Category: Eastern England

East­ern Eng­land

Lakenheath 8 finally go to Trial for Socpa 128

On 26th 27th and 28th of March 2008 the Lak­en­heath 8 final­ly go to tri­al for a soc­pa 128 and crim­i­nal dam­age charge. The L8 took action in Octo­ber 2006 at USAF Lak­en­heath in Suf­folk against the use of clus­ter bombs and con­ven­tion­al weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 8 activists, Pete, Les­ley, Mell, Les­ley, Richie, Mar­garet, Irene and Emma entered the nuclear base and locked them­selves to the muni­tions area gates to stop the load­ing of weapons onto the F15 e planes. The new at the time ‘soc­pa’ laws cov­ered the base and the 8 new that they max­i­mum sen­tence was a year in prison and a £5,000 fine. Since that action Mell, Emma,Irene and 3 oth­ers took anoth­er action to blo­cakade Lak­en­heath in Octo­ber 2007 and the court has decid­ed to put them on tri­al for obstruc­tion at the same time as the Lak­en­heath 8. The tri­al will be held at Bury st Edmunds court in Suf­folk and the defen­dants would like as much sup­port as pos­si­ble.

On 26th 27th and 28th of March 2008 the Lak­en­heath 8 final­ly go to tri­al for a soc­pa 128 and crim­i­nal dam­age charge. The L8 took action in Octo­ber 2006 at USAF Lak­en­heath in Suf­folk against the use of clus­ter bombs and con­ven­tion­al weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 8 activists, Pete, Les­ley, Mell, Les­ley, Richie, Mar­garet, Irene and Emma entered the nuclear base and locked them­selves to the muni­tions area gates to stop the load­ing of weapons onto the F15 e planes. The new at the time ‘soc­pa’ laws cov­ered the base and the 8 new that they max­i­mum sen­tence was a year in prison and a £5,000 fine. Since that action Mell, Emma,Irene and 3 oth­ers took anoth­er action to blo­cakade Lak­en­heath in Octo­ber 2007 and the court has decid­ed to put them on tri­al for obstruc­tion at the same time as the Lak­en­heath 8. The tri­al will be held at Bury st Edmunds court in Suf­folk and the defen­dants would like as much sup­port as pos­si­ble.
‘soc­pa effects us all, our right to protest is being tak­en from us and we must stand up against these ridicu­lous laws’.
Bring your ban­ners! a tour of the US nuclear base, inside or out is also being offered! ( Are you watch­ing spe­cial intel­li­gence?? you had bet­ter have many police on secu­ri­ty for at least a month!)
Accom­mo­da­tion is avail­able for sup­port­ers and food will be pro­vid­ed by BSE Quak­ers.

Mayo Shell blockade & 15–17th March London demo & action call-out

Block­ade of Shell site, thurs morn­ing, 24/1/8, approx 100 cars blocked for 45 mins

This morn­ing, local res­i­dents’ yet again braved the bit­ter­ly cold wind to show Shell that it will nev­er have their con­sent. Know­ing that only they can pro­tect the health and safe­ty of their com­mu­ni­ty and envi­ron­ment, peo­ple peace­ful­ly held ban­ners at the gates, shut­ting down the site and pre­vent­ing approx. 100 Shell cars from enter­ing. There were no Gar­dai for approx. 45 mins!

Block­ade of Shell site, thurs morn­ing, 24/1/8, approx 100 cars blocked for 45 mins

This morn­ing, local res­i­dents’ yet again braved the bit­ter­ly cold wind to show Shell that it will nev­er have their con­sent. Know­ing that only they can pro­tect the health and safe­ty of their com­mu­ni­ty and envi­ron­ment, peo­ple peace­ful­ly held ban­ners at the gates, shut­ting down the site and pre­vent­ing approx. 100 Shell cars from enter­ing. There were no Gar­dai for approx. 45 mins!
Yes­ter­day, peo­ple were stood by the side of gate 2, not block­ing the cars, but were forcibly removed by the Gar­dai, who refused to give a rea­son. As usu­al, there was dis­agree­ment between the Gar­dai them­selves on why we were being removed and some were clear­ly uncom­fort­able with their col­leagues’ unrea­son­able behav­iour (‘pub­lic order act’ ‘Tres­pass’ ‘mis­cel­la­neous hous­ing act’ and my per­son­al favourite, ‘you are caus­ing a destruc­tion’). The morn­ing pick­ets are still hap­pen­ing and there are fre­quent block­ades, so come and sup­port the Kil­com­mon Parish who are sim­ply call­ing for the gas to be refined at sea and to rene­go­ti­ate the deal to ben­e­fit the peo­ple of Ire­land. Shell to Sea!
Who’s cops?
It came as no sur­prise to see the recent Shell Project Mon­i­tor­ing Com­mit­tee prais­ing Supt Gan­non for his work in the local­i­ty.

»»»»»»»

hey all, hope you can join us in Lon­don to bring the pipeline back to Shell — 15–17th March.

Glu­aiseacht are mobil­is­ing peo­ple from all over Ire­land to trav­el to Shell Head­quar­ters in Lon­don on St Patrick­’s Day to protest the give­away and mis­man­age­ment of our nation­al resources. We will be car­ry­ing a 200ft pipeline to Shel­l’s front door.

The Irish peo­ple will not ben­e­fit from the Cor­rib Gas Project. We will have to buy back any gas that Shell will sell to us at the ever increas­ing full mar­ket val­ue. As well as this, Shell will destroy a pris­tine envi­ron­ment and the health and safe­ty of the local com­mu­ni­ty.

If you can’t get to Lon­don, there’s a call out for sol­i­dar­i­ty actions to hap­pen at St Pad­dy’s Day parades, Shell offices & garages and Irish Embassies all over the world dur­ing this week­end.

