Climate Camp, Heathrow
international |
environment |
feature 
Saturday August 18, 2007 00:10
by John
Some impressions of a short visit to UK Camp for climate action near Heathrow airport
There' something about airports and August which draws media like flies to...In Ireland we're ignoring the Guantanamo slots while we fight for our right to fly to London. In the UK august 2006 saw the establishment of a climate camp at Drax power station in North Yorkshire. This year it is at Heathrow and the standard injunctions, terrorist legislation and media hysteria are being brought to bear. Indymedia.ie has received this report from a short visit to the camp:
This years climate camp is now well underway. About 1000 people have set up camp on a squatted field just north of Heathrow airport. The aim of the camp is to raise awareness of and take action on the causes of climate change. (See main body for rest of report.)
UK Indymedia is providing excellent coverage including reports from the public internet access tent which is open for a total of four hours a day, over two main time slots and is running on a mixture of wind and solar power.
Related Links: Airport Watch Watches Mainstream Media Coverage | Scouts at Climate Camp | Children from school due to be demolished by 3rd runway at climate camp | Indymedia UK News ticker | RTE repeats reports of 'anarchists' in and around the climate camp |
It's a pity that there's not more Irish folk here cos some of this information is really important and directly relevant to our own gas and oil issues. There is a strong, convincing argument that those reserves off our shores should stay there, under the sea which is a point of view that hasn't really been aired within or outside the Shell to Sea campaign for fear of sounding anti-progress (heaven forbid!). In a nutshell from an unscientific mind it goes like this:
A global temperature rise of between 1.5-2C is enough to tip the climate into a feedback loop that can't be stopped aggravated by things like a darker planet surface absorbing more heat, causing much worse than the flooding we have already seen. We have very little time to sort this out and we cannot afford to take half measures, to do it we will have to learn to communicate and cooperate on a global scale in ways that I can't even imagine right now. Enough of that for now.
The camp is run along similar lines to the Horizone antiG8 camp in Stirling with a horizontal decision making structure, regional neighbourhoods, renewable power supply, compost toilets, good food, entertainment and workshops on everything from activist trauma support, the money behind climate change, seed saving and food security, direct action and our very own Shell to Sea. Also present on the camp are local people from the village of Sipson who are campaigning against the construction of a third runway at Heathrow.
The run up to the camp has been characterised by the usual and expected scare stories in the media with tales of bomb scares, runway invasions and the usual, as well as an attempted, and failed injunction by BAA (British Airports Authority) against most of the population of southern england. There have certainly been a number of actions and some arrests so far but these have focussed private flights and have not been limited to Heathrow - check uk indymedia for details. The cops have done the usual intimidation and control tactics, searching and filming people travelling to the camp though are being fairly laid back at the moment evidently feeling they have the situation under control. We currently have the surreal situation where 4 cops are allowed on site at any one time though only when accompanied by campers so you see 'em walking around in pairs shadowed by activists in a bizarre role reversal.
There was a moment in a meeting last night when the frightening reality of climate change and strategies for dealing with it were being outlined to the assembled throng, as a police helicopter hovered overhead, that the full on craziness of the situation hit home to me. This feels like a gathering where people are genuinely doing something, beyond changing light bulbs and insulating houses and buying "green " products, actually working for deep systemic change and in many cases prepared to risk our freedom to do so and here we have the government whilst saying they're in favour of stopping climate change, throwing the full force of the state against these people in case we damage the economy. "Fk that sht!" say I. The more I see of this type of thing the more convinced I become that what passes for the law is an irrelevance at best, an obstruction at worst to the real work of radically changing society so that we can continue to live on this planet.
Comments (28 of 28)
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This contains links to UK press coverage of the climate camp, there are also active links in the Tara Infrastructure
article with an image of the tripods outside the camp, unfortunatley 'cloud-busting' did not skew the issue to the
editorial collective ideology of presentation but the story has been on the newswire since last Sunday evening.
The issue of the Metropolitian Police's usage of terrorist laws against NVDA protest and normalising this for
a wide -left 'Monbiot' readership is on the newswire in today's comments form.
Heathrow and its hinterland are not really England at its best. I suppose that's why the tippy toppy comedian Baron Sasha Cohen decided to set his Ali G character in West Staines next to the reservoir and under the flight paths. I doubt you see people like Ali G playing simulation urban combat like they promote on the Irish air-soft website that fledgling sport is probably not so ethnically diverse yet. Nor are you getting many west staines mob dudes pretending they're sickboy from Trainspotting giving an il/legally bred security dog's hound a few joules of pellet up the arse. No- the near guest list attendance at Heathrow 2007 wouldn't stand for that sort of thing.
But one thing begs for sideways comment - We know from such luminaries as the old-timer conduit-journalist George I invented the word chavista Mobniot that feeling on the camp is high after the calumnious rumours that they were about to hoax bomb flights. Quite. very high feeling over there in West Staines.
2007 has all things been considered the safest summer for Irish and EU tourists with the least delays and despite new security precautions & restrictions a manageable level of lost luggage. Since the Heathrow pantomime began only two hoax bombs have occured on European flights bringing the year's total to exactly 2. Neither of these hoaxes were on British routes, one flight from Malaga to Ireland was delayed to a coded bomb warning & one Turkish flight was dramatically put out by a bag of plastercine.
That was a really stupid comment in your introduction to stay that in Ireland "...we are fighting for our right to fly to London". Tens of thousands of workers jobs depend on Shannon airport. The decision of Aer Lingus to move the Heathrow slots to Belfast is a direct result of the privatisation of the company by the Government.
