New Zealand: Save Happy Valley Campaign

"The Save Happy Valley Campaign has taken the fight against Solid Energy to a new level. In a carefully planned protest, three activists ‘locked on’ to train tracks at about 11.50am today preventing Solid Energy’s coal trains reaching Lyttelton port [first press release]. Two were locked onto the track directly and a third was hanging from a tree 30m up with his support rope connected to the track.

"Three trains were forced to stop and police quickly turned up [second press release]. Those locked-on refused to move and police were forced to dig up the concrete that been laid to remove the two directly connected. The third in the tree took longer for the police to get down. In all, the protesters held up the coal trains for just under 4 hours.

"Solid Energy has been pushing very aggressively to destroy Happy Valley, a beautiful area of native bush, fragile wetlands and a thriving ecosystem of native birds and animals located on the West Coast of New Zealand, with an open-cast coal mine and have just recently cleared the neccessary legal hurdles. The mine will not only destroy the valley and the surrounding area, but further add to climate change which is expected to have devastating global consequences if left to continue unabated."
Indymedia