PLANE STUPID Newsletter #6

PLANE STUPID Newslet­ter #6

“This is a deeply trau­ma­tized com­mu­ni­ty which has been lied to for years and years
by the avi­a­tion indus­try and one polit­i­cal par­ty after anoth­er. There is a litany of
bro­ken promis­es. I won­der just how you might feel if you had endured all this for
years! I am so angry I am almost incan­des­cent with rage at the immoral­i­ty of it
all.” — A res­i­dent of Har­mondsworth, near Heathrow

~ VICTORY FOR STOP STANSTED CAMPAIGN! ~

After a sus­tained and long run­ning cam­paign by the com­mu­ni­ty near Stanst­ed, the
Uttles­ford Dis­trict Coun­cil have blocked the pro­posed plans for expan­sion of the
exist­ing run­way. BAA how­ev­er is refus­ing to accept the demo­c­ra­t­ic rul­ing and is
tak­ing it to a pub­lic enquiry. A cam­paign fund has been launched to fight the
enquiry. www.stopstanstedexpansion.com

~ OCCUPATION AGAINST BRISTOL EXPANSION ~

On the 4th Decem­ber, activists from South West Cli­mate Action occu­pied North
Som­er­set Envi­ron­ment and Plan­ning Offices to protest against plans for expan­sion of
Bris­tol air­port. Pho­tos and report at www.indymedia.org.uk

~EASYJET SHUT IN DAY OF ACTION AGAINST SHORT HAUL FLIGHTS! ~

On Novem­ber 6th, activists from around the coun­try came togeth­er to take
action against short haul flights. Plane Stu­pid activists shut down the Lon­don HQ of
Easy­Group, the own­ers of low-cost car­ri­er Easy­jet, and Lon­don Ris­ing Tide vis­it­ed
the Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty, pre­sent­ing them with a giant cheque for their £9.2
bil­lion annu­al sub­sidy.

In Cam­bridge, Man­ches­ter, Read­ing and Lon­don, there were protests out­side
trav­el agents, while Leeds Brad­ford air­port was plas­tered with anti-avi­a­tion
stick­ers. Robin Hood air­port received a vis­it from Robin and his Mer­ry Men,
dou­bly-angry because the air­port has been oppos­ing local wind farm appli­ca­tions.
Activists in Man­ches­ter dropped a ban­ner, and in Southend a trav­el agents was shut
when a pro­tes­tor locked her­self to the front door.

30 trav­el agents across the UK had their front doors chained shut
by activists who left signs on the win­dows read­ing, “Closed for a total
rethink. See www.planestupid.com”

A mem­ber of staff at Flight Cen­tre said, “Plane Stu­pid are caus­ing may­hem here
today, every­one is get­ting all aer­at­ed and vexed.” We’ll give them “aer­at­ed and
vexed!” What about the 182 mil­lion peo­ple to die in Africa this cen­tu­ry alone
because of cli­mate change, or the res­i­dents of ‘hacked off’ Har­mondsworth?

The day of action came as new research from HACAN Clearskies shows that 100,000
flights from Heathrow each year are to short haul des­ti­na­tions that are eas­i­ly
reach­able by the more sus­tain­able train alter­na­tive.

Reports and pho­tos at www.indymedia.org.uk

~ COURT REJECTS ASBOS FOR NEMA 25 ~

Lough­bor­ough Mag­is­trates Court reject­ed calls from the Crown Pros­e­cu­tion Ser­vice to
slap ASBOs on the 24 Plane Stu­pid activists who they described as “high­ly orga­nized
extrem­ists” that were arrest­ed in con­nec­tion with the shut down of Not­ting­ham East
Mid­lands short haul air­port in Sep­tem­ber.

In an appar­ent move aimed to avoid hav­ing the case heard by a jury, the charge of
pub­lic nui­sance was dropped, as was the charge relat­ing to an alleged breach of the
avi­a­tion and secu­ri­ty act.

Cam­paign­er for Plane Stu­pid, Ellen Rick­ford, said, “The same day that we learn the
gov­ern­ment is push­ing ahead with its air­port expan­sion pro­pos­als, they try to use
ASBOs to stamp out peace­ful protest. Well, it seems their plans were as doomed as
the avi­a­tion indus­try.”

17 activists got one year con­di­tion­al dis­charges (the min­i­mum sen­tence avail­able)
and each was charged £70 in costs. The 5 charged with crim­i­nal dam­age in addi­tion to
aggra­vat­ed tres­pass were giv­en vary­ing lev­els of com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice. One per­son was
referred to Crown Court due to unre­solved legal issues and anoth­er had his case
adjourned until Jan­u­ary 31st. One oth­er activist was unable to attend court due to
ill­ness.