He is attempting an EGM with aer Lingus and has his slimey soft shoes doing the PR on
monopoly, so its better the devil you know. bertie is doing the one government game with the
Brits in the best Grattan tradition whilst splitting the cabinet and the slots for north of Ireland
are getting on the back benchers tits.
So the rock and the hard place with regard to monopoly is O Leary Ryanair vs the US invaders
who want to open EU skies to their markets or just run shannon into the ground so that it
will become an operable base for the USAF.
Bertie sold his grandmother and the China , he is bad for the country cos he literally does
not give a shit about the irish people but about translating his idiocy into power. He really
should go. Bertie ahern has positioned Michael O Leary for monolopy and aided the
second terminal campaign in the South for one reason= greed+influence.
take note , the climate camp will come to Ireland and if the aer lingus workers have good union and
nowse they will support local economy and indigenous industry against the bogeys of
O Leary and his bestie mate Bertie Ahern (who is cast in the Grattan Mold of politics).
The Ryanair coining of the slots is easy-peasy. He gets the run off from the pilot's strike and
though the cabinet is 'split', I don't hold out much hope for John Gormley going against
the Taoiseach (after all he is refusing to square up to Roche's linear charter of Planning corruption).
Latest news is that three senior ministers are bucking the northern ireland/one island government
idea and that they include Gormley and O Cuiv.
The news from the climate camp is at link:-
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/378854.html
The pic is from the link.
O Leary is forcing an extradordinary EGM and the pilots are being bullied into accepting
the changes by the State. Willie o Dea is making fisticuffs and the result will be
another terminal at aer Rianta, an O Leary monopoly and of course grattan ahern
will slither off with his globalised 32 county soverignity committee. Shannon
will attract US open skies policy and the workers and shareholders will be rogered.
When the tribunal opens we can watch some eegit throwing eggs at Ahern
who is teflon shiny bright and full of shit.
SF ,as usual don't take political positions on anything and leave the posturing to
their inexperienced youth wing.
Lovely!
Long banner...
Day 7 links at ;-
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/379133.html
Sister Kerosene :- http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/379216.html
The dailies are reporting that people were surrounded and batoned in a field last night,
but the horse's mouth is always better!
"It's a pity that there's not more Irish folk here cos some of this information is really important and directly relevant to our own gas and oil issues"
I am presuming that most Irish people thought it unecessary (and slightly hyocritcal) to travel all the way over to London to a protest on unecessary travelling?
"in the 2001 UK census, there were 674,786 people in England (1.4 per cent of the population) who had been born in Ireland. This is the greatest concentration of Irish-born - as distinct from persons of Irish ancestry - abroad anywhere in the world, and equivalent to 12.1% of the population of the island of Ireland (5.6 million) in 2001" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_community_in_Britain
Indeed 3.07% of Londoners in the UK for the 2001 census were Irish of 7,172,036 registered inhabitants. So Doctor Nick it wouldn't be too difficult for a few more Irish people to have turned up to the climate camp in West London considering they live in the same city. But likewise if no less than 3.7% of those at the camp are Irish - we are well represented. The Irish aren't all living in either Ireland or holiday homes in Brittany paying close attention to the local politics you know - we pop up everywhere.
Michael O Leary isn't coining it...
http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/1095...omnet
29% share, run-off on pilots strike, agigtating for second terminal, union-breaker and defender
of babies bottles...
Not a bad week at all!
I was fortunate to attend one of the legal support workshops for the camp and very impressed with the level of preparedness for dealing with the cops who also have the anti terror laws under their belts to use when they like.
The media reporting has been very positive, showing excellent relations & unity between the camp & local residents opposed to the runway. Well done to the thousands who have really put their backs into into this campaign.
Another kick in the Empire's teeth has been reports of UK troops suffering their bloodiest months in Iraq & Afghanistan, finally admitting defeat and wanting out.
And to those who have campaigned tirelessly, succeeding in securing the imminent release of 5 men illegally detained in Guantanamo, thanks for the trojan work.
"The people who set up the Heathrow climate camp are neat, articulate and frighteningly well-organised. What is the world coming to?" wondered George Monbiot in the Guardian.
It seems as if a new chapter has opened up for the worlds social movements, although this was the second climate camp in Britain (Drax Power Station being targeted in 2006) there are already proposals to have climate camps at the same time next year in Britain, Germany and Australia all with the same idea of widening the discussion, creating an open space for more to learn and participate, and from that to take "direct action" locally to struggle together globally. This comes after much discussion about "summit hopping" (thousands arriving to attempt to block the yearly G8 / meetings + IMF / WTO / world economic forum...) and while many do feel it is vitally important to keep making the point to the world leaders that "our world is not for sale" at these gatherings many have felt that we (those in the movement of movements around this finite planet) need to take this story for the planets survival and for global justice to the next stage.
With the recent camp for climate action near Sipson village and Heathrow airport in London it seems the message has really gone out around the world that "climate change" is being addressed and challenged by non-violent "direct action" by all those who are willing to find out about the issues and stand up to make a change. There were grannies, babys, anarchists, teachers, clowns, musicians, gardeners, artists, architects, unemployed... in fact there seemed to be allsorts there in a few days of intense discussion, skill sharing, ideas bouncing, planning and finally action. People said the story went out on media in every continent bar Antartica. Although perhaps initially prompted by fears of airport disruption and other negative issues about protest, it seems, judging by the British media, that a fair picture has gone out to the world that this is a CRITICAL issue and thankfully there is something that people can do.
