Τρίτη 23 Οκτωβρίου 2012

Be a supporter of the “Save the homeland of Aristotle and the getaway to the Holy Mountain” campaign! Sign now!


LOGO

Be a supporter of the “Save the homeland of Aristotle and the getaway to the Holy Mountain” campaign! Sign now!

The “Save the homeland of Aristotle and the getaway to the Holy Mountain” campaign calls for citizens all over the world to raise their voice in condemnation against the development of mining activities and the installation of gold extraction heavy industry, chemical byproducts and toxic waste ponds in the holy land of the philosopher Aristotle, which is the natural gate to the monastic community of the Holy mountain.
In this unique environment, the Greek government has allocated 317000 acres of land to mining<!--more--> companies that aim to transform a highly valued ecological paradise to a huge mining center. Their target is to create numerous surface and underground mines, set up a sulfuric acid chemical plant, dig for gold, silver, copper and other metals and use an ancient forest ecosystem to place their toxic waste ponds.

If we allow this to happen, the result will be a non-reversible, of the first magnitude economic, ecological and cultural disaster of the area with our forests and rivers full of toxic waste, our sea contaminated with heavy metals and the air we breathe fouled by hazardous airborne particle dust while enormous reserves of water will be drained...

Δευτέρα 22 Οκτωβρίου 2012

Women stand up to the rioting police

The Greek women of Skouries in Northern Greece stand up to the rioting police who have been dispatched by the Greek government to attack the local citizens with chemical weapons, beatings and arrests at the behest of a private multinational gold mining company.

Athens: Social Meltdown


Athens: Social Meltdown - Greek subtitles from Ross Domoney on Vimeo.
Dr Dimitris Dalakoglou explains the social meltdown which took place in Greece between May 2010 & June 2012 that is on going. This film contains videos and photos shot on the streets, often containing violence and paints a portrait of widespread economic hardship endured by a cities inhabitants. This film is part of an ongoing research project, which looks at the rapid structural changes which Greece is undergoing. Produced & Directed by Ross Domoney Interview: Dimitris Dalakoglou Filmed, Photographed & Edited by Ross Domoney aletheiaphotos.com

Πέμπτη 11 Οκτωβρίου 2012

THE SQUAT FARMHOUSE CAN PIELLA COULD BE EVICTED NEXT WEEK...

ΚΑΛΕΣΜΑ ΓΙΑ ΑΛΛΗΛΕΓΓΎΗ ΕΝΑΝΤΙΑ ΣΤΟ ΚΛΕΙΣΙΜΟ ΤΗΣ ΟΙΚΟΚΟΙΝΟΤΗΤΑΣ CAN PIELLA ΣΤΗΝ ΒΑΡΚΕΛΩΝΗ.
ΥΠΟΓΡΑΨΤΕ ΚΑΙ ΔΙΑΔΩΣΤΕ ΕΔΏ (http://bit.ly/SygwGf ΚΑΙ http://bit.ly/T5U5Ct)


 THE SQUAT FARMHOUSE CAN PIELLA COULD BE EVICTED NEXT WEEK...

Can Piella is a squat, a XVII century farmhouse located in the Barcelona outskirts, occupied for 3 years, after being abandoned and inhabited during the last 10 years.
Tha farmhouse has been then rehabilited and the sourrounding field are now tilled.

Can Piella wants to build and to spread - by autonomy, collective work,
self-management - alternatives to the present model of society, in order to contribute to the social change that will lead us to a "better world, more altruistic, sustainable, ecological and solidary with a a clear restatement of consumption and where relations of domination will be a small imperfections and not the general trend".

As we can read in their web site : "the project integrates the residents of nearby towns, who wanted to start working the land collectively, groups of critical thinking, research initiatives in alternative energy systems, dens and leisure, among others". Can Piella is actually a space for reflection, debate and community work.

Now this place suffers an eviction threat: the Court has ordered that the occupies leave the farmhouse October 15th, even if the owner is not going to give any use to it.
In this case the procedure to evict Can Paiella has been started by an entreprise of the Real Estate Group Alcazar. His former owner has been protagonist during decades of several corruption investigations and accusation, and the actual one - his first-born - seem do not have any idea of what Can Piella is.

