Direct action against climate change
As politicians meet for more climate talks in Barcelona, they continue to be fixated on measures like carbon trading that will only exacerbate the climate crisis. Fortunately the last year in the UK and worldwide has shown that direct action against carbon-intensive projects can deliver results.
I was a bit puzzled earlier this week when the new intern in our office – a conscientious sort – didn’t show up to work this week. It all made sense when I got a call from her yesterday saying that she had only been released from police custody after spending two nights camped high up on a smoke stack on a coal-fired power station in Oxford. As far as ‘not coming to work’ excuses go, it’s pretty water-tight.
Taking direct action on climate change has become a regular feature in the UK political landscape. The motivation for people to get involved in these sorts of activities has received a huge boost in October as climate activists suddenly started to see the fruits of their labour. 2009 will be remembered in the UK as the year when direct action got the goods!
Two of the most emblematic sites of climate struggle in the UK in recent years have been the proposal to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport, and to build the first coal-fired power station in the country for thirty years at Kingsnorth in Kent. Both of these bright ideas resulted from massive pressure from the business lobby and would have locked the UK into an even greater level of carbon emissions for decades to come. In both cases the government was assuring us that we needn’t be concerned about their devastating climate impacts because it would be taken care of by carbon trading and offsetting.
Within the space of one memorable week in October, the companies behind the two contested developments, E.ON and BAA, quietly announced that they were shelving their plans. Although the recession was cited as the reason, it was widely acknowledged that the protracted direct action campaign in both sites by groups like the Camp for Climate Action, Plane Stupid and Rising Tide had played an enormous role in delaying the decisions by turning non-issues into political hot potatoes.
The dazzling array of imaginative, and often confrontational actions have included mass trespass, lock-ons, fence cutting, office occupations, blockades, runway invasions, an armada of homemade rafts laying siege to a power station and many, many people super-gluing themselves to pretty much anything and everything within reach.
It’s not just a question of trying to grab headlines – although a certain degree of media savvyness has played an important role. Activists had expressed a commitment to physically intervene if and when the bulldozers rolled in. In the village of Sipson, where a thousand families stood to lose their homes in order to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport, a speed dating service had hooked up local residents with affinity groups to develop plans to resist any eviction attempts.
One big lesson that climate activists in the UK have learnt from previous direct action campaigns is the importance of sensitive engagement with local communities for the success and legitimacy of direct actions. When thousands appeared unannounced one afternoon in August to set up the Camp for Climate Action in a park in the borough of Lewisham in London, the local outreach was so successful that the local council subsequently passed a motion congratulating the camp on holding a successful and stimulating event!
It’s been a busy year. In the UK, we’ve seen actions ranging from thousands of people camping in the heart of the financial district of London outside the European Climate Exchange to protest against carbon trading during the G20, to the ‘Great Climate Swoop’ on October 17 which saw some 800 activists invading one of the biggest coal-fired plants in the country. One of the most exciting actions involved the cross-fertilisation of labour and environmental movements, when Climate Campers occupied a factory roof in solidarity with the sacked Vestas workers who barricaded themselves inside England’s only wind turbine factory that was being closed down. During the final week in October, people occupied a coal-fired plant in Oxfordshire and camped for two days on top of the smoke stack, while other activists disrupted work at two opencast coal mines in Derbyshire and Scotland.
The UK climate movement’s successes, however, are just one small part of global efforts against fossil-fuel dependent economies. A whole host of inspiring and crucial struggles are taking place in Southern countries that don’t necessarily identify themselves as being about ‘climate direct action’ and don’t enjoy the privilege of as much media coverage. Yet these struggles are also of key importance in the fight for climate justice – such as the indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon fighting to resist the expansion of oil companies, and the organising efforts of peasant communities the world over struggling for the right to maintain existing low-carbon livelihoods.
