Flotilla against new Bradwell nuclear reactor sails on Essex coast

On Sun­day, 9 August, a flotil­la of 20 boats, many with colour­ful ban­ners say­ing ‘Save the Black­wa­ter estu­ary and ‘No to new nuclear’ and fly­ing yel­low and white sheets from their masts, sailed from West Mersea and oth­er loca­tions on the Black­wa­ter to Brad­well.

Bradwell flotilla bannersOn Sun­day, 9 August, a flotil­la of 20 boats, many with colour­ful ban­ners say­ing ‘Save the Black­wa­ter estu­ary and ‘No to new nuclear’ and fly­ing yel­low and white sheets from their masts, sailed from West Mersea and oth­er loca­tions on the Black­wa­ter to Brad­well. The 50 or so sailors on board were protest­ing against the new nuclear pow­er sta­tion and high­ly radioac­tive nuclear waste store pro­posed for the Brad­well site.

Sev­er­al of the boats sailed along the West Mersea shore in front of pro­test­ers and hol­i­day mak­ers before head­ing over to Brad­well and anchor­ing in front of the old sta­tion.

Some of the sailors land­ed on the Brad­well beach and asked those who were there enjoy­ing the beau­ti­ful weath­er to sign the BANNG (Black­wa­ter Against New Nuclear Group) peti­tion. The peti­tion asks the Gov­ern­ment to reject the pro­pos­al to build a new sta­tion and demands that the old sta­tion site be returned to green­field with­in 25 years of clo­sure, as orig­i­nal­ly pro­posed, and not the 100 years it is report­ed it will now take.

Var­rie Blow­ers, the Sec­re­tary of BANNG said: ‘We believe that what is pro­posed would have a detri­men­tal impact on the envi­ron­ment and marine ecol­o­gy of the vul­ner­a­ble Black­wa­ter estu­ary, par­tic­u­lar­ly on its oys­ter, fish and huge over­win­ter­ing bird pop­u­la­tions. The estu­ary is a beau­ti­ful ameni­ty which is enjoyed by sailors and mem­bers of the pub­lic alike. All those who love and fear for the Black­wa­ter need to protest at these pro­pos­als.

BANNG believes that the Brad­well site is par­tic­u­lar­ly unsuit­able for a new nuclear pow­er sta­tion and waste store. As well as being on a shal­low estu­ary, it is liable to flood­ing and increased inci­dence of storm surges as a result of cli­mate change. We are par­tic­u­lar­ly opposed to the pro­duc­tion of yet more high­ly radioac­tive spent fuel which would have to be stored on site for more than 100 years, when there is not even a solu­tion in prospect for deal­ing with the wastes that already exist’.

Charles Clark, who organ­ised the vig­il, said: ‘The vig­il is the sec­ond in a series of protests organ­ised by BANNG. The first, before East­er, drew atten­tion to the impos­si­bil­i­ty of evac­u­at­ing Mersea Island in the event of a nuclear inci­dent. The pur­pose of Sunday’s vig­il was to draw atten­tion to the poten­tial impact of the pro­pos­als on the Black­wa­ter estu­ary itself. We were very pleased with the turnout of boats and sailors and the pos­i­tive reac­tion of peo­ple on the Brad­well beach to the peti­tion’.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion about BANNG and the peti­tion con­tact Var­rie Blow­ers (Tel.: 07932.644482).

We want to high­light:

* Envi­ron­men­tal dam­age to the Estu­ary fore­shore, wildlife, plea­sure and com­mer­cial fish­ing and local oys­ter indus­tries
* Poten­tial restric­tion on access for recre­ation­al use to the Estu­ary and its fore­shore
* Long term on site stor­age of high­ly radioac­tive waste
* Increased health risks to sur­round­ing pop­u­la­tion result­ing from tox­ic waste and from the lack of long term evac­u­a­tion plans for the sur­round­ing areas
* Neg­a­tive Visu­al impact of the new facil­i­ty and the reten­tion of the for­mer sta­tion

Climate Rush & Yes Men Barricade Mandy’s Home in Support of Vestas Protests

10.8.2009
Wel­come home Mandy! At 6am this morn­ing, two cli­mate suf­fragettes and the Yes Men bar­ri­cad­ed Peter Man­dleson’s Regen­t’s Park home in sup­port of the Ves­tas work­ers and wind pow­er in the UK. The cli­mate suf­fragettes, chained to his gate, unfurled a ban­ner read­ing ‘Mandy, Put Some Wind in Ves­tas’ Sales’ while the Yes Men inflat­ed their ‘sur­vivor balls’ in prepa­ra­tion for the worst effects of cli­mate change…

