People of the North Coast of CAlifornia will NOT accept the GW Bush regime's illegal occupation of the US Presidency either. Following 9/11 attacks of WTC the previous discussions of the stolen election in FLorida was completely dropped by corporate media and the pounding drum's of GW Bush's war god of Money, Patriarchy & Oil were pounded relentlessly to fuel the US invasion of Afganistan and then Iraq. Is Iran next in GW Bush's sights??
More info on Arcata's resistance to the US occupation of Iraq @;
http://rpjc.net/Announcements.htm In addition to GW Bush regime's so-called "War on Terrorism" (US bombings of civilians in Iraq caused the most terror of all), the mislabeled Bush policy dubbed "Healthy Forests Initiative" is in reality a war on the forest ecosystems throughout North America. In the north coast forest defenders have labored with body, mind and spirit to protect the coastal temperate rainforests from corporate logging..
This weekend wraps up a skillshare in the Mattole where eco-defenders discussed non-violent strategy at resisting corporate attacks on the bioregion's forests. The gathering was a great form of edutainment, entertaining and also educational. The weather was great, sunny and windy while people realized the value of living biomass as live willow trees provided us with shelter from the winds and dead dried branches provided heat for small cooking fires. The workshops featured a EZLN method called Coyuntura (pronounced Co-yen Too-Rah) that disscussed different forms of strategy in effective organizing. Coyuntura originates in Chiapas Mexico and is similar in using a concensus based decision making process as in the Caracoles (sea snail shell) council..
We also discussed the effects of free trade agreements on both the people and ecosystems of Mexico and the US. The regional effects of corporate logging's ecological devastation are also a result of free trade policy supressing local sovereignty in sustainable forestry planning (even in the case of SPI, another 'local' outfit). The bankrupty of Pacific Lumber and the resulting lay-offs is NOT a result of eco-activists and forest defenders (try as they may, there's only so many tree-sits while Maxxam/PL currently bankrolls 25+ poorly trained 'extracters' to remove treesitters by using physical force), though is the direct result of the 3X rate of harvests introduced after the '85 corporate takeover by Maxxam Corporation, headquarters based in Houston, TX..
The lives and homes of the logging workers are in NorCAlifornia, though Maxxam's CEO and principal shareholder C. Hurwitz is attempting to hold PL's bankruptcy hearings in Corpus Christi, Texas, a far too expensive flight for a recently unemployed logger who had both their forests and their future stolen by Maxxam's corporate greed..
Meanwhile in the tropical rainforests of Chiapas and Oaxaca indigenous people and their supporters around the world are organizing to protect the rainforests from the multinational logging and biotech corporations (ie., International Paper and Monsanto) who aggressively sponsor the next upcoming free trade agreement, Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), similar to the WTO/NAFTA yet focused on regional biodiversity within the Lacandon Rainforest. In the process of organizing against PPP the EZLN Zapatistas and their supporters have often become targets of violence by paramilitary groups;
Bulletins of CIEPAC
"Chiapas day by day" Translations and print version | abajo|Low Intensity War in Chiapas:
State and Paramilitary Terrorism
Alejandro Reyes - 12-Mar-2007 - num.532
Radio Zapatista,
http://www.radiozapatista.org, San Francisco, California
SUMMARY: The situation in Chiapas is very tense and everyday it worsens. What we're seeing is a new policy that brings together paramilitary forces with state and federal governements, the police and the armed forces, to take away the Zapatista's land and provoke a conflict in order to justify an armed incursion.
Since early this year the authorities of the zapatista communities in resistance have been denouncing increasingly serious aggressions and threats by the paramilitary organization Opddic ("Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Peasant Rights"). Land invasions, threats of violence, shots to the air, destruction of corn fields and property, theft of crops, beatings, detentions, and kidnappings have become an everyday source of terror that affects hundreds of indigenous families in Chiapas. Even worse: according to the autonomous authorities, all of this is done with the support and complicity of the state and federal governments, the police, and the armed forces.
Alarmed by the situation---which has received very little media attention---an International Informational Brigade was formed at the beginning of March to investigate the accusations and make them public in Mexico and the world. Representatives from Spain, France, Germany, Greece, the US, and Mexico have been traveling through various municipalities and communities, speaking with the authorities of the Good Government Councils, the autonomous Municipal Councils, and common people. What they have discovered is an even more alarming situation than was believed.
"We had all of this cultivated and the brothers and sisters from Opddic came with weapons in October of 2006 and took all the corn," recounts a man in the autonomous region of La Montaña. "They didn't leave behind a single cob. They destroyed three hectares belonging to our compañeros."
