road protests 1997
| road protests (current)
| movement links
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 21:16:16 +0100
From: Road Alert!
To: roadalert@gn.apc.org
Subject: Indexed message
Ruigoord Dutch Port Protest
GROENOORD NEWS!
News from the Ruigoord Groen Front Action Camp.
Hi there, this is a message for all of you who might want to come to
The Netherlands for a nice action holiday.....hard NVDA in summer and
we need loads of people. Its the first Dutch Earth First! Action
Camp! We started on the 16th of July in Ruigoord, a wee tiny
village outside of Amsterdam that has to disappear for a new harbour
with a big area for poisoned soil.
Groen Front!
This is the Dutch Earth First! group, going for almost a year now,
and growing. Untill now Green Front has been doing occupations of
building sites for one day only giving the builders quite some loss
of earnings because of one day of not building. Green Front keeps the
EF! principles in defence of Mother Earth: Earth First!, No
Compromise, No Violence. And they got really groovy Tshirts!
A while ago a group of British EF!ers visited The Netherlands and
trained Dutch activists in action methods like treeclimbing; together
the groups occupied the building site for a parking garage and
climbed in trees to protest against a new gas station.
Ruigoord
This village has been under fire for quite a while, this is 25 years.
In the beginning of the 70ties Amsterdam thought it needed a new
harbour, the Afrikahaven, and evicted the small village; a group of
artists and hippies squatted the village and is living there since.
Several times procedures were started to start digging for the
harbour but at the moment it really gets started. In spite of critics
from the population, asking for a referendum (they did not get it),
the Amsterdam government goes on with this claiming it will give lots
of jobs and help the Amsterdam economy. This is disputable.
Ruigoord and surrounding became a lively community for people and
nature, quite some rare animals and plants are living around the
hills and meadows of the village.
The Action Camp.
>From early morning wednesday the 16th on Green Front wants to start
building up and action camp at Ruigoord. Supported by the inhabitants
the idea is to have the camp as long as possible and do lots of
actions fighting the harbour. Wood, rope, building materials, locks,
all kinds of action materials is needed for the camp. And food,
activists, musicians. Bring your ideas, tent, music instruments,
friends etc etc. The camp wll concentrate on saving the nature area
around Ruigoord. The inhabitants of the village are still in a legal
battle over their village.
COME TO RUIGOORD GROEN FRONT ACTION CAMP!
How To Get There:
There is a bus from Amsterdam Sloterdijk Railway station, bus 82 to
IJmuiden. Get out at busstop Ruigoord (have a look at the harbour so
you get an idea what they want to do to the village and its nature),
walk over the sandy nature area to the village and get directions at
the church or from the vilagers to the camp.
Last News: GROENOORD FREESTATE!
The action camp is growing, treehuts are getting build, a kitchen/bar
is made, groups of people are visiting and sometimes bringing gifts
that are really needed (tools, food etc.) or stay there for a few
days or more Wednesday 23rd July we will become a Free State,
independent from Amsterdam. We will have a ceremony around 14oo hrs
at the camp where the first residents will get their passports and
send a letter to the mayor of Amsterdam to tell him the news
(including the news that Amsterdam plans and rules about the harbour
are no longer valid). A big group of cyclists will come from
Amsterdam to celebrate this with the Groenoord people, and an
Amsterdam embassy may be opened soon. More info at the spot.
European Youth Forest Action
Postbus 94115, 1090 GC Amsterdam, The Netherlands
tel: +31-20-665 7743 fax: +31-20-692 8757
email: eyfa@antenna.nl
www:
http://www.antenna.nl/eyfa
road protests 1997
| road protests (current)
| movement links