What is Glu­aiseacht?
Glu­aiseacht is a non-hier­ar­chi­cal envi­ron­men­tal and social jus­tice move­ment bring­ing togeth­er grass­roots organ­i­sa­tions, con­cerned indi­vid­u­als and stu­dent groups from all over Ire­land to take action on social, envi­ron­men­tal and polit­i­cal issues.

For more infor­ma­tion, please email back. many thanks!

http://gluaiseacht.nologic.org/

Biofuel week of action — 26th January-2nd February 2008

Bio­fu­el­watch are call­ing for a nation­al week of local action on agro­fu­els between 26th Jan­u­ary and 2nd Feb­ru­ary 2008. Rather than organ­is­ing one cen­tral protest, UK groups and cam­paigns are encour­aged to organ­ise local protests and actions – which could involve a ban­ner protest out­side a Tesco or BP petrol sta­tion or out­side an agro­fu­el refin­ery (click for map of bio­fu­el refiner­ies), leaflet­ing and/or street the­atre in the city cen­tre, a press release, a pub­lic film show, etc. Please email us at info[at]biofuelwatch.org.uk if you can help in any way, or if you would like to find out if any­thing is already planned in your area.

Acme Biofuel/palm oilBio­fu­el­watch are call­ing for a nation­al week of local action on agro­fu­els between 26th Jan­u­ary and 2nd Feb­ru­ary 2008. Rather than organ­is­ing one cen­tral protest, UK groups and cam­paigns are encour­aged to organ­ise local protests and actions – which could involve a ban­ner protest out­side a Tesco or BP petrol sta­tion or out­side an agro­fu­el refin­ery (click for map of bio­fu­el refiner­ies), leaflet­ing and/or street the­atre in the city cen­tre, a press release, a pub­lic film show, etc. Please email us at info[at]biofuelwatch.org.uk if you can help in any way, or if you would like to find out if any­thing is already planned in your area.

If you are plan­ning a local event and would like us to put the details on our web­site, then please email us at info[at]biofuelwatch.org.uk.

Click here for details of events in Lon­don, Tee­side, Chel­tenham and Aberdeen.

Click here for resources!

Saving Iceland Update 2008 — Mini-gathering — Friday 22nd February 2008, Sumac Centre, Nottingham

Sav­ing Ice­land Update 2008
Mini-gath­er­ing

A day of talks and film show­ings to pass on infor­ma­tion about the on-going inter­na­tion­al cam­paign and the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in Ice­land

Fri­day 22nd Feb­ru­ary 2008, Sumac Cen­tre, Not­ting­ham

Sav­ing Ice­land Update 2008
Mini-gath­er­ing

A day of talks and film show­ings to pass on infor­ma­tion about the on-going inter­na­tion­al cam­paign and the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in Ice­land

Fri­day 22nd Feb­ru­ary 2008, Sumac Cen­tre, Not­ting­ham

The event is aimed at:
Activists who have been involved with Sav­ing Ice­land in the past, have part­ed com­pa­ny for what­ev­er rea­son, but would like to know what’s hap­pen­ing now
UK-based Sav­ing Ice­land activists who were unable to make it to the recent organ­is­ing gath­er­ings abroad and would like an update
Peo­ple who are new to the issue but are inter­est­ed to find out about this great eco­log­i­cal threat to our rel­a­tive­ly local wilder­ness.
Any­one with ques­tions about the cam­paign

Please book in advance (email savingiceland@riseup.org, sub­ject head­ing “UK mini-gath­er­ing”) so we have some idea of cater­ing require­ments, and let us know if you need accom­mo­da­tion. We will be ask­ing for a small dona­tion to cov­er costs of food and venue.

We will start at 10 a.m. with an intro­duc­tion to the issues. If you already know the basics, aim to arrive by 11a.m.

* * *

www.savingiceland.org

Climate Camp– Open invite to a UK wide decision making meeting – Leeds 26–27 Jan

The Cli­mate Camp on its own did­n’t stop cli­mate change — but it’s part of a grow­ing social move­ment that can! Come and take the next steps for­ward at the upcom­ing UK-wide meet­ing on Jan 26–27 in Leeds. Every­one is wel­come, whether you came to the camp, or were sim­ply inspired by it.

The Cli­mate Camp on its own did­n’t stop cli­mate change — but it’s part of a grow­ing social move­ment that can! Come and take the next steps for­ward at the upcom­ing UK-wide meet­ing on Jan 26–27 in Leeds. Every­one is wel­come, whether you came to the camp, or were sim­ply inspired by it.
Please spread this invite far and wide!

The Cam­p’s at Drax and Heathrow had 4 key aims: pop­u­lar edu­ca­tion, direct action, sus­tain­able liv­ing, and build­ing a social move­ment to col­lec­tive­ly tack­le cli­mate change. Region­al meet­ings have been hap­pen­ing up and down the coun­try, and the last nation­al meet­ing was in Oxford .We will meet in Leeds to col­lec­tive­ly share all our ideas for tak­ing our aims into 2008.

The meet­ing will start at 11am on Sat­ur­day morn­ing and end at 4pm on the Sun­day- although if you can’t stay for the whole week­end you are still wel­come!

If you are plan­ning to arrive on the Sat­ur­day morn­ing please head straight down to the venue which is The Com­mon Place, 23–25 Warf Street, LS2 7EQ
www.thecommonplace.org.uk – you can find a map at
http://www.multimap.com/maps/?hloc=GB|LS2%207EQ and you will notice that it is walk­ing dis­tance from the train and bus sta­tions.

If you are plan­ning on arriv­ing the Fri­day night – before the gath­er­ing- please email process@climatecamp.org.uk so we know! There will be accom­mo­da­tion avail­able for the Fri­day night – but at a com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre called Oblong ( http://oblongleeds.org.uk) rather than at the Com­mon Place.
Food will be served at the Com­mon Place over the week­end- so please bring about £10 to con­tribute towards the food and accom­mo­da­tion costs if you stay the whole week­end. Of course if you real­ly can not afford it then you are none the less very wel­come!

