Climate Chaos – Earth First!

Roll Back The Tracks Bike Ride

What do you need to bring?

– bicycle 🙂
– bicycle panniers
– tent, sleeping mat and sleeping bag
– headlamp/flashlight
– power bank for charging electronics
– bottles for carrying drinking water
– a sealable tupperware for carrying food and eating out of, mug and cutlery
– toiletries and medication
– clothes to stay warm and dry
– first aid kit
– a basic cycle repair kit if you have one
– banners and flags to attach to your bike! (no XR banners please)
– cash for donations for food.
We are looking into continuing the bike ride along the second leg of the proposed route from Birmingham to Leeds from the 20th to roughly the 27th of August. For this leg, you will also need:
– camping stove & gas
– cooking equipment

Camping Sites

We have tried where possible to get permission to use camping sites. However, in some places we will be trespassing, and as such, facilities will be minimal. We have selected places that we feel are suitable to camp for the nights of the 15th-19th.
On the night of the 20th, we will be wild camping in a park in Brum centre, and from then on, wild camping in locations that we have not yet visited, and therefore we can’t guarantee they will be brilliant places to camp.

Food & water

On the first leg of the ride from Manchester to Birmingham, we will have a catering team following us in a vehicle. With volunteer support from us, they will provide one cooked, vegan, evening meal each day, and provide the ingredients for us to make our own breakfast and packed lunches.
Volunteers in the kitchen will need to wear a face mask and observe physical distancing.
Donations for food are greatly appreciated, though no-one will be turned away for lack of funds.
On the second leg, we will NOT be catered for, so if you are cycling from Brum to Leeds, you will need to buy your own food and cook for yourself.
Most of the camping sites have running water nearby. However, you need to have at least 2 1L drinking bottles with you on the ride, and to fill them up whenever possible on route to campsites. Stay hydrated!

Toilets

At some of the campsites, there are toilets. Where there are not toilets, we will have a bike trailer toilet cubicle in tow, and a spade. Collectively, we will have to dig a pit for everyone to poo in. If the idea of pooping in a pit grosses you out, then make sure you use public toilets on route.

Checking your bike is ready to join Roll Back the Tracks

Lots of different bikes can make this trip, but it needs to be in good working order.

Please make sure you have at least one water bottle holder on your bike. You also need to think about how you will carry your luggage. You need either a pannier rack bolted to your bike frame to carry pannier bags with your belongings, or you’ll need to bring bike packing bags to carry luggage directly on the frame. Please don’t come with a backpack of all your stuff, you will be sweaty and uncomfortable quickly. Full suspension mountain bikes are not recommended.

If you don’t cycle regularly, or you are borrowing a bike for the trip check that the bike fits – take it for a test ride of a few hours to see how comfortable it is. You need to be able to stand over the frame without it touching you between your legs and be able to comfortable reach the handlebars and brakes.

Check your brakes

Rim brakes (the brakes act on the metal circular part of your wheel)

• pull on the brakes one at a time to ensure that they can stop the bike
• check there is plenty of rubber across the whole of all the pads (especially if your brakes are noisy)
• check that the brakes just touch onto metal and not onto the rubber of the tyre
• check that when you pull the brake lever (the part in your hand when riding) the lever doesn’t touch the handlebars.

Disk brakes

• Check that the front and the back brake stops your bike (rather than when both are pressed at the same time).
• Check the rotary wheel is straight and firmly attached.
• If the brakes are ringing you need to get them adjusted.

Wheels

• Check that quick release wheels are properly tightened. You should be able to read the word ‘closed’ when they are;
• otherwise, check that wheel nuts are tight, especially if you remove your front wheel.
• Clean the braking surface if you have rim brakes – use washing up liquid in water and a rag.
• Check the tyres are fully inflated. The pressure is written on the side of your tyre.
• Check the tyres still have a pattern across the surface and do not bulge.
• Check that the brakes haven’t rubbed a grove in the rubber of the tyre.
• Check that the wheel runs in a straight line – do this by lifting one end of your bike and pushing the wheel round fast, it should move smoothly and not rub.
• Look at your wheels to ensure all the spokes are there and squeeze them in pairs to check they are of a similar tightness.

