Environment

View documents released by Anonymous here: http://pastebin.com/67P3vMJB

Internet group Anonymous has leaked information from October and November 2011 suggesting that private intelligence firm STRATFOR has been working with Texas law enforcement to infiltrate the Occupy movement and spy on the Deep Green Resistance movement.

In December 2011, Anonymous attacked the STRATFOR website, allegedly stealing 200 gigabytes of data and shutting the site down for weeks. This isn’t the first time Anonymous has gone after such corporations. In early 2011, Anonymous went after internet security firm HBGary, releasing private documents that included secret plans by HBGary and others to attack and discredit Wikileaks on behalf of big banks.

The information released by Anonymous is a partial “teaser” of the information taken from STRATFOR. It consists of emails in which STRATFOR employees discuss Occupy Austin and Deep Green Resistance. STRATFOR “Watch Officer” Marc Lanthemann writes about receiving information on Occupy Austin and DGR from a “Texas DPS agent.” The Texas Department of Public Safety is a statewide law enforcement agency that includes the Texas Rangers, Highway Patrol, and an Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division.

“Law enforcement sharing information about local activism with private intelligence firms should be a huge scandal,” writes Rachel Meeropol, staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Privately funded surveillance and infiltration of activist groups is especially chilling, as time and again we see such corporations operate as if they are above the law and accountable to no one.”

In the emails, the staff discuss how a STRATFOR agent went undercover and tried to gather information from an Occupy Austin General assembly. They discuss DGR Austin holding a public meeting on what radicalism means for Austin (wrongly describing the purpose as “indoctrination”), they write about the book Deep Green Resistance, and they speculate about the relationship between DGR Austin and other groups.

If there is a silver lining here, it is that the emails we have do not paint a picture of a very competent organization. Between hasty generalizations, the STRATFOR staff get a number of important facts completely wrong. First of all, they confuse members of the DGR action group in Austin (which does exist) with another group they call the “Phoenix commune” (which may or may not exist).

They also allege a conflict between members of the DGR Austin group with Occupy Austin that doesn’t seem to have happened. It’s not clear if this is part of the strategy counterintelligence groups have used in the past to try to provoke conflict between different social movements—the FBI used this very effectively against groups like the Black Panther Party—or whether STRATFOR is simply relying on unreliable or incompetent sources.
Elsewhere STRATFOR displays a perception of radical environmentalism that falls somewhere between muddled and simply wrong. One agent suggests DGR is inspired by Nazism and philosopher Martin Heidegger, while another declares that DGR “is focused on creating a situation where violent confrontation will be the ultimate outcome.” Both of these assertions are just plain false.

There is a long history of clandestine groups releasing secret information about the surveillance of social movements. In 1971, and underground group called the Citizen’s Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into an FBI field office and released thousands of pages of secret information, revealing that the FBI had attacked 1960s social movements with methods ranging from surveillance and infiltration to targeted assassinations. Though we have no contact with Anonymous, their leak of information about government and corporate tactics of repression is part of an important tradition.

For more information about Deep Green Resistance, visit http://deepgreenresistance.org.

More leaked information from STRATFOR is presumably forthcoming.

Below is a photograph of STRATFOR employee Marc Lanthemann (from a social networking profile that is not longer online) so that activists can recognize him; we would suggest that you do not speak with him, allow him in to your home, give him access to meetings, or otherwise provide him or his organization with information.

The 2011 WWAMs (World Weeks for the Abolition of Meat) had a large amount of participation. Close to two hundred public actions were organized around the world to raise awareness and demand the abolition of meat: in Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Peru, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

A series of events were carried out in the public domain so as to remind people of the widely-held precept according to which sentient beings must not be mistreated or killed unnecessarily, and therefore to demand an end to this carnage.

The actions were very diverse: there were presentations, debates, street performances, a collective exhibition of dozens of corpses of animals in public, leafleting events, information stands, vegan meals, and initiatives around giant "human meat packages" that imitate commercialized meat packages.
  

Antwerp, Belgium
photograph: biteback

The demand for abolition is progressing in the world: it is part of animal rights activism, it's mentioned in publications, and the media is talking about it...

Indeed, over a thousand billion fish are caught yearly and 460 billion sentient beings are brought into the world and subsequently brought to death each year in order to be eaten (including fish farming): sentient beings made totally invisible...