Groups like the Camp for Climate Action are also mobilizing to go to Copenhagen with the intention of using civil disobedience as part of Climate Justice Action. They are being joined by growing number of groups frustrated at the way the talks have become dominated by business interests and rail-roaded down the path of failed market-based mechanisms. In response, the UK police are already using anti-terrorist legislation to harass climate activists travelling to Copenhagen for preparatory meetings, while the Danish government is rushing through repressive legislation to crack down on dissent ahead of the talks.
With the Copenhagen summit doomed from the outset from agreeing anything that would begin to meaningfully address the threat of climate change, and with governments the world over failing to stem the tide of new carbon-intensive infrastructure, there is a clear role for mass civil disobedience and targeted direct action. In the UK, like many countries around the world, communities and concerned citizens are starting to take matter into the own hands out of frustration at the failure of governments to take action.
26/10/09: A Day to Remember in the Fight Against Coal
We defeated E.On’s plans to build the first coal-fired power station in over 30 years, which is definitely something to be proud of. But, as this week’s actions have shown, the fight against coal is far from over and concerned individuals are showing no sign in slowing down their activities.
The first of three inspirational actions on Monday morning took place in the early hours at RWE npower’s Didcot Power Station in Oxfordshire. 20 intrepid cyclists rode right past the gate to the faces of perplexed security guards, with one team locking onto the coal conveyor belt for over 13 hours, and a second team ascending the 200m chimney and occupying it for two days and nights.
RWE npower were forced to admit that the action had stopped all coal fired electricity generation. Furthermore, the ability to bypass RWE n-power’s massively ramped up security and gain access to crucial machinery was truly inspirational, and demonstrated that nothing can hold back committed people determined to do something about climate change. Here’s what one participant who made it to the chimney top had to say:
“I’m a qualified builder and will be 52 in a week’s time. I never thought in my life I would do anything like this. It’s amazing how working with committed people can empower you to confront these massive companies and help force real change in the world.”
With all recent attention focused on E.On’s now shelved Kingsnorth plans, RWE npower has been able to hide in the shadows. Yet the company is not only behind two possible new coal plants in the UK, at Tilbury and Hunterston, but it also plans to build over 30 more across Europe. To use the bad pun featured in the Daily Mail, this action has shown that activists will go to great heights in order to halt RWE npower’s lethal intentions.
Monday’s second action began a couple of hours later at Mainshill Wood, South Lanarkshire. Mainshill Wood is currently being destroyed by Scottish Coal to make way for a new coal mine. It is one of 20 new mines to be given planning permission in Scotland, and is situated within one of the most heavily mined areas in Europe.
Refusing to let the coal beneath the ground get anywhere near a furnace, individuals blocked the site’s access road and this prevented destruction taking place for several hours. The blockade formed part of a long term battle at Mainshill Wood. A solidarity camp has been occupying part of the site for over four months, from which relentless action has sprouted including tunnelling, tree climbing and jumping on machinery.
With two actions already well underway, at 9.20am coal received its third strike when 20 activists climbed on machinery at Shipley opencast coal mine. Work was stopped at the site, with the participants having climbed on six vehicles. The target was particularly poignant given that coal mined from Shipley is supplied to Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station (the second biggest in the UK) where The Great Climate Swoop saw 1000 people collectively target the week before.
Those taking part in the protest highlighted that, in addition to climate change, opencast mines bring a range of catastrophic local issues. As one participant from the Shipley area stated, “the handful of jobs that opencast coal mining provides hardly compensate for the noise, traffic and pollution that we have to suffer. Local people fought long and hard against the this mine, not just for our sakes but also for that of our children.”
So, Monday the 26th of October will certainly go down as a day to remember in the ongoing struggle against coal. It demonstrated the range of targets that need to be hit, from the operational mine, to the mine not yet created, to the power station itself. But it also heralded a new stage in stopping coal, with none of the three actions being a one day affair. Resistance against new opencast mines will continue to rage. Work on existing mines will be stopped with ever increasing vigour. New coal fired power stations will not be built.
E.On may have F’d Off, but our job is far from done!