Mandelson Vestas protest10.8.2009
Wel­come home Mandy! At 6am this morn­ing, two cli­mate suf­fragettes and the Yes Men bar­ri­cad­ed Peter Man­dleson’s Regen­t’s Park home in sup­port of the Ves­tas work­ers and wind pow­er in the UK. The cli­mate suf­fragettes, chained to his gate, unfurled a ban­ner read­ing ‘Mandy, Put Some Wind in Ves­tas’ Sales’ while the Yes Men inflat­ed their ‘sur­vivor balls’ in prepa­ra­tion for the worst effects of cli­mate change…

With the work­ers being evict­ed from the Ves­tas fac­to­ry in New­port last Fri­day, the cam­paign to save Ves­tas and gal­vanise wind pow­er in the UK con­tin­ues. The protest called on Lord Man­dle­son, as Busi­ness Sec­re­tary and gen­er­al gov­ern­men­tal over­seer, to ensure Ves­tas’ pres­ence in the UK remained eco­nom­i­cal­ly viable. The gov­ern­ment has already shown they are will­ing to bail out the banks and stim­u­late the car indus­try (Man­dle­son returns from hol­i­day today to try and secure 5000 jobs at Vaux­hal­l’s Luton and Ellesmere Port plants), yet the wind pow­er indus­try remains a sad indict­ment of years of gov­ern­ment neglect.

Ves­tas’ UK chief, Rob Sauven, claimed that for the com­pa­ny to remain eco­nom­i­cal­ly viable in the UK it would need to be receiv­ing 1GW worth of order a year. With Ves­tas con­trol­ling a quar­ter if the UK mar­ket this would require the UK to be adding 4GW of wind pow­er every year. Last year the UK added only 0.5GW.

With the gov­ern­ment want­i­ng to achieve 15% of total ener­gy pro­duc­tion from wind pow­er by 2020, as part of its green eco­nom­ic recov­ery plan to cre­ate tens of thou­sands of green jobs, Sauven’s assess­ment illus­trates a dire need to stim­u­late demand and ensure Britain’s already late tran­si­tion to a low car­bon econ­o­my does not fail.

info@climaterush.co.uk
http://www.climaterush.co.uk

News from climate action camps in Scotland, Belgium/Netherlands and France

Scot­tish camp starts — Scot­tish coal con­vey­or sup­ply­ing Drax sab­o­taged — tar­gets list -
Belgian/Dutch camp starts — Bel­gian coal ter­mi­nal occu­pied — French camp & Nantes air­port action

…

Climate bomb alertScot­tish camp starts — Scot­tish coal con­vey­or sup­ply­ing Drax sab­o­taged — tar­gets list -
Belgian/Dutch camp starts — Bel­gian coal ter­mi­nal occu­pied — French camp & Nantes air­port action

…

Local sup­port for Cli­mate Camp Scot­land is made quite clear on the (longer than we expect­ed) bus ride from Lanark through the wind­ing coun­try lanes to Main­shill sol­i­dar­i­ty camp that is also now Scot­lands’ Cli­mate Camp.

Spot­ting us with our tent and gear an old­er woman says she would’ve joined the camp if it was­n’t for her bad health and oth­er women on the bus jeer and promise food dona­tions. A bloke imme­di­ate­ly struck up a con­ver­sa­tion telling us he used to work on the open­cast mine and that his broth­er still does. He said he could­n’t under­stand why they were so keen to reopen and restart work on the site. He’ll more than like­ly be vis­it­ing the camp this week too.

We arrived at the 6ft wood­en fence fit­ted with a door that is the main gate of the camp about 2pm — the dri­ver mak­ing an unsched­uled stop to drop us off at the camp entrance so we did­n’t have to walk back from the near­est stop — just as 2 local plod had man­aged to walk in wan­der­ing half way up the lane to the camp find­ing them­selves quick­ly sur­round­ed by cli­mate campers con­vinc­ing them to leave. Oth­er than that, the lone cop with video cam at Lanark sta­tion and the chop­per which hov­ered around for a few min­utes a while ago, the author­i­ties seem to be keep­ing a low pro­file. No FIT at the camp, in fact no police hang­ing around at all.

Although not very busy yet, the camp is look­ing sol­id: nev­er mind the com­post toi­lets, there’s a bike-pow­ered cin­e­ma, big kitchen tent, and solar-pow­ered (indy)media tent. And plen­ty of camp­ing space, of course. From the oth­er end of the field we can see the wind farms on hills to either side of the camp.