The final day of action was peaceful from our side and only the police used excessive force and sometimes totally unprovoked violence against people of varying ages who suffered blows bangs and kicks from them, 2 people who were in our barrio / neighbourhood were injured: 1 twisted ankle and smashed nose after the side of police shield was smashed upward into the base of his nose, another girl was hit a few times by a baton and suffered concussion. Despite the attempt to hold us back we made it to our destination BAA, held it up to make our point and left as a group in our own time. Thankfully most British media reported this state violence and our committed and sometimes difficult use of non-violence. In many peoples eyes we succeeded in doing what we set out to do: job done.
As well as aciton and organising what we were doing, as well as action support workshops, the camp was a model of sustainable living and participitive democracy in action. Most people unfamiliar with this hand wiggling form of reaching agreement were very impressed with its results. There were also many themed workshops and some excellent evening talks with speakers about the current situation and what has to be done to change things.
A serious amount of great organisation went into pulling this event off and I for one believe it is only the start of things to come.
So perhaps there might even be a local irish "camp for climate action" next year to coincide with the others as they happen around this lovely little planet, coincidentally enough the first irish green gathering happened the same weekend as the London climate camp.
climate camp web
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/
IMC-UK climate camp
https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2007/climat...camp/
wikipedia Camp for Climate Action
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_for_Climate_Action
UK Camp for Climate Action Targets Aviation Industry : IMC-ORG
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/08/891052.shtml
irish green gathering
http://www.irishgreengathering.com/stands.htm
vids and articles:
----------------------------------------indymedia uk
_______________________________________________________________________vids
"Bottle them in" - flim of start of the kettle at BAA
Not great quality, but shows the police 'kettling' about 200 demonstrators to get them out of the car park to prevent them joining with other people who are already blockading the road entrance to the BAA HQ.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2007/08//379351.mov
Video rushes of climate camp - by kryptic
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2007/08//379050.mp4
Kids March, a view of the site, general march chilled action, and the BAA offices protected by Police
Video of climate protesters breaking out of camp in a fan formation
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2007/08//378904.mp4
This video shows protesters heading towards the HQ of BAA from the Climate Camp. They fan out when they pass the Police line to draw their escorts in different locations.
video of a group leaving the climate camp site on day of action
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2007/08//378850.mp4
A quick video of a group leaving the climate camp on the day of action. There are some fully colourful "shields" with the images of young people from the global south leading the group.
----------------------you tube
Climate Camp Heathrow - Mix of pix and video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q_bCxCNp4o&mode=related...arch=
climatelife
http://www.youtube.com/user/climatelife
Climate Camp Heathrow - Sunday, Day of Action (clip 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLkuAIOMSwo&mode=related...arch=
Climate Camp Heathrow - Sunday, Day of Action (clip 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5TAkwCr3P8&mode=related...arch=
Climate Camp Heathrow - Sunday, Day of Action (clip 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPurL8zsTzQ&mode=related...arch=
Climate Camp Heathrow - Sunday, Day of Action (clip4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ode_8t1zNg&mode=related...arch=
Climate Camp Heathrow - Day of Action (clip5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MszAFU9Ht9Y&mode=related...arch=
Climate Camp Heathrow - Sunday, Day of Action (clip6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmcMiDEWS0Q&mode=related...arch=
childoflewin VIDS
http://www.youtube.com/user/childoflewin
police 'escorted' off climate camp by protesters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkFD6t56wm4&mode=related...arch=
Climate Camp Heathrow (renewable energy onsite) 15.09.07
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_ZplfpDfvY
Greenvoice.com Climate Change Camp Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlPrgLtcDcs&mode=related...arch=
Interview with a local resident of Sipson, the village where 750 houses are to be demolished to make way for the third runway by BAA at Heathrow airport.
-------------------------------------mainstream coverage
Climate Camp 07 - BBC News 24, Midday, Action Sunday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJlwR_jnXEY&mode=related...arch=
News 24, Midday Action Sunday - showing groups leaving camp. "Pushing and shoving" with police. Protestors to mark out runway's 3km site, and to blockade BAA HQ for up to 24 hours. Inspiring speech from protestor Layla Harris.
Climate Camp 07 - Sky News, Action Sunday, 5pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHaMnaWalY4&mode=related...arch=
Climate Camp: 'day of action' BBC news report, 19/08/2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9huBA0rNxIY
Climate Camp 07 - ITV1 News Monday Lunchtime 13th
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thPrAEC_voE&mode=related...arch=
Climate Camp - BBC News 24 news report, Monday 13/08/2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMecJRlmR_Q&mode=related...arch=
BBC London feature on climate camp, 14th August 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhYC-r7XXyA&mode=related...arch=
constructing the village
Climate Camp: Newsnight report 13/08/2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSdP5MXO3Xg&mode=related...arch=
George Monbiot & Khalid Mahmood debate Climate Camp :Newsnight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p--Bb2Nf5eE&mode=related...arch=
Monbiot commits himself to DA
_______________________________________________________________________print
-----------------BBC
Colourful scenes at day of protest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6954116.stm
Minor scuffles in airport protest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6953518.stm
Eco-village with a stark warning ( Monday, 13 August 2007)
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6944526.stm
-----------------guardian
The new face of activism
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/george_monbiot/2007....html
The people who set up the Heathrow climate camp are neat, articulate and frighteningly well-organised. What is the world coming to?
