. The company itself has admitted that the coal that is being mined here is not necessary for the country’s energy supply. It’s part of a deal between RWE and the government which brings forward the end date of lignite coal mining in Germany from 2038 to 2030, “saving” five remaining villages. But studies show that by reconnecting two generating units and increasing annual extraction, the amount of total coal burnt is hardly reduced at all.
The ‘gas crisis’ triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine serves as a great excuse to continue supporting the coal industry, appealing to people to cut energy use, switch off their lights and turn down their radiators, while leaving industrial energy use intact. The German armament industry – one of the major electricity users – is thriving. Rheinmetall, the largest German arms manufacturer, based in the Rhineland, made record profits in 2022. There is a lot of money to be made from war.
There is still a lot of money to be made from coal, too, indirectly subsidised by the German state. German coal interests have always been inseparable from state interests in the Rhineland. Politicians from all parties – from mayors to parliamentarians – have been on RWE’s payroll. Revolving door relationships have lubricated the political manoeuvring to defend coal at all costs. Just recently, the office manager of Germany’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Green Party has become a RWE lobbyist. But there are plenty of examples.
Paying out communities in shares, not cash, for decades means that many communities are financially dependent on RWE’s financial well-being. A quarter of RWE’s shares are owned by communities, cities, and towns. That means local authorities are shareholders, licensors, clients, constituencies, employees, and tax collectors at the same time. Through payments for attending advisory councils and supervisory boards, politicians have lucrative side incomes, and revolving door relationships ensure preferential treatment.
The boundaries between RWE and NRW (the state of North Rhine Westphalia) – NRWE – have always been blurry. RWE representatives can be found everywhere – in church choirs and town councils, school board and universities. They finance police barbecues and fire trucks, sponsor football clubs and festivals, concerts and exhibitions, viewing platforms and historic castles. They put up baking carts and public bookshelves, pay for school buildings, organise volunteering activities and tours through the mine. They go into school and hand out lunch boxes to first graders. They create teaching materials, role-playing games, and girls’ days in their training centres, offer school trips into power stations, zoo schools, and environmental education initiatives.
In collaboration with government forces, RWE has been able to stop and repress the publication of scientific reports and censor media coverage, write legislation and pay for university research. They conduct acceptance studies to understand resistance and collaborate with researchers to co-opt and repress dissent.
All of these are classic counterinsurgency strategies to repress, pacify, and co-opt dissent – a combination of psychological operations, intimidation, and surveillance – including rape threats and sexual abuse – combined with physical violence and beatings. They are covered up by a well-oiled propaganda machine that consists of PR agencies, RWE departments, police forces and other state structures.
Intimidation and violence against the press help to reduce negative coverage. During the ongoing eviction RWE published strict guidelines – co-written with police – that restricted media coverage by journalists, requiring additional police accreditation and restricting access to certain areas, times of the day, and only when accompanied by RWE representatives. As predicted, footage of police violence is absent from the mainstream media.”
German (and worldwide) activists have fought this before, and are doing it again. RWE, one of the dirtiest energy companies in Europe, is unsurprisingly attempting to expand their lignite mining operations and having to face the fierce opposition of anarchist resistance against the destruction of the earth.
Lützerath is a village in the edge of Garzwailer mine, which digs for lignite coal for energy production. RWE has forcefully kicked out the residents from the village with the intention to demolish the houses and expand the mine, and for over a year activists have squatted the village and built treehouses, blockading the destruction.
The police has announced their eviction plan, which started on the 9th of January, where they want to build a fence around the village, then fence off the different barrios and one by one evict the barrios on behalf of RWE to destroy the village.
The resistance is not afraid of RWE and their police goons and folks have joined forces to resist the eviction and fight back, exactly the same way as it was done in Habacher Forst, where the trees still remain! In the exact same fashion as Hambi, Lützerath is as much an ecological struggle as it is an anarchist alternative to capitalist and democratic society.
They are asking for as much support as possible, so if you can, join the camps and block the cop’s access, fight the eviction and support people on the ground!
If you are unable to join that way, remember that RWE is a multinational company that owns many businesses around the world, and most likely has investments wherever you are from. Those assets are as fair game as RWE itself. They are one of the biggest polluters in Europe, they are very good at marketing themselves as a green eco-conscious company and they are not afraid to fight back, but they have been fended off in the past and they can be destroyed once again. Cut their fingers wherever they are so they cannot grab more money and they will run back afraid of their loses.
You can find more info (and all the socials of the resistance) here: https://luetzerathlebt.info/en/
CALL TO ACTION WHERE: Worldwide WHEN: 13th-16th January WHY: Cos fuck Cop City.
The fight to stop cop city from being built in the Atlanta Forest is in full swing, and with six people facing terrorism charges for tree-sitting, the movement needs to do a push for support from everywhere in the world.
We received a short call to action we would like to share with you:
“call for a weekend of solidarity with the Atlanta Forest to #StopCopCity. January 13-16th.
