Earth First! Summer Gathering 2016 dates & location

Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing! — 17th-22nd Aug — The address is: The Limes, Mil­ton Rd, Gayton,Northampton NN7 3HE.

Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing! — 17th-22nd Aug — The address is: The Limes, Mil­ton Rd, Gayton,Northampton NN7 3HE.

For work­shop pro­gramme and direc­tions etc. see: http://earthfirstgathering.org/

“We welcome the closure of three UK coal power stations”

Three coal pow­er sta­tions are to close by the end of the month. A move wel­comed by cam­paign­ers fight­ing open­cast coal mines in the UK and against cli­mate change.

ferrybridge

Three coal pow­er sta­tions are to close by the end of the month. A move wel­comed by cam­paign­ers fight­ing open­cast coal mines in the UK and against cli­mate change.

Lon­gan­net is Scot­land’s last coal fired pow­er sta­tion. This pow­er sta­tion has been respon­si­ble for one fifth of all of Scotland’s cli­mate change emis­sions. [1] Coal burnt in Lon­gan­net has been import­ed from Colom­bia, Rus­sia and the USA, as well as being sup­plied by open­cast coal mines in Scot­land. [2] As a result of Lon­gan­net’s clo­sure Har­g­reaves, the main coal min­ing com­pa­ny in Scot­land, has announced it will close all but one of its Scot­tish mines. [3] This move has been wel­comed by local cam­paign­ers, the Scot­tish Open­cast Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance, who are now fight­ing for a full restora­tion of the sites aban­doned by pre­vi­ous mine oper­a­tors and a ban on open­cast min­ing. [4]

SSE stat­ed that Fer­ry­bridge pow­er sta­tion was fore­cast to lose £100m over the next 5 years, and that the polit­i­cal con­sen­sus is that coal has a lim­it­ed role in the future, mean­ing that keep­ing the sta­tion open is not sus­tain­able. [5] SSE are also to close all but one unit at their oth­er coal pow­er sta­tion Fid­dler’s Fer­ry this year. Fer­ry­bridge is in West York­shire.

Egg­bor­ough has failed in its attempts to gain sup­port from gov­ern­ment to con­vert the pow­er sta­tion from coal to bio­mass and will now close. [6] Its clo­sure is wel­comed by cam­paign­ers work­ing to end our addic­tion to fos­sil fuels. Egg­bor­ough is in North York­shire.

Activist who have fought against the open­cast mines which have sup­plied these pow­er sta­tions cel­e­brate their clo­sure.

All, but one, of the UK coal pow­er sta­tions need to upgrade their air qual­i­ty con­trols in order to reach new Euro­pean Union air pol­lu­tion stan­dards. [7] The remain­ing 7 pow­er sta­tions need to eval­u­ate whether it is more eco­nom­i­cal­ly viable to upgrade or to close. The Coal Action Net­work is push­ing for the lat­er. This sum­mer Ruge­ley pow­er sta­tion will also close. [8]

Anne Har­ris from the Coal Action Net­work says, ‘We are pleased that this week the UK is mov­ing away from unsus­tain­able coal in shut­ting three of its 11 coal pow­er sta­tions. This will reduce the exten­sive dam­age caused to the com­mu­ni­ties in the UK, Rus­sia, Colom­bia and the USA where the coal is mined to pro­vide our elec­tric­i­ty. Clos­ing these coal pow­er sta­tions means that we will reduce our con­tri­bu­tion to glob­al warm­ing.”

She adds, “Although we are sor­ry that this means job loss­es for peo­ple work­ing at these sites we feel that in bal­ance this is the best out­come, giv­en that peo­ple are being poi­soned and their liveli­hoods attacked to pro­vide the coal to these pow­er sta­tions. Now the Gov­ern­ment needs to act to ensure a prompt clo­sure of all coal fired pow­er sta­tions and an end to the mis­ery of open­cast coal min­ing.”

