East Midlands – Page 8

After Space for Change

The ‘discussion space’ on crabgrass is the place to share comments, concerns and ideas about the decision(s) made at Space for Change. Here’s how:

1) Go to https://we.riseup.net/discussion_space.
2) Click ‘log in’ at the top right corner
3) Once logged in, select ‘join group’
4) And you’re in!

The ‘discussion space’ on crabgrass is the place to share comments, concerns and ideas about the decision(s) made at Space for Change. Here’s how:

1) Go to https://we.riseup.net/discussion_space.
2) Click ‘log in’ at the top right corner
3) Once logged in, select ‘join group’
4) And you’re in!

If you don’t already have a crabgrass username and password you can quickly get one by going to https://we.riseup.net and selecting ‘new account’.

3) INTERIM WORKING GROUPS – get involved!

The following interim working groups were set up at Space for Change:

– Tat and Dosh: to maximise the usefulness of our material resources
– Communications: to address ongoing communications and media issues. To learn from and document our experiences
– New structures: to investigate new organisational forms, structures and tactics for possible next experiments.
– Next meeting: to organise a meeting in the next 2-3 months to share ideas about these next experiments

They each have Crabgrass pages that can be found by putting the following after https://we.riseup.net/
tat_dosh
communications
new_structures
next_meeting

Then click ‘request to join group’.

All of these groups are part of the interim Crabgrass Network ‘After Space for Change’ which you can join here:
https://we.riseup.net/after_space_for_change. Having groups be part of a network is useful to be able to see what other groups are doing.

You can either join the whole network or just one of the working groups.

If Crabgrass is a bit strange to you, check out the help pages here:
https://we.riseup.net/crabgrass

4) METAMORPHOSIS STATEMENT

In case you missed the statement coming out of Space for Change at Monkton Wyld, it can be read on the Climate Camp website here:
www.climatecamp.org.uk/2011-statement

Day of Action against Extraction, April 19/April 20 – 2011

Communities around the world are under attack from extractive industries that poison our families, kill our loved ones on the job, and destroy the ecosystems we cherish. The BP oil spill was unfortunately just one of an endless string of disasters born of an economic system that must endlessly consume the Earth’s resources.

Extraction is the act of taking without giving anything back. Extraction takes workers lives so corporations can make a few more bucks.
Extraction takes clean water and air and gives us blackened oceans and a climate in chaos. Extraction takes the natural wealth of communities and ecosystems and leaves behind poverty and ecological wastelands.

For a stable climate, clean air and water, we must stop the extraction of fossil fuels and other “resources.” From the tar sands of Alberta to the Gulf Coast, people are fighting back against the extractive industries that have declared war on our planet. Rising Tide is calling for a day of direct action against extraction on the 1 year anniversary of the BP oil spill. On April 20th take it to the point of production.
Shut down a well site, occupy a mine, take over an office, blockade a bank. Nobody’s community should be a sacrifice zone. For climate justice and a liveable planet.

Rising Tide (North America)

Season of the Climate Trials

RATCLIFFE ON TRIAL ‘SHOW OF SOLIDARITY’
9am, 22nd November
Outside Nottingham Crown Court

Next Monday 20 activists begin their long awaited trial. Accused of conspiring to shut down Ratcliffe on Soar power station, they don’t deny this was their intention. However they are pleading Not Guilty on the grounds that they planned to act to prevent loss of life and serious injury caused by climate change.

With the trial due to begin Monday morning, we are asking supporters from far and wide to congregate outside the Crown Court at 9am for a Show of Solidarity before the trial gets underway. You don’t need to bring anything but yourselves, and we will be inviting you to hold banners reading “I’d Stop Emissions Too”.

We ask for a calm presence that doesn’t disrupt the trial. But the more attendees the better. This is the culmination of an exhausting 18 month process for the defendants, who face a maximum sentence of three months in prison. A big show of support would make their day.

Get booking your travel, or organise a mini-bus with your local group. For more information, email info@ratcliffeontrial.org

See you next Monday,
Ratcliffe on Trial campaign support group

PS: Join the Facebook Event: http://on.fb.me/92y0Yx

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THE INSTANT INFO BOARD: PRINT IT OUT, STICK IT UP

A few of the Ratcliffe on Trial supporters have been hard at work over the last few days, putting together an “instant info board”. This 8-page document explains, briefly, the various different aspects of the trial, the context, the necessity defence and how to help. We’d love it if supporters around the country could print it out and stick it up in your local social centre, students union, workplace or anywhere else you can think of. Thanks!