Swoop update: Injured police officer – Statement from Climate Camp
As the Swoop unfolded today, one issue the media has drawn increasing attention to has been the number of injuries sustained by protesters and police.
In particular the media has focused on one police officer who sustained head injuries and was airlifted to hospital.
The latest news is that the officer has now recovered and left hospital.
The following is a statement that has been issued by the Camp for Climate Action media team:
Statement from the Camp for Climate Action on an injured police officer.
The Camp for Climate Action has learnt from the police that a police officer is currently in hospital and wishes him a speedy recovery.
The details of what happened are currently unclear. A police officer was seen to collapse a distance away from the protest by several eye witnesses, but it is not certain at this stage whether this is the same hospitalised officer.
Currently we have no further details about any other accident involving a police officer and we will wait to see evidence presented to comment further because the police in the past have been known to misreport what happens, as was clearly the case during the G20 protests.
We do know several protesters have been injured by the police, including dog bites, a dislocated ankle and head injuries, who we hope will recover soon.
The Camp for Climate Action is at Ratcliffe to confront the causes of climate change, not get into conflict with the police.
Please feel free to blog, tweet or share this statement.
Swoop Update @ 17.30: the media update
It’s time for another Great Climate swoop update. As the Swoop continues apace and the media finally start reporting we’re starting to see the usual manipulation and misinformation from the police.
Around 2.30pm Nottinghamshire Police’s Chief Inspector, Linda McCarthy, told Sky and BBC that they were delivering “proportional policing” but that police officers had been assaulted and the peaceful stage of he protest was now over.
Sky News’ reporter on the ground Darren Little reported that he’d not seen any evidence of people assaulting police. Meanwhile there were lots of activists’ reports of police hitting protestors rather than arrest them – well, it’s less paperwork I suppose.
There was also a small victory for new media reporting. Despite all official material about the Swoop talking about shutting down or blockading Ratcliffe, Sky persistently reported that the intention was to disrupt supply.
The official Climate Swoop twitter feed tweeted at Sky News criticizing the use of language in their reports – reminding them that we are attempting to shut down the power station, not disrupt supply. Other twitterers re-tweeted the message and hey, presto Sky has changed its messaging.
See below for a rather decent report from the BBC with an interiw with Climate Camp’s own Richard Bernnard:
The Latest Scoop on the Swoop: Update @ 13.30
It’s Swoop o’clock and the fences are coming down around Ratcliffe! People are already through the fences and on the coal pile.
We’ll update the blog as soon as we have more news. Keep watching!
There’s some great footage of some de-fencing courtesy of Amelia Gregory
Follow all the (direct) action live online
Activism is not just about taking action. It’s also about explaining to people what the action is about and and engaging in debate. What better way to help explain today’s Swoop on Ratcliffe-on-Soar than through a mash-up of Google maps, satellite imagery, photos, videos and live updates from activists.
To help us do this we’ve created a brand-spanking, new multi-media platform for activists taking part in the Swoop at Ratcliffe-on-Soar. This allows people on the ground to upload their own media reports in real-time and people not able to attend to follow what’s happening.
Hundreds of activists are preparing to swoop on the coal-fired power station, and are already on the move tweeting and uploading rich media as they go.
As well as live action, the platform is also aggregating video news reports from the activists and studio discussions on the action.
In contrast to mainstream media which has to show just one angle of a story, biased by corporate and advertising interests, we are empowering climate activists to be the media themselves and explain the many reasons why they are taking action.
Climate Camp Swoops On E.on Two Days Early
Just days before the Great Climate Swoop, the Camp for Climate Action has upped the ante in its bitter battle with energy giant e.on, by publicly occupying it flagship public relations YouTube channel, Talking Energy.
Videos from Climate Camp, Plane Stupid, and Climate Rush activists have finally, after three days of mysterious ‘technical problems’ and mounting pressure from internet free-speech advocates, been uploaded. And comments are flooding in to support the videos, which outline just why these groups are pulling together to shut down E.On’s Ratcliff coal power station this weekend.
