Category: Fracking

UPDATE: Full Invasion Force Arrives at Mi’kmaq Blockade

Screen Shot 2013-10-17 at 12.44.31 PM17th Octo­ber  700 RCMP are cur­rent­ly report­ed at the scene of the Mi’kmaq block­ade with an armored pe

Screen Shot 2013-10-17 at 12.44.31 PM17th Octo­ber  700 RCMP are cur­rent­ly report­ed at the scene of the Mi’kmaq block­ade with an armored per­son­nel car­ri­er. Talks have failed. Snipers with the RCMP have been seen point­ing their scopes at groups of young sup­port­ers, draw­ing intense crit­i­cism from observers. In a state­ment, one RCMP offi­cer declared, “the Crown land belongs to the gov­ern­ment, not fuck­ing Natives,” reveal­ing the sys­temic con­tempt for treaty rights with First Nations and inter­na­tion­al agree­ments. RCMP are now lined up with riot shields, as the stand­off con­tin­ues to main­tain the block­ade that is cur­rent­ly keep­ing “thumper trucks” from destroy­ing the land in Mik’maq ter­ri­to­ry. Chief Aaron Sock of the Elsli­pog­tog has been released by the RCMP after being arrest­ed while blockad­ing the com­pound of Texas-based SWN Resources. How­ev­er, over 40 Mi’kmaq war­riors remain in cus­tody, as the RCMP con­tin­ue to use pep­per spray, tear gas, and rub­ber bul­lets in attempts to break up the block­ade. 1379310_242702739212593_1480884763_n Cana­da is clear­ly in vio­la­tion of inter­na­tion­al treaties with this war-like act against a peace­ful nation engaged in law­ful direct action against the theft and destruc­tion of their land by a multi­na­tion­al ener­gy com­pa­ny. Accord­ing to Sub­me­dia, “Dur­ing my short stay [at the two-week-strong block­ade] I’ve wit­nessed the co-oper­a­tion between natives and set­tlers, a part­ner­ship that has kept this block­ade ful­ly stocked and oper­a­tional. Food, wood, hot cof­fee, tents and oth­er sup­plies keep stream­ing all the while SWN berates the police in the media for not arrest­ing the pro­test­ers.” In retal­i­a­tion against the inva­sion, which comes one day before an inter­na­tion­al day of sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Mi’kmaq Block­ade and two days away from a meet­ing set to con­tin­ue peace talks, unknown per­sons have set six RCMP vehi­cles ablaze, hurled stones at the police line, and con­fis­cat­ed frack­ing equip­ment. In relat­ed news, SWN stock hit a sharp decline today on the New York Stock Exchange. As of this time, the RCMP is not let­ting media in. How­ev­er, rein­force­ments con­tin­ue to swell the num­bers of sup­port­ers at the block­ade. The Mi’kmaq have issued a call for con­tin­ued inter­na­tion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty, and for increased sup­port for the block­ade.

Mi’kmaq Resist! 6 RCMP Cars Torched, Fracking Equipment Confiscated

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Pho­to by Ossie Michel

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Pho­to by Ossie Miche­lin

17th Octo­ber

In retal­i­a­tion against a vio­lent police raid this morn­ing on a peace­ful First Nations block­ade, Mi’kmaq war­riors and sup­port­ers have fought back.

The RCMP appear to have arrest­ed jour­nal­ist Miles Howe, who has been report­ing on the Elsi­pog­tog strug­gle against the ille­gal gas grab on indige­nous lands. More than 200 RCMP are par­tic­i­pat­ing in the raid, includ­ing snipers in fatigues. Ambu­lances have been pre­vent­ed from treat­ing pro­tes­tors wound­ed by pep­per spray, plas­tic bul­lets, and gen­er­al bru­tal­i­ty.

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As of the time of writ­ing this, six RCMP vehi­cles have been torched, and melees of stones have been hurled in response to tear gas, plas­tic bul­lets, and pep­per spray from the RCMP (update: it is being claimed that the fires were start­ed by an agent provo­ca­teur). Mi’kmaq allies have also con­fis­cat­ed frack­ing equip­ment in con­tin­ued efforts to main­tain the block­ade against the gas com­pa­ny.

