Climate Camp: what next

this was so inspiring, nice to see some serious green politics, serious action, serious strategic assumptions...what next? Well read here, green politics is now, opening space, commiting resources, encouraging action.....not simply capturing a title.


Well before I start ranting at those claim to be pragmatists but are merely naive...lets read what could happen next from the happy campers.


First off, well done to everyone who participated in the Climate Camp!
Together we created a low-impact community of over 1000 people who made
decisions democratically together, ran over 80 workshops, did at least 17
actions against climate criminals, were reported in the media globally..
oh, and let's not forget that, after BAA tried to get an injunction
banning us from going anywhere near their offices, we camped in their
parking lot and stopped work for the day!!

We hope everyone involved in the camp is finding time to relax and reflect
and pat themselves on the back. But this is just a reminder that there
will be debriefing meetings up and down the country in the next few weeks
and months. These are:

Manchester - Public Meeting
The Camp for Climate Action: What happened? What happens next?
Friday 7 September - 7 for 7.30pm sharp - Friends Meeting House - 6 Mount St
(behind Central Library)

London - Saturday 8th September 2pm at The Upper Room, 8 Greenland Street,
NW1 - 1 min from Camden Town tube, contact 07814061324.

Leeds- 16th September - all day at the Common Place 23-25 Wharf Street LS2
7EQ (www.thecommonplace.org.uk).

If your group isn't listed above please remember to arrange your own local
debrief meetings. When the details are set send them to
website@climatecamp.org.uk so they can be advertised on the website.

At the July Gathering we agreed that we wanted to have a national
gathering in October, but so far no group has taken this on yet! Please
consider whether your group might be able to take this on.

A few other dates you may want to put in your diary:

NoBorders Camp at Gatwick Airport 19-24 September www.noborders.org.uk

Rising Tide Day of Action against the Royal Bank of Scotland October 15.
RBS 'specialise' in funding oil and gas projects, and they are major
funders of the LNG pipeline in Wales.

December 8 National climate protest, London.

The Climate Camp won't stop climate change... but it is part of a growing
action movement that can! To help you get your head around all of the
actions that happened over the week find a summery bellow.

The 24 hours of direct action against climate change which began on Sunday
19th August at noon has culminated in a flurry of direct actions
throughout England. As previously stated, none of the actions were
intended to disrupt passengers, but instead, targeted the corporations who
profit from climate chaos. Meanwhile, the mass siege of BAA national
headquarters has forced its closure for the day. During the week there
have been over a dozen actions, covering a broad range of issues.
Find below details of all the actions throughout the week...

Sunday the 19th and Monday the 20th August

Carbon offset companies were occupied by protesters dressed as red
herrings. Fifteen have occupied the offices of Climate Care in Oxford. Ten
have leafleted the offices of the Carbon Neutral Company in London. Carbon
offsetting is a scheme allowing companies and consumers to pay in order to
supposedly neutralize their carbon emissions. 'Carbon offsets are
ineffective, based on dubious science and lead people to believe they are
helping when they are not - the concept and the practice are a con,' said
Sophie Nathan, who is taking part in the Carbon Neutral Company action.

Five protesters are in a concrete lock-on outside Sizewell A and B nuclear
power stations. Their banner declares, 'Nuclear power is not the answer to
climate chaos.' Twelve protesters have superglued themselves to the
entrance at BP headquarters. They are highlighting BPs essential role in
the aviation industry. Protester Stanley Owen said 'We cannot sustain
infinite growth on a planet with finite resources.' Eighteen protesters
occupied the office of the owners of Leeds airport, Bridgepoint Capital,
on Warwick Street in London.

In Harmondsworth village a group of 500, consisting of locals as well as
climate camp participants, gathered to listen John McDonnell Labour MP for
Hayes and Harlington. He told the government that the third runway will
not be built:

'Even with the latest, more efficient aircraft, the climate change
imperative demands that air travel growth be severely curtailed. The
government can no longer have its cake and eat it. If it's genuinely
serious about climate change it must show meaningful leadership to rein in
aviation expansion.'

Protesters wore copies of the Tyndall Report on their hands during the
mass action, carrying a banner reading, 'We are armed....only with
peer-reviewed science'.

Late on Sunday evening, BA World Cargo depot was blockaded for about four
and a half hours by eight protestors locked to each-other.

Protestors sabotaged the contraversial LNG pipeline in Wales, causing
significant damage to the pipe itself and works vehicles.

Finally, a battalion of ten clowns marked out the site of a 4th runway in
the garden of Lord Soley, chairman of the Heathrow Forward campaign.

Saturday 18 August

Children and their parents blockade the World Freight Centre at Heathrow
in protest at the damage to the climate caused by unnecessarily flying
food around the world.

60 people occupy Carmel Agrexco's Heathrow warehouse in Hayes, where
produce is air freighted in from territories occupied by Israel,
highlighting the issues of food miles and the unjust and unlawful
distribution of natural resources in the Middle East.

Friday 17 August

The doors of six London travel agencies are chained shut and plastered
with signs saying 'Closed, gone to the Climate Camp.' Ten people occupy
the office of private charter company XL, which has a contract with the
Home Office to deport rejected asylum seekers, exposing the connection
between climate change and forced migration.

Activists superglue themselves to the front doors of the Department for
Transport's London headquarters. A tourist spontaneously joins the protest
by chaining himself to the doors.

Thursday 16 August

Farnborough and Biggin Hill airports, both exclusively used by private
executive jets, are blockaded by two teams of climate activists in disgust
at the obscenity of the super-rich using planes as a taxi service.

Wednesday 13 August

A group of activists set up a climate camp on the wing of an Airbus A380
on its way to be assembled in France, pledging to stay until government
ministers come up with a 'safe' aviation policy.




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