To fight and reply to this menace the Can Piella assembly called this saturday - October the 13th - to a march leaving the train station of Llagosta (the nearest town) at 5pm ending up in a resistence camp in the ground around Can Piella. The march is supported by the Aliança per la Sobirania Alimentària de Catalunya (http://asapcatalunya.wordpress.com/ ), la PAH de La Llagosta (http://on.fb.me/SLNL78 ), Reclaim the Fields (http://reclaimthefields.org/ ), l'Observatori del Deute en la Globalització (http://www.odg.cat/idioma.php ), Can Masdeu (http://www.canmasdeu.net/ ) i Repoblació Rural (http://www.repoblament.tk/ ).

At the same time two petitions have started to stop the eviction. Everyone could sign it in the web site of Can Piella (http://www.canpiella.cat/ )

"The problem recalls the evacuation Can Piella is a global problem in our society that constantly confronts the myth of progress with a social degenerates, in favor of a purely economistic"


LINKS
http://www.canpiella.cat/ [CAT, SP]
Petitions on line : http://bit.ly/SygwGf , http://bit.ly/T5U5Ct
Radio Interview - from min. 36: http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/vida-verda/ [SP]

Collectivs and Groups supporting the march
Aliança per la Sobirania Alimentària de Catalunya - Alliance for food sovereignty of Catalonia blog: http://asapcatalunya.wordpress.com/ 
PAH - Plataform mortgage affected - of La Llagosta Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/SLNL78 Reclaim the Fields web page: http://reclaimthefields.org/
Observatori del Deute en la Globalització - Debt Observatory in the Globalization: http://www.odg.cat/idioma.php
Can Masdeu squat web page: http://www.canmasdeu.net/
Repoblació Rural - Rural repopulation web page: http://www.repoblament.tk/

Articles:
Can Piella is threatened with eviction: http://bit.ly/QNWKRw [CAT]
Eviction threat to a XVII century farmhouse in Barcelona environs: http://bit.ly/R7CdaJ [SP], http://bit.ly/RaYzf0 [CAT]
A multimilionary behind the Can Piella eviction: http://bit.ly/QcZJDB [CAT]
 
Ηλιόσποροι - δίκτυο πληροφόρησης και ενεργοποίησης νέων για την κοινωνική και πολιτική οικολογία /// www.iliosporoi.net /// www.myspace.com/iliosporoi /// iliosporoi facebook /// iliosporoi twitter

Τρίτη 9 Οκτωβρίου 2012

The Guardian: Greek anti-fascist protesters 'tortured by police' after Golden Dawn clash

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Fifteen people arrested in Athens says they were subjected to what their lawyer describes as an Abu Ghraib-style humiliation

