Building resistance to open-cast mining in South Wales
Last weekend at a brightly coloured community centre in Cardiff, plans were being formed. Tasty food and excitement over ideas for the summer. Tense atmosphere – can we pull this off?
A string of good luck. We need legal observers – somebody walks in and offers to train people up. But we’re still short of medics. Somebody speaks up – ‘I’m a medic.’
One thing’s for sure – it’s gonna be great. This year Climate Camp Cymru is going back to basics with a light action-based camp targeting coal in south Wales.
A momentum has been building. Last August we camped in Merthyr Tydfil where local residents have been opposing Miller Argent’s ‘Land Reclamation Scheme’, otherwise known as Ffos y Fran: the largest opencast mine in the UK.
Just one month after the camp, activists stopped work at the mine by suspending themselves from a net above the site’s access road.
Two months later a biomass plant was shut down with d-locks, chimney scaling and banner drops.
Next, as Merthyr residents took Miller Argent to court over noise and health complaints, activists and local folk alike biked from Ffos y Fran to Rossport making links between communities resisting fossil fuel extraction.
And in April, Rising Tide literally put their necks on the line blockading a railway used to transport coal from the mine to Aberthaw power station.
The first thing that strikes you about Ffos y Fran is how massive it is – a huge chunk of the Glamorgan countryside has literally been ripped out to feed our economic system’s addiction to fossil fuels. Burning coal is destroying our climate, while opencast mining damages the earth and the health of local people.
An increasing number of communities in south Wales are set to suffer at the hands of the coal industry, with Celtic Energy, Draeth Developments and others applying for new mines and extensions across south Wales.
Fossil fuel corporations cannot be allowed to progress unchecked. Join a growing number of ordinary people taking direct action, and exploring alternatives, to stop the madness that is destroying the earth.
This August 13th -17th, come to Climate Camp Cymru.