FROM THE NEWSWIRE: 'Five massively overcrowded tin sheds held thousands of grossly overfed chickens, nearing their slaughter age of 42 days. Struggling birds were crammed together lying in their own excrement on the ground. Many could not stand . Their legs which do not keep pace with their rapidly growing body weight often buckle and snap under the strain of supporting it. There are 68 million broiler birds reared here annually, millions suffer painfull leg disorders. In contrast the 'breeding flock' are fed tiny rations to slow growth rate, these in contrast suffer chronic hunger.

These 'broiler birds' are fed drugs to grow more quickly and increase weight and overfed to increase breeders profits, no concern is given to the suffering inflicted on them. The flightless birds live their short lives without ever seeing daylight or feeling grass beneath their feet. The sight on opening the shed doors was one of gross cruelty and neglect.Farm staff only enter the sheds to remove the dead birds, feeding is automated.

'Two sad companions lay huddled in the corner. We thought they were dead as they did not move when we touched them.They seemed oblivious to us and propped each others heavy bodies up. We lifted the heavy warm bodies and gently carried them away to freedom, merely as a token of the thousands of others we were unable to save.'

From the Newswire: The self-described ‘Soldier of Destiny’, Waterford property developer Martin Cu Cullen (aka ‘Cu Cullen’) has big plans for himself and the Hill of Tara, which lies disgracefully underdeveloped in County Meath. Soon he will build a 680 million euro motorway, and then they will come. They will know. “Toilets, for boys and girls, videos, sweeties, parking lot attendants, contracts, sub-contracts, burgers, hotels…you name it, we got it!” howls Cu Cullen gleefully.

Is this guy for real? Oh yes. This is no accident of fate, but the culmination of a life-long campaign, hatched by Cu Cullen when a youth, after he ate some old tuna fish and learned that the Ark of the Covenant was buried at Tara. He headed straight for politics as a means of using OPPM (other peoples public money) to achieve his divinely appointed destiny. And now he has mighty powers. Planning appeals are made to disappear, into thin air. New ones appear, just as magically and ‘Hypresto!’ they are passed. Money seems to flow in from bottomless wells in all directions for The Party. And everybody wants to take his picture!

Cleverly disguised as the Minister for the Environment and Heritage he has assembled a boatload of spanking new road building machinery, which is now being tested out on his other pet road 31 million project in Waterford. “The town has never been the same since Henry II took off with Strongbow, never to return. We are thinking of naming the motorway after him. He would be so proud of us.” Gone are the days of hitching a lift up the dark old Dublin road. “Welcome to Cullen Country!” Soon greater things will come, given the right campaign fund for his own coven of druid spin-doctors, tarot readers, bible-translators as well as experts in construction Yiddish, Hebrew and Old-Irish.

Key to the crafty scheme is his decision to hand over motorway lordship to his arch-allies, Irish Trolls, who will make hundreds of millions in profits. Dozens of troll booths are being erected in the middle of all traffic black spots, with armies of cars and lorries lining up to pay, and pay and pay, OR ELSE! Small teams of strike-force laser drones will harry motorists as they reach third gear, and bilk millions more. Even the clampers will be out in force. Genius.

As reported in The Guardian, a number of of letter bombs were sent in the last week of December to prominent EU officials including Romano Prodi (President of the European Commission) and Jean-Claude Trichet (Governor of the European Central Bank). All the letters were mailed from Bologna where a previously unknown group calling itself the Informal Anarchic Federation (FAI) claimed responsibility for two small explosions near Prodi's home earlier in December. No injury was caused by any of the devices. Despite the fact that one of them went off in Mr. Prodi's hands, the only damage done was some carpet burn.

Meanwhile, editorials in European newspapers have been declaring that we are witnessing a resurgence in "anarchist terrorism" (ABC - Spain) and that it's only been a matter of luck that no-one has been injured (Mitteldeutsche Zeitung). Britain’s Independent argued that the money used for the war on Iraq would have been better spent on surveillance of potential terrorists.

As Ireland took over the presidency of the EU, the head of the European Parliament, Pat Cox (PD) came out with the startling observation that the incidents were a "criminal conspiracy against democracy". Naturally, security measures have been stepped up within EU state institutions and on Monday, Italy's Interior Ministry announced the creation of a European task force to combat "anarchist insurrection".

The truth is that the vast majority of anarchists and leftists both in Italy and worldwide are opposed to such acts. The Italian Anarchist Federation (FAI), co-incidentally sharing the same initials as this strange new group and having suffered state repression under similar circumstances as recently as 1997, have denounced the indiscriminate violence of such devices. This was further put into perspective by a recent statement from the Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici (FdCA) emphasising anarchists' commitment to "horizontal, anti-authoritarian, mass organisation" struggle.

Many are of the opinion that the recent events are merely the latest incident in the Italian state's "Strategy of Tension" - a clandestine campaign to discredit popular left movements from the 60s onwards which reached its climax in 1980 when officials of the Italian state conspired with the fascist group "Ordine Nuovo" to set off a bomb in a Bologna railway station killing 80 people. Similar attempts to isolate more militant groups from larger social movements were seen in the run-up to the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa.

Further Indymedia links: Feature on indymedia.org - More on the Strategy of Tension

It appears that Weapons of Mass Destruction ™ are only of interest to the Bush administration if they are in the hands of Arabs, Muslims or "rogue" states. Likewise the big news corporations in the US were ignoring this particular story of genuine weapons capable of mass destruction found in the hands of a white supremacist group in the Bush home state of Texas. This story was originally published on the Newswire on December 8th. Since then, the only big US newpaper to cover the story has been the New York Times.

The Crumlin / Drimnagh / Walkinstown anti bin tax campaign has started to return packaging to supermarkets under Section 29(i) of the Waste Management Act 1996.

Superquinn, Tesco and Dunnes all received trolleyloads of packaging.

After solidarity blockades, regular public meetings of 500+ and widespread non-payment (estimated at 80% +), the D12 campaigns tonight tried a new tactic - returning the packaging.

Each of the main supermarkets got a visit with about 15 at Superquinn, Sundrive Road and 50 at the Crumlin shopping centre (where Dunnes and Tesco have branches). The Supermarkets had got wind of what was up and had placed signs on the doors saying 'No Litter - we pay Repak and don't have to take packaging back.'

However, the campaign had letters to hand in to the store managers which quoted the relevant legislation

29 (i) requires the the owner or manager of a supermarket, service station or other sales outlet to provide, free of charge, specified facilities at such an outlet for the removal by customers opf packaging... and receptacles for the deposit of such packaging.

Each of those who returned packaging handed in the letter where they described themselves as ...

'a customer, consumer, environmentalist, a recycling fanatic and someone who demands that my rights be recognised'.

In Superquinn they accepted the rubbish, providing trolleys which were filled with packaging - I'll report later on how things went in Tesco and Dunnes.

Remember - Dec 12th the High Court, Monday 14th the estimates. The campaign hasn't gone away you know.

The Sweet Tale of a Small Bin Tax Victory in Dun Laoghaire Here
Every Sweet Tale Needs A Mr. Scrooge
Report on Anti-Bin Tax Campaign conference