Frame

• Make sure there are no cracks or big dents in the frame.
• Check the bolts attaching mud guards, water bottles and the pannier rack are all tight.
• Can you move the handlebars fluidly?
• Could they be too loose? Put the front brake on, turn the front wheel 90 degrees and then see if the front of the bike rocks if you push forward on the turned handlebar. If so, it needs tightened.

Gears

• Look at your chain and everything it touches. Dirty? It really is worthwhile using an old tooth brush to clean each link and contact point before re-applying oil to each link and then removing any excess with a rag.
• Move the pedals and ensure they can freely turn round completely.
• Check that the bike can go into all of its gears. There are going to be hills, so you’ll need a range of gears.

Got a creaking bike?

Can you work out where it is coming from? If standing up to pedal makes it stop check your saddle, if it is worse when you peddle hard it is likely your bottom bracket.

Got a problem with one or more of these areas? If yo don’t know how to fix it find a friend who does or take it to an independent bike shop – but watch out they may not be able to do this at short notice.

Please bring a spare inner tube with you in case you get a puncture, the size is written on the side of your tyre. If you don’t know how to change a flat tyre still bring a spare inner tube and we can fix it together.

Having a fully working bike is your responsibility.
We are meeting together on the 14th at Ryebank Fields Protest Camp in Manchester to check bikes. Please bring a bike which is in full working order as we may sadly have to ask you not to come if you’re bike isn’t up to the job and we can’t get parts to fix it.

How can you help?

• Know of anywhere we (max 50 riders) could sleep in the following areas?
◦ North Cheshire
◦ Birmingham Centre (ideally near Digbeth)
◦ West Leicestershire
◦ Sheffield
◦ Leeds
• Involved in a critical Mass or cycling group in Brum, Nottingham, Sheffield or Leeds? Help us organise some cyclists into a critical mass!
• Have you got a bike sound system you could bring on part of the ride?
• Do a workshop on route. Sing a song round the campfire.
• Get creative and make some flags or banners for our bikes!
• Volunteer in the kitchen.
• Tow the bike trailer toilet for a few hours.
• Spare some change? We are trying to raise 2000 pounds to fund the project. can you help either by donating or sharing? Here´s the link to the crowdfunder:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/roll-back-the-tracks

Drop us an email on rollbackthetracks@riseup.net to RSVP or for more info.

NORTHUMBERLANDIA SPEAKS OUT AGAINST COAL MINE

A contentious land sculpture was brought to life today as it joined growing opposition to a new opencast coal mine.

To mark the start of a public inquiry into the controversial Druridge Bay coal mine, a group calling themselves “Northumberlandia Speaks” used the power of art to give voice to Northumberlandia, a public sculpture in rural Northumberland. The structure, also known as Slag Alice, was constructed by the Banks Group to compensate for the environmental damage caused by the adjoining Shotton Surface Mine.

The mining company’s plans to mine coal near local beauty spot Druridge Bay have attracted widespread opposition, and today’s action vocalised that opposition. Much of this opposition has centred around the Save Druridge campaign, who have funded legal opposition to the mine.

The campaigners used a banner reading “end coal now” to suggest the views of the reclining woman depicted in the sculpture. They also constructed an image of a wind turbine in her clenched right hand.

Rob Noyes, a spokesperson for the group, explained:

“Northumberlandia is sold as ‘a landscape for the community to enjoy’ and yet the Banks Group want to deprive the Druridge Bay community of the landscape they already enjoy. I’m sure that if the landscape could, it would speak out. And it would say ‘End Coal Now’.”

As well as the dangerous environmental impacts of a coal mine near Druridge Bay, campaigners and local residents are concerned about the threat to wildlife and the local tourism industry, which relies on Druridge Bay’s status as a natural beauty spot.

Although the Banks Group claims the new mine could create 50 jobs, it is unclear what would happen to these after the mine’s five-year lifespan, or whether this could compensate for the job losses that would result from a decline in tourism.

Jack Marley, a local resident who participated in the protest, said:

“I didn’t actually even know there was a new coal mine planned until recently. I don’t understand why anyone would want to open a new coal mine when it’s so obviously a declining industry. The North East has had a great coal-mining past, but it’s not an industry that can bring the growth to our area that we need so much. It makes much more sense to create local jobs in the renewable sector.”

