From GatewaySucks.org:

People’s Assembly and Mass Direct Action! Help Build the Movement for
Climate Justice: Tue. Dec. 7 & Sat. Dec. 11

The World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of
Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia in April 2010 brought together social movements from all over the world to forge a powerful new movement for Climate Justice.

Heads of government will meet in Cancun November 29 to December 10 for talks about the climate crisis. At the same time, people all over the world will take action against climate crimes like freeway building and to support the “People’s Agreement” created at Cochabamba. It’s time for the people to lead – and to make the leaders follow!

People’s Assembly on Climate Justice
Tuesday December 7, 2010 at 7 pm
SFU Segal Centre (Rooms 1400-1410)
555 W. Hastings St. Vancouver

Mass Direct Action for Climate Justice
Saturday December 11, 2010 at 12 noon
Starting at Waterfront Skytrain Station (Howe Street exit)

Ashanika warriors occupy oil boat May 2009

A documentary is in production tracing the struggle by indigenous Amazonians in Peru to defend their land against infrastructure and other industrial megaprojects, told through the lens of indigenous leader Alberto Pizango:

“Against the backdrop of global recession and climate crisis, When Two Worlds Collide traces the heroic journey of a young indigenous leader. Forced into exile for resisting the sale and commercial exploitation of Amazonian lands, Alberto Pizango’s efforts shed new light on the ferocious battle for the world’s most precious natural resources. Falsely accused of insurrection and sedition by the Peruvian Government, he faces 20-years in prison. After almost a year in exile, Pizango returns to Peru to face trial and discovers himself nominated for presidential candidacy. In the April 2011 elections, he will run as the first Amazonian candidate in history. This feature-length documentary follows the Amazonians in their quest against all odds to save the rainforest and campaign to elect their leader as president of Peru. This extraordinary story reveals the human side of an apocalyptic battle of conflicting visions and political wills working to shape the future of the Amazon’s ecosystem and our world.”

To learn more about the documentary, watch the trailer, or donate to help cover production costs, click here. You can also visit the web site of the film company, Yachaywasi Films.

For more background on the indigenous struggle, see below.

Previous Articles on the Peruvian Amazon:

Peru Update: Continuing Infrastructure Threat to Amazonian Indigenous Nations (July 8, 2010)

Temporary Resolution in Peru Conflict Following Government Reversal (June 19, 2009)

Week of Action in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples in Peru (June 12, 2009)

Upcoming Peru Solidarity Protests (June 10, 2009)

Peru Update: Take Action! (June 7, 2009)

Action Alert: Stop Peruvian Infrastructure Push! (June 5, 2009)

Peruvian Police Murder Indigenous Protesters: Take Action! (June 5, 2009)

Peru Indigenous Holding Strong in Standoff (June 3, 2009)

Peru Indigenous In Standoff With Government (May 22, 2009)

Perenco to Drill for Oil in Territory of Uncontacted Indigenous (January 7, 2009)

Peru Indigenous Issue Oil Ultimatum (October 22, 2008)

Indigenous Victory in Peru! (August 24, 2008)

Temporary Truce in Indigenous Peru Standoff (August 21, 2008)

Peru Declares Martial Law Over Indigenous Protests (August 18, 2008)

Oil Pipeline Shut Down by Ongoing Peru Protests (August 17, 2008)

Indigenous Peruvians Seize Energy Infrastructure (August 12, 2008)

“We the peoples and our territories are one entity,” the 2009 declaration read. “[We resolve] to reject all forms of land division, privatization, concession, predation and pollution from extractive industries.”

Global climate activists have joined the call, declaring that day a Global Day of Climate Justice.

As we did last year, Root Force is supporting the Minga and encouraging people throughout the Americas and across the world to take actions targeting the infrastructure of global trade. Infrastructure expansion projects such as highways, mines, power plants, pipelines and telecommunications cables form the front lines of the assault on indigenous peoples and the Earth. They are the backbone of the system that is killing our planet and enslaving its people.

For more information about the call to action and why we think infrastructure projects are appropriate targets, see below.

For help planning and publicizing actions, contact Root Force: rootforce [at] riseup [dot] net. You can find direct action, strategy and messaging resources here.