A different kind of turbulence
http://www.guardian.co.uk/airlines/story/0,,2152358,00.html
guardian climate camp articles
http://browse.guardian.co.uk/search?search=climate%20camp
-----------------Independant
Inside Heathrow's protest camp: A battle to save the world
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article28741...3.ece
I discovered they have one purpose: to urge us to listen to the world's scientists and cut back on our greenhouse gas emissions - before we descend into climate chaos we cannot reverse and may not survive.
At one end, Mayer Hillman, the 76-year-old climate-change campaigner, is saying to a crowd: "We are on a trajectory towards the extinction of life on earth. In the main, people have done this unwittingly, so it can be excused. But now we know what we are doing, and it cannot be excused."
Leading Article: The flight from truth about climate change
http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/artic...2.ece
this was an overwhelmingly peaceful protest, in practice as in conception.
Heathrow protest reaches its climax as peaceful protest turns to clashes with riot police
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article28787...4.ece
Their mission: to highlight the link between global warming and aviation emissions - and to do it with posters, banners and a healthy dose of purposeful rebellion.
Johan Hari: Why we should all start shouting about airport expansion
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article28787...3.ece
The science shows unequivocally that every airport is a minor act of ecocide,
If the protesters - and the millions who can grasp the science they cite - cannot stop the expansion of air travel now, we will guarantee that Britain is unable to meet even the most measly carbon emissions targets. We will then feel our planet transform beneath our feet into a boiling, belching rock we do not recognise. That is why the protesters are at Heathrow - and that is why they are right.
climate camp : related articles
http://www.independent.co.uk/search/simple.do?publicati...ndent
-----------------Irish times
Airport activists blockading BAA
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0820/bre....html
"You Fly, They Die".
Climate-change protest at Heathrow 13/08/2007
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0813/bre...1.htm
The expansion of the airport just runs completely in the face of everything we know about climate change
"So perhaps there might even be a local irish "camp for climate action"
Hope that doesn't mean us seeing rent a mob coming over from the uk for their summer holidays ?
Always trying to teach us how wonderful they are pity they don't pitch their stance at Nuclear Power and do us all a favour.
Suprised they haven't camped outside of Aer Rianta by now.
No one ever suggests that we limit the numbers of children born?
There's too many people on the planet, all contributing to climate change.
"Too many people on the planet"
So Dave that's the reason why the Brits and Americans are in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Not just for oil then but to reduce the population levels, begob the world powers get more evil every day.
God Bless Ireland!
Just to give you a little feel for how part of the camp and action was, heres a few pictures from each of the following photo threads respectively. And just to clarify it was not only a camp and action to counter the 3rd runway at Heathrow, it was a time called by the social movements to come together, share ideas, celebrate what we have already and are in the process of building, skill share, socialize, dream, be inspired and to gather further strength and encouragment to keep on this road, the only one which makes sense in todays crazy world. I would strongly encourage people to come to next years if there is none in Ireland. We call the time and place now, and if it turns out to be a highly special, multi learning, quickly growing, ever widening event / system / tool for global change.....This weeks camp might just have been the first spark that was needed?
By the way how did the irish green gathering go? one of the issues discussed over the days was that while the activist community were already very strong in many areas, perhaps there could be improvements made on the eco/ green front... I agreed with these concerns from my own experience and understanding from the Irish activist world.
and if we were to win? see online copies of Turbulence magazine that was being distributed during the camp and whose collective were busy taking action...
http://www.turbulence.org.uk/turb_june2007.html
Turbulence article related to climate camp 2006
"A new weather front"
http://www.turbulence.org.uk/anewweatherfront.html
new imc-ie climate camp related thread:
Mainstream newspaper shocks with fair coverage of direct action camp
http://indymedia.ie/article/83902
-------------------------------------------------- sources of the accompanying pix
Pics from Sunday's march from climate camp
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/378923.html
Heading to BAA offices on Big Action Day
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/379371.html
The occupation of the BAA staff parking lot
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/379387.html
The occupation of the BAA staff parking lot - Night and Day and blockade
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/379403.html
BAA Tent Blockade - Nightime Pictures
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/379119.html
the kids are revolting
riot squad literally come face to face with climate change activists
climate camp poet speaks C/O rinky dink, even with a bandaged head due to police brutality
Those that eventually blocaded BAA for 24 hours.... strike 1 for DIRECT ACTION
BAA car park entrance blocked by impromptu tent structure full of climate change activists
You're missing the point. Who do you think is consuming the oil?
Or do the Americans get a load of money for just having it. "Hey there, America. Well done on having all that oil. Here's some money".
Dave, did you not say that there was " too many people on the planet" ?
As to who is using the oil then we all do, even those who ride push bikes.... agreed that some people who use cars have a much larger carbon footprint than the cyclist.
Merely by writing on here is using precious energy, unless of course you are solar powered however, even the production of the
wind turbine uses energy.
It is well to be aware of unreplenishable fuel stocks.
The thread here is about Air transport which to my knowledge is the cheapest known method (re fuel) of moving large numbers of people around the world.
I do not deny that there is pollution from aircraft and in the UK that figure is 7% of their total pollutants. With increased air traffic this will grow to 25% by 2050 unless of course a new fuel is developed or cleaner aircraft engines are produced.
It has been technology that has given us the world that we have today and there is no halting of man's ingenuity to provide better and better equipment.