There will also be a trav­el pool (where­by peo­ple who live near­by and who have min­i­mal trav­el costs will be asked to make dona­tions to off set the expense for those who had to make much longer jour­neys to attend). Accom­mo­da­tion is sim­ply floor space- so please bring a camp­ing mat and sleep­ing bag. If you have par­tic­u­lar access needs, and/or if sleep­ing on the floor is not suit­able for you please email us as soon as pos­si­ble so we can make appro­pri­ate arrange­ments.

If you are plan­ning to bring chil­dren who will need child care facil­i­ties please let us at process@climatecamp.org.uk know as soon as pos­si­ble. The agen­da for this meet­ing has not yet been set — if you have any ideas about top­ics you think it is impor­tant for us to dis­cuss, please email
process@climatecamp.org.uk- by Fri­day the 19th Jan­u­ary
Hope to see you there!

camp for cli­mate action net­work­ing group
networking@climatecamp.org.uk
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk

129 rabbits liberated from lab breeder

It has been report­ed that on the 6th Jan­u­ary 2008, 129 rab­bits were lib­er­at­ed from a lab breed­er in Lin­colnshire. This breed­er sup­ply HLS, as well as sev­er­al UK uni­ver­si­ties. The pho­to’s show the cramped, unclean con­di­tions of this hell hole — would we expect any­thing else?

Lincolnshire rabbits liberated 1Lincolnshire rabbits liberated 2It has been report­ed that on the 6th Jan­u­ary 2008, 129 rab­bits were lib­er­at­ed from a lab breed­er in Lin­colnshire. This breed­er sup­ply HLS, as well as sev­er­al UK uni­ver­si­ties. The pho­to’s show the cramped, unclean con­di­tions of this hell hole — would we expect any­thing else?

Click here to watch the video (.wmv for­mat):
http://www.shac.net/images/generic/2008_images/january/rabbitlib/rabbits.wmv

Click here to down­load hi-res images of the res­cue:
http://www.shac.net/images/generic/2008_images/january/rabbitlib/rabbitlib.zip

SMASH HLS

CLIMATE ACTION NEWS SHEET 75, JANUARY 2008

CONTENTS:

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) FOSSIL FOOLS DAY — NATIONAL, 1.4.08
2) LONDON RISING TIDE BENEFIT — LONDON, 11.1.08

CONTENTS:

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) FOSSIL FOOLS DAY — NATIONAL, 1.4.08
2) LONDON RISING TIDE BENEFIT — LONDON, 11.1.08
3) NEWQUAY AIRPORT EXPANSION, PUBLIC DEBATE — CORNWALL, 12.1.08
4) RADICAL ACTION VS. CLIMATE CHAOS, NATIONAL MEET — NOTTINGHAM, 12.1.08
5) CLIMATE CAMP NATIONAL GATHERING — LEEDS, 26–27.1.08
6) BIOFUELWATCH WEEK OF ACTION — NATIONAL, 26.1.08 — 1.2.08
7) MANCHESTER CLIMATE FORUM — 1.3.08
8) DAY OF ACTION VS. GLOBAL AGRIBUSINESS — INTERNATIONAL, 26.1.08
9) LOW-IMPACT SMALLHOLDING — BUCKS, 11–13.1.08
———————————————-
RECENT HAPPENINGS:
———————————————-
1) NEWQUAY AIRPORT ROOFTOP OCCUPATION — 15.12.07
2) SANTAS AGAINST EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION — NORWICH & LONDON, 15.12.07
3) BRISTOL RISING TIDE TAKES ACTION VS. SHELL GREENWASH — DECEMBER 2007
4) SHELL TO SEA SCALE GOVERNMENT OFFICE — IRELAND, 19.12.07
5) NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE MARCH AND ACTIONS — 8.12.07
6) DUTCH COAL ACTION — 8.12.07
7) FLIGHT CENTRES SHUT FOR BUSINESS — MANCHESTER, 7.12.07
8) CHEADLE-HIGH-STREET AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE — DECEMBER 2007
9) SUBVERTISEMENTS IN LONDON AND MANCHESTER — DECEMBER 2007
10) WOMEN’S BLOCKADE OF DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT — 7.12.07
11) THE TIDE IS RISING! — 7.12.07
12) CLIMATE ACTIVISTS STOP WORK AT COAL MINE — SOUTH WALES, 5.12.07
13) INTERNATIONAL RT HOAX TARGETS BIG CARBON — 3.12.07
14) HOMELESS POLAR BEARS IN COURT — BRISTOL, 14.11.07
15) KEEP OIL UNDERGROUND — DECEMBER 2007
16) SIZEWELL NUCLEAR CLIMATE ACTION — 1.12.07
17) MANIAC MOTORIST MARS MASS — GLASGOW, NOVEMBER 2007
18) VIVA’S ‘HOT!’ CAMPAIGN — DECEMBER 2007
19) WHAT BETTER TIME? — DECEMBER 2007
20) BATH BOMB, ISSUE 5 — DECEMBER 2007
21) PACIFIC CURRENTS — DECEMBER 2007
22) A HOUSE OF CARDS — DECEMBER 2007
23) SOUTH WEST AIR ACTION — DECEMBER 2007
24) RISING TIDE LEAMINGTON SPA — DECEMBER 2007
25) RISING TIDE ON YOU TUBE

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) FOSSIL FOOLS DAY — NATIONAL, 1.4.08
Just three months to go — are you out prac­tis­ing your rou­tines? rehears­ing your songs? build­ing your props yet? I should get out more over Christ­mas…
How­ev­er, it will soon be time to hatch your mis­chie­vous scheme, so get your friends round and start plot­ting!
http://www.fossilfoolsday.org/