——–

Glen­tag­gart Coalmine Sab­o­taged; Police leave can­celled across the region

The Camp for Cli­mate Action Scot­land has been informed that anony­mous activists have suc­cess­ful­ly sab­o­taged the Glen­tag­gart open­cast coal mine in South Lanark­shire. The unknown indi­vid­u­als have dis­abled the con­vey­or belt that moves coal from the mine to Raven­struther rail ter­mi­nal where the coal is then sent to Drax pow­er sta­tion in York­shire.

The sab­o­tage has the poten­tial to great­ly dis­rupt the removal of coal. Insid­ers say that once it has been stopped it is dif­fi­cult to restart the heav­i­ly laden con­vey­ors which is sev­er­al kilo­me­ters long and comes in quar­ter kilo­me­ter sec­tions. Drax pow­er sta­tion was the site of the first Camp for Cli­mate Action 2006.

The Camp for Cli­mate Action Scot­land is tak­ing place cross the val­ley from Glen­tag­gart at the site of anoth­er pro­posed open cast mine at Main­shill woods near Dou­glas. A protest camp has already been in place for six weeks cam­paign­ing against the plans which have gone through despite strong local oppo­si­tion. The area is already one of the most heav­i­ly mined areas in Europe with a num­ber of oth­er open­cast mines already being worked.

Diar­maid Lynch, a spokesper­son from the Camp said on hear­ing the news, “Fan­tas­tic. Con­grat­u­la­tions to those who did this. Open­cast min­ing is respon­si­ble for a spike in the num­ber of lung relat­ed deaths in this small area. It is time that the likes of Scot­tish Coal and the plan­ning author­i­ties are held direct­ly respon­si­ble for their role in these deaths. Cli­mate change is a killer, both at home and in the Glob­al South where those who have ben­e­fit­ed the least from indus­tri­al­i­sa­tion are the first to pay the price.”

The World Health Organ­i­sa­tion esti­mates that cli­mate change kills 150,000 peo­ple a year and that fig­ure is expect­ed to grow as coun­tries fail to take action. Can­cer in the Dou­glas post­code area is 23% above the nation­al aver­age, and 28% above the region­al aver­age. In the four years that the exist­ing three open­cast mines have been oper­at­ing in the area pul­monary issues have increased 60%.

In a sep­a­rate devel­op­ment the Camp for Cli­mate Action has also learned that police leave across the cen­tral belt of Scot­land has been can­celled as the var­i­ous forces move to a state of high alert. To date the polic­ing at the Camp has been very low key, but campers remain alert.

Scotland’s Cli­mate Crim­i­nals

The fol­low­ing is a list of the oper­a­tions in Scot­land which prof­it from the exploita­tion of fos­sil fuels. None of these oper­a­tions are com­pat­i­ble with the vision for a zero-car­bon Scot­land as such they will be tar­get­ted with direct action in order to ensure we can make a just tran­si­tion towards a sus­tain­able future.

Lon­gan­net and Cocken­zie Coal Pow­er sta­tions

Glas­gow, Edin­burgh, Preswick and Aberdeen Air­ports

Oil & Gas oper­a­tions in Aberdeen-shire

Grange­mouth Oil & Gas Refin­ery

Hunter­ston coal ter­mi­nal

All open-cast coal mines

Coal dis­tri­b­u­tion net­work includ­ing;
Raven­struther coal ter­mi­nal
Crow­bands­gate Rail Facil­i­ty
Glen­tag­gart Con­vey­er belt

RBS HQ

Scot­tish Pow­er HQ

Scot­tish and South­ern Ener­gy HQ

Motor­way con­struc­tions such as M74

http://climatecampscotland.org.uk/

Video — http://www.envirospeak.tv/video/375

——–

Guide to dis­man­tling the coal indus­try in Scot­land, a 16-page infor­ma­tion sheet released by Cli­mate Camp Scot­land and Coal Action Scot­land [pdf 5.3M]

includes infor­ma­tion on open cast coal mines and mine oper­a­tors, coal-fired pow­er sta­tions, coal rail and port infra­struc­ture, indus­try lob­by­ists, and a map of Scot­tish tar­gets.

——–

Netherlands/Belgium camp — We’ve start­ed – come join us!

More than 100 peo­ple entered and secured a field between Zand­vli­et and Beren­drecht, in the heart of Antwer­p’s indus­tri­al har­bour, at 1am this morn­ing. They have erect­ed tripods, hung ban­ners and are well under­way in set­ting up camp.

Although the Cli­mate Action Camp has been open about most aspects of the plan, the loca­tion of the camp had not been revealed until Sat­ur­day morn­ing in order to pre­vent police from attempt­ing to stop it from hap­pen­ing.