@ 5000 years ago people lived in harmony WITH nature and Newgrange (1) or Bru na Boinne was built to celebrate life. In 5000 years time how will future species, hopefully incluing our own human one, look back at todays times with the same amount of awe as we do today at Newgrange? Personally I feel the recent London climate camp has been a great spark which is leading to something truly special: a radical change toward a simpler, saner, healthier, happier, more creative (in the real artistic sense), more sustainable society which again like our ancestors before works WITH nature, respecting and celebrating the eternal and beautiful, which is life itself.
So how is this change happening and what type of alternative are we talking about?
Ill answer the second part of my question first: What type of alternative are we talking about? The ever growing movement of movements has had some wins and some defeats, but more importantly an ever widening space is growing in which the movement(s) are able to communicate. This is the key to that healthy alternative society of tomorrow; whose dreams did it spring from, who was able to participate in its planning and building and who was not. In theory, if we can all have our say and listen to each others ideas then we can construct a society which we are all happy with. For me personally, a very good model of a sustainable town is described in considerable detail by Ted Trainer, University of N.S.W., Australia, in his essay: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GLOBAL ECOVILLAGE MOVEMENT. (2) But that is only part of the solution, what about resolving conflict, what about relationships, what about....
The ever widening space to communicate appears both in the virtual world and more importantly, in the physical. In the virtual we have a quickly changing technology which facilitates more openly accessible means to both the dissemenation and also the participation of dialogue. TV, radio, computers, email, phones, cameras.... As technologies change the ability to participate is, thankfully, becoming more important and possible. Things arent perfect, States and commercial/corporate groups with power over whats said or not said still do maintain control but they are being challenged. More importantly, more people are beginning to say "Don't trust mainstream media". 2 short films accurately describe this critical area of communication with the emergence of radical spaces and systems that allow for "accurate tellings of the truth", as the old IMC saying goes. They are the award winning film by Undercurrents "Globalisation and the media" (3) and "in the eye of the storm" (4) by part of the indymedia Argentina collective.
What would it mean to win?
The ability to participate in (critical) dialogue: So things arent perfect but with the rise of the likes of indymedia, Zmag and Democracy Now, things are improving. But more importantly, this change is happening at a rapid rate. Think back 50, 100, 200 years. As things improve new spaces for the "Normal Joe" are opening for him to voice his opinions, the radio phone in is a good example "i tell ya, Joe (Duffy), I think that...." Emails, blogs, wikis, websites, email-lists are further helping things, they enable complex dialogues to happen virtually that can lead to critical questions and ideas becoming real, seen and heard in the physical world. An example of this is the recent Turbulence (5) magazine i picked up at the London climate camp, which asked the pertinent question to some of the movement(s) leading up to the recent G8 in Heilingdum, Germany (6): What would it mean to win? So from emails to-ing and fro-ing to cut and pastes onto a linex based editor page to clicking print on a computer to pages being covered with ink, I have 14 varying views on a crumpled up newspaper which have widened my own idea of that critical question and have led to new doors being opened. And at the open discussion sesssion on the Saturday night at the climate camp one of the editors of the paper participated in that dialogue with many more people adding their opinions. (I hope this very exciting dialogue was recorded and that it will appear soon for more people to ponder the question...)
So from that I hope you see that the alternative that we are talking about is a fluid thing, and that its many things for many people. So the important thing is that having an open space to allow for inputs is the key to that alternative world of tomorow, when we have won.
This leads me to the pyhsical world and back to the first part of my question: how is this change happening?
Building that alternative in the here and now
As more people are becoming more informed they are creating new spaces, which are opening up to allow for the ideas to grow...
"What would it mean to win?" in Dublin there now exists Seomra Spraoi (7), the cities social centre. After an interesting 2 year journey, an idea, which sprouted from a precedent in Europe, turned into a physical reality as it moved from working out of a local community hall in the Liberties to a strange little interesting room in Ger's gaf on Middle Abbey Street to a bigger room with a big window overlooking Dublin's river Liffey to a whole big building just off Capel Street, which offers a huge range of new possibilities.....More people are beginging to participate, help out, financially support, put stuff on, be there.... Little by little the idea has grown more and more, and who knows what it could end with. This leads back to the "What would it mean to win?" question, in all the time the collective has worked hard to make their idea a reality, they have had to ask this question and questions like it "what do we want?", "how are we going to sort this problem?". Its important to note that to win is many different things for many differnet people and the question of time and scale needs to be adressed; "how soon", "is there a limit to how many people can be involved", "whats the best case scenario" . The important thing is that the space facilitates the ongoing discussion and with that the project grows. More and more people are being excited by the idea of realising their dreams and from that their dreams shape the collective dialogue. I left Dublin and the workings of that collective over a year ago and am now living in Barcelona where there are about 40 social centres, all with their separate dreams of what winning means to them, all allowing for a huge and diverse range of activities and dialogues to happen in them or through them, some very focused on critical struggles like the V de Viviendas collective meetings in the Magdelenes squat, more a gentler quiter form of action: distribution of locally sourced organic vegetables to people through the Gracia part rented social centre La Quimera.
So to return to the question: how is this change happening? Little by little people are asking what do they want, or what do they not want and from that doing something about it. Our movements are growing, we are creating what we want in the here and now and doing our best to hold onto those short realized realitys as new rules or changes try to close them down for reasons of "business" or "progress" or "the law". But we are pointing out the flaws in those arguments that wish to maintain todays unsustainable world that if allowed to continue on this finite planet mean the end of our species. And although we have often been misrepresented in the mainstream media, which gets our simple story out to the wider world, this time around our message is finally getting out through our media and theirs....We need to stand up and take action to change things.