2) LONDON RISING TIDE BENEFIT — LONDON, 11.1.08
In sup­port of Lon­don Ris­ing Tide, AMP is organ­is­ing a night of live music at The Oth­ers, Manor Road, Stoke New­ing­ton. Entrance £5.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=38074566

3) NEWQUAY AIRPORT EXPANSION, PUBLIC DEBATE — CORNWALL, 12.1.08
Organ­ised by Ris­ing Tide with speak­ers from Groundswell and Plane Stu­pid.
7pm St. Maw­gan Com­mu­ni­ty Hall, Nr. Newquay, Corn­wall. For more info. email; kernow@risingtide.org.uk

4) RADICAL ACTION VS. CLIMATE CHAOS, NATIONAL MEET — NOTTINGHAM, 12.1.08
11am — 6pm at The Sumac Cen­tre, 245 Glad­stone Street, For­est Fields, Not­ting­ham.
This meet­ing came out of the last Cli­mate Camp gath­er­ing in Novem­ber. It is focussed on grow­ing our move­ment — how can we encour­age more groups to form and more actions/campaigns to hap­pen? What things do we want to do to help build a vibrant net­work of region­al action groups doing actions local­ly and nation­al­ly?
For instruc­tion on how to get there: http://www.veggies.org.uk/sumac/map.html
Also, 11 peo­ple are going to tri­al in Not­ting­ham on Mon­day 14th for ‘shut­ting down’ the local coal pow­er sta­tion, If any­one wants to stay to sup­port them that would be great!

5) CLIMATE CAMP NATIONAL GATHERING — LEEDS, 26–27.1.08
The Cli­mate Camp on its own did­n’t stop cli­mate change — but it’s part of a grow­ing social move­ment that can! Come and take the next steps for­ward at the upcom­ing UK-wide meet­ing on Jan 26–27 in Leeds. Every­one is wel­come, whether you came to the camp, or were sim­ply inspired by it.
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/nextmeeting.php

6) BIOFUELWATCH WEEK OF ACTION — NATIONAL, 26.1.08 — 1.2.08
Bio­fu­el­watch are call­ing for a nation­al week of local action on agro­fu­els between 26th Jan­u­ary and 1st Feb­ru­ary 2008. We will short­ly update our web­site to pro­vide more back­ground infor­ma­tion about the UK agro­fu­el indus­try and poli­cies, as well as a draft leaflet and oth­er resources. If you would like to get involved or find out more, please email us at info[at]biofuelwatch.org.uk.
http://biofuelwatch.org.uk/

7) MANCHESTER CLIMATE FORUM — 1.3.08
Man­ches­ter Cli­mate Forum “Cli­mate Change: it’s time to pre­pare”
9.15am at the Methodist Hall, Old­ham St, Cen­tral Man­ches­ter
http://www.manchesterclimateforum.org.uk/index.html

8) DAY OF ACTION VS. GLOBAL AGRIBUSINESS — INTERNATIONAL, 26.1.08
On Jan­u­ary 26 self-orga­nized groups from all around the world will take cre­ative action in their com­mu­ni­ty. This will man­i­fest in many ways, from non­vi­o­lent direct action, civ­il dis­obe­di­ence, street the­atre, con­ver­gences, teach-ins and oth­er activ­i­ties and events. Grass­roots move­ments around the world are mak­ing their voic­es heard and say­ing “Anoth­er World is Pos­si­ble”. In coor­di­na­tion with the World Social Forum.
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/category/front-page/

9) LOW-IMPACT SMALLHOLDING — BUCKS, 11–13.1.08
Next course by the Low-Impact Liv­ing Ini­tia­tive;
http://www.lowimpact.org/courseoutlinelowimpactsmallholding.htm

———————————————-
RECENT HAPPENINGS:
———————————————-
1) NEWQUAY AIRPORT ROOFTOP OCCUPATION — 15.12.07
For the recent­ly formed Ker­now and Ply­mouth Ris­ing Tide groups, this action marked an esca­la­tion in their fight against cli­mate change and for envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice. How­ev­er the planned rooftop protest at Newquay air­port was giv­en an unlike­ly boost when builders at the air­port left a lad­der propped up!
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/248
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7146159.stm

2) SANTAS AGAINST EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION — NORWICH AND LONDON, 15.12.07
Sub­ver­sive Singing San­tas Spread Sea­son­al San­i­ty in Lon­don and Nor­wich On one of the busiest shop­ping days of the year. Ris­ing Tide activists in both Lon­don and Nor­wich dressed up as San­tas Against Exces­sive Con­sump­tion and hit the high streets to sing a dif­fer­ent tune to the usu­al buy, buy,
buy mad­ness of the hol­i­day sea­son.
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/247

3) BRISTOL RISING TIDE TAKES ACTION VS. SHELL GREENWASH — DECEMBER 2007
A series of actions is being tak­en against the organ­is­ers of the Wildlife Pho­tog­ra­ph­er of the Year Award and Bris­tol Muse­um, in protest at the spon­sor­ship of the event by Shell. A grumpy polar bear vis­it­ed the offices of BBC Wildlife mag­a­zine, then activists dis­rupt­ed Bris­tol Muse­um’s posh recep­tion to kick off the exhi­bi­tion with a Yes Men-style inter­ven­tion. And on the open­ing morn­ing, dozens of humans, polar bears, a snow leop­ard and a tiger gath­ered (com­plete with the Shell’s Wild Lie counter-exhi­bi­tion) in front of the muse­um. They hand­ed out leaflets and cre­at­ed quite a spec­ta­cle. Protests are expect­ed to con­tin­ue through Jan. 13th.
http://risingtide.org.uk/bristol

4) SHELL TO SEA SCALE GOVERNMENT OFFICE — IRELAND, 19.12.07
A spe­cial prayer and car­ol ser­vice was held on 16th Decem­ber at Bel­lan­aboy, Coun­ty Mayo, mark­ing the end of anoth­er year of com­mu­ni­ty strug­gle against Shel­l’s pro­posed raw gas pipeline and inland refin­ery.
On the 19th, a small group of Shell to Sea activists scaled the heights of the Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources to place a ban­ner read­ing PROTECT IRISH NATURAL RESOURCES on the bal­cony out­side Eamon Ryan’s office.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17942
http://www.corribsos.com/

5) NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE MARCH AND ACTIONS — 8.12.07
Over 10,000 cli­mate cam­paign­ers took to the streets to take part in march­es in Lon­don and Glas­gow over the week­end, despite pour­ing rain. Pro­test­ers braved the weath­er in one the biggest demon­stra­tions call­ing for cli­mate jus­tice the UK has ever seen.
http://www.campaigncc.org/
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/387497.html
Envi­ron­men­tal activists from direct action group Plane Stu­pid shut down trav­el agents and air­line offices along the route of the Cli­mate March in Lon­don.
http://www.planestupid.com/
Mean­while, in Man­ches­ter air­line bill­boards adver­tis­ing cheap flights to Euro­pean cities were sub­vert­ed.

6) DUTCH COAL ACTION — 8.12.07
A col­lec­tive of twen­ty Dutch Earth­First! activists blocked the coal con­vey­or- belt to a plant owned by the Ger­man ener­gy giant E.on on the Maasvlak­te near Rot­ter­dam.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17893

7) FLIGHT CENTRES SHUT FOR BUSINESS — MANCHESTER, 7.12.07
All Flight Cen­tre branch­es in Man­ches­ter city cen­tre were super-glued shut in time for Sat­ur­day trad­ing and to coin­cide with the cli­mate march in Lon­don. They were past­ed with notices say­ing: “Closed — we want your kids to have a plan­et” The UK’s only Hum­mer deal­er­ship, Bauer Mil­lett, was also D‑locked shut.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17887

8) CHEADLE-HIGH-STREET AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE — DECEMBER 2007
Activists from Chea­dle-High-Street Against Cli­mate Change held a “A plan­et is not just for Xmas” cam­paign for a sus­tain­able Xmas.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17917

9) SUBVERTISEMENTS IN LONDON AND MANCHESTER — DECEMBER 2007
Two adverts pro­mot­ing DVD’s by Top Gear’s Jere­my Clark­son now have large stick­ers stuck on declar­ing “This caus­es cli­mate change”. Also, Fly­Be appears to have spot­ted the errors of their ways and can­celled their short-haul sum­mer routes. Bra­vo Fly­Be!
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17937

10) WOMEN’S BLOCKADE OF DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT — 7.12.07
Women cli­mate activists block­ad­ed the Depart­ment for Trans­port pre­vent­ing staff from get­ting to work and car­ry­ing out their poli­cies which are cat­a­pult­ing us towards dan­ger­ous run-away cli­mate change. This action comes in response to the Trans­port Sec­re­tary Ruth Kel­ly con­firm­ing the gov­ern­men­t’s inten­tions to build a third run­way and a sixth ter­mi­nal at Heathrow and coin­cides with the open­ing of their first “con­sul­ta­tion”.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17883

11) THE TIDE IS RISING! — 7.12.07
A ban­ner with this warning/statement was dropped to wel­come all those enter­ing the city of Man­ches­ter on the Princess park­way.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17886

12) CLIMATE ACTIVISTS STOP WORK AT COAL MINE — SOUTH WALES, 5.12.07
More than thir­ty cli­mate activists, includ­ing mem­bers of the Ris­ing Tide net­work, joined with local res­i­dents from Merthyr Tyd­fil in stop­ping exca­va­tion work for a full day on Britain’s biggest ever open-cast coal mine at Ffos-y-fran in South Wales. Activists evad­ed police and secu­ri­ty before tak­ing over the 1,000 acre site on a hill­top near Cardiff. Dressed as clowns and polar bears, they chained them­selves to bull­doz­ers and oth­er heavy machin­ery to pre­vent work on the mine.
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/242

13) INTERNATIONAL RT HOAX TARGETS BIG CARBON — 3.12.07
Cli­mate activists with the inter­na­tion­al Ris­ing Tide net­work embar­rassed the U.S. Cli­mate Action Part­ner­ship (USCAP), a lob­by group com­posed of 33 promi­nent busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions, by dis­trib­ut­ing a spoof press release declar­ing that the consortium’s mem­bers had com­mit­ted to a 90
per­cent reduc­tion in their green­house gas emis­sions by 2050. In addi­tion, the spoof release called for an imme­di­ate mora­to­ri­um on the con­struc­tion of all new coal-fired pow­er plants.
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/240
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/03/oil.bp

14) HOMELESS POLAR BEARS IN COURT — BRISTOL, 14.11.07
Four home­less polar bears appeared before Bris­tol Mag­is­trates Court on 14th Novem­ber. They were arrest­ed after blockad­ing the Roy­al Bank of Scot­land cor­po­rate offices on Avon St. dur­ing the Ris­ing Tide nation­al day of action. After plead­ing guilty to charges of “wil­ful­ly obstruct­ing the pub­lic high­way with a non motor vehi­cle” (i.e. a suit case) they were giv­en a con­di­tion­al dis­charge and went on to pick­et the RBS branch on Bald­win Street!
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/243

15) KEEP OIL UNDERGROUND — DECEMBER 2007
The only way to fight cli­mate change. A new report by Oil­Watch.
http://www.oilwatch.org/doc/documentos/Keep_oil_underground.pdf
http://www.oilwatch.org/

16) SIZEWELL NUCLEAR CLIMATE ACTION — 1.12.07
What else would you do at this time in the morn­ing at a nuclear pow­er sta­tion, oth­er than lay on the road, lock your­selves togeth­er, unfurl your ban­ner read­ing “nuclear pow­er is not the answer to cli­mate chaos” and wait 15 min­utes for the secu­ri­ty to notice you.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17868