Noyes added: “A new mine at Druridge Bay will create less than 50 short term jobs and bring a daily traffic of 300 HGV vehicles to a calm oasis. While we await the results of the inquiry, we can only reflect on what a beautiful place Northumberland is, at sites like this. Anyone who comes to the area can see how a new mine would completely destroy the bay, and why? So a dying industry can wreck our climate.”

The inquiry starts tomorrow, and a final decision will be reached in the autumn.

Why we shut down the UK’s largest coal mine – a call to action

On 8th May 2017, we were sentenced to pay £10,000 compensation charges to Miller Argent Ltd, after pleading guilty to aggravated trespass by shutting down Ffos-y-fran coal mine for one day.

by Andrea Brock, Chris Field, Rick Felgate, Kim Turner and The Canary

In the early hours of 21st April 2017, under the banner of Earth First! and Reclaim the Power, our group of five blockaded the UK’s largest opencast coal mine to disrupt the ecologically and socially disastrous mining operations of Miller Argent (South Wales) Ltd.

At 5am, two of us blocked all vehicle access to the mine by using D-locks and an armtube to lock onto the cattle grids at the entrance gate. Before long, on-site security became aware of our presence and called the police. Meanwhile, three of us hiked over the surrounding common land and the edge of the mine – sneaking past cows and security personnel. We climbed down towards the bottom of the vast hole that Miller Argent’s operations have ripped into the earth to find their 300 tonne hydraulic excavators. These are used to extract coal from the mine – five million tonnes of coal have already been extracted from Ffos-y-fran, with another six million to go – fifteen to sixteen hours a day. Following a little exploration of the excavator, we used D-locks to attach ourselves to the machine, got books, earphones, sleeping bags and sandwiches out and prepared for a long day in the pit. We were locked on for a total of 10 and a half hours, shutting down all coal mining and transport of coal off the site. After having been cut out, we were arrested for aggravated trespass, disruption of lawful activity and intimidation of mining personnel.

Perhaps the most intimidating of us all was one who was dressed as a bright yellow canary. Historically, canaries were brought down into underground mines to act as warning signals: the death of the little bird indicated toxic levels of gas and told miners to get out of the pit. Similarly, we wanted to highlight the threat that mining poses to neighbouring communities and the global climate – coal mining is causing irreversible damage, particularly to those least responsible, especially in the global South. That’s why the climate crisis is a racist crisis.

However, coal mining is not only a global issue. It’s also an issue of local air pollution, lack of democracy, accountability and environmental justice. For over a decade, campaigners from Residents Against Ffos-y-fran and the United Valleys Action Group have been fighting the mine. With the mine only 37 metres from the closest homes in Merthyr Tydfil, they are suffering from pollution, dust, noise and vibration every day. In March this year, the UN Special Rapporteur On Human Rights & Toxics called for a health inquiry into cancer and asthma rates in the communities neighbouring Ffos-y-fran, criticising the lack of government response to local complaints. Five hundred local residents have attempted to take court action against the mine, but their application was refused by the High Court as they were deemed unable to afford it.

Ffos-y-fran illustrates the failures of environmental regulation in the UK, the dominance of corporate over human interests, and the injustices associated with the system. As local communities continue to suffer, and as we approach runaway climate change, Miller Argent continue their mining at Ffos-y-fran, causing ecological destruction and health impacts under the name of “land reclamation”. In fact, the company is trying to expand its operations and has applied for a permit to open a second mine nearby, which would lead to the destruction of highly biodiverse and unique habitat – supposed to be “offset” elsewhere (as if the destruction of nature could easily be compensated for with the protection of nature elsewhere). Currently, the company is appealing against the council rejection of their proposal. The ongoing ecological and social destruction at Ffos-y-fran mine shows the failure of the current political economic system to deal with the multiple social and ecological crises, and illustrates its structural dependence on fossil fuel extraction.

Corporate fossil fuel interests have become institutionalised as state interests, to be defended at all costs through collaboration between private security personnel, corporations, state forces and police who suppress, co-opt and intimidate resistance. The court’s willingness to deter protesters on behalf of Miller Argent by imposing these ridiculously high compensation payments has exemplified this today. The system is based on and has entrenched our addiction to fossil fuels to the extent that we cannot envision a different system. In fact, some have argued, it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of fossil capitalism.

Coal kills!