So this time around our message has really gone global, it is reported that 5 of the 6 continents of our planet covered the story of the climate camp, Antartica has only a fraction of the worlds population so that means most of the world. But the important thing now is to again return to Turbulence's question "What would it mean to win?". The climate camp "won" not only because of the media attention but becuase it demonstrated the alternative in the here and now: for just over a week, a field was occupied and an example of a sustainable community existed. It demontstrated that it can be done, what there is to be done and most importantly it can be a pleasurable existence living in it. Also demonstrated were methods of organisation, consensus based decision making, including the hand wiggling, the breakup of the camp into neighbourhoods with local meetings, spokes reporting to and from the group to the wider camp, affinity groups for the actions, legal, media, tek, action, emotional +/ crisis support for those that wanted them, a whole host of workshops and events to explore ideas, further the dialogue, widen peoples experience of a short but intense few days of being alive. And although after the actions had ended and it was time to go, although having experienced many similar things in previous years of varying levels of success or "winning" at different levels, at times during this climate camp and after during the long bus and boat journey back to Barcelona I couldnt help but think back and smile in a profoundly new way, as if indeed we have opened a new chapter. Something really really important has happened, its hard to describe but just a feeling that that London climate camp was the spark that has long been waiting to happen... it just feels right, it does feel that again that, "we are winning!"
So where to from here?
"what will you tell your grandchildren?" was one of the chants sung to the police. What will any of us say to our grandchildren in 60 years time when they look back at the worst war of all, the war against planet earth, the war against life- will we say.."i stopped worrying and talking and took action... and from that the whole of life just got more and more meaningful and beautiful" I hope so.
Gandhi said a wonderfully simple short phrase which sums all of this up "Be the example of change that you want to see in the world".
So with that I hope that last weeks action sparks more and more gropus around this planet to organise in similar fashion and to tackle the climate criminals, to construct spaces to live in and learn from, to create glimmers of excitement and hope that are excite everyone so that they to can freely come, experience and participate in the global dialogue that is happening....and from that take the action necessary
to change this world to something far more beautiful, so that when future generations look back in 5000 years time, they too look back with awe, respect and love to a time when once again people lived with nature and respected and cherished what that meant. Its not about what we construct, but what we feel and what we communicate.
Already plans are underway to have climate camps next year in Germany , the US and Australia to coincide with next years UK climate camp. Perhaps people in Ireland might organise one in conjunction with the rest and from that we might all exist and struggle locally while existing and struggling globally.
I enclose 2 more things, part of an email call out for future climate camps and the intro from something I posted earlier today on a thread entitled "architecture and dissent" in relation to the architectural world, which im part of, and which I feel needs to be seriously confronted or approached, as they can make a huge differnce but who currently are stuck behind their self created walls of indifference and blandness. The quote is from architect "superstar" Rem Koolhaas:
“There used to be a period in which all of us knew exactly what to do: many of us would write manifestos, declaring what we were doing, and some of us were successful in realising sections of those manifestos. However, as part of the shift in culture…. that belief in manifestos, and that confidence that we knew what to do, have completely collapsed……. A considerable percentage of people in England…would say ‘good riddance', but the absence of utopian drive is perhaps almost as serious as an overdose”
The post title is "Absence of (architectural and urban) utopian drive in time of Peak Oil and Climate Change."(8) and this post, I suppose is my own little "utopian drive" or what it is I'm for.... simply keeping my home and my peope alive along with all the others who share this desire and enjoying the beautiful journey before its time to call it a day.... To feel alive, on earth, and in all of existence.
Post to groups re climate camp(s) 2008 and beyond:
Climate camp(s) 2008 and beyond...london, germany, oz, barcelona, ireland.........
Hi all, thanks a bunch to climate camp heads.... a
blast, and injected a lot more enthuasism and
energy...we' re getting there...
This mail is to climate camp heads and others who
might be interested in organising more camps outside
britain next year...especially one in or near
barcelona, perhaps some of the dublin, ireland heads
might also be interested in a camp?
Im an irish guy living in barcelona and im going to
organise a talk and show pix/ vids from the camp with
hope of organising a local one here next year in BCN
same time as UK, germany, australia... which i
understand have already said they will be organised.
my hope and understanding is that in time there will
be many local climate camps for people to participate
in.. all acting locally while at same time struggling
globally together... as earlier stated: this time we
are calling the shots, refering to summit-hopping. So
i send this, the initial mail, to you to say hi,
thanks and to open up a channel for discussion and
organisation.
where is the best place / what is the best tool/ wiki
/ list to use for future related discussions?
thanks again
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------related links
(1) Newgrange and Dowth on wintersolstice 1996
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywLrT8b6tY4
Newgrange on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange
(2) THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GLOBAL ECOVILLAGE MOVEMENT by Ted Trainer, University of N.S.W., Australia
http://socialwork.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/D09TheSigOfTheGE....html
(3)Undercurrents "Globalisation and the media" : 21 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6HRt1bH_dw
(4) "in the eye of the storm"by part of the indymedia Argentina collective. (12 minutes)
http://ithefilm.com/watch_trailers
(5) G8 in Heilingdum, Germany
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2007/g8/
(6) Turbulence magazine
http://www.turbulence.org.uk/turb_june2007.html
(7) Seomra Spraoi
http://seomraspraoi.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/seomraspraoi
something maybe beautiful - Naomi Klein
http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/25/17/klein2517.html
(8) Absence of (architectural and urban) utopian drive in time of Peak Oil and Climate Change.
from "architecture and dissent"
http://easa.antville.org/stories/1633653/#1680947
Oil and Climate Change."(8)
What would it mean to win?
what did you do in the war against earth grandaddy?