The offi­cial start date is Mon­day August 3rd! Take a look at the map below or google ‘Derdeweg Zand­vli­et Antwerp’ to see the exact loca­tion. You can also email info[at]klimaatactiekamp.org or con­tact the info line at+32 (0)485916863 (please text if pos­si­ble).*

How to reach the camp site by bus from Antwerp:
From the Roo­sevelt­plaats, close to Antwerp Cen­tral sta­tion, you can take buslines 770 or 771 direc­tion ‘Zand­vli­et’. After appr. 40 min., you’ll get to the stop ‘Zoutes­traat’ where you have to get off the bus. Fol­low the street in trav­el direc­tion, after about 200 meter you will see a cou­ple of tents on the left side. The street next to it is called ‘Derde Weg’, fol­low it and you’ll quick­ly reach the wel­come tent!

http://www.climateactioncamp.org/

——–
Belgian coal terminal occupied
Cli­mate Action Camp occu­pies Bel­gian coal ter­mi­nal

8.8.2009
The Cli­mate Action Camp on the Belgian/Dutch bor­der yes­ter­day occu­pied the Antwerp Bulk Ter­mi­nal (ABT) coal ter­mi­nal in Antwerp Har­bour, Bel­gium. This ter­mi­nal; respon­si­ble where coal is import­ed to Europe from Africa and South Amer­i­ca before dis­tri­b­u­tion by train and boat to pow­er sta­tions around Europe was shut down for the day as activists blocked train lines and con­vey­or belts at the site.

——–

French camp

Camp Action Cli­mat 2009 — Le teas­er

Nantes airport occupationcli­mate action alert at Nantes air­port, Sat­ur­day 8th August 2009 — peo­ple invade the ter­mi­nal of the air­port.

Climate Activists occupy roof of 2nd Vestas factory!

4.8.2009

Vestas 2nd factory occupation4.8.2009
Cli­mate activists have occu­pied the roof of the Ves­tas tur­bine fac­to­ry at Ven­ture Quays, East Cowes, Isle Of Wight, in sol­i­dar­i­ty with work­ers occu­py­ing a fac­to­ry in New­port. The pro­tes­tors have hung a ban­ner above the Fer­ry Port say­ing: “Ves­tas Work­ers — Sol­i­dar­i­ty in Occu­pa­tion. Save Green Jobs,” and issued the fol­low­ing state­ment:

This Cowes Week, tens of thou­sands of peo­ple have come to the island to use and cel­e­brate the free, abun­dant, and nat­ur­al pow­er of the wind. At the same time, work­ers at Ves­tas are strug­gling to keep Britain’s only wind-tur­bine blade man­u­fac­tur­er open. Fac­to­ries in East Cowes, New­port and Southamp­ton are being closed with the loss of over 600 jobs, and hun­dreds more in sup­port indus­tries like Gurit, dev­as­tat­ing not only green promis­es but the Isle of Wight local com­mu­ni­ties.

Now the peo­ple are say­ing enough is enough. At New­port dozens of work­ers are in the sec­ond week of their fac­to­ry occu­pa­tion with mes­sages of sup­port com­ing in from around the world. These coura­geous peo­ple are show­ing more vision and com­mit­ment to the future of jobs, com­mu­ni­ties and our plan­et than all the do-noth­ing busi­ness and polit­i­cal lead­ers put togeth­er.

In the face of man-made cli­mate-change, keep­ing these work­ers with their unique spe­cial­ist skills is as urgent for pow­er­ing a sus­tain­able future as it is for the for the island com­mu­ni­ties. But the gov­ern­ment which was so quick to nation­alise North­ern Rock and pour bil­lions into the ail­ing banks has so far done NOTHING to pro­tect the future of Britain’s wind-pow­er gen­er­a­tion, despite their recent pledge to invest in “Green Jobs”.

Ves­tas mean­while are leav­ing their work­force high and dry, with peanuts in redun­dan­cy pay and lit­tle hope of work, while they make off with the £76 mil­lion prof­its they made in the first quar­ter of 2009 out of their non-unionised work­force.

The Ven­ture Quays roof occu­pa­tion is in sup­port of Ves­tas work­ers demands. We say,

– Take Ves­tas fac­to­ries into pub­lic own­er­ship, under work­ers man­age­ment
Re-instate all work­ers, includ­ing those sacked while in dis­pute
Invest in devel­op­ing wind-pow­er in Britain
Retool the Ves­tas plant to pro­duce for Off-Shore Wind Gen­er­a­tion

This dis­pute comes in a peri­od of cri­sis, both eco­nom­ic and eco­log­i­cal. The eco­nom­ic cri­sis has already seen a mil­lion peo­ple los­ing their jobs while banks ask for hand-outs, with mas­sive cuts and tax ris­es on the hori­zon. On top of that, unless we act quick­ly, the eco­log­i­cal cri­sis of cli­mate-change will threat­en the very future of human life. Moti­vat­ed by greed and paral­ysed by fear, our rulers seem inca­pable of respond­ing. Instead, the lead is com­ing from below.