Until recently, Ffos-y-fran mine supplied coal to one of Europe’s dirtiest and most toxic power stations, Aberthaw, the third largest emitter of nitrogen oxides in the EU and responsible for 17% of Wales’ greenhouse gas emissions. In 2014, the European Court of Justice confirmed that the power station has been in breach of EU air pollution regulation since 2008. Yet, rather than shutting the plant down once and for all, the government is actually paying the operator, RWE nPower, some £27 million pounds to keep it operational. Recently, the power station stopped burning Welsh coal, instead relying on imported coal (most likely from Russia and Colombia where social and environmental mining impacts are even worse). Ffos-y-fran continues to operate, however, supplying other industries – RWE nPower could resort back to its coal any day, and we have no reason to believe that they won’t.

Whilst David Cameron’s government committed to phasing out coal by 2025, this is not soon enough for the communities around Ffos-y-fran, nor is it soon enough for the many people who are already suffering from climate change, and the many more who will in the future. And with Brexit, the reality of this commitment is cast into doubt, especially given Theresa May’s legacy of conducting u-turns in many important policy areas and the commitment to leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

Over and over again, governments have shown that they cannot be trusted to deal with the multiple social and ecological crises we are facing; they are part of the problem, not the solution. Their responses have been driven by corporate interests, further entrenching and institutionalising inequalities and injustices through racist border policies, false solutions and green capitalist fantasies of never ending economic growth, market solutions and private property. The ongoing monetary valuation and commodification of nature is justified by the need to ‘make nature pay for its own protection,’ or ‘selling nature to save it’ and based on the construction of nature as ‘ecosystem services’ or ‘natural capital,’ effectively turning it into a global currency to be traded on markets. This approach only thinly veils the ongoing and intensifying destruction of our planet and the deepening of global and local inequalities along axes of race, gender and many others. Twenty-five years of climate negotiations have laid bare the corporate capture of the international policy processes and exposed the need to take matters into our own hands – to go to where climate change is caused, to reclaim power and to “shut shit down”. The global coal industry is at the forefront of climate change, of biodiversity loss, exploitation and degradation of social and ecological communities.

Film of the action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYOMyvRBY_s

We need a diversity of tactics and strategies to end coal. In resistance to Ffos-y-fran, local people have fought numerous court battles and a public inquiry, and organised petitions and protests over the last decade, succeeding in having a second mine rejected. By disrupting operations and shutting down the mine, we hit the mine operator where it hurts most – in the first two hours of the blockade alone, we have been told, the company allegedly lost £33,000. Only through continued direct action, and by opposing all types of destruction, authority and oppression can we start to build the world we want to see. Centralising power structures and authority are inherently environmentally exploitative and socially oppressive. We want a socio-economic system run for the needs of people, not for profit; and according to the principles of solidarity, co-operation and mutual aid, not competitiveness. This system is based on sharing, voluntary collaboration, and communal organising and runs on local, decentralised, communally controlled electricity. That’s the world we are fighting for.

If you support our action and can help us pay for these ludicrous charges in any way, please donate here.

For those who came before, and those who will come after!

A shorter version of this blogpost has been published in the Huffington Post.

Rolling Resistance against Fracking, July 2017, Preston New Road

Since Cuadrilla began building a fracking pad at Preston New Road near Blackpool in January 2017, people have been at the roadside every day, putting their bodies on the line to stop this toxic industry. The resistance is working – supply chain companies are pulling out and the building schedule has been delayed by months.

July. Lancashire. Be there.

This summer, as Cuadrilla gets nearer to trying to drill, Reclaim the Power is joining the frontline struggle in Lancashire to support and reinforce the amazing local resistance, and we invite you to join.

For the month of July, we’ll be providing training, resources, and support to take creative action against Cuadrilla and the fracking supply chain. We will help continue to halt their work in its tracks and fight for a clean, safe, affordable energy system for everyone across the UK.

Whether you’re part of an action group already, or you’re new to taking action and want to test things out, there’s roles for everyone, and support to take part. Whether you can come for 2 days or 2 weeks, whether you can chop veg, brew tea or take action – this resistance movement needs you, and we’ll be lending our support to local activity however we can. More details on the Rolling Resistance in July are here.

In the meantime, if you can get to Preston New Road sooner, then there’s logistical details here of the daily protests happening already. We’ll update with a full schedule of events for July and secure sign up form shortly, for now, sign up to stay in the loop.gn Up:

Get ready. Get spreading the word. Get July in the diary.