T2 has the go ahead. T2 is the second terminal at Dulin Airport, there are 43 conditions but
An Bord Pleanala (a gifted organisation with close links to noel dempsey td) have allowedfor more remarkable unsustainable development.
O Leary is not pleased , saying he could have brough the terminal in, quicker, cheaper
and on time (like his planes)
ABP decision is in http://www.ireland.com
If someone is doing a treatise on FF attempts at modernisation and personal enrichment
I suggest a 'Dempsey Chapter:-
1. Rossport.
2.NRA.
3.T2
4. Shannon sell-out.
He is a thatcherite and his role in fast-track planning and profiting the rich is under-explored.
The FF party has profited most of their friends by selling out on the next generations assets
and healthcare system.
Amazing isn't it, the cabinet meeting that was dominated by the Aer Lingus Shannon slots was followed directly by the
ABP decion:- http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2007/0830/11....html
The cabinet meeting also produced John Gormley (minister) emerging, stating that "there is nothing left in
Tara to save"
Thats cos Roche stitched it up, good to see the greens following the FF lead. Unsustainable road development,
Unsustainable airport development and encouraging both petrol dependency and fastrack planning which
is weighted toward the crony lobby.
really the move, unfortunately, the is not surprising. Union members did not show real solidarity back in 1993. In fact for many outside of the Midwest, Shannon was the spoilt child.
The major issue over the move for most of the country is the terms and conditions for the new staff to be based in Belfast.
Aer Lingus "the National Airline" has always been centered on Dublin with a nod to Cork. Shannon (IMO) has ALWAYS been viewed as thorn they wish they could get rid of. Take a look at direct flight out of Shannon now - i.e. not stop particularly to Europe.
In my opinion, this move is an view of things to come. With the advent of Open skies, expect within the next year or so to have the flight from Shannon to North America being slowly moved to "more advantageous" routes.
Yep- FF have always had a shit relationship to Shannon, not even Willy o Dea (the bright young hope of
the local chambers of commerce and resident sex symbol) could boost their chances at all.
In the last fifteen years regular election stuff would revolve round the US stopover (commercial- not CIA
or rendition).
However, we should be looking at the FF propensity to privatise everything and make a few
jumpshits like the board/michael o leary very wealthy, whilst impoverishing national services
such as health and education. We should also be looking at how many people who
use pension services have had billions in three consecutive crashes (stock-markets)
wiped away. FF policy is crap, badly built and co-ercive.
btw- did anyone notice Brian Cowen introducing the de-centralisation chestnut into the
pre-budget run-up= more shite.
Now in Sydney and beyond in Australia, thousands are taking direct action against APEC and amongst other things its "climate in-action".
Still like to hear from people on IMC-IE about Turbulences question "what would it mean to win" and whether ideas for simultaneous climate actions in upcoming years is a strategy that appeals to irish activists, instead of "summit hopping". Next years G8 is in Japan, so we can presume there will be very few people from Europe there to protest....
Discussions are underway in other countries Australia included, on email lists and in phyiscal communities, as to organising for such a global network of direct action based local climate camps for next year and beyond....Perhaps it might be discussed in the upcoming GG (grassroots gathering) in Dublin?
What other avenues are open for changing the way this game is being played?
"Climate Protests in Newcastle and regional Victoria have kicked off the 2007 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meeting being hosted by conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard in Sydney 2-9 September 2007, and being attended by USA President George Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other Pacific rim leaders. Much of the northern CBD of Sydney including the famed Opera House has been contained by a nine foot high concrete and wire security fence, dubbed unofficially the Great Wall of APEC and signals the rise of military urbanism in Australia...."
"Ten thousand people gathered in Sydney on Sept 8 to protest and march against the war in Iraq, US president Bush, climate in-action, and the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum leaders meeting...."
from 2 latest IMC-ORG features:
Thousands Protest APEC in Sydney despite Police Intimidation
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/09/892153.shtml
Climate Change protests start APEC meeting in Sydney
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/09/891851.shtml
+ more on CLIMATE-IMC
http://climateimc.org/
IMC-SYDNEY: APEC: The Sydney Declaration a Climate Distraction
http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/story/apec-sydney-declar...ction
IMC-SYDNEY: Thousands march in Sydney Despite Heavy Police Presence and Intimidation
http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/story/thousands-march-sy...ation
bad news in melbourne:
Melbourne Indymedia Suspends Publishing (11/06/2007)
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/
APEC leaders get expensive raincoats Asia Pacific People get screwed by climate change.
Climate camps are cool. & recent experiences in London have proved that they are much more respectable than camps for other issues such as housing, migration, making poverty history, flying your flag or quite simply coz you've got no where else to go.
But the camp at Aubervilliers is already facing eviction!!!!!!!!!!!!1
http://www.humanite.fr/2007-09-08_Societe_Aubervilliers...manip
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iH9GMWcrP6Gmfekeruj...68eng
http://pubs.lemonde.fr/RealMedia/ads/adstream_sx.ads/FR...exclu@x30?http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3224,36-953323@51-952250,0.html
They haven't got around to suggesting the anarchist campers of France eat babies yet.
