#3 « We are Unstoppable, Another World is Possible »

Why did I spend four days of annual leave in a cold German field in October?

I have just spent four days camping in a field with over 6,500 other people in rural Cologne as part of Ende Gelände, a mass climate action camp against coal mining in Germany. Why? Because each of us there know that another world is possible, starting this time, with the end of open cast coal mining in Germany, often hailed as a pioneer in ‘Green’ energy.

With the news this week that Spain will close down all it’s private coal mines within the next year and provide re-training and/or early retirement to all staff, this shows that a world free from coal mining in within our grasps, not a hippy utopia.

I wanted to write this piece to share with people I know (and don’t know) to give you a flavour of what it was like, why I went and hopefully this might encourage you to take part in something for the same cause in the future. And no I am not trying to convert everyone into anarcho-eco-communist/socialist-warrior vegan holier-than-thou zero waste van-dwellers, we need people like you, yes you, in the building of, in the revolution for, a world where murderous fossil fuels no longer fuel our society and infinite greed on a finite planet is stopped.

What was it like?

Ok, I admit it, the camp had some of your alternative folk stereotypes some might like to call hippies, with dreadlocks, bandanna’s and right on stickers and slogan t-shirts all over the place. And of course all the food was vegan and organic (but also homemade bread on the camp too, like, now THAT is impressive!).

But the camp was so much more than this. Most people at the camp had real jobs, care workers, teachers, charity workers, students and parents. Most people at the camp were not vegans, who do have plastics straws in their drinks on nights out and have a million other things to do outside of climate campaigning too like work, sleep, raise a family and watch Netflix.

This was a gathering of people from all over Europe, of all ages and gender who not only want to see the end of coal but are willing and able to put their bodies on the line to disrupt and stop coal mining in Cologne for a day or two. 

What were we doing in this field?

The overall aim of Ende Gelende was to disrupt and if possible, stop, lignite coal mining at the largest open cast coal mine in Europe through mass acts of civil disobedience (yes, breaking the law, trespassing) on Saturday 27^th October.

And we won. From Saturday afternoon until Sunday afternoon the following day, one of the key railroads used to transport coal from the mine to elsewhere was blockaded by thousands of people, along with 2 diggers in the mine stopped from working from people occupying the machines. Thousands of us left the camp on Saturday and marched to the railroads to blockade them, with our strength in numbers the police couldn’t try to stop us.

Ende Gelände is a heroic feat of an entirely volunteer-run mass organisation exercise working across countries and languages to not only take action towards another world free from coal and mass inequality, but also to be part of creating another world in its own organisation (though there is always more that can and should be done to do this better). The camp, where we prepared and stayed after the action ran on consensus-led decision making, all the food was vegan, there was a bar and everyone chipped in to make the camp work, from cleaning the toilets, chopping vegetables, putting up tents and organising the live music. There was also a strong emphasis of people organising and looking out for each other in smaller groups, affinity groups, and space for people to find an affinity group if they had arrived alone. Full training, practical and legal was provided ahead of the action and live music and DJs performed on the nights after the action. All of this contributed to a real community, founded only for a few days among strangers. 

So why bother with all this?

Because another word is possible if we start to make it happen. The chance to be surrounded by people like you, who also believe in a better world than the one we currently live in, free from the excess of a carbon intensive, money grabbing-society, was, priceless. The energy and strength created in the camp and on the action from the wealth of experience, skills and motivation of the people involved gave me hope and fuel to continue to fight against the current status quo.

And for the bigger picture stuff, well, climate change is happening and I want to live in a world organised differently whilst living with the effects of climate change. We are likely to reach a tipping point and cause climate breakdown with extreme drought, flooding, food shortages and wars. We are already starting to see this, with the wild fires in Europe this summer, Cape Town in South Africa almost running out of water and increased hurricanes and storms in the America’s and elsewhere. Despite all this, the helplessness that comes with knowing that we have been too late to stop climate change (our only chance is to mitigate, adapt and reduce the extent of climate change) I want to work towards a different future. People are people and we will go on living on earth with or without runaway climate change. The systems and the way we live now and in the future need to be different to build a safer, fairer, cleaner and healthier world.

