Global Changemakers is currently looking for applicants for its upcoming Euro-Africa Youth Summit, which will take place in Brussels on 24-30 June. Applicants need to be resident in Europe or Sub-Saharan Africa, aged 18-24 and actively involved in community activism, volunteer work, campaigning or social entrepreneurship. You can find all relevant details here: http://www.global-changemakers.net/uncategorized/euro-africa-youth-summit-2012-call-for-applications

March 2011 saw the beginning of the terrible Fukushima catastrophe. To this day because of damaged reactors, millions of Japanese people are still being exposed to nuclear radiations and the whole country will continue to be contaminated for thousands of years.

Exactly one year later, on March 11th, 2012, let’s act and stand together to denounce the risk of a nuclear catastrophe in France and say aloud ’’A nuclear phase out IS possible’’. Other European countries are getting rid of nuclear power, so why can’t we? Let’s react to show our solidarity with the people of Japan and with the generations of future victims.

Let’s join to form a huge human chain from Lyon to Avignon in the European region with the highest number of nuclear plants

Europe is in a continuous state of upheaval. For months now, its credit- and sovereign debt crises have been escalating. A number of hectic European Union (EU) summits have introduced emergency measures to rescue capitalism. Should the­se measures fail, governments and the media assure us, collapse, recession and mass poverty would be the result. This apocalyptic rhetoric paves the way for even more neoliberal reforms whose social impact will be felt for decades to come – if we don‘t resist. Throughout the crisis, we were told that capitalism needed to be reined in, and that banks and corporations would have to carry some of the burden they, too, had created. What is happening now is the exact opposite: The EU, its member states and other European countries are intensifying competition and introducing devastating public austerity programmes to secure private profits. In doing so, however, they are reproducing the destructive logic of capitalism. The existence of crises, widespread powerlessness and poverty, contrasted by private, i.e. exclusive wealth, are inherent elements of capitalism. Let’s get organized for a better society!

The Danish police broke the law when they detained thousands of climate protesters on December 12th and four other dates during the COP15 in Copenhagen. The National Court of Denmark confirms the ruling of the City Court of Copenhagen and declares all five mass-arrests during the COP15 illegal. In addition the court ruled that articles of the European human rights convention were violated on December 12th as the police degraded and mistreated the arrestees. Thus, compensation of up to 9000 Danish Kroner should still be awarded to the ones who filed complaints in due time. All in all the Danish police will be handing out compensations in the millions.

If you were pre-emptively arrested during the Climate Summit in Copenhagen in 2009, but never complained, please contact the Danish legal group RUSK. Then there might be a possibility to get compensation as well, even though you were not part of the lawsuit. Email kontakt@rusklaw.org ...(please specify name, address, nationality, and date, place and time of the arrest) ////Copenhagen Climate Collective

It happened! The Parliament vote on the ban and now we are fracking free country.

We will keep campaigning on the issue, and will demand for change of some legislation acts, to harmonized the this decision and to regulate the whole procedures.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/18/bulgaria-shalegas-ban-idUSL6E8CI2ML20120118 [59]

What is fracking?

Hydraulic Fracturing is a method used to free gas trapped in rock (that would usually be inaccessible) by cracking the rock using a pressurised fluid. Wells are drilled and the fracking fluid injected into them under high pressure to crack the rock. The fracking fluid consists of water, sand and a lot of chemicals. Millions of gallons of water are used to frack a well.
Other sources: http://frack-off.org.uk && http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking

Mass Protests in Bulgaria on the 14th of January

Mass mobilisations against fracking in at least 12 cities in Bulgaria on Saturday brought thousands of people out onto the streets to protest against the plans to bring the practice of hydraulic fracturing for shale gas to the country. Solidarity demonstrations organised by Bulgarian expatriates were held in several other European cities including Paris, Copenhagen and London.

In Bulgaria thousands marched in the capital Sofia and other cities across the country carrying banners denouncing fracking and telling the US energy giant Chevron to "go home". Chevron was granted a permit last June by the Bulgarian government to explore for shale gas in Dobrudzha region in northeastern Bulgaria, which is one of the country's main agricultural regions of Bulgaria. Since then the movement against fracking in Bulgaria has been growing with increasingly larger protests. Hundreds protested against fracking in Sofia in December

The Eighth Anarchist Bookfair in Zagreb will take place on March 31st to April 2nd, 2012.

The Anarchist Bookfair in Zagreb (ASK - Anarhisticki sajam knjiga) is an annual anarchist event that aims to become a long-term, developing project. The first six bookfairs went well, and we hope to bring in more and more people every year as participants, publishers, groups, projects - whoever is interested in what the bookfair has to offer.

Dear comrades and friends, indignad@s,

Since 2011, the crisis finally finds its echo in a variety of occupations and Assambleas worldwide: Tunis, Cairo, Madrid, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Athens, New York, Oakland? For months, tents of the Occupy movement have been beleaguering the ECB in Frankfurt. Keeping in sight the financial center of Frankfurt, is of crucial importance: here is where the troika of ECB, IMF and European Commission negotiates what the German government and its allies want to impose over all Europe.

en castellano: http://www.dazwischengehen.org/es/story/2011/12/querids-compa-ers-amigs-indignads

auf deutsch: http://www.dazwischengehen.org/story/2011/12/liebe-genossinnen-und-genossen-freundinnen-und-freunde-indignad

This newsletter looks back on 25 years of developing, coordinating, organising and helping fund projects as the EYFA network.

25 years of a rather unique European Youth organisation that always remained committed to working non-hierarchically, with a focus on participatory processes, partnering with young grassroots groups and initiatives, and training a large number of activists that came to work and volunteer in the office over the years.

Call for Participants
Course: Building Sustainable Activism
April 13 - 19, 2012
Berlin, Germany Application
Deadline: January 23, 2012

From April 13-19 2012 a course will take place in Berlin, Germany on the challenges facing activists and activist groups working to create social change. In activist work the focus is often on social problems outside of collectives, but to make change it is equally important to be personally sustainable and part of sustainable groups and collectives.