Five hundred flashmob at heathrow

[London,Sat 17] Mid­day today, five hun­dred peo­ple flash­mobbed Heathrow’s Ter­mi­nal 5 in protest at the gov­ern­ments deci­sion to give the go-ahead on build­ing a third run­way and yet anoth­er ter­mi­nal. Among the mob were four naked women, lots of red ‘no expan­sion’ t‑shirts, umbrel­las and Heathrow’s largest con­ga dance. It was all fin­ished with­in an hour.

The flash­mob had been called for the first Sat­ur­day after the deci­sion on the air­ports expan­sion plans and comes at the end of a packed week of protests which has already seen the domes­tic depar­tures lounge of ter­mi­nal three occu­pied by a Cli­mate Rush din­ner, a plot of land pur­chased by cam­paign­ers in the mid­dle of the pro­pose new run­way and suf­fragettes esca­lat­ing the mil­i­tan­cy of the cam­paign by smash­ing win­dows at the gov­ern­ments Depart­ment of Trans­port.

The week also saw twen­ty four Plane Stu­pid activists qui­et­ly sen­tenced for their part in the blockad­ing of Stanst­ed air­port late last year.

Many more actions are expect­ed and the Cli­mate Camp is hold­ing a nation­al gath­er­ing in Oxford next week­end at which pro­pos­als to shut down Heathrow air­port down com­plete­ly for a day are expect­ed to be dis­cussed.

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Attract­ing most press atten­tion were four brave young ladies who had saved the ten quid for a red ‘STOP AIRPORT EXPANSION’ t‑shirt and instead opt­ed for red body paint with a black mes­sage across their midriffs, ‘Sim­ply No Slaugh­ter’ and a pair of strate­gi­cal­ly placed gold stick­ing plas­ters pro­claim­ing ‘art’ and ‘port’ (port was indeed on the left.)

Among them were many of the locals who have led the long term oppo­si­tion to the project, includ­ing some I pho­tographed on the march in 2003 in Sip­son and Har­mondsworth, as well of course as John Stew­art of HACAN and local MP John McDon­nell who many were con­grat­u­lat­ing for his seizure of the mace in the House of Com­mons when the announce­ment was made.

For three-quar­ters of an hour the demon­stra­tors chant­ed, threw red bal­loons in the air and red ten­nis balls at an ‘Aunt Sal­ly’ of Trans­port Sec­re­tary Geoff Hoon and con­ga’ed around the area and had there pic­tures tak­en by a large squad of pho­tog­ra­phers includ­ing some from the nation­al press and some TV crews.

They were watched by a few of those wait­ing to check in and rather more police and air­port secu­ri­ty staff who made a loose ring around event. But although the atmos­phere before the demon­stra­tion had appeared a lit­tle tense, with police mak­ing con­tin­ued patrols through the depar­ture area pre­sum­ably look­ing for trou­ble-mak­ers, they seemed pret­ty relaxed — and some were clear­ly amused by what was hap­pen­ing.

Final­ly Stew­art thanked us all for com­ing, and repeat­ed the deter­mi­na­tion of all those involved to keep up the fight to ensure that despite the deci­sion, the run­way will nev­er be built. McDon­nell was giv­en a cheer for his action in par­lia­ment and every­one was invit­ed to take a last chance to pelt Hoon before we all slipped away to the und­e­dr­ground and bus sta­tions.