Fifteen anti-fascist protesters arrested in Athens during a clash with supporters of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn have said they were tortured in the Attica General Police Directorate (GADA) – the Athens equivalent of Scotland Yard – and subjected to what their lawyer describes as an Abu Ghraib-style humiliation.
Members of a second group of 25 who were arrested after demonstrating in support of their fellow anti-fascists the next day said they were beaten and made to strip naked and bend over in front of officers and other protesters inside the same police station.
Protester injured during arrest in Greece
A protester shows his injuries
Several of the protesters arrested after the first demonstration on Sunday 30 September told the Guardian they were slapped and hit by a police officer while five or six others watched, were spat on and "used as ashtrays" because they "stank", and were kept awake all night with torches and lasers being shone in their eyes.
injuries fromth e Greek police
Bruising on the protester's leg
Some said they were burned on the arms with a cigarette lighter, and they said police officers videoed them on their mobile phones and threatened to post the pictures on the internet and give their home addresses to Golden Dawn, which has a track record of political violence.
Golden Dawn's popularity has surged since the June election, when it won 18 seats in parliament; it recently came third in several opinion polls, behind the conservative New Democracy and the leftwing party Syriza.
Last month the Guardian reported that victims of crime have been told by police officers to seek help from Golden Dawn, who then felt obliged to make donations to the group.
One of the two women among them said the officers used crude sexual insults and pulled her head back by the hair when she tried to avoid being filmed. The protesters said they were denied drinking water and access to lawyers for 19 hours. "We were so thirsty we drank water from the toilets," she said.
One man with a bleeding head wound and a broken arm that he said had been sustained during his arrest alleged the police continued to beat him in GADA and refused him medical treatment until the next morning. Another said the police forced his legs apart and kicked him in the testicles during the arrest.
"They spat on me and said we would die like our grandfathers in the civil war," he said.
A third said he was hit on the spine with a Taser as he tried to run away; the burn mark is still visible. "It's like an electric shock," he said. "My legs were paralysed for a few minutes and I fell. They handcuffed me behind my back and started hitting and kicking me in the ribs and the head. Then they told me to stand up, but I couldn't, so they pulled me up by the chain while standing on my shin. They kept kicking and punching me for five blocks to the patrol car."
The protesters asked that their names not be published, for fear of reprisals from the police or Golden Dawn.
A second group of protesters also said they were "tortured" at GADA. "We all had to go past an officer who made us strip naked in the corridor, bend over and open our back passage in front of everyone else who was there," one of them told the Guardian. "He did whatever he wanted with us – slapped us, hit us, told us not to look at him, not to sit cross-legged. Other officers who came by did nothing.
"All we could do was look at each other out of the corners of our eyes to give each other courage. He had us there for more than two hours. He would take phone calls on his mobile and say, 'I'm at work and I'm fucking them, I'm fucking them up well'. In the end only four of us were charged, with resisting arrest. It was a day out of the past, out of the colonels' junta."
In response to the allegations, Christos Manouras, press spokesman for the Hellenic police, said: "There was no use of force by police officers against anyone in GADA. The Greek police examine and investigate in depth every single report regarding the use of violence by police officers; if there are any responsibilities arising, the police take the imposed disciplinary action against the officers responsible. There is no doubt that the Greek police always respect human rights and don't use violence."
Sunday's protest was called after a Tanzanian community centre was vandalised by a group of 80-100 people in a central Athens neighbourhood near Aghios Panteleimon, a stronghold of Golden Dawn where there have been many violent attacks on immigrants.
According to protesters, about 150 people rode through the neighbourhood on motorcycles handing out leaflets. They said the front of the parade encountered two or three men in black Golden Dawn T-shirts, and a fight broke out. A large number of police immediately swooped on them from the surrounding streets.
According to Manouras: "During the motorcycle protest there were clashes between demonstrators and local residents. The police intervened to prevent the situation from deteriorating and restore public order. There might have been some minor injuries, during the clashes between residents, protesters and police."
Marina Daliani, a lawyer for one of the Athens 15, said they had been charged with "disturbing the peace with covered faces" (because they were wearing motorcycle helmets), and with grievous bodily harm against two people. But, she said, no evidence of such harm had so far been submitted. They have now been released on bail of €3,000 (£2,400) each.
According to Charis Ladis, a lawyer for another of the protesters, the sustained mistreatment of Greeks in police custody has been rare until this year: "This case shows that a page has been turned. Until now there was an assumption that someone who was arrested, even violently, would be safe in custody. But these young people have all said they lived through an interminable dark night.
Dimitris Katsaris, a lawyer for four of the protesters, said his clients had suffered Abu Ghraib-style humiliation, referring to the detention centre where Iraqi detainees were tortured by US soldiers during the Iraq war. "This is not just a case of police brutality of the kind you hear about now and then in every European country. This is happening daily. We have the pictures, we have the evidence of what happens to people getting arrested protesting against the rise of the neo-Nazi party in Greece. This is the new face of the police, with the collaboration of the justice system."
One of the arrested protesters, a quiet man in his 30s standing by himself, said: "Journalists here don't report these things. You have to tell them what's happening here, in this country that suffered so much from Nazism. No one will pay attention unless you report these things abroad."the guardian:

Κυριακή 7 Οκτωβρίου 2012

Earth Engine: Brazilian Rainforest


For the interactive timelapse version of this tour, visit http://earthengine.google.org

Explore a global timelapse of our planet, constructed from Landsat satellite imagery. The Amazon rainforest is shrinking at a rapid rate to provide land for farming and raising cattle. Each frame of the timelapse map is constructed from a year of Landsat satellite data, constituting an annual 1.7-terapixel snapshot of the Earth at 30-meter resolution. The Landsat program, managed by the USGS, has been acquiring images of the Earth's surface since 1972. Landsat provides critical scientific information about our changing planet.