Naomi Klein @ Radiobubble: Climate change is our best argument against free trade

Naomi Klein spoke today to Radiobubble's @JaquoUtopie about the economic and environmental crisis and how climate change affects economic and political transformation, but also about her upcoming work, gold mining and the movement opposing it in Skouries, the tar sands and the Idle No More movement in Canada. 

The way that in a moment of economic desperation governments and corporations use the crisis as a pretext to destroy the environment by convincing people that this is the easier way to “get money”, the scare tactics, the lack of a clear and inspiring articulation of a radically different vision are some of the issues they discussed, as well as the cost that people will have to pay if capitalism continues down that destructive road. 

But also about emerging peoples’ movements, the turning point in history when it’s time to create our own alternative, the failure of the media and the time for new models to develop and change the landscape, the hope, the future and her very young, beautiful son Tom.

You can listen to the interview above and/or read the transcript after the jump.  

Developments in Skouries 12 May 2013

Posted by @IrateGreek

Clashes took place again this morning in north-eastern Halkidki where residents are protesting against logging activities by mining company Hellas Gold in the basin of the Karatzas stream near the Skouries forest.

According to the antigoldgreece blog, these new developments come ahead of a planned meeting tomorrow morning between the Residents' Committees Against Mining and the leadership of the regional police to examine the validity of operational permits held by the mining company for logging activities in the Karatzas area. Also invited to the meeting are the head of the municipal forestry authority and the head of the department of urban planning, who still have to reply to a denunciation of possibly illegal construction activities by the company in the Skouries forest.

Residents opposed to mining plans have been protesting every day this week in the Karatzas area where lumberjacks are working under police guard. This morning, a group of protesters asked the head of the Halkidiki police force to suspend logging activities until the meeting tomorrow. The police officer agreed to take it up with the regional police leadership and left. Approximately one hour later, a group of riot policemen circled the protesters and assaulted them with tear gas. It seems that 4 people were wounded in the clashes that followed, three of them policemen. There have been claims that one policeman was shot but the Polygyros hospital administrator spoke only of scratches and did not mention any gunshot/buckshot wounds.

Also this morning, a group of women who were walking up to the Skouries worksite were assaulted by the riot policemen guarding it. Three were detained and taken to the Halkidiki police HQ in Polygyros. Reports indicate that the police were not allowing lawyers and the local SYRIZA MP inside to see the detainees. @SaveSkouries reported that one woman was beaten by the riot police and had to be taken to the hospital as well.

As of 17:00 EEST reports from residents indicate the presence of a strong police force on the two main roads out of Ierissos.

Update 17:30: Prime Minister Samaras's Director of Communications George Mouroutis is claiming that 7 policemen were wounded  by a "dispersion weapon". Greek social media are awash with ironic comments on this blatant exaggeration.

A timeline of fascist activity in Greece over the past year

On the occasion of the anniversary of the May 2012 elections, in which Greece's neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn entered parliament with 7% of the vote, @galaxyarchis prepared a timeline of the most important events related to the rise of fascism in modern Greece.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 27 April - 3 May 2013

Prepared by the #rbnews international team, translated by @IrateGreek

There was no #rbnews international show this week due to the orthodox Easter holiday, but the show's text companion is online anyway. You can read it after the jump.

#rbnews international show 30 March 2013 - Skouries: the march to Stratoni

On 30 March 2013 on #rbnews international, we discussed once again the issue of gold and copper mining in Skouries, Halkidiki, while the anti-mining movement was holding a demonstration from Ierissos to Stratoni, the village where mining company Hellas Gold has its local offices.

With me in the studio were @potmos and @menacius from OmniaTV and Georgia Anagnou (@ganagnou) from Exandas Documentaries, and discussed, among other things, the production of two recent documentaries on the Skouries issue: Greedy Profit (OmniaTV) and Cassandra's Treasure (Exandas).

We also interviewed Maria Kadoglou, who was participating in the march to Stratoni, Vasilis Tzimourtos, a lawyer from Ierissos who is provided legal assistance to people detained in the latest police sweep operation, and Perka Peti from the Technical Chamber of Greece, who participated in producing the Chamber's study on the anticipated impact of the mining operation.

You can listen to the podcast, as usual, after the jump.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 06-15 March 2013

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

#rbnews international show 16 March 2013: "It is our duty, all of us, to stand by this struggle"

On 16 March on #rbnews international, our guest was Dina Daskalopoulou, a journalist from Greece's only truly independent daily newspaper, the Editors' Newspaper or Εφημερίδα των Συντακτών (it is owned by its own staff.) Dina just spent three weeks in Halkidiki (also spelled Chalkidiki), reporting on events as the government's reaction to the arson attack on the planned ore mining site in Skouries turned into full-fledged repression against anti-mining activists, especially the village of Ierissos.