Work­ing peo­ple are increas­ing­ly stand­ing up and stay­ing put. Occu­pa­tion by not only work­ers but local res­i­dents is becom­ing a default option. This year we have seen occu­pa­tions at the Vis­teon fac­to­ries in Enfield and Belfast, schools occu­pied against clo­sure in Glas­gow and Lewisham, a Lon­don care-home, Thomas Cook in Dublin and now Ves­tas. Peo­ple have been dis-empow­ered for too long!

Lis­ten to the Ves­ta work­ers song “Boys on the Bal­cony” at http://www.seizetheday.org

http://savevestas.wordpress.com

Villagers stage Oldbury anti-nuclear protest

Direct action by local res­i­dents against new E.On / RWE npow­er nuclear pow­er plant planned in Old­bury, Glouces­ter­shire.

Vil­lagers stage Old­bury anti-nuclear protest
August 4 2009

Vil­lagers liv­ing near the pos­si­ble site of a new nuclear pow­er sta­tion near Bris­tol staged a five-hour protest to pre­vent con­trac­tors get­ting on to the land.

Direct action by local res­i­dents against new E.On / RWE npow­er nuclear pow­er plant planned in Old­bury, Glouces­ter­shire.

Vil­lagers stage Old­bury anti-nuclear protest
August 4 2009

Vil­lagers liv­ing near the pos­si­ble site of a new nuclear pow­er sta­tion near Bris­tol staged a five-hour protest to pre­vent con­trac­tors get­ting on to the land.

Res­i­dents of Shep­per­dine, near Thorn­bury, blocked the access road to a field near the exist­ing Old­bury atom­ic plant until they were final­ly asked to move by police.

The site is one of a num­ber around the coun­try put for­ward by the Gov­ern­ment as a pos­si­ble loca­tion for one of the new gen­er­a­tion of nuclear sta­tions.

Pow­er firm Eon has acquired land at Shep­per­dine with anoth­er com­pa­ny RWE and wants to build a £4‑billion sta­tion.

The process involved in get­ting per­mis­sion will last for many years but as part of the ini­tial site devel­op­ment work, small-scale ground inves­ti­ga­tion and seis­mic stud­ies were due to have start­ed yes­ter­day morn­ing on the Shep­per­dine land to help deter­mine the type and best loca­tion for the foun­da­tions.

But when con­trac­tors from Almonds­bury firm Hydrock arrived with lor­ries, they found their way blocked by the pro­test­ers.

About 13 res­i­dents occu­pied the lane lead­ing to a field that has already been turned into a com­pound.

They said they had two con­cerns at this stage – whether per­mis­sion had been giv­en by the British Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey (BGS) for the drilling to take place and whether South Glouces­ter­shire Coun­cil had giv­en the all-clear for the com­pound and park­ing area to be cre­at­ed.

Pro­test­er Reg Illing­worth said: “Ulti­mate­ly, we don’t want a new nuclear pow­er sta­tion here.

“But this protest is sole­ly about per­mis­sion for the pre­lim­i­nary work and the com­pound, which has already been built.

“We want to know if con­sent has been giv­en and if we see that in writ­ing, then we will stand aside.”

At one point, four police­men were at the scene but that was lat­er cut to two.

Act­ing sergeant Steve Wil­son said: “It’s a peace­ful protest and we are here to ensure it remains that way.”

There was also a debate through­out the morn­ing about whether the road being blocked was part of the pub­lic high­way or pri­vate­ly owned.

When it was con­firmed it was a pub­lic road, the res­i­dents moved aside and the Hydrock lor­ries went through.

Alan Pin­der, of South Glouces­ter­shire Friends of the Earth, was among the demon­stra­tors.

He said: “We want to ensure Eon is going through the prop­er process.

“You have to do every­thing by the book if you are going to run a nuclear pow­er sta­tion.”

Eon spokes­woman Emi­ly High­more said: “While we respect the right of peo­ple to protest, we would like to reas­sure every­one the ground inves­ti­ga­tion works and estab­lish­ment of a con­trac­tor’s com­pound have been car­ried out with the full knowl­edge of South Glouces­ter­shire Coun­cil and the BGS.

“It’s still very ear­ly days but we’re com­mit­ted to keep­ing every­one informed of our activ­i­ties and would urge any­one with any ques­tions or con­cerns to get in touch.”

BGS spokesman Clive Mitchell said the organ­i­sa­tion had to be noti­fied about drilling of holes deep­er than 30m for water abstrac­tion and min­er­al explo­ration but not site inves­ti­ga­tion.