Check out the wrap-up of our Break the Chain fortnight of action in April.

To get involved and trained up ready for July, join one of our upcoming Direct Action trainings.

More details | Background

About Reclaim the Power

Reclaim the Power is a UK-based direct action network fighting for social, environmental and economic justice. We aim to build a broad based movement, working in solidarity with frontline communities to effectively confront environmentally-destructive industries and the social and economic forces driving climate change.

We’ve been working to oppose fracking since 2013 when we organised mass action at Balcombe. Since then, we’ve hosted anti-fracking action camps in Blackpool and Didcot, and taken countless actions to expose and resist the industry.

Lancaster Climate Action blockade A.E.Yates, met with violent response

CAMPAIGNERS gathered outside a Bolton engineering firm this morning protesting about its role in a forthcoming fracking project in Lancashire.

Two anti-fracking campaigners lie down in road to prevent access at AE Yates, Lostock Industrial Estate

CAMPAIGNERS gathered outside a Bolton engineering firm this morning protesting about its role in a forthcoming fracking project in Lancashire.

Two women from Lancaster Climate Action blockaded themselves at the entrance of AE Yates Ltd at the Lostock Industrial Estate blocking all vehicle movement on site for around three hours.

They were met with a violent response from workers who endangered life and limb by assaulting protestors.

Last year The Bolton News reported how AE Yates had secured a £1.5 million contract to build a shale gas exploration site at Little Plumpton site in Lancashire by drilling firm Cuadrilla.

Rose White, of Lancaster Climate Action, said: “There is a strong, sustainable and swelling campaign against the fracking industry.

“Campaigners have a thorough analysis of both the industry itself and the political context around it and are hitting hard at weak spots and bottle necks.

“The blockades, both here and elsewhere, have resulting in all work being halted.

“That, along with actions like today’s targeting of the supply chain in Bolton, is making investors very nervous.

“At a time when they should have been rocketing upwards, shares in the fracking companies main source of funding are crashing down.

“Soon they won’t have the support of the people and very soon they won’t have the support from investors either.”

One of the women staging the protest, Sarah Shore, said that action was needed to send a message to all businesses in the fracking supply chain.

She said: “If you’re supplying an industry that causes catastrophic climate change, pollutes the air we breathe, pollutes our premium farming land and our drinking water, then you should expect to be disrupted.”

Katie Marsh, another campaigner at the blockade said that the action is much bigger than just a fracking issue.

She said: “It’s also about democracy. After months of careful consideration, Lancashire County Council said no to fracking, however, central government intervened and gave the green light to frack in what some Tories are calling the ‘desolate North’.

“This clearly highlights the complete disregard Westminster has for local democracy and for our wonderful county.”

Paul Boron, managing director at AE Yates said: “These protests have been going on since the beginning of January.

“Today people lay down in front of our gates and prevented our wagons from getting in or out of the site for a few hours.

“We called police who arrived within the hour before the protestors were moved on sometime after 9.30am.

“It generally disrupts business but it is just something that we have to deal with.

“I hope that the police will continue to support us.”

A spokesperson from GMP said: “Police were called at around 8.20am on to reports of a group of protestors on Cranfield Road, Lostock Industrial Estate.

“Officers attended and the protestors left the scene.”

Earth First! & RtP shut down UK’s biggest opencast coal mine on the UK’s first day without electricity generated by coal

Five people from Reclaim the Power and Earth First! stopped work at the UK’s largest opencast coal mine, Ffos-y-fran near Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales for ten hours today.

Excavator Occupied

Five people from Reclaim the Power and Earth First! stopped work at the UK’s largest opencast coal mine, Ffos-y-fran near Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales for ten hours today. Three people locked to an excavator with a banner saying ‘End Coal’. Two people locked to a key access road, preventing coal leaving the coal mine to the railhead. Every day this week a train has transported 2200 tonnes to RWE npower’s Aberthaw near Barry, South Wales.[1] Aberthaw is the UK’s dirtiest power station[2]. Today is also the UK’s first working day where no electricity has been generated from coal in the UK.

Miller Argent’s Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine is the largest in the UK. Recently the United Nations called for an investigation into cancer and childhood asthma incidences in the population near to the mine.[3] The protestors are joining local peoples’ call for the full restoration of Ffos-y-fran now.