Notes to edi­tor

Con­tact Anne Har­ris for fur­ther infor­ma­tion

info@coalaction.org.uk

www.coalaction.org.uk

The Coal Action Net­work works with the com­mu­ni­ties fight­ing new open­cast coal mines, stands in sol­i­dar­i­ty with peo­ple liv­ing in the shad­ows of the mines which sup­ply the UK world­wide, and is fight­ing to close the remain­ing UK coal pow­er sta­tions. At present there are five appli­ca­tions to open­cast mine coal in the UK and 13 sites which have plan­ning per­mis­sion but have not start­ed min­ing. In Decem­ber there were 25 oper­at­ing open­cast coal mines.

[1] Car­rell, S. (23/03/16) Lon­gan­net pow­er sta­tion to shut next year

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/23/longannet-power-station-to-shut-next-year viewed 24/03/16

[2] Coal Action Net­work (Jan­u­ary 2016) Ditch Coal www.coalaction.org.uk/ditchcoal p81-82 viewed 24/03/16

[3] BBC news (16/02/16) Har­g­reaves to halt out­put at most Scot­tish open­cast mines

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-35587858 viewed 24/03/16

[4] Scot­tish Open­cast com­mu­ni­ties alliance, Demand an end to new open­cast coal mines now!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/en-gb/503/081/878/demand-an-end-to-new-opencast-coal-mines-now/#sign viewed 24/03/16

Har­g­reaves bought the most prof­itable coal min­ing sites in Scot­land from Scot­tish Coal when it liq­ui­dat­ed in 2013. Scot­tish Coal had been the tar­get of a long run­ning cam­paign against open­cast coal mines by the protest group Coal Action Scot­land.

[5] SSE (20/05/15) SSE Announces Clo­sure of Fer­ry­bridge Pow­er Sta­tion

http://sse.com/newsandviews/allarticles/2015/05/sse-announces-closure-of-ferrybridge-power-station/ viewed 30/09/15

[6] Egg­bor­ough Pow­er Ltd (02/09/15) Com­pa­ny Announce­ment http://www.eggboroughpower.co.uk/About-Us/Our- Values-%281%29.aspx viewed 30/09/15 Egg­bor­ough may come back online if there is a short­age in the Nation­al Grid dur­ing the win­ter of 2016/2017 under the Gov­ern­men­t’s Sup­ple­men­tal Bal­anc­ing Reserve.

[7] The Indus­tri­al Emis­sions Direc­tive requires indus­tri­al plants, includ­ing the UK’s exist­ing coal pow­er sta­tions, to reduce emis­sions of sul­phur diox­ide (SO2), nitro­gen oxides (NOx) and

par­tic­u­late emis­sions which cause air pol­lu­tion. Pow­er sta­tions can either: com­ply with the direc­tive; not com­ply with the stan­dards (known as Lim­it­ed Life Degra­da­tion) and close with­in 17,500 oper­at­ing hours after 1st Jan­u­ary 2016, and no lat­er than 31st Decem­ber 2023; or par­tic­i­pate in the Tran­si­tion­al Nation­al Plan. [Coal Action Net­work (Jan­u­ary 2016) Ditch Coal www.coalaction.org.uk/ditchcoal p83 viewed 24/03/16]

[8] Davies, R (08/02/16) Gov­ern­ment denies black­out risk as Ruge­ley coal plant unveils clo­sure plan http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/08/government-denies-blackout-risk-engie-rugeley-coal-power-station-shuts viewed 24/03/16

Attacking UK’s coal transport system — Severing the lines that feed the machine

Sev­er­ing the lines that feed the machine is not impos­si­ble. When peo­ple take up civ­il upris­ing in the UK, if peo­ple are able to shove their oblig­a­tions to one side to open up an avenue, they main­ly have the abil­i­ty and pos­si­bil­i­ty to be able to grasp their will for some­thing new.

Sev­er­ing the lines that feed the machine is not impos­si­ble. When peo­ple take up civ­il upris­ing in the UK, if peo­ple are able to shove their oblig­a­tions to one side to open up an avenue, they main­ly have the abil­i­ty and pos­si­bil­i­ty to be able to grasp their will for some­thing new. The war is not over when those moments stop, it sparks up in lit­tle rap­tures here and there, show­ing that we are not crushed, things can be brought to a grind­ing halt again, even for a split sec­ond.

