On the night of January 12th 1971 two bombs exploded outside the London home of Robert Carr. Carr was Edward Heath’s employment minister and the man responsible for the hated Industrial Relations bill which had passed into law earlier that day. Persons Unknown, Stuart Christie, 1980
The Angry Brigade itself first emerged in the summer of 1970 in the run-up to the election of the Conservative government of Edward Heath, and its activities continued for 18 months … Targets included the embassies of oppressive regimes, high profile police stations and army barracks, sweatshop boutiques and factories, as well as government buildings, the homes of cabinet ministers, the Attorney General and the commissioner of the Metropolitan police were also targeted. ibid.
The rights of ownership of the people over the lands they traditionally occupy shall be recognised. The rights of the people to the natural resources pertaining to their lands shall be specifically safeguarded: UN ILO Indigenous and Tribal People Convention 169. When Two Worlds Collide ***** captions, 2016
American entrepreneurs: bring your factories here. Come! ibid. Alan Garcia, president of Peru 2007
I grew up in a collective environment. Where we all enjoy what the earth gives us … Our territories are sacred to us. ibid. Alberto Pizango, president Organization for Native Amazon Peoples
Now you’ll see the damage the crude oil is causing in our region. ibid.
These laws gave private companies the right to exploit rainforest resources. ibid. Victor Belaunde, former congressman
Protests have sprung up in four Amazonian regions. ibid. news
There are dead and wounded people … ibid. reporter
Nine indigenous men are killed. ibid.
What a shame that a democratic government is making Peruvians kill each other. ibid. Pizango
Asylum [for Pizango] was granted in accordance with international laws. ibid. Nicaraguan diplomat
Back in Peru, Alberto Pizango is charged with rebellion, sedition, murder and conspiracy against the State. ibid. caption
Long live the struggle of the Amazonia people! ibid. demonstration in Lima
13 days after the confrontation in Bagua, Congress overturns two of the controversial laws, including Forestry Law 1090. ibid.
But they keep making deals under the table to let the companies in. ibid. Pizango
I’ve decided that I must go back. ibid.
What’s wrong with this world when oil or a piece of gold is worth more than a human life? ibid. father or murdered rozzer
Despite the government’s recent pledge to halt deforestation by 2021, deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon continues to rise. ibid. caption
No government officials were ever charged. ibid.
De Gaulle’s complacency seems hard to believe 50 years on but he wasn’t alone: few imagined how momentous and tumultuous 1968 would turn out to be. So how did it happen within five months of that new year speech France was brought to a standstill and De Gaule’s government almost toppled by the worst rioting seen in Paris since the revolution – the earlier one? Vive le Revolution! Joan Bakewell on May 1968, BBC 2018
As the anti-war protests gathered strength they began to coincide with that other great movement that had been sweeping America since the 1950s – the Civil Rights movement. ibid.
Three months into 1968, on March 17th that year, London’s Grosvenor Square became a battleground. ibid.
Czechoslovakia: But for the time being the dreams were not fulfilled. After three months of dizzy optimism the Russian tanks rolled across to the border to suppress what had been a defiant challenge to the Soviet grip on eastern Europe. ibid.
Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, the great feminist writer, both came out in favour of the students. (Revolution & Protest & Dissent & Solidarity & 1960s) ibid.
1On May 13th the trade unions announced a general strike … the workers had their own objectives … By May 22nd that figure had swollen to ten million. ibid.
The Utopian dream of May had not been realised. ibid.
During World War One 30 million troops were conscripted. 9 million were killed. 16,000 Britons claimed the right to refuse to kill. During World War II 45 million troops were conscripted. 25 million were killed. 60,000 Britons claimed the right to refuse to kill. During the Vietnam War, 1 million US troops were conscripted. 58,000 were killed. 170,000 Americans claimed the right to refuse to kill. 300,000 US/UK troops fought in the 2003 Iraq War. None were physically conscripted. As annual global military expenditure reaches $1 trillion, mass physical conscription has ended. Financial conscription has taken its place. Contempt of Conscience, 2009
RAF Fairford March 2003: ‘This [peace protest] is the most complex, largest, most expensive operation ever undertaken by Gloucester constabulary … There’s 1,000 police here which seems rather over the top.’ ibid.
March 20th 2003: The B52 bombers took off from Fairford for their five-hour flight to Iraq. ibid.
The Treasury has been pretty cagey about the figures. ibid.
By withholding 10% of my taxes I’m exercising that right. ibid.
There is an historical tradition of tax resistance particularly in the United States. ibid.
2016 was the hottest year on record, topping a decade of increasingly warmer years: powerful storms, heatwaves, rising sea levels, melting glaciers, declining ice-caps, and drought stalked the planet. Yet how did a climate change denier get elected president of the United States? Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is an expensive hoax. Donald Trump, the Koch Brothers, and Their War on Climate Science, The Real News online
Climate change deniers now inhabit the most powerful positions in the world’s most powerful government … This is largely the handiwork of two brothers – David and Charles Koch. ibid.
Greenpeace soon dubbed the brother’s apparatus – the Climate Change Denial Machine. ibid.
Koch money has gone to more than half of all senators and nearly 40% of all congressmen. ibid.
Why did there seem to be so little dissenting voices from the new Cold War rhetoric in the American media landscape if we indeed had a free and independent press? A Very Heavy Agenda II: How We Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Neo-Cons, 2015
You’ve created fertile ground for the rise of American fascism. And our only response now is sustained mass acts of civil disobedience. Chris Hedges, lecture Seattle University 2018, ‘Corporate Totalitarianism: The End Game’ *****
The state will be viscous … They will throw everything at us … We have no time left just from climate change, we have no time left, and in that sense resistance becomes a moral imperative. We have to stop being constrained by the tyranny of the practical. ibid.
Revolution is what I’m calling for … I’m calling for the overthrow of the corporate state. ibid.
But if we don’t stand up, it can’t be seen and we can’t use the word hope. I don’t know if we will win. I don’t even know if we will survive as a species. But these corporate forces have us by the throat and they have my children by the throat. And in the end, I don’t fight fascists because I will win, I fight fascists because they are fascists. ibid.
There is a inner freedom that comes from defiance … In every act of rebellion we are free. Chris Hedges, lecture 10 November 2017, ‘The Sanctuary for Independent Media’
1996: A large gas field was discovered off the west coast of Ireland. With the gas came the prospect of economic prosperity for the west. It was planned to feed the gas underwater via a high pressure pipe to the coast. The raw gas would then travel 9 kilometres inland through farms in Rossport to a refinery at Ballinaboy. If the pipe fails, the consequences could be catastrophic. The Pipe, 2010
2005: ‘Five men from County Mayo are in prison this evening for blocking the construction of a gas pipeline through their land by the multinational energy company Shell.’ ibid. news
3rd October 2006 Refinery Construction Site: ‘The state really went to war against us and with one intent, and that is to break the momentum of what is going on.’ ibid.
2008: Shell announce a new alternative pipeline route in an attempt to satisfy local community concerns. ibid.
The process of opting-out of your smart meter is like being bullied by kids at school. The Epic Saga of a Smart-Meter Opt-Out, Youtube 2017 46.43
A waste … costing more not less, wasting more energy than they save, and even that the meters are an unjustifiable and unnecessary intrusion. ibid.
It’s sending out very high pulses. ibid.
Multiple hoops that you have to jump through in order to actually opt out. ibid.