Rennes, France
photograph: nea

The demand for the abolition of meat is the logical political follow-up of one's commitment to vegetarianism and veganism. It is up to society as a whole to legislate regarding the question.

The activities that cause such a massacre do not belong to the liberty of individuals. We will continue to proclaim that the consumption of animal products is indefensible, that our societies must understand what they commit daily on a massive scale: such practices which defy all ethics and have devastating consequences must be abolished as quickly as possible!

May the 21st century see the questioning of the enslavement of animals and the banning of the products of hunting, fishing, and animal farming!

 

Do you wish to further the cause?

You can make a donation by sending a check payable to "Meat-Abolition.Org" to Meat-Abolition.Org, Ferme Mariveille, 26470 Bellegarde en Diois, France.

You can also order T-shirts, bags, pins, stickers and flyers from contact(at)meat-abolition.org...

Meat-abolition.org: Worldwide promotion of the demand for the abolition of the production and consumption of animal flesh;
that is to say, the prohibition of products that come from hunting, fishing and farming
because they require the exploitation, the suffering and the death of sentient beings.

Attend the 2nd annual Appalachian Public Interest Environmental Law Conference www.apiel.org

University of Tennessee College of Law
Knoxville, Tennessee
October 20th-23th 2011

Register Today for APIEL-- https://sites.google.com/site/apielconference/registration
Lawyers can get CLE credits

Sign up for the APIEL email listserve-- https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/apielinfo

Propose a Workshop---- https://sites.google.com/site/apielconference/2011-workshop-proposal-app...

You are invited to submit your panel and workshop proposal for the 2011 annual APIEL conference. Join APIEL in addressing our region's most pressing ecological crises, as well as the underlying laws, policies and institutional dynamics that have enabled these issues to occur.
We would like to receive proposals from lawyers, grassroots community organizers, activists, scientists, and policy makers. Panel and workshop formats can range from lecture-style presentations to skills trainings, field trips, collaborative sessions and more.
Submission Deadline is August 1, 2011

What is the APIEL conference?

APIEL is designed to unite activists, attorneys, students, scientists and concerned citizens working for environmental justice throughout Appalachian and surrounding states. The weekend conference will feature a series of workshops and dialogues led by activists, lawyers and scientists with the goal of exchanging information, sharing skills, and fostering collaboration between the grassroots, the bar, and future lawyers and policy-makers. Workshops will address the region's most pressing ecological problems, as well as the underlying laws, policies and institutional dynamics that have enabled these issues to occur.

Topics include:
**Longwall Coal Mining
**Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining and strip mining
**Economic diversification in coalfield communities
**Air and water pollution monitoring
**Coal combustion waste and coal plants
**Appalachian History and Broadform Deed
**Chemical weapons disposal
**The precautionary principle
**Forest protection and ecological restoration
**Know Your Rights for activists
**Land ownership and land reform.
**Oil and Gas Extraction issues

APIEL is an opportunity for activists, lawyers, students and scientists to learn from each other and to reach across state and regional lines to meet and network with others who share common interests and goals. It is an opportunity for community organizations to build their long-term capacity by networking more lawyers, researchers and students.

APIEL is modeled on the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) established in Eugene, Oregon, where once a year lawyers, law students, activists, scientists, funders, and media come from around the planet to be a part of the nation's leading annual environmental law convergence.

For questions email: apielconference@yahoo.com

Or Call (865) 257-4029

FAX- 1-888-201-1104

Write: APIEL CONFERENCE
POB 20363
Knoxville, Tennessee
37920

Please join us as we continue to strengthen and build community for the Eastern United States' forces of public interest environmental law, science and policy. See more at www.apiel.org, and please pass it on!

Coal mining is happening in the following states across the country and threatens nearly 38 states across the country. Mountain Justice has been honing a skill set that we have effectively used to work against the coal industry here in Appalachia and many of these tactics apply to all coal mines including surface and underground mines.

Coal Mining states
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming

Check out the following links for more info about coal mining in the US.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/quarterly/html/t2p01p1.html
Coal is found in thirty-eight states, and nearly one-eighth of the country lies over coal beds.
http://www.coaleducation.org/lessons/MII/doc3.htm
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1996/of96-092/Comp/main.gif

As the campaign to stop mountaintop removal gains national awareness, we have more and more opportunities for folks to help out. We've got a job for every interest, skill set and time commitment! We invite you to spend the summer working with one of our ally groups or to work with us in your hometown throughout the year!