In some ways it would be funny so see this massive corporation spend a reputed £4 million on a contract with PR monkeys Edelman, to advise on coming up with such a bad website with those hilariously clunky wooden videos, if it weren’t for the fact that their main activity – burning coal to produce electricity – could send so many people, plants and animals the way of the dinosaurs.
So, lets give them what they don’t really want, a full and frank debate about how we deal with climate change. Get watching – http://www.youtube.com/user/talkingenergy we want these three videos, Talking Greenwash, Talking Just Transition, Talking Environmental Justice, to be the top viewed on the site. Then post a comment, and forward onto your friends.
We want to make these videos became the most viewed items on their youtuve channel TODAY to help get the facts out about climate change, and E.on’s appalling failure to act. Can you help it to go viral?
And go on, make your own video and post it, shoot it on your computer web-cam… whatever, just occupy their space!
Perhaps we should move some of the organising for the swoop onto the their comments pages?
If want to come to the Great Climate Swoop this weekend then you can join up by signing up for the sms service:
If you are coming, bring a ‘clean’ phone and share your experience live.
Or if you can’t make it, watch the whole thing unfold on our ‘live’ reporting site, which will take over the climatecamp.tv site for the weekend.
We’ll be using these and other online tools to provide live, minute-by-minute coverage of the action as it happens. Keep checking back to the Climate Camp blog for news and updates – or subscribe to our RSS feed for realtime updates.
As one of the Climate Campers who appeared in the film, said “E.on are right about one thing, the need for a debate on how to radically reduce carbon emissions to avert a climate catastrophe. But they are wrong to think that their Ratcliffe power station can stay open – every year it pumps more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than many developing countries. To slash emissions as much as we need to, it has to close.”
Join us at Ratcliffe-on-Soar or online and help take the power back.
Response to The Sunday Times article
The Sunday Times article on Climate Camp (30/8/09) reported someone at the camp responding to a passerby who shouted “Get a job”, saying, “actually we’re not dirty gypsies we just believe in a sustainable future for the planet.”
Of course, we can’t guarantee that no one who enters the camp would say this, but it in no way represents the views of the camp, which is totally and publicly opposed to any form of racism and does not tolerate it at the camp.
Gypsy and Traveller women, men and children suffer blatant and outrageous prejudice, discrimination and abuse. For decades they have been subjected to the police violence that climate protesters have recently faced. They have a long experience of resistance, outdoor low-carbon living, and protecting a site that we call all learn from, and some have always taken part in Climate Camp. In response, one said, “I am a bit dirty now, but that’s camping for you.”
The reported comment, whether or not it was correctly heard by your reporter, is contrary stated camp agreements and in no way reflects our views. Media team, Camp for Climate Action
Action updates from Climate Camps around the world…
As Climate Campers across the UK are digging out their D-Locks and working on their fence jumping techniques (careful- it’s electric don’t you know!) the International Group thought it’d be time to update everyone on what’s going on in countries around the world right now.
One of the four aims of the Camp for Climate Action is movement building, and the success of this can be seen in the proliferation of Climate Camps in various guises around the world. For a movement that started in a field outside Drax in 2006, it is pretty awe inspiring and slightly humbling to see that there are more than 18 Camps across the world this year that have either happened or are being planned as we speak.
All of these Camps are loosely based around the four aims of Direct Action, Movement Building, Education and Sustainable Living. From looking at pictures and videos on the web you can also see examples of greywater systems, consensus decision making and massive vegan feasts! It seems that getting people together in a field to discuss, debate and create solutions is a model of protest that people can get on board with…
We start close to home. Before the camp on Blackheath there were regional camps in Wales and Scotland. Both of these focused on local campaigns against opencast coal mines with the Scots starting the ball rolling by shutting down a coal conveyor belt whilst the Welsh enjoyed a spot of police baiting on a climate stroll. Right now there’s also a Co-Mutiny happening in Bristol. Heading across the water; Climate Camp Ireland set up for 9 days in Shannonbridge cumulating in action against 3 peat-fired power stations. A more in-depth write up on these can be found on Indymedia.
