Ffos y fran coal train verdict + action snaps

13 of us were in court today (13.8.10) to be sen­tenced for blockad­ing the rail­way at Ffos y fran mine back in April, when sev­er­al peo­ple locked on to the tracks in order to stop a train car­ry­ing coal to Aberthaw, the dirt­i­est pow­er sta­tion in Wales.

We received con­di­tion­al dis­charges and restrain­ing orders away from the mine and the pow­er sta­tion. Four peo­ple were ordered to pay com­pen­sa­tion costs to Miller Argent, the com­pa­ny who owns the mine, The judge acknowl­edged that the action had been car­ried out care­ful­ly to ensure there would be no dan­ger to any­one.

With their hands in the pock­ets of cor­po­ra­tions, it’s not sur­pris­ing that gov­ern­ments failed us at the Copen­hagen cli­mate sum­mit. We can’t rely on their false solu­tions any­more. It’s up to ordi­nary peo­ple tak­ing direct action to stop cli­mate chaos. Fos­sil fuel extrac­tion dev­as­tates com­mu­ni­ties and is being resist­ed around the world, from open­cast min­ing in Merthyr to tar sands oil in Alber­ta, Cana­da.

Mean­while, Cli­mate Camp Cym­ru set up camp today near Nant Helen and Sel­er open­cast mines, else­where in south Wales.

http://www.risingtide.org.uk

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