South Glouces­ter­shire Coun­cil spokesman Ryan Skeets said: “The coun­cil was made aware of inten­tions by Eon to car­ry out some tem­po­rary ground inves­ti­ga­tion works that appear to be cov­ered by per­mit­ted devel­op­ment rights and there­fore would not require pri­or plan­ning per­mis­sion.

“The coun­cil will mon­i­tor these works to ensure they are being car­ried out in line with these inten­tions.”

One day early: With classical music against nuclear power: “Musical inspection“ on the site of the fine storage site in Gorleben

8th August 09.

Today at 10:30am 60 musi­cians from the action group “Lebenslaute”, packed with instru­ments and music stands, climbed the four meter high wall around the site of the planned final stor­age site in Gor­leben (Ger­many) and began a protest con­cert with main­ly clas­si­cal music.

Lebenslaute on the site of the final storage site in Gorleben8th August 09.

Today at 10:30am 60 musi­cians from the action group “Lebenslaute”, packed with instru­ments and music stands, climbed the four meter high wall around the site of the planned final stor­age site in Gor­leben (Ger­many) and began a protest con­cert with main­ly clas­si­cal music.

The musi­cians sur­prised with their action, orig­i­nal­ly announced for Sun­day. With this “musi­cal inspec­tion” the activists protest against the con­tin­ued oper­a­tion of nuclear pow­er plants and against the con­tin­ued explo­ration of the salt mine in Gor­leben for use as a final nuclear stor­age site.

“The dis­cus­sion about nuclear pow­er is about the live of com­ing gen­er­a­tions, but the pub­lic does not take the dan­ger seri­ous­ly enough”, says Berthold Keu­necke, a protes­tant priest from Her­ford and one of the spokesper­sons of Lebenslaute. Today we over­came the fences and walls of Gor­leben, to effec­tive­ly protest against nuclear tech­nol­o­gy which is threat­en­ing our lives. We want to awak­en, pro­voke, drama­tise — and we all, each one of us indi­vid­u­al­ly, stand up for this provo­ca­tion.”

“The nuclear lob­by wants to con­tin­ue the work to turn salt dome in Gor­leben into a final stor­age site, although the scan­dals around the salt mine Asse final­ly made clear, that Gor­leben too is not save”, declares Kat­ja Tem­pel, mid­wife and Lebenslaute spokesper­son from the Wend­land. “In the light of the unsolved ques­tion of the final stor­age of nuclear waste, we demand an end to the pro­duc­tion of nuclear waste, that is the shut­down of nuclear pow­er sta­tions. The use of renew­able ener­gies has to be pro­mot­ed.”

Under the slo­gan “A‑Moll statt A‑Müll” (A‑minor instead of A(tomic)-waste” a var­ied and ambi­tious pro­gramme for choir and orches­tra is being per­formed: the works of Georg Philipp Tele­mann, Willy Burkhard and Fan­ny Hensel, per­formed by “Lebenslaute” cele­breate the beau­ty of nature, which is to be pre­served. As an accu­sa­tion and call for urgent action against the dead­ly dan­gers of nuclear ener­gy, “Lebenslaute” will per­form Hein­rich Schütz’ Choral „Wie nun ihr Her­ren, seid ihr stumm” (What now, you men, are you silent), as well as parts of sym­pho­ny No 101 “Die Uhr” (The clock) by Joseph Haydn and a choir ver­sion of “It‘s my life” (Bon Jovi). Cham­ber music in dif­fer­ent instru­men­ta­tions con­cludes the con­cert.

“The music is an expres­sion of the ener­gy of dif­fer­ent gen­er­a­tions. With this, our action fits well into the broad spec­trum of cre­ative resis­tance in the Wend­land”, explains Katha­ri­na Dehlinger, Lebenslaute activist from the coun­ty of Pader­born. “It is bet­ter that live­ly music comes through the walls and fences of the mine in Gor­leben, than dead­ly nuclear radi­a­tion. The salt dome in Gor­leben is not suit­able for a save final stor­age of nuclear waste. The project has to be aban­doned.”

With the com­bi­na­tion of actions of civ­il dis­obe­di­ence and main­ly clas­si­cal music the ini­tia­tive “Lebenslaute” has been rais­ing aware­ness for wrongs in soci­ety for more than 20 years. The ini­tia­tive includes polit­i­cal­ly active musi­cians from all over Ger­many.

Up-to-date pho­tos (also in print­ing qual­i­ty) will soon be avail­able at http://www.lebenslaute.net

Scottish Camp for Climate Action builds support

The Scot­tish Camp for Cli­mate Action has been build­ing defences sup­port­ing the Main­shill open cast protest site this week. The camp is build­ing action affin­i­ty groups and through direct action train­ing enabling activists to take action on high car­bon pro­duc­ing indus­tries around the coun­try.

