Wow! Its been a wild week, and we’ve gotten a bit behind on the news as several EF! Newswire contributors were tied up in Tampa at the RNC protests. But it looks like that blue moon may have gotten some people pretty riled up! Here’s a compilation of news from the front lines around the world to catch you up a bit…



Tar Sands Blockade Halted Keystone XL Construction

As Hurricane Isaac made landfall in New Orleans on the eve of Hurricane Katrina’s seventh anniversary, climate justice organizers in Texas were locking themselves to the axle of a massive TransCanada semi-truck, carrying 36-inch pipes intended for Keystone XL construction, in hopes that they might turn the climate crisis around.

With help from TransCanada workers themselves, these six people were able to shut down operations at the Livingston pipe yard and cut off the transportation of pipes to construction sites across the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline after police were forced to dismantle the truck to make arrests.

The action comes in response to a recent court ruling giving TransCanada the green light to steal a piece of Texas landowner Julia Trigg Crawford’s home. Lamar County Judge Bill Harris practically insulted this local farmer by sending a 15-word summary judgment to her from his iPhone in Washington, DC, August 15.

Anti-corporate protests kick-off DNC in North Carolina

About 1000 people pissed at corporate America marched in Charlotte, NC, yesterday, two days before the Democratic National Convention begins.



According to police, two people were arrested, one for having a concealed knife and another for disorderly conduct.

The demonstrators were members of more than 90 local and national groups. Mortgage foreclosures, high-interest student loans and environmental issues were among their foremost concerns.

The protesters marched past the headquarters of Duke Energy, the nation’s biggest electric utility. Security was evident, with several hundred police officers also lining the sidewalks near the Bank of America headquarters.

Beth Henry, 58, a former Charlotte corporate lawyer, took aim at Duke Energy’s environmental record: “To leave our children a ruined world, all we need to do is let companies like Duke Energy keep doing what they’re doing.” [Source]

Day 10 of villagers’ dam-sit to stop flooding in India

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received a report from the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) that a large group of villagers who have been evicted from their land without compensation for the construction of the Omkareshwar Dam are sitting within the dam’s catchment area claiming that they are willing to drown to death than been denied their rightful claim for adequate rehabilitation for the lands they have lost. In the meanwhile, water level is increased gradually in the dam, that soon the water would submerge the protesters. The protest has entered the 10th day today.

The Narmada Valley Project, of which the Omkareshwar Dam is part of, is one of the most controversial development projects in the world, plagued with proven claims of adverse environmental impacts. [Source]

Super-Trawler threatened for its plans to pillage the ocean

The Tasmanian businessman behind the super trawler Margiris is playing down threats from environmental groups to stop his ship. Greenpeace failed to block the ship from docking in the South Australian fishing town of Port Lincoln last week. And over the weekend the Sea Shepherd society also said it would do anything it possibly could to stop the boat. [ Hear an interview here

Formal protest aim at stopping industrial solar plants from destroying public wild lands

Seeking to prevent massive and irreversible environmental damage, numerous environmental groups have filed formal protests against the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States.

“We want the public to know that several conservation groups are not planning to go down easily on the Interior Department’s plan to destroy up to 20 million acres of southwest deserts, not even including the wind projects,” Terry Weiner of the Desert Protective Council in San Diego told ECM. DPC is a co-founder of Solar Done Right, one of the environmental groups that filed a protest. As of July 2012, eleven solar projects on over 36,000 acres had been approved on public lands. The projects range from 618 to 7,025 acres, with the average power plant exceeding 3,300 acres. As of July, pending proposals numbered 76, and would cover a total of 695,387 acres of public land. The scale, intensity, and pace of development on public lands are unprecedented. Massive solar power plants will have irreversible, essentially permanent, impacts. The BLM admits that ecological recovery after public lands solar plants are decommissioned, if even possible, could take 3,000 years. [ Source Climate activists drop banner on Olympics logo in London Three people arrested after an environmental group dropped a banner on Tower Bridge have been released on bail. The bridge in south-east London was closed for over an hour on Saturday after the stunt by climate group Climate Siren. City of London Police said a man and a woman were arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage and a public nuisance. A man was arrested for assisting them. The sign read Climate change, our next challenge and was placed over the famous bridge, which is currently adorned with the Paralympics Agitos logo. [Source] Oglala Lakota Nation Women’s March and Day of Peace Lockdown Women of the Oglala Lakota nation along with activists from Deep Green Resistance, AIM Grassroots, Native Youth Movement, Un-Occupy Albuquerque, Occupy Lincoln, and Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center took part in a march from Billy Mills Hall in Pine Ridge into White Clay to protest against the predatory liquor industry present there. “For over 100 years the women of the Oglala Lakota nation have been dealing with an attack on the mind body and spirit of their relatives,” says Olowan Martinez who is a main organizer of the event and resident of Pine Ridge. “The Oglala have been silenced through chemical warfare waged by the corporations who are out to exploit and make a profit off of the suffering and misery of our people. The time has come to end this suffering by any means necessary.” After the march and speeches members of Deep Green Resistance locked down and blockaded the road into White Clay. Less than a half hour after the lockdown began a police officer rolled down their window and indiscriminately pepper sprayed into a crowd. Up to 12 people were pepper sprayed including the 10 year old son of a Lakota woman who helped organize the march. Also, an elder Lakota woman, Helen Red Feather, reported having her leg hit by a police car in motion. Medics with the protest treated pepper spray injuries. Read full press release Anti-capitalist student protests continue burning shit in Chile Last week in Santiago between police and tens of thousand of demonstrators demanding education reform. The rally was one of the largest in recent weeks, with between 50,000 and 130,000 protestors, according to police and protest organizers. While some danced to the rhythm of drums, thousands of others, masked and wearing hoods, followed the procession and attacked police with sticks and stones. The police responded, as they have in the past, with tear gas and water cannons. The students were backed by members of the Unified Workers Federation, the country’s foremost union, which called on members to join the march. Public education in Chile suffered from sharp cuts in funding during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, leaving a system that favors expensive private schools that are out of the reach of the poor. —————————————————