Today there was a lock-on preventing the convoy leaving the iGas site from moving for over 6 hours. The leader of the Green Party, Natalie Bennett also visited the camp with her supporters and met up with protectors on the march.
Live feed from lock-on
Location: Oxford
Time: Saturday 8th February 11am – Sunday 9th 4pm
Address: TBC
Crash Space/Social: Provided. Further details TBC.
Meals: Provided, donation cost TBC
Travel Pool: Available. Please book travel tickets in advance so that this can support the most people.
Notes from Manchester Visioning Day are here: http://bit.ly/1lQ0Yd3
In early December a large number of people came together to discuss the radical visions they had for the future – visions that Reclaim the Power, as a network, could help bring about.
It was a very open day of discussion with a clear structure, but with no pre-planned agenda. Everything we talked about was generated by participants, and a huge number of different ideas were placed on the table.
So what next? Well, the idea is that all of that discussion feeds into a month of creative proposal making before the next gathering. This will be a space for short and medium-term decision making where we work out what we’re doing in the next few months – and how this fits in with long term visions.
Rough proposal area groups formed at the December gathering, including:
1. How to challenge corporate power
2. Movement and diversity
3. Energy and fossil fuels
4. Positive solutions
If you would like to link up with these groups and input into proposals for next steps, just contact info@nodashforgas.org.uk and you will be put in touch with a group contact.
This said, all proposals are welcome! If you’re working on your own, outside these groups, then great. The more ideas the better.
The proposal deadline is the 31st January 2014. Please try and follow this rough four point list when writing them, as it is essential that all the proposals be considered on an equal footing.
1. What is it?
2. How does it link to long-term strategic aims?
3. Timeline?
4. Resources needed? (inc, people, costs, skills)
Specific venue and agenda details to follow soon. In the meanwhile, please check http://bit.ly/1lQ0Yd3 to see the discussions and outcomes of the last agenda.
See you soon,
RTP Gatherings Team
A weekend gathering for people involved or want to know more about ecological direct action around the UK including fighting opencast coal, fracking, GM, nuclear power, new road building and quarries with discussions and campaign planning – emphasis on the tactics and strategies, community solidarity and sustainable activism.
A weekend gathering for people involved or want to know more about ecological direct action around the UK including fighting opencast coal, fracking, GM, nuclear power, new road building and quarries with discussions and campaign planning – emphasis on the tactics and strategies, community solidarity and sustainable activism.
Evening Friday 7th – afternoon Sunday 9th March 2014, Nottingham
Cost scale £20 to £30. This includes full vegan meals and accommodation.
It will be an indoor floor sleeping space so bring a warm sleeping bag and mat. Train to Nottingham then tram to Beaconsfield street– walk to the end turn right on to Gladstone St — 245 Gladstone St, Nottingham NG7 6HX — www.earthfirst.org.uk
For offers of help or questions email themiddle@earthfirst.org.uk
16.30-17.30 Security Workshop
17.30-18.30 Film
18.30 Dinner
20.00 Benefit Gig
8.30-9.30 Breakfast
9.30-10.45 Intro go round of campaigns
10.45-11.00 Break
11.00-12.00 Future of Earth First Part 1
12.00-13.00 Security Workshop
13.00-14.00 Lunch
14.00-14.30 Lush/fundraising workshop
14.30-18.15 Campaign Workshops (timings to be finalised to include Fracking, Nuclear, Roads and Coal)
18.15-18.30 Summer Gathering handover
18.30 Dinner
20.00 DJ??
9.00-10.00 Breakfast fry up
10.00-10.30 Tidy up of venue
10.30-11.30 Feedback go round
11.30-12.30 Future of Earth First Part 2
12.30-14.00 Summer Gathering Planning (and time of other workshops to run in parallel)
14.00-15.00 Lunch
15.00 End
LIVE at http://bambuser.com/v/4272902
14th January 2014 Activists have blockaded the Maules Creek mine site at Boggabri in New South Wales, Australia, for three days now.<
14th January 2014 Activists have blockaded the Maules Creek mine site at Boggabri in New South Wales, Australia, for three days now.
On Monday, 30 protestors, including members of Aboriginal groups and the organization Leard Forest Alliance, descended on the site, with some locking themselves to heavy machines.
Yesterday, 10 more protestors joined the group, re-enforcing an ad-hoc encampment and locking down to bulldozers.
The Leard Forest is set to be destroyed by the open pit coal mine, and the heavy machines are supposed to start clearing forest for Witehaven Coal’s operation. The forest is important habitat, as well as a cultural and burial site for Aboriginal people in the area.
Activist group the Leard Forest Alliance said the heavy vehicles were at the site to begin clearing forest for a road and railway line to service Whitehaven Coal’s $767 million open-cut coalmine. The alliance says the mine will destroy Aboriginal cultural and burial sites and valuable forest and animals.
A human blockade at the end of Moss Lane has left a convoy of tankers backed up onto the A57.
Protectors have swarmed the vehicles and climbed on top. Come down to support and stop fracking at Barton Moss.
A human blockade at the end of Moss Lane has left a convoy of tankers backed up onto the A57.
Protectors have swarmed the vehicles and climbed on top. Come down to support and stop fracking at Barton Moss.
Three protesters have been arrested at Barton Moss after they climbed two stationary lorries at the site refusing to get down for more than an hour.