Alice who is dressed as a canary locked to an excavator said, “Today the UK hasn’t generated any electricity from coal. This shows that it is possible to move away from destructive fossil fuel generation. Neither coal nor gas can achieve the type of greenhouse-gas reductions demanded by international bodies such as the IPCC. The shift away from coal would not be possible without decades of community resistance and action from the movement for climate justice. In traditional underground mines canaries were used to alert miners to air pollution. Today we, as canaries are warning that we need to take urgent action against coal to tackle air pollution and climate change”

Alex, also locked on added, “RWE npower talk of swapping to imported coal, but while the conditions surrounding Ffos-y-fran mine are unacceptable, the situation for people living close to the coal mines in Russia and Colombia, where most of the UK’s power station coal comes from, are completely unbearable. It is long past time Ffos-y-fran was restored and absolutely time that Aberthaw was shut down.” signal-2017-04-21-104703

In 2015 38% of coal imported to the UK came from Russia and 29% came from Colombia.[4] In these countries the situations surrounding the opencast coal mines amount to cultural genocide, with indigenous and settled communities being forced from their land.[5] Miller Argent’s main customer for coal from Ffos-y-fran is Aberthaw power station.

Sian Farrar, a local resident of Rymney, a neighbouring village, said, “Those of us who live here see the black coal dust outside every day – we are breathing this in constantly.. Add to that the more dangerous invisible pollutants from the power stations, and it’s clear this industry is toxic for local communities, in Wales and globally. I stand in solidarity with global communities affected by UK coal-fired power – RWE must stop sourcing coal from my backyard, and must not subject other communities to these impacts.’ signal-2017-04-21-105122

Chris who is currently locked to the access road said, “I am taking this action today because RWE npower is burning Welsh coal which when burnt releases high levels of CO2 contributing to climate change and nitrogen oxides causing respiratory illness. [6] The European Union have ruled against the UK government for allowing this NOXs pollution to happen, but no action has been taken. This is simply not acceptable.”[7]

They continued, “The solution to the air pollution We need to stop burning fossil fuels. caused by burning Welsh coal isn’t to import coal instead, as RWE npower suggest. Swapping air pollution in the UK for coal dust which contaminates the water, land and air in Russia, Colombia or even Australia, to keep Aberthaw going simply cannot go ahead. [8]All coal mines need to be restored and the power stations must be shut down now.”

This action is part of a series of demonstrations against Aberthaw power station calling for it, and all other UK coal power stations to close. [9]

Notes to Editors

Contact press@reclaimthepower.org.uk or phone Sarah Squires on 07436629608

A Welsh speaker is available to speak as a local resident affected by the mine.

References

[1] Train information gathered from realtimetrains. Eg: today a train is due to depart at 14.45 www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/advanced/ABTHPS/2017/04/21/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=freight&order=wtt

[2] WWF, Sandbag and others (Oct 2016) Lifting Europe’s Dark Cloud P26 In the first half of 2016 the plant emitted 11,003 tonnes of NOx, almost four times the 4,800 tonnes permitted under European Union Industrial Emissions Directive limits.

[3]Wales Online (09/03/17)UN expert calls for opencast mine investigation after concerns about the impact on health

[4] Calculations from HMRC coal import statistics

[5] Myski local civic organisation “Revival of Kazas and the Shor people”, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) and Institute for Ecology and Action Anthropology (INFOE),Discrimination against Shor communities in Myski municipal district, Kemerovo Oblast, Russian Federation P10-17

[6] Friends of the Earth Cymru (September 2016) Air quality and health impacts of Aberthaw power station http://foe.cymru/sites/default/files/FOE_APS_report_final.pdf P2

[7] Judgement of the Court (7 ^th Chamber) 21 September 2016 (*) Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations — Directive 2001/80/EC — Article 4(3) — Annex VI, Part A — Limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the air from large combustion plants — Application —Aberthaw Power Station

[8] Luz Ángela Uriana Epiayu, of the Wayuu in Colombia said, “My son Moisés Daniel is sick with a high fever and a dry cough, and he is having trouble breathing… He is still only three years old. I live very close the Cerrejón coal mine… Because of the coal dust created by Cerrejón Moisés gets this dry cough… He breathes contaminated air twenty-four hours a day.” Uriana Epiayu, LA (2017) RWE npower Colombian coal is killing our children! Close Aberthaw!Cerrejon is the largest Colombian coal mine it supplies Drax power station and other UK coal power stations. It is owned by Glencore, Anglo- American and BHP Billiton, all listed on the London Stock Exchange.