But there's time. They'll find evidence.
from Le Monde (10.09.07 )
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3224,36-953323@51-952250,0.html
(to open article you need to include all the above bits of the link, just clicking wont work)
Mattresses were laid out side by side on the ground, along a fence which borders the school complex Joliot-Curie of Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis). In this in the open air dormitory, several women discuss with high voice. Some, in boubou, carry a baby in their back. Sat in the middle of the baskets and of the piles of covers, a little boy types on one djembé.
Since mid-July, several tens of people, originating in West Africa, camp in the district of Maladrerie. This bivouac was born after expulsion, on June 26 and on July 10, several households which squattaient apartments of municipal office HLM. By “solidarity” and fearing, in their turn, to be expelled of the social housing that they occupy without right nor title, other families decided to be installed on the square of the school Joliot-Curie, with the support of Droit association for housing (DAL) in order to draw the attention and to obtain a roof - in due form, this time.
TRAFFIC OF SQUAT
But for the authorities, it is out of question which the squatteurs of Aubervilliers force to them the hand. “We cannot treat in priority the case of these people, underlines Roland Taysse, principal private secretary of the mayor (PCF). Some 3.800 requests for housing HLM are already in suffering.” The municipality considers that if it yielded, it would encourage the traffic of the “false leasing agreements”. In Aubervilliers, like other communes of Island-of-France, individuals open apartments for families without lodging - with the help of a remuneration which can go beyond the thousand of euros, according to Mr. Taysse. At present, 91 residences of office HLM are squattés; the phenomenon touches the district of Maladrerie particularly.
The mayor, Pascal Beaudet, thus decided to seize justice. Successfully: Monday September 3, the Court of Bankruptcy of Bobigny ordered the evacuation of the squatteurs. Three days after, the camping was dismounted by the police officers. But the families reinstalled a few meters further. From where a new punctuated intervention of the police force of incidents, in the night of Friday 7 Saturday September 8. Four people were challenged then slackened, Saturday.
Monday afternoon, the representatives of the squatteurs were to be received with the prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis to find a solution. One among them, Lacine Koné, ensures that the families are “determined”. “We want to live under decent conditions”, he says.
Iosaf, ta for informing us of that, link 2 cant be opened?
Not sure of the exact reasons for the movement of these West Africans to France, could be "environmental refugees", as refered to by the UN. Climate chaos is already bringing huge destruction to people in the developing world and now its affecting those in the "developed" world... This was one of the themes explored at the London climate camp, amongst other things, and people made points about this in some of the actions and some of the banners that were brought to BAA.
related info
Climate Change Creating Millions of "Eco Refugees," UN Warns
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/11/1118_05....html
Rising tide of global warming threatens Pacific island states
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?li...62554
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_refugee
WE ARE WINNING:
just days after climate camp 08 target is shelved, now climate camp target 07 gets the same treatment
http://www.politics.ie/environment/111536-direct-action...89890
The target of UK climate camp 2007 was the proposed expansion of Heathrow airport with a third runway, but what news have I just recieved from the lists...
Campaigners claim victory on third runway at Heathrow (streatham guardian)
Quote:
Campaigners protesting against a third runway at Heathrow Airport have declared victory after the airport’s owners announced it would not submit a planning application before the general election.
http://www.streathamguardian.co.uk/news/4676614.Campaig...hrow/
Whilst I welcome the cancellation of this third runaway at Heathrow, I would really doubt that it was all down to the Climate Camp and Direct Action however much I wished it to be so. I would say 98% of the reason is because of the global recession and the associated fact that passenger numbers have fallen and the realization is that things are not going to pick up and even if there is any sort of recovery, any growth in air passenger numbers will be slow. There is a recognition that people are in such debt that spending is going to be close to non-existant for quite awhile. It would be on this basis and the fact that the banks are no longer shovelling cash out the door that the runaway will have been cancelled.
It should be quite clear that while the numbers of people turning up to the various climate camps is reasonably good and there is plenty of support, in the UK in particular the State has been very heavy handed with their use of the police and issuing arrests to environmental activists. Fixing the climate is seen as getting in the way of the main business of capitalists and there are not about to give in any time soon to pleads of environmental sanity. Afterall that is why the global environment is in a mess. Why would they suddenly stop now? We shouldn't deceive ourselves that the environmental movement is more powerful than it really is.
Howya Terence
I agree, we should not over estimate where we, as climate change / envioronmental movement(s), are in terms of winning this battle. But it is critical to imagine more ingenious ways in which we will win. The exciting thing is that more people are talking about these topics, where as not so many years ago if you brought up these topics you were laughed at, many are thinking seriously about things and some are starting to take their first BIG steps with others to do something about it. That is great. This has to be encouraged. Also, we do have to realise just how big a battle we have here, agree with your analysis, but the critical thing, for me anyway, is to have HOPE, that we can win.
Just to add to things, another coal station in Scotland has now been put on hold, so thats 3 victories of sorts for US. waaaaayyyy haaaayyyy (always good to celebrate minor, and not so minor, events when possible)
Clean coal dealt second blow as Danish energy giant pulls out of Scottish plans
Dong Energy withdraws from 1.6GW Hunterston power station scheme just days after E.ON shelves Kingsnorth
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/12/dong-...plant
and heres fine article about this strange space we find ourselves now, from the guardian;
Cheers to the climate activists, it's been a week to remember
Campaigns by Climate Camp, Greenpeace, Plane Stupid and others are having a real impact, but will the government learn?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/oct/12/...peace
Incidently, you, and others might like to look at and participate in 2 other debates on p.ie about this theme:
http://www.politics.ie/environment/106415-s21-s22-world...92460
http://www.politics.ie/environment/111536-direct-action....html
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