Block­ades are report­ed­ly spring­ing up else­where through­out Mi’kmaq ter­ri­to­ry, as news has spread of police bru­tal­i­ty and unnec­es­sary use of force against peace­ful pro­tes­tors, includ­ing elders and chil­dren. Idle No More’s twit­ter account has called on all the Sacred Fires of the World, and sol­i­dar­i­ty demos in DC, NYC, Van­cou­ver, BC, and Win­nipeg have already been announced.

The Mi’kmaq Block­ade has cost the gas com­pa­ny an esti­mat­ed $50,000 per day, and has been ongo­ing for two weeks. Today’s crack down is a direct betray­al of a peace process ongo­ing between the Elsi­pog­tog and the New Brunswick pre­mier, and a vio­la­tion of the rights of Indige­nous Peo­ples as accord­ing to the UN. The gov­ern­ment of Cana­da has insti­gat­ed a major diplo­mat­ic inci­dent, and glob­al sol­i­dar­i­ty is com­ing in from coun­tries around the world.

The whole world is watch­ing!

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Tense Standoff at Elsipogtog Blockade, Molotovs Thrown

Image from Twitter

Image from Twitter17th Octo­ber from Earth First! Newswire

A tense stand off is ongo­ing between 200 RCMP, Mi’kmaq block­aders, and about 200 sup­port­ers. Accord­ing to the Stim­u­la­tor, the chief and trib­al coun­cil per­son­al­ly block­ad­ed gas com­pa­ny trucks behind bar­ri­cades. Pro­test­ers have hurled rocks and a cor­po­rate news tri­pod at the RCMP. At the moment, RCMP are mak­ing mass arrests, SWN vehi­cles appear to be rolling out of the com­pound, and six RCMP vehi­cles have been set ablaze.

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Molo­tov cock­tails were thrown from the woods ear­li­er this morn­ing in defense of the land and peo­ples. The RCMP, some with long rifles, entered the woods. Shots were fired, and scream­ing was heard. There is an uncon­firmed report that activist Steven Gould has been shot. (UPDATE: We are now receiv­ing reports that less-than-lethal rounds have been fired at sup­port­ers, as well as tear gas. Pep­per spray has been deployed against sup­port­ers attempt­ing to get through police lines. The RCMP is cur­rent­ly unload­ing riot gear.)

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Sup­port­ers broke through police lines to join the Mi’kmaq (video here). The RCMP have erect­ed a bar­ri­er on one side of the block­ade, and appear to have the block­ade sur­round­ed. More peo­ple are com­ing to sup­port with food and water.

Sol­i­dar­i­ty block­ades have sprung up else­where in the Mi’kmaq ter­ri­to­ry. There are sol­i­dar­i­ty actions planned at the Cana­di­an Con­sulate in NYC at 5pm and the Cana­di­an Embassy in DC, as well as Van­cou­ver and Win­nipeg.

As of time of writ­ing, arrests have been made, and there is at least one report of police bru­tal­i­ty against Mi’kmaq war­rior Suzanne Patles, an Ilnu woman and mem­ber of the Mi’kmaq War­rior Soci­ety. (UPDATE: It appears that mass arrests are cur­rent­ly being made.)

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Accord­ing to the New Brunswick, Anglo­phone North School Dis­trict, the RCMP did not noti­fy them of the raid as is legal­ly required. Schools are cur­rent­ly on lock-down.

The Mi’kmaq are blockad­ing High­way 132 near Rex­ton to halt the activ­i­ty on the com­pound belong­ing to a gas com­pa­ny, SWN Resources Cana­da. SWN Resources has been ille­gal­ly try­ing to frack the land of the Elsi­pog­tog for months, and the tribe has been joined by oth­er tribes of the Mi’kmaq and Wabana­ki Con­fed­er­a­cy peo­ples in attempts to take direct action against the gas com­pa­ny.

epsilogtogfirecarAccord­ing to Ellen Gabriel of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation, “Forcible removal of Mi’kmaq on their tra­di­tion­al lands, [is] an ille­gal act by Police who should not enforce.”

