Mainshill Solidarity Camp Update: two and a half months on & 1st newsletter

Over two and a half months ago the Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp was set up on the site of a new open cast coal mine at Main­shill Wood, in sup­port of the local com­mu­ni­ties efforts to oppose the project and Scot­tish Coal’s plans, and in defi­ance of plan­ning approval grant­ed by South Lanark­shire Coun­cil.

A lot has hap­pened dur­ing the past few months: Scot­tish Coal and Strath­clyde Police bust­ed through bar­ri­cades with a JCB and removed machin­ery, the Camp for Cli­mate Action in Scot­land set up in the field next to the camp, actions have hap­pened, and final­ly an issue has been made of coal expan­sion in Scot­land. Amaz­ing work and research has been done into the health impacts of open cast coal min­ing for sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties (see http://coalhealthstudy.org/) – an issue that Scot­tish Coal, Lord Home (the land own­er) and South Lanark­shire Coun­cil can no longer silence.

So why have a group of peo­ple decid­ed to live on the site of a rel­a­tive­ly small open cast coal mine, that is most­ly plan­ta­tion for­est and sur­round­ed by only a few small com­mu­ni­ties, and why is this so impor­tant? Because it is places such as Dou­glas that direct action, root­ed in com­mu­ni­ty strug­gle, can be at its most effec­tive. At Main­shill, the fight is against feu­dal land own­er­ship and a fat-cat Lord, a cor­rupt Coun­cil that has removed local demo­c­ra­t­ic process­es, a mul­ti-mil­lion pound min­ing com­pa­ny that stops at noth­ing for prof­it and gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy that pri­ori­tis­es cheap coal over com­mu­ni­ty health and the envi­ron­ment.

Now the cam­paign is firm­ly estab­lished and is win­ning a lot of ground, pres­sure and momen­tum must be kept up and the strug­gle must be brought to oth­er com­mu­ni­ties fac­ing sim­i­lar injus­tices as Dou­glas.
The camp will defend this lib­er­at­ed space and stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with com­mu­ni­ties until the Wood is saved!

How you can help:
— Vis­it and stay at the camp! Even if its just for a day we’d love to have you
— Dona­tions – both finan­cial and any­thing from our wish­list here are much appre­ci­at­ed
— Spread the word – help dis­trib­ute fly­ers, send emails and tell peo­ple about the strug­gle
— Take action – cen­tral Scot­land is lit­tered with coal infra­struc­ture, cor­po­rate HQs, open cast mines and pow­er sta­tions

http://mainshill.noflag.org.uk/
http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/

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Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp Newslet­ter no. 1 out now!

The sto­ry so far, uncov­ered health impacts from open cast­ing, the Camp for Cli­mate Action, assault­ed by a coun­cilor, and oth­er coal strug­gles at Hunter­ston and Cous­land – the Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp & Coal Action Newslet­ter is now out!

Down­load the pdf here: http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/?p=669

Please copy and dis­trib­ute far and wide. We hope to make this a reg­u­lar pub­li­ca­tion and wel­come sub­mis­sions – please email * mainshill@riseup.net * with any arti­cles, sto­ries or pho­tos.