The Scot­tish Camp for Cli­mate Action has been build­ing defences sup­port­ing the Main­shill open cast protest site this week. The camp is build­ing action affin­i­ty groups and through direct action train­ing enabling activists to take action on high car­bon pro­duc­ing indus­tries around the coun­try. The camp focus­es on alter­na­tive solu­tions to a dam­ag­ing sys­tem where pow­er is in the hands of pow­er­ful but dam­ag­ing indus­tries. Direct action is pro­vid­ing the means for peo­ple and groups to read­dress that pow­er imbal­ance and actions will take place dur­ing and after the camp. High emis­sion indus­tries across the coun­try are to be tar­get­ed in the com­ing weeks; pol­lut­ing ener­gy inten­sive cor­po­ra­tions will be brought into the spot­light and brought to a stand­still.

London Rally Supports Vestas Workers — 6 Aug

The Cam­paign Against Cli­mate change held a ral­ly in Lon­don on Thurs­day 6 August in sup­port of the 600 Ves­tas work­ers whose jobs mak­ing wind tur­bine blades are to be lost as the com­pa­ny moves pro­duc­tion to the USA.

London Rally in solidarity with Vestas workersThe Cam­paign Against Cli­mate change held a ral­ly in Lon­don on Thurs­day 6 August in sup­port of the 600 Ves­tas work­ers whose jobs mak­ing wind tur­bine blades are to be lost as the com­pa­ny moves pro­duc­tion to the USA.

The ral­ly out­side the Depart­ment of Ener­gy and Cli­mate Change in White­hall on Thurs­day evening start­ed in light rain, but it was pour­ing by the time it fin­ished. Despite the weath­er, the 80 or so present lis­tened intent­ly to speech­es from a Ves­tas work­er, trade union speak­ers from the RMT, PCW and Bil­ly Hayes of the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Work­ers Union, as well as for­mer Labour Sec­re­tary of State for the Envi­ron­ment Michael Meach­er MP and Green Par­ty GLA mem­ber Jen­ny Jones, who arrived at the event by bicy­cle.

Despite the gov­ern­ment hav­ing spent thou­sands of bil­lions prop­ping up the banks it is unwill­ing to put up the much small­er amounts need­ed to sup­port green indus­tries. The prob­lems of Ves­tas are indeed very much of the Gov­ern­men­t’s mak­ing, with its fail­ure to put it’s mon­ey where its mouth is on green ener­gy poli­cies, rely­ing on hot air rather than sup­port for wind pow­er and oth­er alter­na­tive ener­gies.

Mak­ing wind tur­bines is a prof­itable busi­ness, and will become even more so, but unless action is tak­en — such as nation­al­is­ing Ves­tas, at least (as with the banks) on a tem­po­rary basis, the UK will be buy­ing them from abroad rather than mak­ing mon­ey sell­ing them to the rest of the world.

This sto­ry is also on Demotix, and I’ll put more pic­tures on My Lon­don Diary next week:
http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2009/08/aug.htm

Bristol Solidarity With Vesta Occupation

A wide selec­tion of peo­ple: Bris­tol Ris­ing Tide, Respect Par­ty, Bris­tol Anar­chist Book­fair, FBU, UNITE, Decom­mis­sion­ers and Bris­tol Co-Mutiny took part in a Sol­i­dar­i­ty Demo Out­side the Envi­ron­ment Agency, today, Tues­day 4th August.

Bristol solidarity demo for VestasA wide selec­tion of peo­ple: Bris­tol Ris­ing Tide, Respect Par­ty, Bris­tol Anar­chist Book­fair, FBU, UNITE, Decom­mis­sion­ers and Bris­tol Co-Mutiny took part in a Sol­i­dar­i­ty Demo Out­side the Envi­ron­ment Agency, today, Tues­day 4th August.

On Tues­day 4th August, pro­test­ers descend­ed on the Bris­tol Head­quar­ters of the Envi­ron­ment Agency in Aztec West car­ry­ing wind­mills and ban­ners to sup­port the action of Ves­tas work­ers who have occu­pied the St Cross wind tur­bine fac­to­ry on the Isle of Wight for the last two weeks because of plans to close the site with the imme­di­ate loss of 600 jobs

The work­ers are ask­ing that the gov­ern­ment — who have pledged £100bn towards renew­able ener­gy — nation­alise the fac­to­ry to save it from shut­ting. On the 4th August the Ves­tas com­pa­ny are going to court to evict the work­ers.