Last week, a Cana­di­an judge issued an injunc­tion against the block­ade, but the Elsi­pog­tog have sought peace­ful nego­ti­a­tion. Today’s raid must be seen as a pre­emp­tive action to pre­vent the Octo­ber 18 day of action from tak­ing place, which was called by the Mi’kmaq War­riors Soci­ety for phys­i­cal sup­port of the SWN block­ade.

The demands of the War­riors Soci­ety are the fol­low­ing:

  1. Pro­duce all Bills of Sales, Sold, Ced­ed, Grant­ed and Extin­guished Lands for New Brunswick.
  2. Pro­duce doc­u­ments prov­ing Cabot’s Doc­trine of Dis­cov­ery.
  3. Pro­duce the Treaty of Peace and Friend­ship 1686.
  4. Pro­duce Treaty of Fort Howe 1768.
  5. Pro­duce con­sents for Loy­al­ists to land in Nova Scotia/New Brunswick.
  6. Pro­duce records of Town­ships cre­at­ed and con­sents by Chiefs to allow this.
  7. Pro­duce agree­ments or con­sents by all New Brunswick Chiefs who agreed to Con­fer­era­tion of 1867.
  8. Pro­duce evi­dence of con­sents to The Indi­an Act by all Native Tribes.
  9. Pro­duce records of Trust Funds.
  10. Pro­duce agree­ments for 4% of all min­er­al shares of fin­ished prod­ucts in Cana­da, except coal.
  11. Pro­duce all cor­re­spon­dence let­ters per­tain­ing to Num­bered Treaties (Promis­es).
  12. Pro­duce all doc­u­ments cre­at­ing bor­der divi­sions, that divide the Wabana­ki con­fed­er­a­cy.
  13. Pro­duce the Orders from the Lords of Trade to the Gov­er­nor of the Colonies.

Escalating Anti-Fracking Standoff in New Brunswick

Members of the Mi'gmaw Warriors Society light fires at a road blockade designed to prevent exit of "thumpers" used in pre-fracking seismic testing30th Sep­tem­ber, An ongo­ing stand­off con­tin­ues to esca­late between

Members of the Mi'gmaw Warriors Society light fires at a road blockade designed to prevent exit of "thumpers" used in pre-fracking seismic testing30th Sep­tem­ber, An ongo­ing stand­off con­tin­ues to esca­late between anti-frack­ing activists and police in Kent Coun­ty, New Brunswick, Cana­da.

From Hal­i­fax Media Coop:

CMP have cur­rent­ly closed off auto­mo­bile access to the Irv­ing-owned com­pound that hous­es five of SWN Resource Canada’s seis­mic test­ing trucks, or ‘thumpers’. The police have closed off both north and south exits to high­way 134 off the high­way 11, as well as the 134 itself in both direc­tions. Walk-in access to the com­pound is cur­rent­ly the only way in and out.

Seis­mic test­ing is the pre­cur­sor to hydraulic frac­tur­ing [frack­ing].

Police aggres­sion has already result­ed in friv­o­lous arrests and even injuries to the pro­test­ers who have con­verged on the site. The pro­test­ers have respond­ed by set­ting up their own block­ade:

Mem­bers of the Mi’gmaw War­riors Soci­ety, an inde­pen­dent­ly-run group that self-describe them­selves as a ‘Home­land Secu­ri­ty’ force, have felled sev­er­al pine trees and are in the process of light­ing fires along the high­way. One van and numer­ous pine trees now also block access to the Irv­ing-owned, gat­ed com­pound that cur­rent­ly hous­es five of SWN Resources Canada’s seis­mic test­ing trucks, or ‘thumpers’. The thumpers are per­ceived by the activists to be a key piece of SWN’s equip­ment, with­out which the Texas-based gas giant will be unable to con­tin­ue seis­mic test­ing in New Brunswick.

Read the full articles here:

Break­ing: More Arrests at Ongo­ing New Brunswick Anti-Frack­ing Stand-Off

Cop Block Turns to Road Block

Balcombe frack-off latest

Day 48 (Tues 10th) Of Com­mu­ni­ty Frack­ing Block­ade In Bal­combe Sus­sex

Update (3:30pm): Pro­tec­tor cut off, arrest­ed and car­a­van moved. Come down and sup­port the com­mu­ni­ty.