And that is why I went to Ende Gelände, not at all because I think I am a martyr and able to bring down fossil fuel capitalism by myself and with only 6,500 people, but because I know that we, 6,5000 + people can start, with smaller and larger steps, to create another world, better than today. Shutting down coal mines for a few days each time is a success. The wins against Fracking in Ireland, France and Germany and fossil fuel divestment worldwide are other steps in the creation of another world. Ende Gelände is one drop in the ocean of change of a myriad of different ways we can bring about change. 

Most importantly this experience was fun. This was four days in a field surrounded by my friends and making new friends all whilst planning for an action, involving attending training, practising crossing police lines (basically playing big games of British bull dogs), helping with the run of the camp and eating great food. Oh and lots of bonfires and music too. Yes there were downsides, camping in Germany in October is VERY cold, there were no showers and no comfy sofas to sit on.

But all this is worth it, for fun and for being part of changing the world (and yes this sounds smug, hyperbolic and pretentious but change for a carbon free future is happening slowly and actions like  Ende Gelände keep it on the agenda and keep on pushing). I know that the open cast coal mine in Cologne will not close tomorrow, but only through collective action can we push for change, another world is becoming possible.

If you want to do more for a Fossil Free future, here are some suggestions:

– Read This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein

– Follow Frack Free Lancashire and Reclaim the Power on social media, donate if you can, and share their stories

– Follow Reclaim the Power on social media, donate if you can, share their stories and join a Reclaim the Power group near you

– Go up to Preston New Road near Blackpool and support the protectors camp fighting Fracking in the UK

– Support the occupation at the Hambacher Forest, protecting the ancient forest from mining in Cologne 

 

P.S Shout out to my affinity group I spent the weekend with, I was so inspired and grateful for spending time with you, of different ages and from different places that I would not normally meet so easily, we had the best of times!

#2

The Royal Society: listening to the voice of Indigenous People?

Last month in the same building where scientists, such as James Watt claimed, ‘Nature can be conquered’ and that humans can be masters of the Earth, indigenous people from around the world gathered in these very rooms to demand that we protect nature from humans and give indigenous people their rights to continue to be guardians of the forest.

This event at Royal Society in London was where Indigenous people from Indonesia, Congo, South and Central America, as part of their journey to the international Climate Change Talks in Bonn, Germany, spoke of their demands for legal rights to their forest land. They demanded an end to violence against them and for a voice in climate change strategies so that indigenous people can continue to be the guardians of the forest in the fight to combat climate change.

In the 17^th century, these very rooms of the Royal Society were filled with voices of scientists who prided themselves in the pursuit of knowledge to conquer the earth and its resources, to bend the earth to their will and in doing so supported expeditions to enslave and annihilate indigenous populations around the world all in the name of scientific progress.

This contrast made me reflect on humanity’s efforts so far to combat climate change and climate injustice.

A very small part of me felt relief in the fact that the accepted thought in the UK has moved on from thinking we are better than those already living in forest lands and that we can take their land and teach them the ‘right way’ of doing things. And yes, in this day and age, these brutal ideas are not supported and I shouldn’t need to mention it – however, these ideals still linger on and manifest themselves in other ways.

Why is it that in many countries, indigenous people do not have legal rights to their land?

Why is it that that there have been close to no convictions for the murder of indigenous people?

Why has it taken over 20 years before the voices of those living in the forests have been heard (at unfortunately not yet listened to by politicians) at Climate change talks?

Why is it that politicians talk about the need to protect these people whilst also doing very little to stop the destruction of their land?

Looking around me, I wondered whether the Royal Society had given any thought to this marrying of conflicting thoughts and practice that were taking place at this event. This event was arguing for forest preservation as part of the solution to climate change, and for the preservation and management of these forests to be in the hands of those who live there. For centuries, and even more recently, events held in this building triumphed the mining and extracting of the wealth of natural resources found in forests and held forth that ‘Westerners’ should have control over this land to tame.

To be honest, the Royal Society probably hadn’t thought of this at all. The Guardians of the Forest was just an external conference guest like any other.

However, what I was thinking about was how this dichotomy, although historic but not yet only historic, represented the wider issues at play within the debate around the best solutions to the climate crisis.

In Naomi’s Klein book ‘This Changes Everything’, she writes how the Royal Society discuss the technological plan B for the climate, if we can’t reduce our emissions. This includes geo-engineering, how to ‘fertilise the oceans with iron to pull carbon out of the atmosphere, covering deserts with vast white sheets in order to reflect sunlight back to space; and building fleets on machines…that would suck carbon out of the air’ (p.257).