Mountain Justice training camp is an opportunity for veteran and novice activist to build the skills and vision needed to abolish mountaintop removal and build vibrant, healthy, self-reliant communities. We ask that you attend camp with the intention of using these skills either working with allies in Appalachia or working on this issue in your hometown. The registration process will help you develop a plan for how you will use this training. Training camp is a time for training, strategizing, bonding, service and action for people living both within and outside of the coalfields, for people of all races, for youth and elders, and anyone in between.

Mountain Justice Training Camp May 20-27 Letcher County, Kentucky www.mountainjustice.org

Heartwood’s 21st Annual Forest Council: Energy! May 27-30, 2011 at Camp Ahistadi in Southwestern Virginia. http://www.heartwood.org/forest-council/

March on Blair Mountain: June 5-11To register for the march, visit http://www.appalachiarising.org/register/
If you would want to get involved with organizing, visit http://www.appalachiarising.org/getinvolved/ For up to the minute information, visit http://www.friendsofblairmountain.org/

Realizing that we ought to model independence from coal, camp will be off the grid this year!
We're so excited to be off the grid, but for Mountain Justice, a sustainable community is more than some solar panels and rainwater barrels. It's about the people that defend what they love, the people who work to create sustainable communities, and the nourishing relationships between them. Our focus on sustainability will mean building a strong and diverse organizing community that works on both resistance and solutions.

Trainings and Discussions
This year camp will feature themed training days. Themes will include, Community Organizing, Non-violent Direct Action, Science and SMCRA, and Alternative Economies. Check back for more information about the schedule. Some workshops being covered will include:
• community organizing
• air and water monitoring
• administrative and legal avenues to stop MTR
• media work
• direct action and civil resistance
• alternative economies
• sustainable livelihoods
• and a lot more!

Trainings will be collaborative as possible, so come open minded and willing to actively participate. If you want to facilitate a workshop, please let us know! Our hope is to continue to build a broad community to sustain, guide and nourish us as we all continue working to abolish surface mining and rebuild economically self-sufficient communities in Appalachia.

No community is sustainable without fun, dancing, bonfires and Appalachian mountain music! So bring your instruments, dancing shoes and high spirits, we'll be celebrating the ways of life we're fighting to preserve!
Register Now!
www.mountainjustice.org

super movie Friday. let them eat crackBanksy is a graffiti artist from the UK known for his satiric and beautifully executed political cartoons. His work humorously, scathingly addresses social themes such as war, poverty, greed, inequality and hypocrisy through a combination of well-chosen subjects and very tactical placement. In Exit through the Gift Shop, graffiti art as a contemporary practice is put under critique- is it possible to have real political impact if the artist’s work also serves the market through the art gallery scene? This is a hilarious video and an up to date critical survey of the current high-art graffiti scene that features many artists and their work. Introduced and discussion following with Wendy Weinhold, and a special consideration for the audience—what shall we do on the Big Muddy Independent media’s external walls? Come down for the movie before heading (for those who are) to Love at the Glove.

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Cache Girl Saves the World is a pioneering experiment in film and literature produced by author Adam E. Stone and musician and storyteller Thirza Defoe. This project explores an innovative new approach to storytelling, combining audio of the novel's text with music and still photographs of the story's action to create a "novel in visions." The images, words, and songs of this visual novel tell the tale of Ta'li, a young woman on a physical and spiritual journey in search of healing for herself and a way to awaken empathy in the hearts of her fellow humans.

This Black Soil (2004, 58 min. documentary). This film, over 10 years in the making. chronicles the successful struggle of the people of Bayview, Virginia, a small and impoverished rural African-American community, in following a new vision of prosperity. Catalyzed by the defeat of a state plan to build a prison in their backyard, the powerful women leaders and residents created a non-profit organization, secured $10 million in grants, purchased the proposed prison site land and are now building a new community from the ground up.

The Senator Paul Simon Federal Building in Carbondale, IL has installed a large solar electric system on the roof of their building.

The new system consists of 3 separate arrays with 33 strings of 15 photovoltaic modules each for a total of 495 modules. The total rated capacity of this system is 101,475 watts of DC power, making it the largest system in the Southern Illinois region.

John A. Logan College, in cooperation with Aur Beck of Advanced Energy Solutions, is now offering a series of courses that provide training to prepare the people of Southern Illinois for the "Green Jobs" market.