17) MANIAC MOTORIST MARS MASS — GLASGOW, NOVEMBER 2007
Unbur­dened with fes­tive spir­it, a mid­dle-aged woman leant out of her car and pulled a cyclist off his bike.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17889

18) VIVA’S ‘HOT!’ CAMPAIGN — DECEMBER 2007
“Livestock’s con­tri­bu­tion to envi­ron­men­tal prob­lems is on a mas­sive scale. The impact is so sig­nif­i­cant that it needs to be addressed with urgency.” Unit­ed Nations Food and Agri­cul­ture Organ­i­sa­tion 2006
find out more at
http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/hot/index.php

19) WHAT BETTER TIME? — DECEMBER 2007
A free news sheet from the Scot­tish Cli­mate Activist Net­work.
http://whatbettertime.livejournal.com/

20) BATH BOMB, ISSUE 5 — DECEMBER 2007
Christ­mas edi­tion of the month­ly Bathon­ian rab­bler­ousi­ness.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17905

21) PACIFIC CURRENTS — DECEMBER 2007
For updates on the work of Pacif­ic Envi­ron­ment, a non-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion that pro­tects the Pacif­ic Rim’s wild places and wildlife, see;
http://www.pacificenvironment.org/article.php?id=2658

22) A HOUSE OF CARDS — DECEMBER 2007
From fan­ta­sy finance to glob­al crash.
Your guide to under­stand­ing the cri­sis that is sweep­ing through the glob­al finan­cial sys­tem and what it means for ordi­nary peo­ple.
Endorsed by Kevin Smith of Car­bon Trade Watch and film­mak­er Ken Loach.
http://www.aworldtowin.net/about/HouseOfCards.html

23) SOUTH WEST AIR ACTION — DECEMBER 2007
A new web­site.
http://www.swairaction.org.uk/

24) RISING TIDE LEAMINGTON SPA is born — DECEMBER 2007
The group had its first meet­ing on 3rd Jan­u­ary and is now swing­ing into action. If you live in the area and want to find out more or get involved con­tact becqke@riseup.net

25) RISING TIDE ON YOU TUBE
Ris­ing Tide action footage has been spring­ing up all over youtube — check out http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=RisingTideNetwork for some RT films, some of the lat­est actions and links to oth­er’s videos of RT actions.

———-

Please send any­thing you’d like includ­ed in this news sheet to:
newssheet@risingtide.org.uk

To view pre­vi­ous edi­tions of the Ris­ing Tide News Sheet, vis­it the News Sheet Archive at http://risingtide.org.uk/newssheet

This News Sheet was brought to you by Ris­ing Tide, a grass­roots net­work of groups and indi­vid­u­als com­mit­ted to tak­ing action and build­ing a move­ment against cli­mate change.

For more infor­ma­tion…
email: info@risingtide.org.uk
Phone: +44 (0)845 458 8923 / +44 (0)7708 794665
Address: 62 Fieldgate St, Lon­don, E1 1ES
Web site: http://risingtide.org.uk

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO A FRIEND AND INVITE THEM TO JOIN THE LIST

To sub­scribe or unsub­scribe vis­it:
http://risingtide.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/rt-news

END

Santas of Excessive Consumption in Norwich & London

Sub­ver­sive Singing San­tas Spread Sea­son­al San­i­ty

15.12.2007
Today, on one of the busiest shop­ping days of the year, activists from Nor­wich Ris­ing Tide dressed up as San­tas and vis­it­ed Chapelfield Mall to sing a dif­fer­ent tune to the usu­al buy, buy, buy mad­ness of the hol­i­day sea­son.

Norwich SantasSub­ver­sive Singing San­tas Spread Sea­son­al San­i­ty

15.12.2007
Today, on one of the busiest shop­ping days of the year, activists from Nor­wich Ris­ing Tide dressed up as San­tas and vis­it­ed Chapelfield Mall to sing a dif­fer­ent tune to the usu­al buy, buy, buy mad­ness of the hol­i­day sea­son.

Bear­ing a fes­tive ban­ner read­ing Lap­land is Melt­ing and singing sub­vert­ed Christ­mas car­ols (Wel­come to Con­sumer Won­der­land, Oh Lit­tle Town of Chapelfield, etc.), the San­tas set up out­side the tem­ple to con­sump­tion that is Chapelfield Mall.

Many stressed-out shop­pers broke into smiles of recog­ni­tion as the lyrics reached their ears: ‘Hit the malls with wads of mon­ey fa la la la / Breath­ing air that’s stale and ster­ile fa la la la’ or ‘To some folks Christ­mas means a time for gath­er­ing with friends / But TV says it’s time for pricey gifts and self­ish ends’. Mall secu­ri­ty how­ev­er were not so pleased with the ‘please don’t shop here’ tunes, and the San­tas were moved on – but not before send­ing a streak of san­i­ty through con­sumer won­der­land.

The San­tas’ car­ols also high­light­ed the fact that binge con­sump­tion at Christ­mas-time is direct­ly linked to cli­mate change (‘This shop­ping toil is wast­ing oil’). Hol­i­day food, trav­el, lights, and gifts pro­duce on aver­age 650 kg of CO2 emis­sions per indi­vid­ual. In total, that’s 5.5% of the year­ly car­bon foot­print of the UK.

‘Every gift that’s pro­duced, trans­port­ed, bought, used, and thrown away uses up ener­gy that we don’t have, and cre­ates emis­sions that our cli­mate can’t han­dle. And if that prod­uct is made of plas­tic (like all those cheap toys that will be bro­ken or dis­card­ed in a week’s time), then it’s lit­er­al­ly made of oil’, said one San­ta from Nor­wich Ris­ing Tide.