[9] This action is the latest in a series of actions against Aberthaw power station. These have included a blockade of the power stations main entrance using two tripods for over 4 hours in December. 150 people demanded “Shut Aberthaw: Green jobs now!” at a demonstration against the power station on Saturday 28^th January organised by Reclaim the Power, Coal Action Network and United Valley’s Action Group and a demonstration at RWE Npower’s headquarters in Swindon earlier in January.

Campaign Against Manchester Airport 20th Anniversary Rally 20/5/17

On 20th May 1997 police, baileffs, and unknown men-in-black, started removing protesters from the site of what is now Manchester Airport’s Runway 2. It would take four weeks to remove everyone from the tunnels and the trees, and twenty years later they still haven’t built another runway anywhere in the UK.

Twenty years later we’re going back, to remember old times, and to remind the world of the terrible environmental cost of air travel.

If you were there, if you wanted to be there, if you saw us on TV, or if you just want to protest the climate impact of aviation, please come along.

If you want to walk to the rally, we will meet at 11:45AM at the free car park by Northcliffe Chapel, on Altringham Road, Styal (SK9 4JQ) for a 2 mile walk along the beautiful Bollin Valley. The path can be muddy in bad weather, and is unsuitable for puchchairs or people with mobility problems.

The rally will be held at 1PM by the roundabout where the footpath from Styal crosses the A538, behind the Airport Inn (formerly the Moat House), a place called Oversleyford Bridge. There is a limited amount of unofficial free parking here. Please go round the corner and don’t block the crash gates.

After a short rally we will walk to the Bollin Tunnel under the second runway, which was the site of Wild Garlic and River Rats camps in 1997.

If you need a lift, or collecting from Styal or Manchester Airport railway stations please post below.

Please bring memories, photographs, stories and music, and lets make this a great day. We were right twenty years ago, and we are still right.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1697344283897420/

Drax power station demonstration and celebration, 22/10/16

Biofuelwatch, Coal Action Network and others will be demonstrating at Drax Power Station, to celebrate ten years of climate action (since the first UK climate camp at Drax) and calling for Drax to be shut down and replaced with genuine renewables.

webpage here

http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2016/axedrax-october-22/

and fb event here

https://www.facebook.com/events/1667993586852396/

It will be a fine day out.

UK: 4 new releases from green anarchist zine Return Fire (PDFs)

Just now we’ve sent out the PDF versions of our recent releases, for downloading and printing (for past issues, see 325).

https://en-contrainfo.espiv.net/2016/06/05/uk-4-new-releases-from-green-anarchist-zine-return-fire-pdfs/ for links to the PDFs

Just now we’ve sent out the PDF versions of our recent releases, for downloading and printing (for past issues, see 325). To summarise, there’s the full length edition of Return Fire vol.3 (Winter 2015-2016), full of news, theory, poetry and antagonism (download in low-res here); a companion piece consisting of our ‘glossary’ entry for the issue, on Colonisation; an imposed and print-ready version of ‘Smarter Prison?’ as a supplement to vol.3, which we received from ‘Radical Interference’ and released for December of 2015; and lastly, we’ve uploaded one of the feature texts from vol.3, ‘The Veil Drops’, to theanarchistlibrary.org as a separate file for reading and reproduction. Also, there is both colour and black-and-white versions of the cover included, in case some comrades want to do their own printing.

Return Fire vol.3

A continuation of our project to bring incisive anarchic content from around to world to an anglophone readership. New editorial content, reprints of things we’ve found useful, artwork, action listings, foraging information, the usual.

There’s a few previously-untranslated articles in this issue. For example, one is an extract from the latest cover story of Italy’s eco-insurrectionary periodical Terra Selvaggia, on ‘The Advance of Urbanisation’ and, simultaneously, cracks opening in the concrete which we could utilise… Annie Archet meanwhile tells a life-story of evading identity, in Portrait of the Invisible Woman in Front of Her Mirror. To name some out of the texts we’ve assembled from selections of pre-existing ones, David King looks at the reductionist and patriarchal implications of modern reproductive technologies in ‘Into Her Inner Chambers’, and Nicola Gai speaks to acting within ‘The Maximum That Our Abilities Allow’ (from his contribution to the founding issue of the Croce Nera Anarchica).