"
ongoing updates from Chiapas @;
http://www.ciepac.org/boletines/chiapas_en.php?id=532 also;
http://www.ciepac.org/boletines/porlengua.php?lengua=en Other events at the Mattole skillshare included Pocket Pouch survival kits and a tidepool walk for learning about biodiversity and sustainable collection of wild edibles. Provided that the coastal ecosystem remains intact (ie., free from development), mussels can be harvested in small numbers from the center of the surrounding mussel patch, allowing their neighbors to grow larger and fill in the empty space. Keeping the mussel patch intact for the future generations mussels is also essential. Seaweed should be harvested at the tips or ends to allow the holdfast (connection to rock) to remain and the seaweed to regrow. In this sense the seaweed are like gardens that continue to regrow. By learning more about the nutritional bounty Madre Tierra has to offer in her biodiversity can help us reduce our needs on petroleum (key reason for US occupation of Iraq/Iran) and industrial logging activities for a communities income. It is generally accepted that providing indigenous peoples with land reclaimed from logging corporations like Maxxam/SPI would yield better results for both workers and the forest ecosystem..
Bioregional farming on the north coast using crop diversity can offer a great deal more than monoculture plantation products transported many miles by trucks. Regional farmers are often more involved in their communities and frequently donate food to the needy than are corporate agribusiness plantations. Overall the workshops at the Mattole skillshare were well organized and well attended, though it was difficult for some of us to remain on specific topics for very long time. Many thanks to all the great donations of vegetarian food, dumpster divers and cooks who helped in meal preparations!
Other similar workshops planned for the future;
"Workshops will include- Direct Action Training, Backwoods Skills, Tree Climbing, Plant Identification, Fire Building, Shelter Building, Blockading, Fire Dancing, Pocket Pouch Survival Kit and more.
Camp Supply Requests
- Rope, Cord
- Hatchet or Axe
- Tarps
- Food Donations
- 2 Propane Tanks
- White Gas For Stoves
Mattole Defenders are organizing to defend the Oldgrowth forest and waters of the North Fork Mattole River from Maxxam/Pacific Lumber. There are around 2,000 acres of Oldgrowth Douglas Fir forests here. The company is expected to try and get the watercourse protections weakened this summer to allow logging closer to streams where most of the remaining Oldgrowth is found."
(even if you missed the skillshare your time, energy and help is always needed!!)
Resistance to the attacks on our forests by logging corporations@;
http://mattolewild.blogspot.com/ The nuclear threat to the people in the US and the Americas from US government nuclear arsenals cannot be understated. We are far more likely to suffer form radiotion induced illness from a malfunction at a US nuclear weapons storage facility or nuclear energy power plant than the non-existant potential of Iran's nuclear energy 'program' (no such program is known to exist in physical form, only in Ahmadinijad's rhetoric). People and ecosystems in the desert regions of the US have suffered disproportionalte from radioactive exposure from the above ground testing on Western Shoshone lands (Newe Sogobia in Nevada)..
Shundahai and other anti-nuclear activists will converge @ Mercury Gate in the deserts of Newe Sogobia to protest the US military's nuclear presence on sovereign indigenous lands. In addition the downwind effects (wind transported radioactive dust particulates) of the nuclear weapons testing has increased rates of cancer to people living (N/S) east of the site (Las Vegas and north), primarily Western Shoshone and rural Mormon farmers. The greatest threat to the people living downwind of the Nevada Test Site is the GW Bush regime's planned "Divine Strake", consisting of a 700 ton ammonium nitrate bomb planned to be dropped on the NTS region where above ground testing occurred. This would result in resurfacing and reaerosolizing (ie., making airborne) of radioactive dust particulates that would be carried downwind of the NTS.. This and several other reasons to protest this April @ the Mercury Gate of NTS!!
Updated 3/15/07
Upcoming events;
"Nevada Desert Experience invitation to converge on the Nevada Test Site:
Many Faiths, One Heart - Mobilization
Sacred Peace Walk from Las Vegas to the Nevada Test Site, March 27 to April 1, 2007
Rally and direct action at the Nevada Test Site, Sunday, April 1st, 2007, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The rally will feature speakers and musicians from many faiths as well as our secular allies and will end with an optional, nonviolent direct action at the gates of the Test Site. The weekend will also be a chance for people to create a peace camp in the desert outside the Test Site."
more info @;
http://www.shundahai.org/upcomingevents.htm