Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Climate Camp 2008: Good, Bad, Ugly

The Good
  • Creativity of protest: from rafts down the Medway to placards holding our ministers to account.
  • Outreach to local workers: people could see us as a threat but we arent after peoples jobs, we need to start a dialogue with employees in the fossil fuel industries about how they can prosper as a new renewable energy industry is born.
  • Atendees: from inpiring camp organisers with an unhuman level of commitment to a few good MP's, MEP's and councilors, to climate scientists, professional campaigners and journalists, the climate camp was a facinating and potent miluaeu.
  • Toilets that where cleaner and less smelly than any festival facilities you are likely to encounter!
  • Our rather cosy relationship with The Guardian.
  • Our commitment to a permenant blockade at Kingsnorth should it get the go ahead.
  • The variety of affinity group actions that where autonomously organised, perticularly the biofuels storage depot blockade and banner drop.
  • A few very interesting ideas for future campaigns that i couldnt possibly mention on the internet but which are going to be awesome :-)
  • Indymedia documentation.
  • On site TV studio by VisionOn Tv.
  • Caroline Lucas MEP giving the police an earful on our behalf.

The Bad
  • Police using stop and search powers over blanket areas when only individuals subject to justified suspicion can legally be searched under the relavent law.
  • Police flying hellicopters almost hourly over the camp for several days, and sometimes hovvering over workshops.
  • Police talking about a 'hardcore' of protestors intent on breaking the law; most of us had sated we where willing to carry our civil disobedience. There was scary marginal goup intent on violience--it just didnt exist--and had there been it would have been at the periphary of the movement not a result of a shared idea and determination that the term 'hardcore' implies.
  • EON PR--it really was awful. Coal is the fuel of the past; this argument has been won so please give it up!
  • Govornment policy: they are missing it so badly and so ineptly that it really looks farsical.
  • Russia's invasion of Georgia (sorry to be self serving but this was a PR nightmare for us)!

The Ugly

  • A 65 year old woman being battoned by charging riot police as climate campers peacfully linked arms and sang. She had two broken fingers.
  • A stop and search holding area that was illigally setup and run in a manner that clearly indicated an intention to intimidate and not to gather legitimate intelligence.

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Climate Change Action

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