Day 48 (Tues 10th) Of Com­mu­ni­ty Frack­ing Block­ade In Bal­combe Sus­sex

Update (3:30pm): Pro­tec­tor cut off, arrest­ed and car­a­van moved. Come down and sup­port the com­mu­ni­ty.

Update (2:00pm): Cuadrilla frack­ing truck blocked by Pro­tec­tor locked onto car­a­van in Bal­combe. Com­mu­ni­ty Pro­tec­tion Camp is still going strong despite increased police harass­ment.

Update (12:45pm): Ambu­lance takes one Pro­tec­tor to hos­pi­tal with leg injury caused by Police vio­lence

Update (12:15pm): First frack­ing truck of day arrives and is being blocked by Pro­tec­tors.

Update (12:00pm): Com­mu­ni­ty Pro­tec­tion Camp still hold­ing strong. Sit­u­a­tion pret­ty calm at moment. Lots of peo­ple here to sup­port Bal­combe but do come down to help if you can.

Update (11:00am): One of the three peo­ple arrest­ed for singing out­side Cuadrilla’s frack­ing site is a Bal­combe res­i­dent.

Update (10:30am): Police try­ing to intim­i­date camp but not here in large num­bers at present. Three arrests. More peo­ple would be good. Come down and sup­port the com­mu­ni­ty if you can.

Update (10am): The day has start­ed qui­et­ly. Despite media report to the con­trary the Coun­cil has no pow­ers to evict the camp and would need to go through a court process to try. Threats by the police to use a Sec­tion 14 CJPOA to evict the camp are clear­ly ille­gal (though obvi­ous­ly that is no guar­an­tee they won’t try) but the camp is hold­ing firm. Come down and sup­port the com­mu­ni­ty if you can.

28 Days Later / Balcombe anti-fracking protests update days 40–43

One Man Stop — 2nd September — Day 40

Update (14:45am): One pro­tec­tor locked on to frack­ing truck at the gate of Cuadrilla site in Bal­combe.

Update (11:45am): Two pro­tec­tors arrest­ed defend­ing Sus­sex from frack­ing.

One Man Stop — 2nd September — Day 40

Update (14:45am): One pro­tec­tor locked on to frack­ing truck at the gate of Cuadrilla site in Bal­combe.

Update (11:45am): Two pro­tec­tors arrest­ed defend­ing Sus­sex from frack­ing.

Update (9:30am): Police try­ing to force frack­ing truck through the com­mu­ni­ty pro­tec­tion block­ade. Come down and sup­port the com­mu­ni­ty.

Pro­tec­tor Locked On To Frack­ing Tanker Block­ing The Gate Of Cuadrilla Site In Bal­combe — Video

More info and pho­tos here

Day 41 (Tues 3rd) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Pro­tec­tor Locked On To Gate Of Cuadrilla Frack­ing Site In Bal­combe — Video

“I study envi­ron­men­tal sci­ence, I know this is wrong, I know this is mad and it’s just about mon­ey. I’ve cho­sen this action because nobody is lis­ten­ing. I’ve signed peti­tions, I’ve writ­ten to the EA. I’ve been here peace­ful­ly protest­ing for the last 6 weeks or longer. The gov­ern­men­t’s just not lis­ten­ing to its peo­ple. Once they start putting those chem­i­cals down into the water table they can­not get them out. I don’t want to leave this mess for the next gen­er­a­tion and I cer­tain­ly don’t want to say I did­n’t do any­thing to stop it.”

Day 43 — 5th September Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Break­ing: #Bal­combe Com­mu­ni­ty Pro­tec­tion Camp now has a tri­pod block­ing the road. Some cars can pass… looks like no trucks for a while… #Great­Gas­Gala #Frack_OFF #Cuadrilla

Day 43 of the Com­mu­ni­ty Block­ade in Bal­combe. This morn­ing one Pro­tec­tor is block­ing frack­ing trucks from enter­ing the Cuadrilla’s site with a tri­pod. The camp in Bal­combe is fight the threat of thou­sands of frack­ing wells spread­ing across Sus­sex and the UK.