Said anoth­er: ‘Us San­tas aren’t sug­gest­ing you don’t give your loved ones presents this year. But why not make one or two of them, trade with friends, or buy local­ly. Think about the prod­ucts you’re buy­ing – what they’re made of, where they came from, how they got from there to here… and whether they’re actu­al­ly going to make some­one any hap­pi­er.’

norwich@risingtide.org.uk
http://www.risingtide.org.uk/norwich

—————————————-

London Santas 2
San­tas of Exces­sive Con­sump­tion on Oxford Street

San­tas singing alter­na­tive car­ols on Oxford street in Lon­don today (15 Decem­ber).

Today, on the last big shop­ping week­end of the year, LRT went to Oxford street to sing alter­na­tive car­ols for all the love­ly boys and girls who were busy rac­ing around in a rush to spend.

Dressed as San­tas and Elves, we brought not only cheer, but some hope too, as we got loads of pos­i­tive feed­back. The San­tas sang for about two hours.

Christ­mas Car­ols (thanks to The Cen­ter for a New Amer­i­can Dream)

1
Con­sumer Won­der­land
(To the tune of Win­ter Won­der­land, lyrics by Eri­ca Avery)

The TV’s on / are you watch­ing?
Anoth­er prod­uct / that they’re hawk­ing
one more thing you need
to make life com­plete
Wel­come to Con­sumer Won­der­land

In the stores / you will hear it
“Pricey gifts / show hol­i­day spir­it”
That’s what they call it
to get to your wal­let
Wel­come to Con­sumer Won­der­land

At the mall we can go out shop­ping
and buy lots of stuff we can’t afford
we’ll have lots of fun with our new toys
until we real­ize that we’re still bored
When you shop / ain’t it thrilling
until / you get the billing
the mon­ey you still owe the stuff broke long ago
Wel­come to Con­sumer Won­der­land

2
Uh Oh We’re In The Red, Dear

(To the tune of Rudolph the red-nose rein­deer)

Uh oh we’re in the red, dear
On our cred­it card it shows
Christ­mas is almost over
But the deb­it line still grows
Shop­ping like San­ta’s zom­bies
Sent our bud­get down in flames
But all our Christ­mas spir­it
Helped the giant retail chains

I’m so fog­gy Christ­mas Eve
Won­der­ing how we’ll pay
Christ­mas does­n’t seem so bright
When our finances are tight

So here’s a plan for next year
Let’s for­get the shop­ping spree
Let’s give a gift of love, so
All our Christ­mas gifts are free

3
God Rest Ye Mer­ry Gen­tle­men

Slow down ye fran­tic shop­pers for there’s some­thing we must say
If you would spare a moment all the stores would go away
Big busi­ness has been telling us what Christ­mas means today

Now it’s time we decid­ed for our­selves, for our­selves
Yes it’s time we decid­ed for our­selves.

To some folks Christ­mas means a time for gath­er­ing with friends
And ene­mies might take it as a time to make amends
But TV says it’s time for pricey gifts and self­ish ends

Now it’s time we decid­ed for our­selves, for our­selves
Yes it’s time we decid­ed for our­selves.

Some peo­ple feel that Christ­mas is when Jesus makes a call
For oth­ers it’s a time to stress good will and peace to all
But adver­tis­ers tell us it means San­ta’s at the mall

Now it’s time we decid­ed for our­selves, for our­selves
Yes it’s time we decid­ed for our­selves.

4
Jin­gle All The Way
To the tune of Jin­gle Bells

Cho­rus:
Prof­its here, prof­its there,
prof­its every­where
Christ­mas time is fun­ny
we smell mon­ey in the air
Adver­tise, glam­or­ize,
fool you with a flair.
Let’s make sure that Christ­mas
is a busi­nesslike affair.

You’re eat­ing up our lies and dash­ing to the stores
Then all our prices rise and how the mon­ey pours
If we don’t keep you drugged and watch­ing your TV
You might see the hypocrisy
then where would busi­ness be?

Cho­rus

We’ll tell you how to think and tell you what to try
What to eat and drink and how to live and die
And if our plan suc­ceeds, when Christ­mas-time is nigh
Instead of seek­ing love and peace you’ll hunt for gifts to buy

Cho­rus

5
To the tune of Lit­tle Town of Beth­le­hem

Oh gen­tle folk of Lon­don Town
Think how they feed us lies
All through the streets the shops com­pete
Urg­ing us to buy and buy
Whilst else­where explodeth
Anoth­er bomb tonight
As inno­cents fall
Were in the shop­ping mall
This doesn’t quite seem right.

Spend all our cash, we’re feel­ing flash
As the queues grow and grow
Buy­ing lux­u­ry goods and loads of food
for folks we hard­ly know
Whilst in so many places
The peo­ple starve and die
As I carve my bird
It’s quite absurd
We buy into this lie

Then at new year the sales appear
And everything’s reduced
In store we see new prod­uct lines
And know that we’ve been duped
We wish that we had wait­ed
Until now to buy
The model’s been updat­ed
It makes us want to cry.

6
To the tune of Once in Roy­al David’s City

Once in dirty Lon­don City
Stood a huge big fuck off shop
Where they sold their goods aplen­ty
And the shop­ping did not stop
Brand­ed bags all over­flow­ing
All their sav­ings quick­ly going
Thus con­sumerism wild
Yule’s cheer mes­sage has defiled
Thus con­sumerism wild
Yule’s cheer mes­sage has defiled

7
To the tune of Silent Night

Silent night holy night
Bombs go boom,Soldiers fight
Round the stores the suck­ers trawl
Buy­ing crap for one and all
Shop until you drop
Shop until you drop

8
To the tune of Oh Come All Ye Faith­ful

Oh come all ye shop­pers
Bur­dened and despon­dent
Come all ye fol­low­ers of ma-a-mon
Come and buy things
Spark­ly and redun­dant

Oh come let us ignore it
Oh come let us deplore it
Oh come let us abhore it
Mon­ey and greed.

