Polish Fractivists Fight Back

Hello,

http://vimeo.com/33141308

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YOSXFJB4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpIdyqWkCRg

Above are links to a film documentation of Tuesday’s direct action at the
InterContinental Hotel: blocking the “Shale Gas World Europe 2011”
conference in Warsaw, Poland. Below and in attachment is the press
release- it is copy left, please feel free to distribute it far and wide.

PRESS RELEASE 5.12.2011

For contact email: stop_szczelinowaniu@riseup.net

POLAND: FRACKING OPPONENTS BLOCK
“SHALE GAS WORLD EUROPE 2011” CONFERENCE

“We will do everything to assure that protests
are not able to stop shale gas exploration in Poland.”
-Bernard Błaszczyk,
Vice Minister of the Environment

A meeting of the largest international energy corporations began on
Monday, November 28th, in Poland’s capital, Warsaw. The CEOs and
representatives of Halliburton, Talisman Energy and Dow Chemical amongst
others flew in to network with members of the European Commission and the
Polish government behind closed doors and away from the public eye at the
downtown InterContinental hotel (the cheapest “silver” entry pass cost
10,000 zlotys/2,500euros. Most Poles earn about 1,000 zlotys per month).
Conference participants aimed to showcase the future profits of their
shale gas investments, which thanks to the smooth politicking of Polish
authorities, are to make Poland the next Niger Delta.

Just before the opening keynote speech, planned for 9 am on Tuesday,
November 29th, a flash mob congregated in the downstairs lobby. While a
group of drummers beat rhythms to the distraction of hotel security, a
passerby dropped a suitcase full of golf balls that scattered all around
the hall. In the meantime, a large banner was dropped from the upstairs
banister displaying a raised middle finger resembling a drilling derrick
complete with lighted gas flame on top. The banner read, “Frack You!” and
listed over two dozen towns and regions around the world where fracking is
being protested or has already been banned. Amidst this commotion, another
group entered the main conference ballroom on the second floor. Linking
arms and sitting down on the stage, they blocked the keynote, forcing the
conference participants to leave and wait outside. During this time, the
group organized an alternative conference in solidarity with the residents
of Poland on whose land fracking is underway in spite of protests.

From Pomerania to Philadelphia, from Syracuse to Sulęczyno, from Lewino to
Lancashire, residents of drilling towns have experienced the consequences
of hydraulic fracturing and are demanding the same thing: an end to their
dispossession and a halt to the tragic degradation of the environment.
When their complaints and protests fall on the death ears of mainstream
media and patronizing officials (As if the well water in Rogowo in the
Lubelskie Region is contaminated due to the locals’ “backward fear and
lack of knowledge”) people are forced to take matters into their own
hands. In Opole Stare, Kraśnik and Kostry, disenfranchised locals have
begun sabotaging drilling sites, removing over 300 m of otherwise
worthless specialty seismic cables on one occasion, and an entire set of
hydraulic fracturing machinery on another. The residents of Stężyca and Sulęczyno
declared last week that they will block roads leading to drilling sites.
Taking cues from their initiatives, we decided to interfere in Tuesday’s
undemocratic meeting.

After blocking the conference for two hours, we were forcibly removed from
the ballroom by police and transported to arrest. We have all been charged
with trespassing and are facing up to one year of imprisonment. This
charge is peculiar. While we are accused of wrongful interference in
InterContinental’s possessory rights over their property, it is
corporations who are forcing entry onto peoples’ land, fracturing the
earth under their homes, inducing earthquakes and contaminating their
water supply. The most radical form of trespassing to which communities in
Poland are subjected, involves the expropriation of land in the name of
corporate profits. This practice has been legally sanctioned by the new
law on geology and mining, according to which regional governments and
local communities are excluded from decision making processes that concern gas
and oil exploration. This same law renders geological resources a “public
good” under the exclusive jurisdiction of the state, which sold shale gas
concessions without consulting local people.

With a decreasing toolkit of legal instruments, endangered by corporations
and abandoned by the state, the residents of Poland, just like their
counterparts in other countries, are forced to take the initiative.
Despite absurd accusations of “acting against national interests”, direct
intervention appears to be the only effective means of preventing local
tragedies. Ultimately, it is grassroots protests that authorities like
Vice Minister Błaszczyk and international corporations fear the most.

Eleven out of the twelve of us detained were released after 8 hours in
arrest. One was additionally charged with aggravated assault of a police
officer. She remained in arrest overnight and is facing up to three years
in prison. Two drummers were fined 200zł (50euros) each for alleged
disorderly conduct.

A solidarity fund for the group’s legal defense has been started. All
contributions to the following account are warmly encouraged and greatly
appreciated as the group’s initiative was entirely grassroots, as are
their pockets in general.

Solidarity Fund Account:

PL 08 1240 1024 1111 0010 2760 9063

SWIFT (IBAN) code: PKOPPLPW

Warsaw 5.12.2011