You can read Dina's articles (in Greek) here.
You can read/listen to more radiobubble reports on Skouries here.

And you can, of course, listen to the podcast after the jump.

SOS Halkidiki Magazine, 1st issue (March 2013)

The first issue of the SOS Halkidiki Magazine, which is prepared by the Coordination Committee of Associations against ore mining in Ierissos, is now available in English. You can read it below.

The demonstration against ore mining in Thessaloniki on 09 March 2013

After recent developments in Halkidiki (see here, here and here for background), a large demonstration against ore mining that was planned jointly by the anti-mining movements of Halkidiki, Kilkis and Thrace in Thessaloniki on 09 March took unexpected proportions. Turnout against mining was extremely large (9,000 according to the police, up to 20,000 according to eyewitnesses), and was further reinforced when a demonstration against cuts to the education budget chose to join the anti-mining protesters.

You will find photos and videos of the demonstration, as well as a full Twitter archive of the hashtag #Skouries, after the jump.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 02-08 March 2013

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

The police assault on Ierissos near the Skouries forest - 07 March 2013

The police campaign to intimidate and even terrorize the anti-mining movement in north-eastern Halkidiki took a new turn this morning when several platoons of riot police entered the village of Ierissos, allegedly to summon witnesses to the regional police HQ in Polygyros and to conduct house searches. Residents initially reported 6 platoons, but later concluded that the number of riot policemen was much, much higher. Officers from national security and anti-terrorism units also participated in the raid.

Residents quickly gathered at the entrance of the village. The riot police marched into the village, throwing large quantities of tear gas (video 1, video 2, video 3). Multiple eyewitnesses, including the headmaster, report that tear gas was thrown inside the secondary school, which had to be evacuated. One student was wounded after taking a hot from a tear gas canister. Several people are reported to be suffering from breathing problems and need medical care.

Skouries: from intimidation to terror

For background on the issue of ore mining in Halkidiki, see here and here.  

The human rights situation in north-eastern Halkidiki (also spelled Chalkidiki) is still deteriorating since the arson attack on the work site of mining company Hellas Gold in Skouries on 17 February 2013. There have been dozens of random detentions of local residents by the police, without any result so far and most importantly without any charges being pressed against any of the detainees.

The latest - and most shocking - case of detention is a 15-year-old female student from the Ierissos high school, who was summoned today to the regional police HQ in Polygyros for interrogation. The entire village of Ierissos went in an uproar, with church bells ringing and schoolchildren staging a protest in front of the local police station together with their families. The police decision was condemned by the Coordination Committee of Associations in Stagira-Akanthos as well as local attorneys, who specifically denounced the fact that "witnesses" or "detainees" summoned by the police have no access to legal assistance during their interrogation and that the police essentially force them to give a DNA sample, which is illegal as no charges have been pressed against them.

#rbnews international show 23 February 2013: Intimidating residents to mine gold in #Skouries

On 23 February 2013, the #rbnews international show travelled to Halkidiki in Northern Greece, where plans to establish a giant gold and copper mine in the Skouries forest has generated a conflict between the mining company, Hellas Gold, and local communities who fear total destruction of their environment and way of life. You can read background information on the recent developments here and listen to the podcast after the jump.

The arson attack on the Skouries mining site and its aftermath

An arson attack took place on the worksite of mining company Hellas Gold  in the Skouries forest in north-eastern Halkidiki  in the night from 16 to 17 February 2013. An initial report, posted by the pro-mining blog "Citizen of the Aristotelis Municipality", stated that 50 to 70 individuals wearing full-face hoods and armed with shotguns and petrol bombs entered the site shortly after midnight and set equipments and vehicles on fire. The report further claimed that the assailants immobilized the two security guards who were on the site and held them hostage after dousing them with petrol and threatening to set them on fire. The value of the shares of the majority owner of Hellas Gold, Canadian company Eldorado Gold, dropped by 6% in the Toronto stock exchange following news of the attack.

Skouries turned into a battlefield

By @Inflammatory_

The forest of Skouries in northern Greece's Halkidiki peninsula turned into a battlefield tonight as local villagers and Syriza leaning protesters clashed with riot police [see update below]. Approximately 2000 demonstrators marched peacefully to Eldorado company’s site over the severe environmental impact from its gold mining operations. Riot police squads had already blocked the way through the entrance and hurled teargas to disperse the crowd.