Download it here:
http://ratcliffeontrial.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ratcliffeontrial.pdf

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MANCHESTER AIRPORT ON TRIAL

In May 2010, seventeen people staged a protest/direct action at Manchester Airport, temporarily shutting it down. They did this to stop some of the 5 million tonnes of carbon emissions that the airport is responsible for annually and in opposition to plans to destroy local homes and biodiversity spots to expand the World Freight Centre.

Mission:

17 people are now facing two trials as a result of this action. 11 people will be tried for ‘obstruction of the highway’ in Dec 2010. The remaining 6 will face a trial in early 2011.

Please
-Email statements of support to manchesterairportontrial@gmail.com
-Like the Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/92b4jo
-www.manchesterairportontrial.org/

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Update:
On 25 November 2010, the Copenhagen District Court found Stine Gry Jonassen and Tannie Nyboe guilty in charges of being organisers and instigators of violence and vandalism. The incident took place on 16th of December at Bella Centre last year during the climate summit in Copenhagen. The two women were sentenced to four months of probation. One out of three judges disagreed with the verdict and thought the women were innocent of all charges.

Stine Gry and Tannie Nyboe both acted as spokespersons for the Global Network “Climate Justice Action” (CJA).

During the Cop15 last year, CJA organised several non-violent civil
disobedience protests, including the “Reclaim Power – Push for Climate Justice” rally on 16th of December. The two women were both the public faces of the movement and they are now found guilty in charges of being organisers and instigators of violence and riots. They are both deeply shocked by the outcome of the trial and are now considering an appeal.

More: http://www.climatecollective.org/post/151

CLIMATE DEFENCE IS NOT AN OFFENCE!

Crude Awakening info update

12 Sept 2010

THE CRUDE AWAKENING MASS OUTREACH EMAIL

A mass action to switch off oil

Saturday, 16 October 2010, Central London

12 Sept 2010

THE CRUDE AWAKENING MASS OUTREACH EMAIL

A mass action to switch off oil

Saturday, 16 October 2010, Central London

Have you been thinking it’s about time a whole load of people got together to take mass action against oil in central London? We thought so. And so it followed that the Crude Awakening was launched. The mobilization is now in full swing and everyone is invited to help publicize and prepare. There is loads to do….please have a read through this email and get involved!

The email is in three parts:

Upcoming events and how to get involved
Frequently asked questions
The call out – please copy and paste and help this get all over the Internet!

1. How to get involved and build up events you are all invited to.

Events already planned are listed bellow:

In London……

17th September, networking meeting at 6pm just inside the entrance to the Brunei Gallery at SOAS, a meeting for people interested in helping to do outreach in the London area the Climate Camp outreach group are meeting.

There is going to be a London coordinating and planning meeting for the Crude Awakening very soon, and the details will be announced shortly.

Thursday 23rd September at 7.30pm, Climate Action Film Night, London Action Resource Centre, Whitechapel (for address see www.londonarc.org)

An evening of films and discussion about climate activism and the oil industry, hosted by London Rising Tide.

A screening of two short films of recent actions against BP and Shell by Rising Tide and friends, plus Petropolis, a visually stunning and disturbing documentary about the Canadian Tar Sands. Followed by a brainstorming session on taking direct action against the oil industry in London – including all the latest info on the Crude Awakening, an oily mass action happening on Saturday 16th October. For anyone who believes in climate justice and wants to help make it happen; anyone hacked off with the greed and irresponsibility of oil giants like BP; anyone back from the Climate Camp and looking to get involved locally… everyone welcome….and there’ll be cake!

The Crude Awakening London Rabble Rouser – a mass outdoor team game, warming us up for the big day– date, place and time to be announced.

Saturday 2nd October. MOLASAPULTPARTY FUNDRAISER …. Venue TBC, more details to follow shortly

Saturday the 2nd and Sunday the 3rd October Stilt making workshop for the stilt block on the mass action!….
This time we’re thinking big, we’re thinking high, we’re thinking tall…. and we’re going as a Stilt Bloc.

Yep, thats right! On stilts!

So in order for this to happen we’re having a skill share weekend in London to build stilts and learn how to walk on them. The weekend is Sat 2nd and Sun 3rd October, 10am to 6pm.

And even if you don’t want to be up high, each stilt walker will need a buddy staying on the ground so there’s a place for everyone, young and old, big or small, high or low…… we need you at this weekend too!!!

Its all free and lunch is included….

We need RSVPs so we know numbers. Email: stilt.bloc@gmail.com

Oh and its MEXICAN DAY OF THE DEAD theme…..

In Manchester….

Sat 9th Oct – Mass Action training

Tue 12th Oct – Publicly announced rouser for CJA international day of action

Crude Awakening mobilisation

We hope that there will be loads more to follow but this is what is lined up so far. If you are planning a build up event let us know so we can advertise it please.