Ring tills with prof­it
Ring in exploita­tion
Ring all ye reg­is­ters of cap­i­tal­ism
Glo­ry to prof­it
At it’s high­est

Oh come let us ignore it
Oh come let us deplore it
Oh come let us abhore it
Mon­ey and greed.

9
To the tune of Away in a Manger

Away in a sweat­shop
A pit­tance for pay
Work under age chil­dren
With no time to play
Mak­ing train­ers and T‑shirts
And lux­u­ry goods
Threat­ened with vio­lence
And giv­en no food

The stars in the media
Encour­age our greed
They’re mak­ing us want things
We don’t real­ly need
Still wast­ing resources
And scram­bling our brains
We’re using up car­bon
With lit­tle to gain.

10
To the tune of “Frosty the Snow­man”

Cheney the oil man
Was a jol­ly hap­py crook
With a secret past and alot of cash from cook­ing up the books
Cheney the oil man
Was a greedy guy I’m told
Because he want­ed Hal­libur­ton to buy up all the oil
There must have been some mag­ic in that pace­mak­er he wore
Because some­how his heart could han­dle the vio­lence and the gore
Thumpi­ty Thump Thump Thumpi­ty Thump Thump Look at Cheney toil
Thumpi­ty Thump Thump Thumpi­ty Thump Thump Over fields of oil.
Cheney the oil man
got his dream come true
He stole 87 Bil­lion from me and you.

11
To the tune of “Joy to the World”

Joy to the World the Love has come
To Lib­er­ate us all.
The work­ers all are poor
From shop­ping at these stores
Let heav­en and nature sing,
Let heav­en and nature sing,
And stop and stop shop­ping.
Joy to the World the Love has come
To Lib­er­ate us all
No one can afford
This birth­day for Lord
Lets join togeth­er and sing
Lets join togeth­er and sing
And stop and stop shop­ping

info@londonrisingtide.org
http://londonrisingtide.org.uk

National Squatters Meeting 9–10 February 2008 Leeds

So we are invit­ing peo­ple involved in all squat­ted autonomous spaces around the UK to meet and dis­cuss the squat­ting sit­u­a­tion and some prepa­ra­tion for the days of action in April.

Squat action days flierSo we are invit­ing peo­ple involved in all squat­ted autonomous spaces around the UK to meet and dis­cuss the squat­ting sit­u­a­tion and some prepa­ra­tion for the days of action in April.

So we are invit­ing peo­ple involved in all squat­ted autonomous spaces around the UK to meet and dis­cuss the squat­ting sit­u­a­tion and some prepa­ra­tion for the days of action in April. The idea for this meet­ing is inspired by the recent inter­na­tion­al meet­ing in Dijon.

Some of the ideas of what could be dis­cussed at this meet­ing are…
• Build­ing a stronger net­work between the squats/Autonomous spaces through­out the UK.
• Ini­tial plan­ning for the days of action.
• The repres­sion and resis­tance fac­ing Autonomous spaces in the UK.
• How we can make bet­ter use of Autonomous spaces in terms of con­nect­ing them to issues such as increased sur­veil­lance, hous­ing prob­lems, gen­tri­fi­ca­tion and the fun­da­men­tal issue of who owns and con­trols our land, space and lives.
• The impact of non squat­ted Autonomous spaces on the squat­ting move­ment.
• Break­ing out of the “squat­ting scene”.
• The impact of drugs on the move­ment.

This is just some ideas of what could come out of this meet­ing, obvi­ous­ly there is no set agen­da as this is decen­tral­ized so we want to make a col­lec­tive deci­sion about what will be dis­cussed at the start of the meet­ing.
We feel this could be a real­ly pos­i­tive week­end; we’d like to see loads of you there. We’ve cho­sen Leeds as a loca­tion even though not all of us live there, because although it might not feel like it to you down south but it’s a cen­tral loca­tion on this island!
Please get in touch if you’re gonna come along, our e‑mail is below. It is impor­tant for us to know how many peo­ple to expect. Please also get in touch if you want help set up or get involved in any oth­er way… Hope to see you all in Feb­ru­ary….

Squat Net­work
squatmeetup@googlemail.com

Fossil Fools Day, April 1st 2008

Ris­ing Tide Inter­na­tion­al is call­ing for a day of action against the fos­sil fuel indus­try on April 1st 2008…

Fossil Fools Day advance flierRis­ing Tide Inter­na­tion­al is call­ing for a day of action against the fos­sil fuel indus­try on April 1st 2008…
FOSSIL FOOLS DAY!

Roll up, roll up! The cli­mate cir­cus is in town. Cli­mate change threat­ens our very sur­vival, but the fools at the head of the fos­sil fuel empire con­tin­ue to plun­der the earth, with gov­ern­ments the will­ing court jesters at their side.

They would have us believe that we can escape cli­mate change with tech­no-fix­es, mar­ket mech­a­nisms and off­set schemes – all tech­no­crat­ic acro­bat­ics that dis­tract us from the truth: the only real solu­tion to cli­mate change is to keep fos­sil fuels in the ground.

For over a cen­tu­ry the fos­sil fuel indus­try has been fool­ing with our lives. From extrac­tion to com­bus­tion they have poi­soned our air, pol­lut­ed our water and ruined our cli­mate. On April 1st, 2008, we’re going to turn the tables and show them who the real fools are.

Find a local fos­sil fool – the coal-min­ing clown, the off­set con­tor­tion­ist, the avi­a­tor trip­ping on the high wire, the super­mar­ket food mile freak show, the oily strong man, or any oth­er fool that deserves your atten­tion – and join with thou­sands around the world in tak­ing one step clos­er to dis­man­tling the fos­sil fuel indus­try.

On Fos­sil Fools Day, bring the spir­it of car­ni­val and mis­chief to the fight for cli­mate jus­tice.

www.fossilfoolsday.org
www.risingtide.org.uk

(More info and resources com­ing soon… for now, put the date in your diary, spread the call-out above far and wide, and start schem­ing!)