This common thread of thought that science and humankind can conquer any natural threat continues. Rather than focusing on what we know works, stopping emissions and preserving forests, the Royal Society with political support has been and is burying its’ head in sands of scientific equations to, in effect, put a massive plaster over the damage we have caused to our eco-systems, weather, atmosphere, land and seas.

Or maybe, just maybe, this Guardians of the Forest event is a pinprick in a changing of ideas from the Royal Society, that they will no longer continue to search for pure technological solutions to our climate problems and instead listen to those most affected by climate change who are also doing so much of the work to control the climate crisis, by protecting the forests.

If it’s not, then I wish that the Royal Society would listen to the Guardians of the Forest and change. And that the Royal Society hadn’t been paid for their room hire and expensive lunches.

 

#1

Why I went to Preston New Road Fracking Site

So after having left the site of protest at the fracking site on Preston New Road I feel a lot less driven to write about my few days there. And that’s it, unless you are part of it, on the frontline, acting daily and seeing the nodding oil donkey, the security and the people on each side of the fence it can be easy to forget, or perhaps not forget, but feel like there is nothing we or I can do, that ‘they’, not me, are fighting but probably the Frackers will win.

This is why I wanted to write something, not to gloat about what I did but to share with others my thoughts and experience to bring people one step closer to understanding the situation and feeling that they can do something, that together we can get the fracking company, Cuadrilla, to Frack Off!

Firstly, Preston New Road people protectors site shouldn’t exist, I shouldn’t have been there.

In June 2016 Lancashire County Council rejected Cuadrilla’s proposal to frack at Preston New Road because another expensive fossil fuel is not what we need to reduce our carbon emissions and curb catastrophic climate change. Fracking also contaminates freshwater supplies for people and animals nearby, causes earthquakes, ruins public health and provides very little employment. In October 2016 the UK government used archaic powers and overturned this decision, thus allowing Cuadrilla to start preparing and fracking at Preston New Road in January 2017. This makes me angry, that our own democratic processes so blatantly ignored and disregarded those on the frontline in Lancashire.

Since Cuadrilla have entered on site in January 2017 there has been a permanent presence of protesters outside their gates with camps set up nearby to enable round the clock presence and action the the gates. The only option now is direct action, which is what I did.

As part of actions I was involved in and other actions happening throughout July lorries are being prevented from entering through people blocking the gates or climbing on the lorries, causing serious delays to Cuadrilla’s work and thousands of pounds wasted each day as work is further and further behind schedule.

Despite feeling broadly calm throughout my stay I went through many emotions such as; sadness in seeing the nodding oil donkey up but not yet in use; excitement and happiness when two lorries were prevented from entering the site and had to turn back at the end of the day; deceit and anger at the UK government for spending hundreds of thousands of pounds to support Cuadrilla though excessive policing to try and allow cuadrilla to work; further frustration at the government for ignoring the voice of the local people and of science and enormous pride for those working tirelessly to disrupt and stop Cuadrilla, which is working.

Direct action is disruptive but it is all we can do to stop Cuadrilla when all democratic and legal routes have been ignored and exhausted and when the government are effectively supporting Cuadrilla through its’ willingness to provide so much extensive policing and support despite the UK police force being underfunded and stretched.

And of course, I can’t forget the hilarity of our ability to stop 2 lorries entering the site for over 4 hours with two people lying on the road holding hands in a tube of plastic. This shows the power of people to cause such disruption with such little resources.

I really enjoyed my short, intense time meeting people from Lancashire and all around the UK, working with them to stop lorries, play around and be a nuisance outside Cuadrilla’s office and really see that each day, each person and each action was all part of a much bigger plan to stop Cuadrilla. And that big plan is working, it has been 7 months and still fracking has not started at Preston New Road.

“This is history in the making” is what I first thought when I entered the camp and protest site, and leaving I still know that what happens at Preston New Road will be historic, let’s hope Cuadrilla join us on the right side of history and Frack Off!

Annie

 

To show your support for Preston New Road anti-Frackers come on down for a day or more at the gate or get involved in upcoming protests. You can find out more here:

Frack Off.org.uk

Reclaim the Power month of rolling resistance

Friends of the earth Stop Fracking in Lancashire