It just takes a few bright spir­its and we see it clear, when the smug con­fi­dence of author­i­ties is knocked, a few pins get hit out and things can be seen in a dif­fer­ent light. Out of synch and off bal­ance, every­thing no longer appears struc­tural­ly sound, life feels more up for grabs.

The new hori­zon peaked through our cloudy day, Sun­day 6th March, and we hope this uncom­pli­cat­ed act of sab­o­tage we have under­tak­en expos­es the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of their com­plex matrix.

We took a risk assess­ment and as night just start­ed to close in we entered the 1st rail­way tun­nel, we cut both lines with a portable disc cut­ter, we did­n’t imag­ine de-rail­ing a loco­mo­tive but wreck­ing dis­rup­tion and eco­nom­ic dam­age (time is mon­ey). We entered a 2nd and did a fur­ther two cuts, mark­ing them all with pink paint, and leav­ing a ban­ner as a warn­ing.

The line in ques­tion runs through the Avon Gorge from Roy­al Port­bury Dock over from Avon­mouth, it’s freight only (no pas­sen­gers), 70% of the UK’s import­ed coal for pow­er gen­er­a­tion comes through these docks. This line is a bot­tle-neck to the coun­try’s dis­per­sal. Most of it from USA where they blow apart moun­tains to get it out and Rus­sia from the Shor and Teleut ances­tral lands laid waste in Siberia, also places like Indone­sia which dri­ve back the forests for sprawl­ing mines and plan­ta­tions. That’s to keep fac­to­ries run­ning and city lights on, when we’ve got a feel­ing for escap­ing the work pris­ons and regain­ing the stars. Oth­er loads car­ried on the line include con­struc­tion aggre­gate and new built vehi­cles on their way to the show room. More high-speed train­lines are com­ing to the UK, more roads, more ancient wood­land and wildlife wiped out in the fren­zy of progress.

After see­ing the firey activ­i­ties against the coal flow in the Ham­bach for­est of Ger­many since New Years — don’t give up the fight!, or the cut­ting of the coal belt in Scot­land some years back by per­sons unknown when the bat­tles against coal min­ing raged, we realise we’re not orig­i­nal. It’s not even the first time for eco-sab­o­tage ambush­es on that line from Port­bury or the trou­ble­some car­go, over the years. We see attacks fol­low­ing attacks on train­lines in dif­fer­ent coun­tries, it’s with­in reach to hin­der the cir­cuits pow­er­ing the giant, we just have to har­ness our courage, keep an eye peeled for soft spots, maybe start­ing small but always dream­ing big. Right now we’re read­ing about eco­nom­ic dam­age this month from train­line sabo­teurs in the north of Spain, we affirm our sol­i­dar­i­ty and respect too for the anar­chists there with show­case court cas­es or police atten­tion oth­er­wise, we laugh to hear about the row­dy spir­its that keep up when repressed for the fight to reject domin­ion. Maybe the sparks kicked up in the train tun­nels even reflect­ed over the Alps and beyond to light the sky for those in dark cells for try­ing to stop high-speed cap­i­tal­ism and also its nano-world tech­nolo­gies.

Join­ing our strength with the near and dis­tant tribes, refusal and attack! Block the flows, up the fight­ers!

Toward a life that’s wild and free from coal, quar­ries, cars or cops. Avon Gorge sab­o­tage group “Sand In The Gears”, sign­ing out.….

Creedy Valley Protection Group

Gleesons Devel­op­ments are sub­mit­ting plans to devel­op part of a rur­al Devon val­ley, build­ing 330 homes on slop­ing farm­land abut­ting a flood­plain that floods every year.

Gleesons Devel­op­ments are sub­mit­ting plans to devel­op part of a rur­al Devon val­ley, build­ing 330 homes on slop­ing farm­land abut­ting a flood­plain that floods every year. The val­ley is beau­ti­ful, nar­row lanes, hedgerows, Devon banks, a home to many pro­tect­ed species includ­ing bats, dormice, owls, bad­gers, cray­fish, buz­zards. The loss of coun­try­side, farm­land and wildlife habi­tat to serve a sin­gle landown­er’s bank bal­ance and the need to tick box­es by the coun­cil. https://www.facebook.com/Creedy-Valley-Protection-Group-1994240084134661/?fref=nf 

Mass action camp: End Coal Now — April/May 2016

As part of the Groundswell year of action and inter­na­tion­al mobil­i­sa­tions tak­ing on the fos­sil fuel indus­try, this May, we’re going to shut down the UK’s largest open­cast coal mine – Ffos-y-fran in Wales.

