Early yesterday residents of the Mainshill Solidarity Camp in South Lanarkshire stopped logging for the day by putting their bodies and ingenuity between machinery and the trees, rigging up a sky raft across a logging path used by heavy machinery to rip up unoccupied parts of the site.
In the past week Scottish Woodlands Ltd have been removing trees from the site of the camp. The clear felling is facilitating the creation of a new open cast coal mine on the site by Scottish Coal Ltd. Despite local outrage at the development plan and over 700 letters of objection sent to the council in protest, plans are going ahead to create what could become the 5th mine in this already heavily polluted area of Scotland.
But people from all over the world and all walks of life are determined to stop them! Residents of the Solidarity Camp suspended a sky raft above the access road with one person in it, effectively preventing the tree harvester from gaining access to part of the wood where felling was to resume. The blockade lasted for 8 hours, after which one arrest was made at 12:30pm.
Residents of the camp condemn the behavior of Scottish Woodlands Ltd in the last few weeks, who have endangered peoples’ lives by working dangerously close to tree houses and continuing work despite being within a distance deemed inappropriate by health and safety standards.
Despite dangerous conditions and worsening weather, campers remain determined to continue fighting against the injustice of this development and to stand in solidarity with the local residents of Douglas who have been ignored at every level of the planning system.
As one inhabitant of Mainshill camp site stated ”We will not allow work to continue on the Mainshill site as long as we are here. Plans for this new open cast coal mine are a blatant case of putting profit before the health of Douglas Valley residents and environmental concerns, in particular climate change.”
The camp needs YOUR support today. Go to http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/ for information on what help is needed, and how to get to the site.
No more mines in the Douglas valley! No New Coal!
If we reported yesterday that the attempt to remain in the trees of Bekea (Galdakao) had failed, today we have to report that activists are back to it!! Somehow this shows the determination of the movement (hope it keeps this way!). More than twenty activists entered the building site for the High Speed Train of Bekea (near Bilbao) and some climbed up again to some trees with banners and pans. The struggle continues!!
The campaign against the High Speed Train doesn’t rest over here in the Basque Country. Funny enough: in both sides of it (if you can consider there are such), in the French administrated as ell as in the Spanish one. Next Saturday 17th October a demo has been called in Baiona, where people from ‘both sides’ will attend . Meanwhile the latest attempt to climb trees and defend the woods has failed today when activists were taken down by the Basque police (yes, there is one – brutal,fascist and feared as much as the Spanish and French ones!!). This new attempt aimed to continue the success of the last weeks when activists remained for two weeks up in centenary birch trees in woods facing removal. This action, in some way the first one of its kind after camps, sit-ins, etc, triggered a series of actions all over the Basque Country. Activists climb centric trees of their own cities and towns to show solidarity and to take the message. Without any doubts, the most mediatic of such actions was the climbing of the Gernika tree. This is the historic oak tree which ancient Basque chieftains gathered around. The one targeted by the nazis, the Condor Legion, when the well known bombing of this city. However this seems to be the only tree that really matters to basque politicians. 