Around 20 peo­ple turned out to sup­port the protest and they hand­ed out fly­ers to staff and chat­ted to them about the Ves­ta Occu­pa­tion. Many of the Envi­ron­men­tal Agency staff sup­port­ed the protest and under­stood the con­cerns of the pro­tes­tors and the rea­son­ing for the Ves­ta occu­pa­tion.

Anti-nuclear Camp in Lecce — Italy

ENG
Italy – Lec­ce

20 – 23 AUGUST IN SALENTO, NUCLEAR CLIMATE CAMP

In the con­text of the social and envi­ron­men­tal resis­tance, typ­i­cal of the pop­u­lar strug­gles in Italy, a series of expe­ri­ences, sub­jec­tiv­i­ties and col­lec­tiv­i­ties emerged in the Autumn of 2008 in oppo­si­tion to the gov­ern­ment project to restart the Civ­il Nuclear pro­gramme.

ENG
Italy – Lec­ce

20 – 23 AUGUST IN SALENTO, NUCLEAR CLIMATE CAMP

In the con­text of the social and envi­ron­men­tal resis­tance, typ­i­cal of the pop­u­lar strug­gles in Italy, a series of expe­ri­ences, sub­jec­tiv­i­ties and col­lec­tiv­i­ties emerged in the Autumn of 2008 in oppo­si­tion to the gov­ern­ment project to restart the Civ­il Nuclear pro­gramme.

Although a decade of grass­rots strug­gles and the ref­er­en­dum of 1987 led to the clos­ing of pow­er sta­tions and the nuclear pro­gramme, on 2th july 2009 the Cam­era (ital­ian par­lia­ment) approved the “DDL Svilup­po-pac­chet­to anti­crisi” that con­tains the reopen­ing of nuclear pow­er sta­tions. In the next 6 months, the gov­ern­ment will announce the sites, declared of “strate­gic-mil­i­tary inter­est”, in order to avoid clash­es with Local Author­i­ties: a open dec­la­ra­tion of war against the pop­u­la­tion!

After one year of meet­ings and pub­lic ini­tia­tives, that gave birth to the Nation­al Anti-Nuclear Coor­di­na­tion health-envi­ron­ment-ener­gy , the Pugliese Coor­di­na­tion is orga­niz­ing a resis­tance camp, in August in Salen­to, con­vivial days of “pizzi­ca” folk music and ded­i­ca­tion to the cause. The Pugliese Coor­di­na­tion was set up in 1985 to fight nuclear instal­la­tions in Puglia, and oth­er parts of Italy. Already, even before Cer­nobyl, in 1985, the move­ment was reject­ing the nuclear in Puglia.

The resis­tance camp will take place from 20th to 23rd of August in the “Masse­ria Fat­tezze”, 2km away from Ionio sea/Cesareo sea­port: this peri­od also sees the “Notte del­la Taran­ta”, that takes place in var­i­ous parts of Salen­to, fin­ish­ing the 22th of August in Melpig­nano.
We have choosen this site, a well know cul­tur­al ref­er­ence in Salen­to, because it wont cost to you to enter, but it will cost 5 euros per day and there’s a kitchen that will cook tipi­cal salen­tine food.

The resis­tance camp will basi­cal­ly focus on nuclear ener­gy and fos­sil-fuels, but will be also dis­cuss oth­er issues on the autum­nal polit­i­cal agen­da: the cri­sis, pre­ca­ri­ety and incomes, racism, “major-works” from the TAV to the Bridge over the Straits, from motor­ways to drilling, from incin­er­a­tors to regas­si­fi­ca­tors, so all that kind of things that are the con­ti­nu­ity of a mod­el that has left only death and destruc­tion over the ter­ri­to­ries.

The camp will also focus on the Inter­na­tion­al sit­u­a­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly on the lib­er­a­tion strug­gle in Pales­tine, Kur­dis­tan, Nige­ria.

The gen­er­al pro­gramme is:

Thurs­day 20th August
6:00pm Intro­duc­tion to the camp, and about cur­rent sit­u­a­tions
7:30pm Inter­na­tion­al overview

Fri­day 21th August
6:00pm Cri­sis: Work, pre­ca­ri­ety, income
7:30pm Com­mon goods – region­al ener­gy plan

Sat­ur­day 22nd August
6:00pm Anti-nuclear assem­bly and ener­gy choic­es

Sun­day 23rd August
6:00pm “Field-trip” on the nuclear select­ed site, in Ave­trana
9:00pm Par­ty with Salen­tine music

Pugliese Coor­di­na­tion / Nation­al Anti-Nuclear Coor­di­na­tion health-envi­ron­ment-ener­gy

boboaprile@tiscali.it
tel. 0039368582406