Take Back the Land! 12–18 July Douglas Valley action camp

Open­cast coal min­ing in the Dou­glas Val­ley is about the rul­ing class destroy­ing com­mu­ni­ties for their own finan­cial gain. Its about eco­log­i­cal destruc­tion on a mas­sive scale for capitalism’s unquench­able thirst for cheap ener­gy. Its about absen­tee fat-cat land-lords mak­ing mil­lions off land that shouldn’t be theirs. Its about moral­ly cor­rupt local (and nation­al) gov­ern­ment putting prof­it before peo­ple. Join us 12–18 July in the Dou­glas Val­ley, South Lanark­shire, to build on 20 years of com­mu­ni­ty strug­gle and four years of direct action against the UK’s biggest open­cast min­ing com­pa­ny. It’s time to Take Back the Land!

Take Back the Land! will be a space for tak­ing action, shar­ing skills and learn­ing through doing. It will be a wel­com­ing and safe space for all those wish­ing to chal­lenge the social injus­tice and envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion caused by open­cast coal min­ing oper­a­tions in Scot­land and through­out the world.

Build­ing on pre­vi­ous years expe­ri­ence at camps such as the Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp, the Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp and events such as the Out­door Skill­shares, we will be estab­lish­ing a base for a week of high impact action and low impact, sus­tain­able liv­ing.

In sol­i­dar­i­ty with the com­mu­ni­ties of the Dou­glas Val­ley, we will be direct­ly con­fronting the pow­er struc­tures and infra­struc­tures which have dom­i­nat­ed and scarred the val­ley for too long with a mass action planned for the 14th July and plen­ty of room for skilling up, recruit­ment and affin­i­ty group actions to be tak­en.

The camp loca­tion will be announced near­er to the time, but will be in close prox­im­i­ty to many of the open­cast coal mines in the area.

Whilst we recog­nise the camp to be a space to take action against exter­nal oppres­sion we also hope a cre­ate a space which chal­lenges socialised behav­iours that oppress and exclude oth­ers and we will try and make the camp as inclu­sive a space as pos­si­ble, for all peo­ple wish­ing to be involved.

We are call­ing for all those wish­ing to take or sup­port actions in sol­i­dar­i­ty with com­mu­ni­ty self deter­mi­na­tion, against destruc­tive fos­sil fuel indus­tries and towards a more sus­tain­able and just soci­ety, to come to South Lanark­shire from 12–18th July and help Take Back the Land!

More updates are on their way. If you wish to find out more infor­ma­tion or con­tact us for any rea­son please get in touch: contact@coalactionscotland.org.uk