August 2009 » Blog
Flashmob at London City Airport
We were 60 activists from Climate Camp, and we were occupying the main entrance to London City Airport alongside activists from the local Fight the Flights campaign group. Looking back, I was amazed at how quickly an effective action can be put together.
Our cleaning spree against the government’s dirty investments
At 11am today we converged on the Treasury in our cleaning overalls, feather dusters and scrubbing brushes - to clean up the Treasury’s act over their climate change-inducing investments. On this “anti-bank” holiday we dropped a banner highlighting that ‘Climate Change doesn’t take holidays’ - most of the bankers and officials may have had the day off but we were there to press home that time is running out in the fight against climate change.
Bike-Powered Smoothies
This is just a temporary Smooth Over, but it can be the catalyst for radical change!
Climate camp goes to Barclays
I hadn’t planned to have an afternoon that involved advertising climate camp on the DLR, holding a banner in with a drunken banker, and coming home with a pocket full of free limes. But having stepped outside of the camp gates I got swept up in the enthusiasm of the 100 or so campers on their way to the Barclays Bank headquarters, right in the middle of the canary wharf complex which has become the familiar backdrop of our camp. Barclays invest heavily in coal, the most climate polluting fuel, as well as the arms trade. They were notoriously boycotted for supporting apartheid in South Africa, and those unethical connections continue now.
This land is our land...
If only common land really was common and everywhere we looked - but the mass privatisation of land that took place under the enclosures took care of all that. There is still a lot of common land - retained through local rebellion, or rejected by the 18th century privatisers because it was poor quality. And you can find it all over England. I loved the freedom of wandering on Blackheath as a teenager, after being caged up in school all day, seeking open space and a way to get out of the house. Now I feel the same need for liberty walking on Port Meadow by the Thames in Oxford.
Everyone's a loser at the Climate Casino!
It was a particularly early start for around 20 Climate Campers this morning. Bleary eyed but refreshed from our first night on Blackheath we dressed for our day. But whilst wellies and t-shirts might be the usual get-up for a campsite, today called for feather boas, glitzy dresses and tuxedos. We were off back to the European Climate Exchange on Bishopsgate and we were keen to show up this building for the shady casino it is. Meeting at London Bridge we set off by bus to the familiar site of our G20 camp. Jumping off the bus just opposite the Exchange we confidently headed across the road and claimed our space at one of the building's entrances.
Letter to Blackheath residents from Climate Camp
We're also having a public meeting: 3.30 - 5pm, Saturday 29 August, Greenwich Community and Arts Centre, 141 Greenwich high Road, SE10 8JA
I came, I swooped, I camped
We teamed up at Kings Cross Station coming from five points across the capital, by train, bicycle and bus. Once we’d all checked that we had the Climate Camp legal support phone number written on our arms and our wellies tied firmly to our backpacks, we set off from Aldgate tube station on the Northern Line.
The night before swooping
'Twas the night before swooping, on the eve of events, All the campers were stirring, and packing their tents...
Strange Adventures In Copland
Last Thursday, the Camp for Climate Action Police Liaison Team spoke at a "briefing afternoon", at the Metropolitan Police's Training Centre in Gravesend. Why did they do this, and what on Earth could they possibly say to the police? Simon Stanley was at the scene...
Climate Camp Cymru: Ffos-y-Fran mine action
What would it be like to live just 37 metres from the gaping chasm of an opencast coal mine. Seems unimaginable eh? Surely it's not possible? Who would choose to live this way?
Open Letter to the Met
On August 17th, you wrote to the Camp for Climate Action, requesting further information on the location of our next Camp, which will take place from August 27th to September 2nd, somewhere in the London area. You say that you require this information in order to help with “community liaison”, to ensure the Camp is a “safe and healthy” event, and to help you put a “pre-planned and proportionate policing operation” in place. We are writing this open letter in order to alleviate your concerns, and to make our position clear both to yourself and to the public.
Welcome to our shiny new website!
It is done! The last month has been a blur of late nights, black coffee and square eyes for me, as we in the website group have been working fervently to put this new site together.