Send action reports to rootforce [at] riseup [dot] net. If you can’t pull together a direct action, consider holding events that promote anti-infrastructure organizing and action.

About the Minga

From the declaration:

WE CONVENE the Third Minga/ Global Mobilization in Defense of Mother Earth and the Peoples, against the commercialization of life (food, water, biodiversity, natural resources), pollution and depredation (by mining, fossil fuels, hydroelectricity, timber, ranching, biofuels, GMOs), consumerism and the criminalization of social movements; and for the recognition of ecological debt and the formation of an International Tribunal of Climate Justice.

On October 12, in every corner of the planet, those of us who want to save life will lift our voices against the capitalist aggression expressed in the plunder and commercialization of life. Because we know that other worlds are not only urgently needed, they are, above all, possible. And we are building them.

Objectives:

• The continuation of life, peace, ecodefense, natural resources, and spirituality linked to life and Mother Nature; water for future generations; and collective rights.
• To sensitize society to the necessity of coexistence with nature, in harmony and equilibrium. No to the privatization of nature with carbon trading.
• To sound the alarm over the imminent danger of the environmental catastrophe that threatens the planet and to call out those responsible: global capitalism, multinational businesses and complicity states.
• To demonstrate that it is possible to implement this change from the proposal and practices of the people, in harmony and reciprocity with Mother Nature, with Good Living, Plurinational States, and a model of integration based on equality, reciprocity and complementarity.
• To denounce neoliberal capitalism and the complicit governments that criminalize social protest to impose the plunder and depredation of Mother Nature.
• To urge amnesty for all leaders of indigenous, social, and environmental activists prosecuted for defending the rights of the people and of Mother Nature.
• To open the debate over the crisis of capitalist civilization, with the proposal of the indigenous peoples for averting climate catastrophe.
• No to the persecution of migrants: no one is a migrant on their continent of Abya Yala [America]; if some went in another direction, they went following the natural resources that had been stolen.

Activities worldwide:

• Manifest the greatest diversity of indigenous organizations and social movements, presenting alternatives to stop global climate and environmental catastrophe.
• Memorial with concrete proposals to the Convention on Climate Change, Convention on Biological Diversity, UN, Interamerican Human Rights Commission and similar organizations on other continents.
• Mobilizations around the world (in urban and rural communities) for specific local and national demands and for common goals of the Global Minga.
• Demonstrations in front of local offices of the UN, transnational extractive industries (fossil fuels, mining, timber, water), biofuels and GMOs.
• Discussion forums and cultural and political seminars on the defense of Mother Earth and the people against the commercialization of life and against pollution and social criminalization.
• The implementation of Climate Justice Courts to ethically judge environmental crimes.
• Assemblies to articulate strategies for the World Climate Change Conference, COP 16 (Cancun, Mexico, November-December 2010).

Read the full declaration (in Spanish) here. Read about last year’s Minga here:

Take Action Oct 12-16: Global Mobilization in Defense of Mother Earth and the Peoples (Aug 19th, 2009)

UPDATED: Week of Action Continues (Oct 12th, 2009)

More from the Week of Action (Oct 15th, 2009)

A Few More Actions (Oct 19th, 2009)

Why Infrastructure?

There are three primary reasons to target infrastructure as a way to defend the Earth and support indigenous sovereignty.

1. Infrastructure projects devastate ecologies and communities, whether it’s the massive fish kills caused by dams and oil spills, the stripped land and poisoned air left by highways and mines, or the dislocation of poor, rural and indigenous peoples caused every time a new dam, road, mine or power plant moves in.

2. Infrastructure projects facilitate further exploitation above and beyond their immediate effects: a road brings loggers and missionaries; a power plant brings industry and sprawl.

3. Infrastructure forms the physical basis of the global economic system — a system that is killing our planet and cannot function without the continued dispossession of indigenous land and destruction of Earth-based cultures.

This civilization will not change its genocidal and ecocidal trajectory willingly, and the Earth cannot be saved by half-measures. The system must come down, and its reliance on infrastructure — especially the infrastructure of trade — is one of its greatest weaknesses.