There is a huge amount to do to mobilize quickly for an event this big. Maybe you could organise a film showing or talk (we can probably send a speaker if you email us). You could put on an affinity group or action training workshop, or host a fundraiser. You could book a coach and fill it. You could run a workshop so people can build practical stuff , for example a load of disposable bikes to bring along (email us to let us know if you do make lots of useful stuff). You could have a stall and hand out flyers at your freshers fair (again email for materials). You could make a stencil and graffiti advertise for it all across your city/ region. Unless everyone gets involved there is a real danger we won’t get the numbers we need.
The Crude Awakening is now on crabgrass! Join it, join a working group and lets get planning! https://we.riseup.net/thecrudeawakening (crabgrass is a little bit like facebook for activists and is a way of organising on line). And sign up for more information by email and text alerts on the website. www.crudeawakening.org.uk. Our facebook page is a little slow to get off the ground but it will soon be buzzing.

Please also raise The Crude Awakening as an agenda point at the next organising meeting at your Social Centre/ Friends of the Earth Group/ Union/ Climate Camp neighbourhood/ Housing Coop etc. Get people talking and excited and committed to the idea that they are going! If you are not already in a group or affinity group you are of course still totally welcome. You will probably want to make contact with some like minded folk to talk things through and make some plans before the big day. For example you could go to climatecamp.org.uk or risingtide.org.uk and find your local active group, or email us and we can try to signpost you on. At the least try to get a couple of mates to come with you, so that you have some support as a group of friends (known by activists as an affinity group).

2. Frequently asked questions

Q. Neither the website nor the flyer gives much info. What is going on?

A. As you have probably twigged there is also a deliberate sense of mystery around the action. So often with recent mass actions we have said exactly where we are going to go, and the police have had as much time to prepare as us, making things much more difficult for people who want to be involved in mass and effective direct action . With this project we are experimenting a little bit. The 10 targets are left unspecified, giving the action more chance of being successful. But at the same time we can openly advertise that we all need to be in Central London so we can get loads of people together at the same place at the same time for the mass action. And those people need to be ready to take action and to have fun. This is not a march and it’s not a camp. This is an action that needs preparation and we can all be involved in most of that preparation….although the targets will be a surprise until much later.

We can’t be sure that this mix of secret and public planning will work, but we can give it a go, have some fun and maybe make some progress…..but maybe, just maybe we have got it totally nailed and this will be the best mass action in London ever! If you don’t show up there it will be difficult for you to know. Our advice is don’t miss it 😉

Q. So what do I need to do to prepare?

A. People need to be ready to move, and to stand their ground. Don’t bring with you anything that you can’t easily walk with or get on a tube with. But do bring with you stuff that will help you and your affinity group hold a space in what ever way you feel you want to. Whether you want to bring armtubes, disposable bikes or a huge slow moving metal and wooden tower with a papier-mâché rhino head (that can fit on and off a tube!?); diversity of tactics and affinity group planning are key to this working. People can also prepare stuff to make this action look beautiful; puppets, masks, banners, a portable molasses fondue……you get the idea.

Q. Why Oil?

A. For a whole host of reasons. Here are just a few…..
Because oil companies search for new oil reserves to make themselves richer while our climate spins into crisis.
Because the UK government starts wars for oil.
Because of human rights abuses and murder in West Africa.
Because of the Deepwater Horizon spill.
Because of the destruction of wilderness in the Arctic and the coast of Rosport in Ireland.
Because of UK public money being used by bailed out banks to fund new oil projects.
Because London is brimming with oil money, oil sponsorship and oil companies.
Because global energy resources are the peoples commons.
Because oil companies and the filthy rich people who profit from them have no place in a sustainable future.
Because Copenhagen failed and now it’s down to us.
Because oil has had it’s day and it’s time we pulled the plug.

Hope that that made things a little clearer. And more specific information will be sent out soon. If you are still struggling with the idea, it is a bit like the Great Climate Swoop of 2009, except where we are going is kept secret. Remember, you are being asked to come and move around London, so stay mobile, be creative, be prepated and be ready to stand your ground. So talk in your affinity group about the ways in which you are going to be able to hold a space and equipment and materials that you might want to bring along to help you. The action is open, and will be shaped by the people who are there. Only the targets and how we are getting to them are secret.

3. The call out – please copy and paste and help get this all over the Internet!

THE CRUDE AWAKENING

A mass action to switch off oil

Saturday, 16 October 2010, Central London

Floods in Pakistan, drought in Russia, huge glaciers breaking up in Greenland…

Our climate system is rapidly sliding into crisis, as oil companies destroy people’s lives and the environment to keep sucking up their profits.