As part of the Groundswell year of action and international mobilisations taking on the fossil fuel industry, this May, we’re going to shut down the UK’s largest opencast coal mine – Ffos-y-fran in Wales. It’s up to us to keep it in the ground – sign up to join us and get updates on plans.

What’s the Plan?

In col­lab­o­ra­tion with local resis­tance groups, we’ll set up camp near Ffos-y-fran and the site of the pro­posed new mine. We’ll build a camp and use this as a base to host a pro­gramme of work­shops and train­ings, and to build the kind of com­mu­ni­ty we want to see – just, demo­c­ra­t­ic and sus­tain­able. We will also be tak­ing mass action to shut down Ffos-y-fran. The camp will take place over the May bank hol­i­day week­end, from Sat­ur­day 30th April to Wednes­day 4th May and will come just before the Welsh Assem­bly elec­tions on May 5th. Fur­ther infor­ma­tion on the prac­ti­cal­i­ties of the camp is com­ing soon. Sign up to the mail­ing list for updates.

Why?

For near­ly a decade, the 11-mil­lion-tonne Ffos-y-fran mine has scarred the land­scape and the com­mu­ni­ty in South Wales. Now the cor­po­ra­tion respon­si­ble for Ffos-y-fran – Miller Argent – wants to crush local democ­ra­cy and resis­tance, and dig anoth­er vast coal mine just next door at Nant Llesg. Coal is the dirt­i­est fos­sil fuel and we can­not tran­si­tion to a just, demo­c­ra­t­ic and clean ener­gy sys­tem while we con­tin­ue to dig it up and burn it. We want to build on the strong tra­di­tion of mass action Cli­mate Camps in the UK, and the suc­cess of the Reclaim the Pow­er camps over the last few years. We have also been inspired by Ende Gelände and oth­er inter­na­tion­al coal resis­tance move­ments. Last year, the Welsh Assem­bly vot­ed for a mora­to­ri­um on open­cast coal min­ing, but the Gov­ern­ment have ignored them. Let’s make leav­ing fos­sil fuels in the ground a defin­ing polit­i­cal issue in Wales and the UK.

Groundswell year of action for climate justice

 Gov­ern­ments have failed to deliv­er what is need­ed.

Gov­ern­ments have failed to deliv­er what is need­ed. Let’s show them what cli­mate jus­tice action real­ly looks like. Groundswell is a call to esca­late cli­mate jus­tice actions in the wake of the Paris cli­mate talks. From fos­sil fuel to bor­der con­trols, the arms indus­try to finan­cial mar­kets. It will link up groups tak­ing action, and cre­ate new avenues for peo­ple to engage in civ­il dis­obe­di­ence.

We want to do more for cli­mate jus­tice in one year than our gov­ern­ments have done in the last twen­ty-one.

It’s going to take a lot of us work­ing togeth­er, but it’s going to be great. If this sounds good to you, get involved…

More info on train­ing, sup­port and more

sign up for The Big Burn anti-incineration carnival, near Stroud

THE BIG BURN!

24 hours after sig­nif­i­cant con­struc­tion activ­i­ty begins at Javelin Park we will be con­verg­ing for The Big Burn! Come along and shield Hares­field at a com­mu­ni­ty-led car­ni­val of anti-incin­er­a­tion rev­el­ry. All are warm­ly invit­ed to join Glouces­ter­shire in a show of front-line pro­tec­tion against those that threat­en us and our envi­ron­ment. Sign up here to ensure you receive an invi­ta­tion to this most poignant of par­ties!