Help us pay our fines! Donate via: www.planestupid.com

~ TOP 100 GREEN CAMPAIGNERS OF ALL TIME ~

Vet­er­an green cam­paign­er and staunch sup­port­er of Plane Stu­pid, John Stew­art, has
been named by the Envi­ron­ment Agency as the 82nd most influ­en­tial green activist of
all time! Just one posi­tion behind Mahat­ma Gand­hi, Plane Stu­pid is mighty glad he’s
on our side and proud that he’s often been our spokesman!

~ MARKETING GURU PREDICTS END OF SHORT HAUL AIR TRAVEL ~

In a cov­er-sto­ry fea­ture of Mar­ket­ing Week­ly Mag­a­zine, trig­gered by our nation­al day
of action, a PR guru is quot­ed as say­ing that he thinks short haul bud­get air trav­el
will go the same way that coal did in the 80s because, “they are unnec­es­sary,
out­dat­ed and there­fore fac­ing decline.” Too right!

~ AVIATION INDUSTRY PUBLISH “TEN REASONS TO KEEP FLYING” ~

Respond­ing to Plane Stu­pid­’s “10 rea­sons to ground the Plane” — the avi­a­tion
indus­try’s PR peo­ple at www.cheapflights.co.uk have come up with, “10 rea­sons to
keep fly­ing!” This comes after the Stern report sin­gled out avi­a­tion as one of the
most sig­nif­i­cant caus­es of cli­mate change.

~ ‘ETHICAL MAN’ JOINS PLANE STUPID ON LONDON CLIMATE MARCH ~

Around fifty Plane Stu­pid-ers marched togeth­er with Air­port­Watch cam­paign­ers and
Stanst­ed res­i­dents on the Cam­paign against Cli­mate Change (CaCC) march to Trafal­gar
Square on Novem­ber 4th. There was an 8ft long wood­en plane on storks, big ban­ners
and tons of peti­tion­ing. March­ing with Plane Stu­pid was News­night’s ‘eth­i­cal man’
and Seize the Day’s Theo and Shan­non. Pho­tos avail­able soon on the web­site…

In the mean­time, see www.indymedia.org.uk

~ POLITICS ROUND-UP ~

Gor­don Brown snubbed sci­en­tists and cam­paign­ers calls for tough new green tax­es and
instead opt­ed in his pre-bud­get report for the pathet­ic polit­i­cal ges­ture of
increas­ing air pas­sen­ger duty by £5. This news came less than a week after a report
from BA boss, Rod Edding­ton, who was hired by Gor­don Brown and paid by us the
tax­pay­er, to (shock) sug­gest air­port expan­sion was a good thing. So we now know that
indus­try boss­es sup­port their own plans. Fan­cy that!

~ DO YOU WANT US TO SPEAK IN YOUR AREA? ~

Plane Stu­pid speak­ers have appeared at the Lib Dem Region­al Con­fer­ence along with
Shad­ow Envi­ron­ment Min­is­ter, Chris Huhne; at the LSE along­side Stop Cli­mate Chaos
direc­tor, Ashok Sin­ha; at stu­dent union venues includ­ing in Lon­don and Sus­sex; and
at local Green­peace and FoE meet­ings across the UK. If you want us to come and talk
in your area, get in touch. info@planestupid.com

————————————————————-EVENTS
———————————-

CAMP FOR CLIMATE ACTION MEETINGS

Fol­low­ing the suc­cess­ful cli­mate camp at Drax, plans are afoot for the next camp
which will be at a dif­fer­ent location.get involved with putting plans into action.

www.climatecamp.org.uk

PLANE STUPID BENEFIT GIG/FILM SHOWING

On Fri­day 26th Jan­u­ary, Brix­ton Jamm presents The Alabama3. Tick­ets avail­able soon
via www.planestupid.com

——————————————————— RESOURCES
——————————

~ PLANE STUPID: A year in review ~

On Novem­ber 29th, Plane Stu­pid had its first anniver­sary. For a reflec­tion on the
incred­i­ble momen­tum we’ve built up over the last year, with video footage and pho­tos
for down­load, see www.planestupid.com

~ PLANE STUPID Blog ~

Plane Stu­pid has estab­lished a blog at www.myspace.com/planestupid. Its first blog
entry includes, “The arm­chair envi­ron­men­tal­ist’s guide to off­sets… or ‘How to save
the world for 38p!’)”

~ LEGAL RESOURCE FOR ACTIVISTS~

Expe­ri­enced cam­paign­ers are offer­ing free advice and train­ing to grass­roots groups
includ­ing legal skills and more. www.seedsforchange.org.uk

~ THE SHEILA McK­ECH­NIE AWARDS ~

The Sheila McK­ech­nie Awards pro­vide cam­paign devel­op­ment pack­ages to grass­roots
cam­paign­ers. Up for grabs is a ‘Trans­port Award’.anyone want­i­ng to apply should see:
www.sheilamckechnie.org.uk