Over in Europe the French were revolting in Nantes (snigger!) Check out this great video which shows V3 windmills, straw bale buildings and their invasion of the local Airport. On the Dutch/ Belgium border they weren’t content with just one action- targeting the meat and nuclear industries as well as a day of action against coal. They also handily produced an English video explaining ‘this is what a Climate Camp looks like’ (warning: its 20 minutes long!) Meanwhile the German ‘Cycling for Change’ caravan had a little party on a bridge on their way to the Copenhagen camp. Elsewhere in Europe a camp appeared in Switzerland, and there were rumours of Camps in the Ukraine and Italy at the G8 summit, although I can’t find confirmation that theses ever went ahead.
Down under the Ozzies have definitely stepped up the pace of their Climate Campaigning. After a fantastic Camp in Newcastle last year, there’s not only 3 camps happening in New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia- but they’ve already had 22 arrests trying to switch off Hazelwood power station. There’s some great coverage of this on Indymedia Australia and our own Amelia’s Blog. My favourite part of the Australian NSW website is the ‘Adopt an Activist’ where you can donate to adopt a working group, neighbourhood, affinity group or activist. In return they promise a picture of your activist and the chance to follow them on twitter!
Not to be out done by their neighbours there’s also a Climate Camp in New Zealand timed to coincide with the Copenhagen conference (16-21st December).
Heading over the pond there’s the 3 Rivers Climate Convergence happening as part of the resistance to the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately they’ve been denied the opportunity to stay in the local park and so this is running from 10am-10pm each day. (That’s what you get for asking I suppose!) They’ve already experienced police harassment in the run up to this event. Also in the US there’s a Climate Camp style convergence on the West Coast, while in Canada Greenpeace are running Climate Action Camps and dropping banners highlighting the damage done by Tar Sands projects, an issue we are now well aware of after the recent London camp.
Moving out of the developed countries we have unconfirmed reports of Camps in South Korea and India. Rising Tide in Ecuador is currently looking for funds to set up the first South American Climate Camp- looks like a fundraiser may be in order. If anyone has more information on these or any other happenings around the world please do let us know by emailing international@climatecamp.org.uk.
So that’s about it- pretty cool is it not? Makes you feel like you’re part of something pretty special. As we head into Copenhagen in December and then off into 2010 who knows what could happen? There’s even the possibility of a camp in Africa…
All of these camps have been inspired by the UK Camp for Climate Action, and everyone who has been part of making this happen (both old and new Campers) should be very proud of what they have achieved. It’s important to celebrate what past successes, as well as finding new and innovative ways to move forward.
And at the risk of promoting some healthy competition- let’s show them how it’s done at Ratcliffe in October!
Latest from the Vestas blockade
Vestas workers and supporters continue to blockade Britain’s only wind-turbine blade factory on the Isle of Wight. They have been doing since the workers’ 18 day occupation ended last month. Management, security and the police are stepping up their efforts to harass and undermine the workers and activists who are blocking the path between the plant and the jetty onto the river Medina. There is still millions of pounds worth of equipment and blades inside the factory which can only be transported out by barge. This represents the last real industrial leverage in the struggle, the last opportunity to really hurt Vestas in an attempt to force them, or the government to negotiate. This is a statement issued earlier this week;
“We, the workers, see it as our duty to stop our blades from leaving, as part of the campaign to nationalise the factory. Vestas have told us that there is no demand for our products but are still unwilling to sell the site to other interested parties. It is clear the government must act on such an important issue as renewable energy production. They should not let our future be dictated solely by profit. We are calling on the government to invest in green jobs on the Isle of Wight, and for Vestas to reinstate the eleven sacked workers who occupied the factory.”