6 people are charged with domestic terrorism for tree-sitting, as police kill more people in 2022 than any year before, & the climate crisis rages.
We can all take action for our future.”
Be it a solidarity gig, a banner drop, a protest, an event or whatever your imagination can muster, there is a call to action to support the fight against Cop City which we all can partake on worldwide.
Meet with your friends, plot and organise! Are you busy already during the weekend? Make a banner and send a solidarity picture! Whatever it is, show up and tell both Blackhall Studios and the Atlanta Police Department to go fuck themselves.
Send your action reports, photos or words of solidarity to: [email protected]
We have talked about the campaign to save the Atlanta Forest in the past, but things are ramping up. For anyone that is unaware, the forest surrounding Atlanta City in the USA is at risk of being completely destroyed by developers who want to build a new police training centre (a mock city where they can practise how to kill protestors safely) and a huge sound and media studio to serve the film industry. Locals have fiercely been fighting against the development, that would not only murder a huge amount of species but also put at risk everybody living in the immediate area, as the woods serve as a buffer against flooding.
Since the call to the forest was issued, fearing that works would start on the 3rd of May, we have seen a big increase in action and in tactics to defend the forest.
Banks in Portland and the Bay Area have been sabotaged. Atlas Technical Consultants, a firm directly involved in the destruction of the forest, was visited in Minneapolis, resulting on windows smashed, a bucket of paint splattered inside the offices and a slogan urging the company to stop the works in the Atlanta Forest. A different Atlas office was also tagged in Indiana. Atlas in New York was also targeted, and then the attention shifted and Brassfield & Gorrie, another subcontractor, was targeted in broad daylight in their Atlanta office. Anonymous people would leave the scene having covered the place with paint, slogans and smashed windows. The B&G headquarters in Alabama would then be vandalised a few days later, warning the executives that their houses would be next.
The anonymous report delivered, and Keith Johnson’s house (a B&G executive from the Atlanta area) would then be visited by a group of 30-40 people, making it very clear that if you work towards the destruction of the Atlanta Forest, you are fair game.
Meanwhile, within the forest, folks have fought a different kind of fight. When the police attempted to enter by dismantling a shit barricade, another barricade was set alight and people threw rocks and smoke grenades at the them, making the police back off. On a different instance, a bulldozer attempting to cut a path through would receive the same treatment, and the big machine and the cops would have to leave the area. Since then, there are reports of a new barricade in the path, using a black sedan to block the road.
There is no doubt that more will come on the fight to save the forest, but we thought people would be interested to see the different tactics used in order to protect the forest. The activists have identified contractors and those contractors are now feeling the heat in multiple different states, not only in Atlanta but across the so called USA. Not only the offices are targets, but people will visit the houses of their executives, as when things get personal business consider things in a completely different light.
Whilst Atlanta Police might be a distant target for folks around the world, Blackhall Studios is a multinational company with addresses in most western countries. You can show your support to the forest by organising your own demo or pressure campaign wherever you are. Think global, act local!
Palestine action is a direct action network focused on ending UK complicity with Israeli war crimes. They believe there is already enough information and education available about the blatant oppression of the Palestinian people and now is the time for action not discussion.
They will target any and all companies in the UK who are directly part of enabling and profiting from Israel’s ongoing military occupation of Palestine. Their largest campaign and most well-known target is Elbit Systems. Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest privately owned arms company and it’s biggest single customer is the Israeli Ministry of Defence (IMOD). Elbit has nine sites across Britain, with four arms factories remaining, since they permanently shut their factory in Oldham after dozens of activists occupied, blockaded and damaged the site.
In their own words Palestine Action says “We are tired of the UK profiting from the colonisation of Palestine. We are tired of arms companies operating in the same streets that we live in. We are tired of the lack of repercussions for their actions. And this is exactly what we plan to change. Our actions expose, disrupt and destroy the companies which profit off the death and destruction of the Palestinian people and other oppressed groups across the world.”
Palestine Action’s most recognisable tactics involve covering targeted companies buildings in red paint, graffiti, smashing windows, occupying buildings and amassing crowds of support outside. A number of their actions have resulted in arrests and trials but they also encourage unaccountable actions as well. They’ve even visited Elbits landlord JLL and defaced their buildings demanding they evict Elbit.
When it comes to taking action alongside Palestine action they offer four ways to get involved:
Join your regional group Set up your own affinity group Do your own action and send your pictures in anonymously Join a national working group
For further reading about Palestine action and how they operate check out their website
This week in The Frontlines we would like to talk about CAFT (Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade), which restarted in November 2020 making a huge dent against the fur industry.
Since its inception, CAFT has played their part to force fur-free policies on Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Alice + Olivia, and Monique Lhuillier. Alice + Olivia only lasted for 11 days when CAFT started targetting them when large nonprofits had been at it for the past ten years.
Their secret? Good old decentralised pressure campaigning and some strategic thinking.
CAFT insists that one of their key strategies is their decentralised campaign model. Instead of dictating, restricting or controlling what independent local groups decide to do, they aim to provide support, information and coordination. Any local group can organise against the target and the only agreed notion is the importance of consistent and focused action.