All those signed-up will, when the time beck­ons, receive a text mes­sage with a start time. You’ll be want­i­ng to pack a par­ty-bag in advance so you’ll be ready when the time comes. Imag­ine being the only one at the par­ty with­out a cos­tume. Only jok­ing, you won’t be allowed in if you’re not in fan­cy dress. No that’s not true either. This is a com­mu­ni­ty-led event and is open to all. Chil­dren most-def­i­nite­ly includ­ed!

Javelin Park is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble from Stroud and Glouces­ter by car.

There will most like­ly be free trans­port run­ning to the Big Burn. Please con­tact honeybuzzard@riseup.net to request or offer a lift!

Take Note!:

The Big Burn! will be a show of com­mu­ni­ty pro­tec­tion against the threat of harm to our health and envi­ron­ment posed by the Hares­field Incin­er­a­tor. This indus­try is sup­port­ed by the state and there­fore there will almost cer­tain­ly be a police-pres­ence. Know your rights, read this pam­phlet (opens in new tab) and don’t be intim­i­dat­ed. The Big Burn! will be a inclu­sive, friend­ly space and we won’t be bul­lied.

See you at the par­ty, it’ll be cookin’…!

Direc­tions, more details includ­ing what to bring and not to bring and TO SIGN UP, here

some Stroud protest present & past (location of 2016 EF! Winter Moot)

Stroud was an appro­pri­ate loca­tion for this year’s Win­ter Moot, with a proud his­to­ry of protest past and present.

 

Stroud was an appro­pri­ate loca­tion for this year’s Win­ter Moot, with a proud his­to­ry of protest past and present.

The venue for the Moot is the Cen­tre for Sci­ence & Art, itself saved by the Stroud Cam­paign Against The Ringroad in the 70s. In 1980 there were plans to demol­ish some 17th & 18th cen­tu­ry list­ed build­ings on the High Street — a com­bi­na­tion of roof top occu­pa­tions and oth­er strate­gies saved them, and the road is now pedes­tri­anised.

In 1989 the Save The Trees Cam­paign took on the coun­cil’s road-widen­ing scheme (for a Tesco’s). A mid­night raid to fell thir­teen trees in Strat­ford Park was foiled when local peo­ple got wind of the ‘secret’ and attached them­selves to the trees. The trees are still there, and instead a traf­fic calm­ing scheme was devel­oped, result­ing in less crash­es.

In 2013 a cam­paign was fought against devel­op­ers with an apple tree being occu­pied for 6 days. A local who gave us a tour dur­ing the Moot of places fought for or saved by protests said: “There was a very sad end to this sto­ry, but I hope it is a good reminder of what we can do, and what may be need­ed in some of the bat­tles over local devel­op­ment and our envi­ron­ment in the near future.” (source)

There’s been a long cam­paign these last years against the Javelin Park incin­er­a­tor at Hares­field, and though the coun­ty coun­cil’s plan­ning com­mit­tee blocked it in 2013, they were over-ruled by the Sec­re­tary of State. Glos­VAIN and oth­ers con­tin­ue to cam­paign, and came to talk to us about the dif­fer­ent com­mu­ni­ty organ­is­ing strate­gies they’ve used.

Though per­mis­sion has been grant­ed for the incin­er­a­tor, the cam­paign con­tin­ues (though unfor­tu­nate­ly push­ing an alter­na­tive that involves, er, incin­er­a­tion!).

The reality of the UK’s coal industry exposed

Map

A new report from the Coal Action Net­work expos­es the untold human and envi­ron­men­tal sto­ries of the coal sup­ply chain. Ditch Coal calls on the gov­ern­ment to phase out coal faster than its sug­gest­ed end of 2025. The extreme sit­u­a­tions sur­round­ing mines in Rus­sia, Colom­bia, the USA and the UK which sup­ply the UK’s pow­er sta­tions show that coal ener­gy is an extreme ener­gy. 24% of elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­at­ed in 2015 came from coal.

Grass roots group the Coal Action Net­work has worked with com­mu­ni­ties and envi­ron­men­tal activists from the four major coun­tries sup­ply­ing the UK’s coal. The report details the ignored social jus­tice issues caused by our addic­tion to coal.