The workers urgently need help with the blockade, as the company is likely to try and remove the blades and equipment in the coming days. There was a massive effort to organise people to go down during, and immediately after the Climate Camp and the activists recruited there have been absolutely invaluable in terms of the skills and energy they have brought down. Through the fundraising efforts of the South London Vestas support group that was set up we are now able to fund transport down to the Isle of Wight.
A national day of action has been called on the 17th of September. This can be an opportunity to build on the local support groups that have been set up and set up new ones.
Background
Last month workers at Vestas blades occupied the company’s main factory on the Isle of Wight to prevent its closure. Vestas is currently the only manufacturer of wind turbine blades in the country. Not many more examples will sum up the madness of the bosses’ response to the crisis like this one – closing a factory that produces something so socially useful.
The factory had previously been a place where anyone trying to set up a trade union was victimised and sacked, there was no worker organisation. Up to a couple of months ago, the closure, the job losses [in one of the worst areas of unemployment in Britain] and the pitiful redundancy payments had been accepted as inevitable.
However, in early June, a handful of Workers’ Climate Action activists, having heard about the closure went down to the island, started talking to workers as they changed shift, got in contact with the local TUC, brought in different left groups, got people in touch with workers from the Visteon car part factory occupation, held meetings and soon a group of workers’ emerged with the confidence and organisation to pull off an occupation of management offices that lasted for 18 days.
We should see this step taken by a group of people with no real history of militancy as incredibly inspiring. They have stormed their own workplace, risked losing their redundancy money, and all in the knowledge of how putting their heads above the parapet could affect their chances of work elsewhere. What is more, they have grown politically, seeing this as a fight against every job loss, every cut and for the planet.
This idea that people should be at the centre of their own liberation – self emancipation, and that by doing this, by challenging the ideas of society and who is meant to run it, workers in struggle can look to reshape society sums up pretty much what something like Workers’ Climate Action is about. They have raised the slogan loud and clear – ‘Who’s factory? Our factory!’
They have welcomed support from those who have helped build the campaign – WCA activists, (various campers, socialists and anarchists), the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, the Socialist Workers’ Party, local campaigners, trade unionists and many others. Many of the Vestas workers have joined the Rail Maritime and Transport Workers’ Union, who came in to offer support when the previous union, Unite, had done basically nothing to support them.
However the most militant workers have maintained that they are not prepared to see political leadership of the struggle fall into the hands of any other group. Political support and experience has been very important but they are adamant, and rightly so, that the workers’ themselves must be central to how it is run.
The Climate Camp June national gathering set up a working group to organise solidarity. This has led to a number of campers coming down to the island and using their organisational, practical and campaigning skills to massively contribute to the campaign.
Direct Action
One of the first things that came out of the setting up of the working group was that an affinity group of Climate Camp activists occupied the roof of the smaller Vestas factory in show of solidarity. This was an immensely valuable piece of publicity for the campaign and was warmly appreciated. There have been various other smaller publicity stunts across the country that have all helped the campaign. The initial attempt by the company to starve the workers out was broken by a food rush that forced Vestas to provide daily [if inadequate] meals. Many of the workers’ and their supporters are now keen to get further training in direct action. Some have come to the camp. They’ve seen these examples, and of course have gained their own experiences – rushes, picketing, and the occupation itself. People from Action Support are heading down to hold training. The value of this stuff has already been demonstrated, if you are able to help in any way let us know.
Further info
- Visit the Save Vestas Blog
- Call Robin on 07974331053, Ed on 0775763750 or Bob on 07843945005 for information on travelling down (paid for if necessary)
- Email workersclimateaction[@]gmail.com to get on vestas solidarity working group list
- If you would like to make a donation, the details have now changed; please send cheques payable to “RMT IOW 2 VESTAS HARDSHIP & DEFENCE FUND” to Keith Murphy, 57 Well Street, Ryde, IOW PO33 2RY, or you can continue to donate by PayPal online at the blog