Author: summer

Kitchen, kids space and kick ass workshops

Can you help run kids activ­i­ties at the sum­mer gath­er­ing? Or a wide game or craft activ­i­ty that every­one can get involved with?

Can you help in the kitchen? We need folks who are cre­ative and con­fi­dent in cater­ing for the mass­es, who can help make sure every­one gets fed!

Can you run a work­shop or offer some evening enter­tain­ment? Skill shares, wide games, a ceilidh even?!

If you can help fill one of these essen­tial roles dur­ing the gath­er­ing then drop us an email at earthfirst.uk@proton.me

Plans just announced by EWR to build a train maintenance depot and train sidings in the village of Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire.

Plans just announced by EWR to build a 24 hour train main­te­nance depot and train sid­ings in the vil­lage of Ful­bourn, as it has not been well adver­tised and the con­sul­ta­tion clos­es on 9th June.

It will involve a com­pul­so­ry pur­chase of Green Belt land and will be con­struct­ed adja­cent to the Ful­bourn chalk springs (the ‘Poor Well’) and streams and adja­cent to 3 sites of Spe­cial Sci­en­tif­ic Inter­est.

6 trains will be cleaned overnight between 10.30pm‑3.30am 7 days a week. Most­ly inter­nal clean­ing but some exter­nal clean­ing. There is no plan for where the water will come from for the exter­nal clean­ing. The area is severe­ly water deplet­ed with the vil­lage chalk streams dry­ing up for the last 3 sum­mers.

Each train will have 5 toi­lets which will be emp­tied into sep­tic tanks and the efflu­ent col­lect­ed by sludge trucks once a week. These sludge trucks will come via the Wilbra­hams (as will all the con­struc­tion traf­fic).

The chalk springs and streams that bor­der the planned Ful­bourn site risk being pol­lut­ed by leaks from the depot. The Envi­ron­men­tal Agency has doc­u­ment­ed many leaks from so-called ‘sealed’ clean­ing and toi­let man­age­ment sys­tems.

Ful­bourn is also one of the only loca­tions in the UK where swifts (a Red List species) nest) and the vil­lage has put huge efforts into putting up box­es and annu­al mon­i­tor­ing. They are like­ly to be dis­rupt­ed by this devel­op­ment as it will be oper­a­tional 10.30pm- 3.30pm and will have per­ma­nent night light­ing. The sid­ings will be raised to the light­ing will be very vis­i­ble for a wide dis­tance.

The site also bor­ders a des­ig­nat­ed ancient mon­u­ment and the vil­lage sits at the inter­sec­tion of Fleam Dyke and the Ick­nield Way mean­ing there are like­ly to be oth­er her­itage assets as yet undoc­u­ment­ed eg When the rail­way was built in mid-1840s a Roman vil­la was found but remains unex­ca­vat­ed.

The online web­site from EWR and the recent con­sul­ta­tion indi­cate that an alter­nate site out­side Fox­ton was also con­sid­ered and was acknowl­edged by EWR to be a less sen­si­tive site from a natural/heritage and social (few­er hous­es direct­ly affect­ed) per­spec­tive. It is also adja­cent to a sewage works which would mean no need for stor­age and trans­porta­tion of sewage.

The rea­son this alter­na­tive site was turned down was it would be fur­ther to roll emp­ty trains to and from Cam­bridge sta­tion.

Once Green Belt and chalk streams are gone, they can nev­er be restored. It’s time to mobi­lize our net­works and fight this!

See more info about EWR’s plans, and respond to the con­sul­ta­tion here: https://eastwestrail.co.uk/consultation/consultation2026

Sign the peti­tion and get involved with the local cam­paign here  https://save-fulbourn.netlify.app 

Drop an email to earthfirst.uk@proton.me to link up with EF!ers who care deeply about this issue and want to take at a stand against it!!

 

 

 

 

Summer Gathering 2026

Earth First Sum­mer Gath­er­ing 2026
12th- 17th August, Peak Dis­trict
Near­est Train Sta­tion: Sheffield

Hear ye, Hear ye!! You are invit­ed to five days of cross-move­ment pol­li­na­tion and sol­i­dar­i­ty in the form of work­shops, skill shares, crafts, games and polit­i­cal edu­ca­tion. These gath­er­ings are a space for those who believe in the lib­er­a­tion of all life to put our heads togeth­er and dream new worlds into being. Come along and learn about past envi­ron­men­tal strug­gles and move­ment vic­to­ries, bio­cen­trism, green anar­chy, cur­rent direct action and social jus­tice cam­paigns, and let’s fig­ure out how we can tear the cap­i­tal­ist sys­tem a new one.

Beau­ti­ful sur­round­ings, kid’s space, live music and late-night jams, deli­cious veg­an scran, and much more, all with­in a stones throw of Sheffield! Bring ya hik­ing boots and your danc­ing shoes, it’s gonna be glo­ri­ous!

More info includ­ing about acces­si­bil­i­ty and trans­port, well­be­ing and covid will be shared here near­er the time. No need to sign up, just turn up and bring ya mates. If you need to get in touch, if you have a pro­pos­al or have any Qs you can email earthfirst.uk@proton.me

We don’t rely on algo­rithms or adverts to get the word out about these gath­er­ings, we rely on you shar­ing this with your com­rades and net­works xxa black and white poster depicting a fire breathing eel burning down industry, their body is adorned with symbols of direct action including spray cans, chains and tools.

Lakenheath Peace Camp: 1st-6th April

Hel­lo EF!ers, this is your offi­cial invite to Lak­en­heath Inter­na­tion­al Peace Camp — April 1st — 6th with an EF! Night shift on April 5th from 5pm.

Bring what you need…sleeping bags, small tent (altho some shel­ter avail­able), food to share, songs and poet­ry. More info on what to expect on lakenheathallianceforpeace.org.uk

We ask folks to read the EF! anti oppres­sion state­ment and take a covid test before attend­ing, wear a mask both to pro­tect each oth­er from germs and sur­veil­lance — Our immuno-com­pro­mised friends are attend­ing and we got­ta look after each oth­er <3

Here’s a quick run down of stuff that is already sched­uled  — the sched­ule below is pinched from Lak­en­heath Alliance For Peace, you can donate to them here
There’s loads of oppor­tu­ni­ties to get involved, to make con­nec­tions, to learn and scheme about how we dis­man­tle the mil­i­tary indus­tri­al com­plex:

Wednesday 1st April: Set Up

Set­ting up the camp and the vig­il out­side the main gate at ‘RAF’ Lak­en­heath

Thursday 2nd April: Outreach Day,

Leaflet­ing in Bran­don and pos­si­bly oth­er near­by towns.

Friday 3rd April: Environment Day

The impact of mil­i­tarism of the envi­ron­ment with speak­ers and work­shops.

Saturday 4th April: Give Peace a Chance (12noon – 3pm)

Peo­ple will be arriv­ing from var­i­ous parts of the coun­try includ­ing coach­es from Lon­don. We will have var­i­ous speak­ers dis­cussing the issues around the return of nuclear weapons to the UK and oth­er issues relat­ed to US bases in the UK.

Sunday 5th April: Coming Together – Rising Up

Mak­ing the links between dif­fer­ent cam­paigns.

EF! Night shift at the gate from 5pm till sun rise

Monday 6th April: Grand Finale – Visions Into Action

With net­work­ing dur­ing the camp we will turn ideas into action. From cam­paigns like Dont­BankOn­The­Bomb to more active protest.