Learn More

The Root Force Strategy (taking down the system by fighting infrastructure expansion)

Infrastructure and indigenous sovereignty

Infrastructure and the environment

Infrastructure and global warming

More infrastructure fact sheets

Take Action!

Join people around the world on October 12-16 to say NO to the commercialization of life and the criminalization of indigenous and social movements, and YES to a world based on respect for all life. Join Root Force in the struggle against the infrastructure of global trade, and help us demolish colonialism at its foundations.

For help planning and publicizing actions, contact Root Force: rootforce [at] riseup [dot] net. You can find direct action, strategy and messaging resources here.

Send action reports to rootforce [at] riseup [dot] net. If you can’t pull together a direct action, consider holding events that promote anti-infrastructure organizing and action.

From one of our allied contact groups, a call to direct action for those of you in the Vancouver, BC area. The action involves physically undoing the beginnings of freeway construction and redirecting that material toward the community. We’ve signed on as sponsors of this action:

This year as part of the 350.org 10/10/10 Global Work Party (Oct 10, 2010), we will get to work stopping a deliberate climate crime –the South Fraser Perimeter ‘Road’ freeway which is part of the Gateway Program. The estimated $2 billion proposed freeway would greatly increase greenhouse gas emissions, pave over some of BC’s best farmland, scar the delicate banks of the Fraser River, and pollute elementary school playgrounds.

When: Sunday October 10, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Where: Meet at Scott Road SkyTrain (East / Taxi Stand side) then march to 129th St. and 115b Ave in North Surrey – near Bridgeview Elementary School (Map)

Presently, the South Fraser Freeway route is marked by piles of ‘preload’ sand. We will use this sand to start raising the flood control dikes around a Surrey neighborhood to protect it from flooding caused by global warming.

We need people to fill sand bags and use them to raise the dike, and lots of people to help out in other ways and show their support. The risk of arrest is very low for anyone who does not wish to risk arrest. Legal information will be available.

This action will emphasize the need to shift resources away from climate crimes to creating green jobs and climate justice. Every cent is needed for solutions like public transit and electric passenger trains, and to protect communities from flooding and other effects of global warming.

Get more information, including times for volunteer orientations and work parties, at gatewaysucks.org/dig.

I-19 blockade July 29 2010

On July 29, the day that controversial Arizona anti-migrant law SB 1070 (which would require police to check the papers of anyone they “reasonably” suspect to be undocumented) was due to take effect, protesters blockaded the I-19 highway in Tucson, Arizona (more photos available here):

“A blockade of tires covered in tar and broken glass were placed across both southbound lanes along with a banner reading ‘Stop All Militarization! The Border is Illegal!’ This blockade is a temporary shutdown of the very road that is used to deport people deemed ‘illegal’ as well as a direct disruption of the flow of capital. By blocking I-19 we have halted the transportation of migrants and the profits Whack-n-hut [sic] and Corrections Corporation of Amerikkka [sic] make by these inhumane acts of separating families, communities and loved ones.”

The press release also draws attention to other law enforcement violence against people of color in Arizona, including “”the militarization of indigenous land, I.C.E. raids, deportations, the attacks on ethnic studies, violence against women and queer people, the expansion of prisons and immigration detention centers, empire, the border wall” and the deaths of migrants in the desert (153 in the past 8 months). Even the temporary injunction against implementation of SB 1070 will leave these policies unchanged, it notes.

“Neither SB 1070 nor the deployment of National Guard troops to the border do anything to address the root causes as to why people migrate. U.S. economic policies and wars have displaced and impoverished millions of people all over the world. Capital-driven policies, such as NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement], create poverty. These policies and laws not only consume and exploit land and people, but they also displace us from our homes, forcing us to migrate in order to survive. If policymakers were serious about stopping ‘illegal immigration,’ they would end these capitalist exploitations and stop their military invasions abroad.”

I-19 is part of the CANAMEX Corridor, intended to ease the flow of NAFTA-related trade between Mexico, the United States and Canada.

