Month: August 2017

Indonesia: Report on the Struggle Against ‘New Yogyakarta International Airport’ (NYIA) in Kulon Progo

Rose Bridger Indonesia , , , ,

An update on eviction of farmers for a new airport in Kulon Progo, Indonesia, calling for international solidarity with communities resisting displacement, especially from India as Indian conglomerate GVK is an investor in the project.

Insurrection News's avatarInsurrection News

Received on 20.08.17:

Since 8 August last week, particularly in Macanan Glagah area and 10 August heavy machinery were already operating within the compromised area (the area in which some community of peasants already sell their land and compromised with the project, although their relocation still unsure) for the development of NYIA. Despite community and peasant resistance against NYIA, the government and PT Angkasapura, cooperating
with this large company from India as the airport major investor: GVK corporation. (We urge comrades in India to communicate with us and build international solidarity)

Mainstream coverage of past struggle against NYIA in English:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/10/31/islands-focus-hunger-strike=
-over-kulon-progo-airport-continues.html

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/05/21/kulon-progo-airport-develop=
ment-violates-human-rights-komnas-ham.html

Grassroot and independent media coverage (Indonesia):

selamatkanbumi.com

Facebook: Jogja Darurat Agraria

PS: The struggle against NYIA is connected to the previous struggle of peasants in Kulon Progo against iron mining in which they won the struggle, not through legal means but through community grassroots struggle (riots…

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Veteran Narita Airport protest leader Kōji Kitahara dies, aged 95

Rose Bridger land rights, Protest , , ,

William Andrews's avatarThrow Out Your Books

Kōji Kitahara, the Narita Airport protest leader, has died, aged 95.

He passed away in the afternoon of August 9th in a hospital in Tomisato, Chiba. A farmer and landowner, Kitahara was the official head of the Sanrizuka-Shibayama United Opposition League Against the Construction of Narita Airport (also known as the Farmers League Against the [sic] Narita Airport, or more colloquially known in Japanese as Hantai Dōmei, or the Opposition League), which campaigns against the expansion of Japan’s premier airport.

After Issaku Tomura, who initially led the protest movement until his death in 1979, Kitahara was the most prominent figure in the Hantai Dōmei. Though increasingly frail in recent times, Kitahara’s fervour was boundless. I met Kitahara once and heard him at rallies on a few occasions. He remained a passionate public speaker despite his advancing age and he was still participating in rallies until last year.

koji kitahara-sanrizuka narita protest leader Kōji Kitahara at…

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WE NEED TO HAVE THE AVIATION CONVERSATION

Rose Bridger airport expansion , ,

An interesting article from the UK , WE NEED TO HAVE THE AVIATION CONVERSATION critiques Norwich Airport’s expansion plan, to treble its passenger number over the next 30 years. It is an example of the ‘predict and provide’ model of transport planning that assumes continued aviation growth as the starting point for all policy, which is incompatible with action on climate change. The article is reposted from The Norwich Radical website.