Police brought in the Protester Removal Team to bring the men down, after they were formally arrested for obstruction.
The men finally came down after officers assembled temporary scaffolding and ladders and ordered the men to remove themselves from the lorries delivering to the iGas fracking site.
10th Jan 2014 via Corporate Watch Eleven anti-fracking campaigners have been found not guilty after a three day trial at Brighton Magistrate's Court.
10th Jan 2014 via Corporate Watch Eleven anti-fracking campaigners have been found not guilty after a three day trial at Brighton Magistrate's Court.
The defendants had been arrested on the 2nd day of the protests against Cuadrilla's exploratory drilling Balcombe last summer while sitting on or around a log which had been dragged outside the gates to the Cuadrilla site.
The protesters were approached by what one defendant described as “battalions” of police and arrested en masse. The arrests were violent, with police using pressure point techniques as they dragged people away. One man, who was drinking a cup of tea at the time the police approached was arrested for assault for spilling tea on a police officer during his arrest.
The arrests were part of a concerted police strategy to stamp out resistance to fracking in Balcombe before it had begun in earnest. Those arrested were given stringent bail conditions not to go back to the area close to Cuadrilla's operations. However, police bullying tactics were not successful, despite over 120 arrests during the 2 months that the Balcombe Community Protection Camp was in place. The resistance, which included regular blockades and direct action, significantly delayed Cuadrlla's work. The company's planning permission expired in September 2013 and they left the site on September 28th having dug their well but without beginning testing. It is estimated that the policing costs amounted to £3.7 million during the course of the protests.
The Trial
The campaigners were initially arrested under the provisions of article 241 of the arcane Trade Union and Labour Relations Act, a law brought in by John Major's Conservative government to prevent trade unionists picketing in solidarity with other workers or, as the judge put it (with a straight face) “to protect people's right to work”. One defendant said during his evidence, “I think they were just scraping the barrel and couldn't find a real reason to arrest us and had dug up this obscure secondary picketing law”. The charges were later amended to obstructing the highway.
Several defendants said they were shocked at the police tactics. One woman described a carnival atmosphere at the gates of Cuadrilla with children playing tennis and hopscotch in the road before “militarised” police waded in to break up the protest and arrested her in front of her daughter.
One demonstrator, who had dragged the log into the road, said he had done so to make the point to Cuadrilla that “we need to have a conversation about what you're trying to enforce on a community who don't want this sort of business going on in their back yard”.
The judge ruled that he could not be sure that the defendants had intended to obstruct the highway and that the fact that the road was closed while it was being resurfaced went in their favour. The court had heard that the police had not given sufficient warning before making arrests.
At least another 19 defendants are awaiting trial after being arrested during the Balcombe protests.
The struggle continues
Charlotte Wilson, a spokesperson from the Frack Off campaign said, on hearing the verdict: “The fracking blockades at Balcombe and now Barton Moss near Manchester, are testament to the level of anger and fear surrounding these developments. There are now 70 or more groups resisting fracking developments nationwide. The industry is losing. Each new well is met with months of protests and millions in policiing costs. The scale of the governmrent's sell-off means that roughly 60% of the UK is now available to fracking companies, huge numbers of people are threatened and as a result communities from all corners of the country are getting organised.”
IGas Energy, who describe themselves as a “leading British oil and gas explorer and developer”, are currently trying to set up a well to begin exploratory drilling in Barton Moss, near Manchester, in the face of concerted resistance and direct action from another camp which has been set up for around 45 days. Information about the campaign can be found at the Northern Gas Gala website at http://northerngasgala.org.uk/.
For more information about anti-fracking movements in the UK see www.frack-off.org.
09 January 2014 People celebrate outside Brighton Magistrates Court after Balcombe protectors acquitted on all charges as a resul
09 January 2014 People celebrate outside Brighton Magistrates Court after Balcombe protectors acquitted on all charges as a result of their courageous actions to defend Sussex from fracking last summer.
Over 120 people were arrest during the 2 month blockade of Cuadrilla's Balcombe fracking site. More than twenty trials are still scheduled over the next few month at the moment.
7/1/14
Update:
after a few hours the car was entered by police, lock-on removed and car towed.
—
Two people have locked-on inside a locked immobilised car at Barton Moss, stopping the truck convoy which includes drill bits and chemicals.
7/1/14
Update:
after a few hours the car was entered by police, lock-on removed and car towed.
—
Two people have locked-on inside a locked immobilised car at Barton Moss, stopping the truck convoy which includes drill bits and chemicals.
See bits of video here http://bambuser.com/v/4247971 and bambuser.com/v/4248027
Photos here http://frack-off.org.uk/barton-moss-latest-news/ and at #bartonmoss
6th January 2014
Three people lock themselves to each other and concrete-filled barrels and delay trucks entering the site by four hours. Bravo!
6th January 2014
Three people lock themselves to each other and concrete-filled barrels and delay trucks entering the site by four hours. Bravo!
Photos and some more details at https://twitter.com/FFSGtrM and #bartonmoss
Live-stream: http://bambuser.com/v/4245652
Denial of police 'flare' excuses to search all tents and harass residents: http://northerngasgala.org.uk/press-release-fracking-camp-dispute-police-claim-that-flare-fired-at-helicopter/