Mining Impacts Abroad

Rus­sia sup­plies 42% of the coal import­ed to the UK. In Rus­si­a’s main coal pro­duc­ing region, the Kuzbass area of Siberia, min­ing is dev­as­tat­ing indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties and their cul­tures. Shor and Teleut peo­ples are being forced off their ances­tral lands, break­ing the con­nec­tion with their spir­i­tu­al homes, their cul­ture is being attacked and their lan­guage is fad­ing from use.

Com­pa­nies export­ing coal from Colom­bia have been impli­cat­ed in financ­ing para­mil­i­tary mass mur­ders, exe­cu­tions, and dis­ap­pear­ances. Whole vil­lages have been forcibly evict­ed to make way for mines, with insuf­fi­cient relo­ca­tion plans. Colom­bia pro­duces a third of the coal import­ed here.

In the USA, where 19% of the coal import­ed to the UK is from, extreme­ly destruc­tive min­ing oper­a­tions are destroy­ing huge swathes of land and ecosys­tems, and poi­son­ing local peo­ple. Moun­tain­top removal and dam­ag­ing deep min­ing process­es are used by com­pa­nies export­ing coal to the UK.

Although the UK gov­ern­ment has announced an inten­tion to phase out coal by 2025 Coal Action Net­work do not see this as some­thing to cel­e­brate. This time-frame and the phase out­’s many caveats show that the gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to pri­ori­tise our high elec­tric­i­ty demands over oth­ers basic rights such as the safe­ty of ones home, the abil­i­ty to grow food, rights to health, free­doms of reli­gion and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, and bio­di­ver­si­ty.

Mining in the UK

Since the gov­ern­men­t’s coal phase out announce­ment Durham based min­ing com­pa­ny Har­g­reaves have been grant­ed per­mis­sion to mine at Field House Coun­ty Durham. Miller Argent who run the UK’s biggest mine Ffos-y-Fran are appeal­ing a deci­sion against a new mine adja­cent to it. Five oth­er coal mine appli­ca­tions are still wait­ing a deci­sion. We need to stop coal min­ing in this coun­try.

Com­mu­ni­ties in the UK are fight­ing for their areas and against coal pow­er. As envi­ron­men­tal activists we should fol­low their exam­ple and stand up to the com­pa­nies involved and stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with front-line com­mu­ni­ties. We can­not sim­ply wait for the gov­ern­ment to sort this out. The coal indus­try is spread wide across our island. Ditch Coal high­lights where the ports import­ing coal are, where pow­er sta­tions are sit­u­at­ed and which com­pa­nies are min­ing in the UK. There are nine pow­er sta­tions burn­ing coal with­out a clo­sure plan.

Coal pow­er used to be a main focus of the UK envi­ron­men­tal move­ment, it still is in Ger­many and remains an issue here. The Coal Action Net­work will be tour­ing the UK with a Russ­ian activist in the spring, you can catch a pre­view at the Earth First Win­ter Moot. The Coal indus­try’s cur­rent­ly in a posi­tion of change, where new tech­nol­o­gy needs to be imple­ment­ed or pow­er sta­tions closed. Join the Coal Action Net­work in fight­ing the indi­vid­ual pow­er sta­tions and work­ing with com­mu­ni­ties, let’s not rely on the gov­ern­ment to take these impor­tant actions.

The whole report can be viewed at www.coalaction.org.uk/ditchcoal as can the two page sum­ma­ry and info­graph­ics. Check out the web­site to see what we are up to or fol­low us on face­book.

Upton anti-fracking camp eviction in progress!

12th Jan­u­ary 2017 — bailiffs and police have moved in at Upton Com­mu­ni­ty Pro­tec­tion camp, in Cheshire.

12th Jan­u­ary 2017 — bailiffs and police have moved in at Upton Com­mu­ni­ty Pro­tec­tion camp, in Cheshire.

The anti-frack­ing com­mu­ni­ty there has been going strong for a long time now and is at the fore­front of com­mu­ni­ty resis­tance to this nation­al threat.  Get along to help if you can, and sup­port peo­ple to keep resist­ing at least until Sat­ur­day, when there’s a nation­al day of action there already set.

Updates at https://twitter.com/earthfirst_uk and how to get to the camp here