Videos

 

Help­ful Infor­ma­tion for groups con­sid­er­ing action

 

Balcombe anti-fracking protests update days 25–39

Day 37 (Fri 30th) Of Com­mu­ni­ty Frack­ing Block­ade In Bal­combe Sus­sex

Update (10:30am): One pro­tec­tor arrest­ed defend­ing Sus­sex from frack­ing.

Update (9:30am): Police try­ing to force frack­ing truck through com­mu­ni­ty blokade.

 

Day 34 (Tues 26th) Of Com­mu­ni­ty Frack­ing Block­ade In Bal­combe Sus­sex

Day 37 (Fri 30th) Of Com­mu­ni­ty Frack­ing Block­ade In Bal­combe Sus­sex

Update (10:30am): One pro­tec­tor arrest­ed defend­ing Sus­sex from frack­ing.

Update (9:30am): Police try­ing to force frack­ing truck through com­mu­ni­ty blokade.

 

Day 34 (Tues 26th) Of Com­mu­ni­ty Frack­ing Block­ade In Bal­combe Sus­sex

Update (5:00pm): One pro­tec­tor arrest­ed today as police con­tin­ue to force frack­ing trucks through the block­ade for Cuadrilla.

Update (10:30am): First frack­ing truck of the day.

 

Day 28 (Wed 21st) Of Com­mu­ni­ty Frack­ing Block­ade In Bal­combe Sus­sex

Update (3pm): All Pro­tec­tors who were in Craw­ley Mag­is­trates Court today have been giv­en bail con­di­tions that allow them to return to the camp.

Update (1pm): For­est camp evict­ed by police.

Update (12pm): Police are try­ing to ille­gal­ly evict (with­out a court order) the for­est camp (small­er camp in wood­land next to the Cuadrilla rig site, not main camp on grass verge) at Bal­combe. Come sup­port the com­mu­ni­ty!

 

Day 27 (Tue 20th) Of Com­mu­ni­ty Frack­ing Block­ade In Bal­combe Sus­sex

Update (10:40am): Anoth­er frack­ing truck being blocked.

Update (9:30am): Frack­ing truck forced through com­mu­ni­ty block­ade by police. One Pro­tec­tor arrest­ed.

 

Days 25/26 — the Reclaim the Pow­er block­ade and more updates/photos here

 

28 Days Later: Please spread far and wide

Cuadzilla Balcome Rolling Blockade Red Version

Cuadzilla Balcome Rolling Blockade Red Version

A Rolling Block­ade of the Bal­combe frack­ing site, 1st Sep­tem­ber – 28th Sep­tem­ber

Frack­ing com­pa­ny Cuadrilla’s gov­ern­men­tal licence to drill in Bal­combe ends on Sep­tem­ber 28th. The gov­ern­ment may be allow­ing them to drill but they have no social licence from the peo­ple of Bal­combe to frack their land and threat­en their water sup­ply.  Nei­ther do they have any man­date to begin an entire wave of frack­ing across the coun­try. The vast major­i­ty of peo­ple in the UK want clean­er, green­er ener­gy.
After the upsurge of cli­mate activism at Reclaim the Pow­er in August, let’s make these last 28 days count. Let’s halt their work at Bal­combe, and also send a strong mes­sage to those want­i­ng to frack else­where.

A block­ade has been on-going at the drilling site, but trucks have still been get­ting through. Now it’s time to up the ante.

We invite groups from around the coun­try to come and play a part in a 28 day rolling block­ade.

Think cre­ative­ly and act respon­si­bly. Pick a week­day before Sep­tem­ber 28, gath­er friends and use­ful kit get your­selves to Bal­combe.

Frack­ing is stop­pable, anoth­er world is pos­si­ble.

* Peo­ple are remind­ed that this is a peace­ful block­ade and that the Bal­combe camp is alco­hol-free.