Oil saturates every aspect of our lives. Oil profits lubricate the financial markets and its sponsorship clings like a bad smell to our cultural institutions. It flows through pipelines to the pumps, airports and factories of our cities.

The failure of the UN COP15 process showed us – if there was ever any doubt – that government and industry can’t tackle climate change. It’s up to us and it’s time to up the ante.

As a movement, our actions against coal and aviation have made a real difference. Now oil’s time is up.

Together, on October 16, let’s give the oil industry a Crude Awakening.

Meet in central London. Be ready to move. Be ready to stay and stand your ground.

Be creative. Be prepared. Be there.

Find out more, get involved and sign up for text alerts at www.crudeawakening.org.uk
Facebook: http://bit.ly/c6S0kg
Twitter: @crudeawake

Part of the CJA global week of action for climate justice
Supported by: Space Hijackers, Climate Camp, Plane Stupid, Rising Tide, Liberate Tate, Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, UK Tar Sands Network

Hope to see you on the streets,
Crude Awakening
crudeawakening.org.uk

Stop Nuclear Power gathering, 23-24 October 2010

Sat 23 – Sun 24 Oct 2010, Bristol

Meet, make plans, take action

Sat 23 – Sun 24 Oct 2010, Bristol

Meet, make plans, take action

Stop Nuclear Power is a grassroots network of groups and individuals taking action against nuclear power. If EdF get their way, Hinkley C will become the first nuclear power station built in Britain for 20 years and will sit next to two other radioactive and dangerous sites. Stop Hinkley is a long running community campaign to stop deadly nuclear reactors operating near their homes.
Their struggle is our struggle. Let’s sit down together in Bristol and make some plans together.

Hinkley is the battleground, if they get one in there, it opens the door for at least nine other nuclear power stations across the country. This Autumn, the government is taking its pro-nuclear propaganda on tour around the UK. We’ll be there. Come to the gathering or send us an email to find out how you can get involved.

www.boycottedf.org.uk

Info for the weekend:

Meeting space during the day on Saturday and Sunday tbc but will be in Bristol.
Crash space is available on a dry, warm and quiet floor space.
If you need a bed please get in contact with us as soon as possible and will try and help you out.
Lunch and dinner will be done communally on Saturday and lunch on Sunday.

For a telephone number to contact during the weekend send us an email.

Please help by letting us know you are coming so we can plan for space, food and logistics.

Email: nonewnuclear@aktivix.org

Trashing, dashing, bashing, mashing: the new EF! Action Update

So what have you been up to the last few months? Just hanging around?
Maybe you’ve been part of human wheel-clamping aeroplanes, climbing up scaffolding tripods inconveniently placed in the road, smashing machines at open-cast mines, playing nuked-dead in the street, kayaking against borehole drill rigs in Ireland, burning mobile phone masts, resisting Tesco, camping against trashing of woodland, with some success at Titnore (& other protest camp updates), or getting in on BP’s act, spilling oil in public places.

Or have you been on holiday, taking part in indigenous blockades against logging, dams and mining, spilunking against high speed trains, slashing tuna cages, blockading Monsanto HQ, trashing GM fields, and more?

Maybe you’re in need of a break. But if you’re not, and are just champing at the bit, the return of AUntie MIffy’s problem page might help, addressing what to do if there’s no local group near you. There’s an article about the beginnings of EF! in this country, looking forwards to the next 20 years, to help inspire. If you need support to get things going where you live, do get in touch. And if all that’s not enough, here’s a quotation, from Paul Watson, the Sea Shepherd captain:

“Future generations will not have the chance and those that came before us did not have the vision nor the knowledge. It is up to us — you and I.”

Print version
Other issues and extra info

summer camps in the UK & Merthyr coal train action sentencing – solidarity demo

The next month and a half are busy times if you like camping and politics! Peace News, EF! gathering, Welsh & UK climate camps….