Secondly, they do not shy away from expanding their target pool. When a company is resistant to activist pressure, they will target secondary and tertiary businesses associated with the fur producing company. No one is safe; subsidiaries, investors and even board members are acceptable targets, and by destroying the company’s ability to do business in peace they manage to get the targetted company to drop fur from their portfolio.
For that reason, there have been many different and colourful actions to put pressure on the fur trade. From peaceful leafletting and demonstrations outside the store to in-store disruptions, writing messages in fake blood, attaching alarms to helium balloons to be released inside the shop and even noise demos in front of managers and corporate executives’ homes, local groups take initiative and decide by themselves what the best course of action is.
CAFT insists on a couple of important points, the necessity of security culture and the zero-tolerance policy against those talking to the cops, but also that they believe all their campaigns are 100% winnable using legal methods.
They are asking for you to start a local group and put pressure on the business however you think is best, or if it already exists, to join your local group and take action!
You can find out more about them or donate to their campaign on monclerkillsfoxes.com, and you can find them on Facebook at Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade https://www.facebook.com/caftusa or on Instagram at @CAFTUSA.
Defend the Atlanta Forest is a campaign aiming to stop the destruction of the woods and the development of the wild in Southeast Atalanta’s forest.
Atlanta was built within a forest. The forest in Southeast Atlanta is home to wetlands that filter rainwater and protest against flooding. It is also the last breeding ground for many amphibians in the region and an important migration site for wading birds.
In the 1800s and after stealing the forest from the Muscogee Peoples, the forest was used as a plantation. Then in the early 1900s, the forest was used as a “farm prison” where prisoners were forced into farming labour. A great example of the economic interest of incarceration.
Since then, Atlanta Police has used the grounds as a firing range.
Now, new plans by the filth have been announced, where 300 acres would be destroyed to then build a “mock city” to practice police operations. You know, because they do not have enough with abuse on the streets, they need to prepare even harder to assault, mutilate and murder people.
Another 170 acres are planned to be destroyed by Blackhall Studios to build an airport and erect the biggest sound stage in America, further fuelling Atlanta’s gentrification.
People have said no, and they are saying no loud and clear. There have been demonstrations, mass email/phonecall days, but also shows of resistance in the form of direct action. From windows smashed to bulldozers vandalised and even arson, people have found ways to slow down the process and to show defiance against the capitalist jaws that want to engulf the forest in the name of “development”.
You should follow this campaign closely and show support from wherever you are. The companies involved are multinational empires that can be targeted in a plethora of ways.
Welcome to The Frontline, a new series showcasing campaigns from around the world. As always, Unoffensive Animal encourages submissions. If you think a campaign should be featured, reach out! You’re welcome to make suggestions but you’re encouraged to draft stuff too, no one knows your campaign better than yourself! From animal liberation to eco struggle and social campaigns, everything is welcome!
T&S Rabbits is a British company farming rabbits for their meat. Legally speaking as they are not breeding animals solely for fur and rabbit pelts are a byproduct of their murder, they get away with the fact that they are indeed a fur farm in a country where fur farming was outlawed twenty-one years ago. They are also known to use their rabbit farms as a loophole to build brick and mortar houses in unspoilt countryside. They justify building non-permanent buildings to house farm workers, then they turn those buildings into mansions once enough time has passed. Then they move the farm to a different location and sell the property for a huge profit whilst feeding the sprawling monster that devours unspoilt and wild areas.
We have heard of T&S before as multiple direct action reports have been sent to Unoffensive Animal, breaking the news of fur farming in the UK and showing the conditions inside the farm, but direct action is not the only opposition that T&S has to face.
Rabbit Farm Resistance UK is a campaign fighting every inch against T&S Rabbits. They organise protests in front of the farms and they very efficiently monitor all planning applications that the company puts forward, ensuring that every time they ask for a new dwelling or permission to build a slaughterhouse or even to set up a new farm, they can call to arms and vehemently oppose the application, counting with hundreds if not thousands of objections every time Mr Kerry applies for something new.
And they are winning. In the past year, they have managed to shut down multiple applications in different parts of England whilst putting pressure on other government bodies to stop the activities of the farms that are still active.
In September they organised a demonstration in front of one of the farms that developed into a farm invasion. The only worker and resident within the compound retreated into their home, giving access to the farm and allowing the activists to document the conditions inside the farm. Those photos and videos would then fuel an even stronger opposition to the company as they were horrific stills of the torturous life that rabbits must endure awaiting their slaughter.
At the end of that demonstration, two rabbits who needed immediate medical care were given a new life, and both of them are recovering from the abuse and learning to trust others again.
If you are interested in this campaign you should check their socials.
Seeing the impressive work that the campaigners are doing there is no doubt that T&S Rabbits will end. The only question is when, and what are you going to do to make it happen faster!
Photo: One of the rabbits living inside a T&S farm.
FREE ALL T&S RABBITS!
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