At other protests, including in Tucson and in Oakland, CA, banners drew the connection between migration and international trade:

NAFTA banner Tucson, Jul 29 2010

Oakland trade banner, Jul 29 2010

For more about the connection between migration and infrastructure, read the Root Force factsheet, “Infrastructure Expansion, Migration and Radical Border Solutions.”

Banner at Jul 28 2008 protest in D.C.

The two Indiana residents (Hugh Farrell and Gina “Tiga” Wertz) charged with misdemeanors for intimidation and improper use of property in the campaign against the I-69 “NAFTA Superhighway” accepted a plea deal on July 14. The defendants each pleaded guilty to two counts of trespassing and were sentenced to two years non-reporting probation and a $10 fine, plus court costs. If the defendants do not violate their probation in the first 15 months, they can have it terminated at that point.

The defendants had previously faced felony racketeering charges, but those were dismissed by the judge earlier this year.

The details of the plea agreements will eventually be posted on Hugh and Tiga’s support site, mostlyeverything.net.

The defendants have made it clear that they worked closely with their lawyers to make sure the plea deals do not implicate anyone else in any illegal activity.

Disclaimer: Opinions, statements or any information contained in this or any other communication from Root Force should not be taken as reflecting the beliefs of the defendants in any criminal or civil legal action, nor upon their guilt or innocence. Root Force posts, emails, and web site content reflect the perspective of Root Force only, unless explicitly noted.

We have added the Gateway Sucks campaign to our list of anti-infrastructure contacts. In their own words, “Gatewaysucks.org is a loose voluntary association of individuals and organizations who are ticked off about Gateway.”

What is the Gateway Project?

“The project is a massive old-school highway-expansion plan being launched by the BC Government, spearheaded by Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon.

“Key points of the scheme are:
• massive reconstruction and enlargement of the Delta shipping port
• construction of 10-lane Port Mann “Superbridge”
• Expansion of Highway One to eight lanes between Langley and East Vancouver
• construction of North and South Perimeter Roads through Delta, Langley, Richmond and Surrey

“Historic homes are being demolished, and ancient indigenous sites are under threat from the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) project … on the Fraser River bank.

” ‘Our neighbours are being forced out of their homes, and ecosystems are being bulldozed,” says Delta resident Ernie Baatz. “Schools and programs are being cut across the province to pay for this climate changing freeway. We have to stand up to this appalling waste.’ “

a coal train

From Erie Times-News:

“Pennsylvania State Police in Corry are looking for the person who tried to sabotage a railroad line.

“The incident was discovered Thursday when a train operator noticed that joint bars connecting sections of rail had been disassembled on the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad line about one-half mile east of Route 89 in Concord Township.

“Police said the sabotage could have caused a train to go off the tracks.”

traffic

Several items of transportation news:

• The Department of Transportation has approved a $386 million loan to the state of North Carolina for the construction of two new sections of the Triangle Expressway in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area.

The Triangle Expressway will connect the area’s major highways with 18 miles of roads, including “the new Triangle Parkway extending 3.4 miles north from NC 540; the existing North Wake Freeway extending NC 540 south for 2.8 miles; and the new Western Wake Freeway continuing NC 540 south for an additional 12.6 miles.” The stated goals include improving access to I-40 and to downtown Raleigh, and thereby improving access to the area’s three major research universities and to Research Triangle Park, which houses roughly 160 companies and 40,000 high-tech workers.

• The Department of Transportation has issued $60 million in grants for the improvement of ferry service in 19 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. All the projects are designed to deliver quick economic stimulus, serve “critical transportation needs,” and to be completed within 2 years. A complete list of grantees is available here.

• Government officials in Arizona and Nevada have proposed constructing a new interstate highway — I-11 — between Phoenix, AZ and Las Vegas, NV. The new highway would start from Interstate 10 in suburban Phoenix and follow what is currently US-93 to Las Vegas, with a detour around Boulder City. Although the idea is in preliminary stages — it has no funding, and Congress has not approved a new interstate — the state transportation agencies are building all new improvements along the route to federal interstate standards, just in case.

As with many other ambitious highway plans, funding problems may slow progress on the idea. Federal road funding comes from gas tax revenue, which has declined as people drive less and switch over to more fuel efficient cars.