The Peace News Summer Camp is almost upon us in sunny Oxfordshire, “an inclusive, democratically-run five-day experience-in-miniature of the kind of world we are trying to bring about”. This year, feminism joins our standing themes of peace and justice.
http://peacenewscamp.info/

The EF! Summer Gathering is of course in early August in the beautiful Peak District. “5 days of workshops, skill sharing and planning action, plus low- impact living without leaders. Meet and share skills with others who care. Plan actions and campaigns. Have fun. We’ve got over 80 workshops, planning, strategy and ‘Where Next’ sessions planned, get in touch if you want to offer a workshop! ”
A tonne of varied and amazing workshops and training sessions, full details at http://www.earthfirstgathering.org.uk/2010/front.html

And the Welsh Climate Camp is in mid-August (see callout below), “a basic ‘lite’ action-focused camp in South Wales; with its attention fixed firmly on coal. This will be linked to a sister-site /info-shop in Cardiff which will act as a point of contact before and during the camp. Workshops will be mostly limited to action-based training and information although there will be space to hear from community campaigns and open discussion forums throughout the camp.”
http://climatecampcymru.org/?page_id=1000

The UK Camp for Climate Action is heading north to Edinburgh at the end of August, “Our sustainable and collectively organised basecamp will give you the chance to learn, train up, and meet like minded individuals. Exciting action plans are currently in the plotting stages, so watch this space.”
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/actions/edinburgh-2010

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Open cast is trashing the south Wales landscape
It’s time to take action
Climate Camp Cymru
13 – 17 August

A momentum is building. Last year we camped next to Ffos y Fran – one of the largest opencast mines in Europe – for a week of workshops and sustainable living. This summer we’re going back to basics with a light action-based camp, targeting coal somewhere in south Wales.

Our current economic system is based on an addiction to fossil fuels and on maximising profit at the expense of people and the environment. Fossil fuel corporations cannot be allowed to progress unchecked. We need green jobs for Wales, not dirty destruction.

On the 13th we’ll meet in Cardiff and make our way from there to the site.
Things to bring:

> Tent
> Sleeping bag
> Warm clothes and waterproofs
> Plate, bowl, mug and cutlery
> and a bike could be useful too

Burning coal is destroying our climate, while opencast mining damages the earth and the health of local people. We must leave it in the ground.

Join a growing number of ordinary people taking direct action, and exploring alternatives, to stop the madness that is destroying the earth. This August 13th -17th come to Climate Camp Cymru.

www.climatecampcymru.org
info@climatecampcymru.org
07040 909 147

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Heading to Climate Camp Cymru on August 13th? 13 people who blockaded the railway at Ffos y Fran opencast mine in April are being sentenced at Merthyr Crown Court that day at 2pm. Why not drop by around 1pm for a solidarity demo.

Three Cellphone antennas destroyed

4 July 2010
Over the past three week three mobile phone antennas have been destroyed by fire in the Nottingham area. In each instance the action was performed with fervour and carried out in anger at the capitalist culture. A culture which seeks to dominate its surroundings in order to increase it’s power over it’s inhabitants.

These actions were simple and repeatable. The tools were old rags, flammable liquids and a lighter. They were carried out against a telecommunications industry which facilitates capitalisms ongoing destruction of the planet and the manner in which it deforms the social relationships we engage in.

We carry out this action, and actions like it in solidarity with all those who choose to fight against repression, the state and capitalism whenever and wherever the oppitunity arises.

We dedicate this action to all those who are imprisoned by civilization, but continue to struggle against its cage.

Tesco targeted in Beeston, Nottingham

30.6.2010
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the gates of a construction site of Tesco supermarket in the Beston area of Nottingham were d-locked shut and graffiti was sprayed on the boards surrounding the site saying ‘TESCO – FUCK OFF’ and ‘EVERY LITTLE HURTS – FUCK OFF TESCO’

The more we allow our food supply to be controlled by corporations, or to be administered by the logics of capitalism, the more we surrender our autonomy.

Tesco is just one cog in a capitalist machine that is based on exploitation and oppression, and is ruining our ecology and environment.

Solidarity with all those in active resistance against corporate power.

UK arrests & raids, possibly climate action related

At lunchtime on Wednesday 26th May two addresses in Belper, Derbyshire, were raided by the North Yorkshire Counter Terrorist Unit.

One woman from The Sailboat Project was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit criminal damage. She has since been released without charge, but bailed to return to the police station in two months (no bail conditions). Large quantities of property was confiscated, including IT equipment and mobile phones belonging to the arrestee and to other residents & visitors in the house at the time. Another woman who was away, today handed herself in to North Yorkshire police in Sussex and has been questioned and released.

One address in Sholebroke Avenue, Leeds was visited by police looking for specific people identified as having taken part in kayak training run by the Sailboat Project in North Yorkshire in April. The training was publicly advertised and well attended. The police questioned one individual. Questions included:
– what other groups are they part of
– why were they on the training
– who else was on the training
– were they planning to take action against power stations

The previous day (Tuesday 25th), police searched the premises of a different organisation not involved in boats, but with links to various gatherings. Nothing was taken. The warrant was under the Terrorism Act and is possibly related.

We are not aware of any other contact by the police, but plenty of other people were on the training…