* For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please con­tact 28dayslater.balcombe@gmail.com

* Fol­low us on Twit­ter (@28_dayslater) and like us on Face­book (https://www.facebook.com/28dayslaterrollingblockade)

How we Reclaimed the Power! — summary report of actions and before

A short sto­ry of No Dash for Gas, Reclaim the Pow­er and how peo­ple from across the coun­try stood in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Bal­combe to oppose Cuadrilla and the dash for gas…

A short sto­ry of No Dash for Gas, Reclaim the Pow­er and how peo­ple from across the coun­try stood in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Bal­combe to oppose Cuadrilla and the dash for gas…

It all began last year, when 21 activists occu­pied and shut down EDF’s gas fired pow­er sta­tion in West Bur­ton for over a week. It was time to stop the ‘Dash for Gas’ which would smash our cli­mate tar­gets and push up ener­gy prices…

  1. http://reclaimthepower.org.uk.gridhosted.co.uk” style=“max-width: 16px” />
    Grid­host­ed
    ·

    The Great Gas Gala! | Com­muntiy Pro­tec­tion Col­lec­tive

    The Great Gas Gala! Since 7am on Thurs­day (25th July) the com­mu­ni­ty in Bal­combe, Sus­sex has been resist­ing attempts by frack­ing com­pa­ny…
    http://greatgasgala.org.uk” style=“max-width: 16px” />
    Great­gas­gala
     

    And then, when we heard that Cuadrilla were explor­ing the poten­tial of frack­ing in Bal­combe and the local com­mu­ni­ty’s resis­tance, we changed the loca­tion of our ‘Reclaim the Pow­er’ action camp…

    action camp to switch loca­tion from West Bur­ton … — No Dash for Gas

    Aug 6, 2013 … The coali­tion of cli­mate, anti-aus­ter­i­ty and fuel pover­ty activists who were plan­ning on return­ing to West Bur­ton pow­er…
    http://www.nodashforgas.org.uk” style=“max-width: 16px” />
    Nodash­for­gas
  2. reclaimthe­p­ow­er
     
    Huge num­bers of peo­ple signed up to our face­book event and told us they were com­ing. Even Rus­sell Brand was with us in spir­it!
     
    On Fri­day, we arrived in beau­ti­ful sun­ny Bal­combe, with mem­bers of a whole host of cam­paigns includ­ing UK Uncut, UK Tar Sands Net­work, Occu­py Lon­don, Dis­abled Peo­ple Against the Cuts and No Dash for Gas all join­ing the camp.
     
    Reclaim The Pow­er has arrived in Bal­combe | Come and join us!
     
    We joined the March for a Frack Free Future with two thou­sand pro­test­ers from across the coun­try…
     
  3. …and those from the local com­mu­ni­ty who’d been resist­ing Cuadrilla for weeks!
    August 19 2013: Bal­combe Sol­i­dar­i­ty Sun­day anti-frack­ing protest
     
    Local cam­paign­ers Vanes­sa Vine, Charles Met­calfe and Car­o­line Lucas MP were joined by speak­ers from No Dash For Gas and Occu­py Chevron in Poland to head­line a thun­der­ous ral­ly of oppo­si­tion.

 

The pro­test­ers then formed a human cir­cle around the site, join­ing hands, chant­i­ng and singing, while Cuadrilla’s work­ers looked on from inside their razor-wire fence.

  1. On Mon­day morn­ing, our Day of Action began!
     

  2. 6 activists block­ad­ed the entrance to Bell Pot­tinger’s offices in Lon­don, Cuadrilla’s “spin-doc­tors”. They are respon­si­ble for a whole host of pro-frack­ing lies and spin which we have thor­ough­ly debunked over the past 6 days.

    Cuadrilla’s PR com­pa­ny Bell Pot­tinger shut down by activists from Reclaim the Pow­er

    …then we heard from a group of 20 activists who occu­pied Cuadrilla’s HQ in Lich­field, just out­side Birm­ing­ham. They set up camp out­side the build­ing while three activists went inside, shut down 8 work sta­tions and took over a floor of the office!

  3.  
     