The content we have harvested whole includes The Intensification of Independence in Wallmapu, John Severino’s poignant reflections on a project within an indigenous Mapuche community; The ‘Wild’ as Will and Representation, about commodified and alienated approaches in the urgent need for land reconnection, simply signed M.; and Sean Dunohoe’s harrowing (if limited) polemic against the Close Supervision Centres within the British prison system. (We note that this year the organising collective for the June 11 project of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners has called for a focus on such units wherever they are in the world; hence we’d like to dedicate this version in that direction.)

As for our usual columns… We take a retrospective look at some Global Flash-Points of insurgent activity in the months following our last volume. Rebels Behinds Bars covers the State’s aggressions against our comrades, and the latter’s thoughts on topics from surviving incarceration or repression to (anti-)organisation for the attack on authority. ‘To Create & Maintain Their Wealth’ and ‘Sensuality, Magic & Anarchist Violence’ address gendered and speciesist domination through reviews of Silvia Federici, Arthur Evans and Jason Hribal.

The Poems for Love, Loss & War are from Rydra Cosmo, Henry Zegarrundo, Natasha Alvarez and other appreciators of all things feral. For our Memory as a Weapon segment, we’ve used Unsettling America’s spellbinding telling of civilisation’s spread through Europe from the south and beyond, and subsequent trajectory, in The Witch’s Child.

And of course, much more! (All prisoner addresses and also some court-case news is now up to date in the PDF version.)

Colonisation

This time, we ended up printing the ‘glossary’ separately to the main body of the zine. This sizeable essay could be a stand-alone on the subject (one which we feel to be both key and misunderstood by anarchists in much of the world) and distributed as such, but is also relevant to several items in contents of vol.3.

‘Smarter Prison?’

Newly laid out in A5 imposed format, this exploration of the ‘Internet of Things’ and the technological ideology which it advances was first submitted to us during the Black December mobilisation. (We’re happy that since then, Silvia, Billy and Costa, who are referenced in ‘Smarter Prison?’, have been told they will not face trial again for their thwarted attack on the IBM facility.) The struggle against the nano-world continues…

‘The Veil Drops’

This is a reader on counter-insurgency through the lens of ‘crisis’, the social and de-civilising. It’s the longest editorial piece from vol.3, and up on The Anarchist Library for wider accessibility.

Until next time,
R.F.

Twyford Down ‘Operation Greenfly’ audacious direct action anniversary today

Today (22/5/16) is the 23rd anniversary of Operation Greenfly at Twyford Down – one of the most exciting and audacious direct actions of the 1990s. Twenty-one years ago, the govt were trying to bulldoze a road through the most protected landscape in England and a massive direct action campaign erupted to stop them, which kickstarted the 1990s roads protest movement. We had an anonymous tip off that the road builders would have to close the whole of the M3 motorway over night to erect a ‘bailey bridge’ over it, to move the huge quantities of ‘spoil’ (chalky guts of Twyford Down) and spread it all over the water meadows below. They called this hugely important and strategic manoeuvre ‘Operation Market Garden”. So we launched “Operation Greenfly” to counter them.

They hired security guards from all over southern England, surrounded the site with razor wire, and had 100s of police protecting the site. However, as night fell and the motorway was about to close, some 200 protesters eluded police, went cross country and approached the site from an unprotected angle, miraculously trampling down the razor wire, and flooding onto the site, occupying the bridge!

For many people it was one of the most miraculous and empowering actions we’d ever pulled off. We occupied that bridge all night, drumming on the metal structure to keep our spirits up and warding off the “forces of darkness”, with the noise echoing across the water meadows and the silenced motorway. Fire breathers added extra drama. Hugely stirring and unforgettable. They had to draft in cops from all over southern England, and prise everyone off the bridge, cutting all the lock ons, taking hours. Over 50 arrests resulted with all of us being spread across police stations in the south.

They managed to just about get the bridge across the motorway before it reopened at 7am. However, they couldn’t complete the job and had to re-close the motorway 2 weeks later, causing major delays to their construction programme.

Were you there? What are your memories of that night?