  4. Activists lock them­selves to fur­ni­ture inside Cuadrilla’s HQ
    …mean­while, a third action was tak­ing place at the con­stituen­cy office of pro-frack­ing min­is­ter, Fran­cis Maude MP. Tak­ing inspi­ra­tion from Lib­er­ate Tate, a wind tur­bine blade was deliv­ered to the roof of his office…
     
  5. Wind tur­bine out­side office of Fran­cis Maude MP
     
    …and with a rather love­ly mes­sage for Mr. Maude to read on his return!
     
  6. Note left out­side office of Fran­cis Maude MP
     
    Back at the drill site in Bal­combe, var­i­ous groups set up a range of orig­i­nal and cre­ative block­ades at the gate, involv­ing bikes, singers and dancers and lock­ing on to a wheel chair… 
     
  7. Block­ade out­side Cuadrilla frack­ing site in Bal­combe

    Sad­ly, the police decid­ed to be heavy-hand­ed in response to our peace­ful protest…

  8. Pro­test­ers block­ade Cuadrilla frack site in Bal­combe, West Sus­sex

     

    Else­where in Lon­don, 6 peo­ple had gone to Lord How­ell’s town house for our next action and set up a ‘For Shale’ sign there. George Osborne’s father-in-law is eager to spread frack­ing across the UK, par­tic­u­lar­ly to the ‘des­o­late north east’! Our activists from New­cas­tle might have oth­er ideas…

  9. Frack­ing lob­by­ist Lord How­ell’s house is for shale!
  10. Frack­ing lob­by­ist Lord How­ell’s house: for shale!

     

    Back in Bal­combe, the police decid­ed to start arrest­ing peace­ful pro­test­ers stag­ing a sit-in at the gate to the Cuadrillia site. Green MP, Car­o­line Lucas, was among those arrest­ed…

Back at the camp, the chil­dren at Reclaim the Pow­er (we were a gath­er­ing of all ages!) went on a bus ride to Bal­combe vil­lage to speak to local peo­ple about the dan­gers of frack­ing to every­one’s future. 
  1. Frack Free Future bus on tour!

     

    Word had spread to our friends and sup­port­ers world­wide about our day of action which had tak­en on Cuadrilla and the dash for gas from all sides!

    Then, only hours after being released, Car­o­line Lucas was field­ing inter­views, media work and back fight­ing frack­ing!

    And then, on Tuues­day, as we began mak­ing plans for the future…

    So as we pack down our camp today, it’s not the end! As Ewa from No Dash For Gas put it, ‘this is a marathon, not a sprint’ and we will win the fight against frack­ing…

Above from here

Good video

March for a Frack-Free Future

18th August 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18th August 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peo­ple came from all over the UK to protest against frack­ing, and in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the vil­lagers of Bal­combe and the road-side protest camp who’ve been ‘Lock­ing the Gate’ for three weeks now.  Police have been increas­ing­ly harass­ing camp res­i­dents, arrest­ing seem­ing­ly at ran­dom times pick­ing peo­ple off as they come out of the toi­let or are eat­ing lunch, and putting severe pres­sure on the rig-side for­est camp.  Mean­while the Reclaim the Pow­er camp had land­ed in a field about a 30 minute walk away, and has been build­ing up to the action days this com­ing week. 

Well over a thou­sand peo­ple marched — the first wave left Reclaim the Pow­er, passed through the orig­i­nal protest camp and made it’s way up to the sta­tion.  No soon­er than a line of yel­low came into view ahead through the trees lin­ing the road, a cheer rose and peo­ple at the sta­tion came stream­ing down.  The police with­drew from between the crowds — fear­ing a Blake­lock Sand­wich — and took up posi­tion at what had been our rear, and now was the front.  We slow­ly marched down, to the beat of a band of drum­mers, a sam­ba band, and sound sys­tems, down to the gate, where along with the lines of police from var­i­ous forces, peo­ple lis­tened to speech­es by com­mu­ni­ties fight­ing the frack­ing threat and pub­lic fig­ures there in sol­i­dar­i­ty. 

Pic­tures

Local ‘democ­ra­cy’ (AKA cor­rup­tion) of Bal­combe parish coun­cil — Pri­vate Eye