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Climate Activists smash windows at The Department for Transport

press release | 16.01.2009 07:49 | Climate Chaos | Ecology | History | Social Struggles

Climate Suffragettes smashed glass front doors at The Department for
Transport early this morning in protest against the government's
decision to expand Heathrow.



At 4 am, three women, wearing red climate sashes, hurled bricks and
broke the glass doors of The Department for Transport, on Marsham
Street, London. Echoing the protests of the Suffragettes, they wrapped
their bricks in notes that read: 'NO THIRD RUNWAY, THE SUFFRA-JETS ARE
BACK before hurling them at the government building. They also
hurled green paint to symbolise the greenwash they heard from the
government today. They targeted the building as a direct response to
yesterday's decision to allow a third runway at Heathrow.

A spokeswoman said: "The government has opened the flood-gates for
radical action. Yesterday they sacrificed all of our futures and spat
in the face of democracy. The third runway is unwanted and is a
global threat. When they make democracy meaningless what other
reaction could they expect?

"We have less than ten years to turn climate change around. Women
cannot just stand by and let this government treat our futures as a
joke. We fight for the safety of humanity, and if the government will
only listen to the smash of windows, then so be it."

Noting that their elected MPs had been refused a vote on this issue, she added;

"The government has bypassed democratic process for the sake of
corporate profit. The Suffragettes died for the democratic rights that
the government so sweeps aside. We take our lead from our past to
defend our future."

press release

Additions

Video clip converted

16.01.2009 12:11

Short video clip of one of windows being smashed.

vidbod


Photo from Daily Mail

16.01.2009 15:11


Nice action. Next time lets see one hundred women doing the same thing in broad daylight.

smashing


A piece of writing by Silvya Pankhurst describing suffragette actions in 1911

16.01.2009 15:44

At school they told us about women throwing themselves under horses and chaining themselves to railings... a very watered down version of history. Sylvia Pankhurst describes the militant suffragette tactics and actions below...

"Street lamps were broken, Votes for Women was painted on the seats at Hampstead Heath, keyholes were stopped up with lead pellets, house numbers were painted out, chairs flung in the Serpentine, cushions of railway carriages slashed, flower-beds damaged, golf greens all over the country scraped and burnt with acid. A bowling green was cut in Glasgow, the turf in Duthie Park, Aberdeen. A mother and daughter, bearing an ancient name, spent much of their time travelling in trains in order to drop pebbles between the sashes of carriage windows, hoping the glass would smash on being raised. Old ladies applied for gun licences to terrify the authorities. Bogus telephone messages were sent calling up the Army Reserves and Territorials. Telegraph and telephone wires were severed with long-handled clippers; fuse boxes were blown up, communication between London and Glasgow being cut for for some hours. There was a window-smashing raid in West End club-land; the Carlton, the Junior Carlton, the Reform Club and others being attacked. A large envelope containing red pepper and snuff was sent to every Cabinet Minister; the Press reported that they all fell victims to the ruse. Boat-houses and sports pavilions in England, Ireland and Scotland, and a grand-stand at Ayr race-course were burnt down. Mrs. Cohen, a Leeds member of the deputation to Lloyd George, broke the glass of a jewel-case in the Tower of London. Works of art and objects of exceptional value became the target of determined militants. Thirteen pictures were hacked in the Manchester Art Gallery. Refreshment pavilions were burnt down in Regent's Park and Kew Gardens, where the glass in three orchid houses was smashed, and the plants, thus exposed, were broken and torn up by the roots. Empty houses and other unattended buildings were systematically sought out and set on fire, and many were destroyed, including Lady White's house near Staines, a loss of £4,000, Roughwood House, Chorley Wood, and a mansion at St. Leonard's valued at £10,000. There were fires at several houses in Hampstead Garden Suburb, at the Suburb Free Church, at Abercarn Church, Monmouthshire, in the Shipcoat Council Schools, at South Bromley Station on the London underground, and in a wood yard at Walham Green. Hugh Franklin set fire to an empty railway carriage; he was imprisoned and forcibly fed. An old cannon was fired near Dudley Castle, shattering glass and terrifying the neighbourhood. Bombs were placed near the Bank of England, at Wheatley Hall, Doncaster, at Oxted Station, and on the steps of a Dublin Insurance Office. Lloyd George's new house in process of erection at Walton-on-the-Hill was injured beyond repair by a bomb explosion. The story of a motor-car passing through the village at 4 a.m., two broken hat-pins, a hairpin, and a galosh indisputably feminine, found on the site, were the only traces of the incendiaries, Emily Wilding Davison and others, all of whom escaped undiscovered. That this was the work of the Suffragettes was usually made evident by literature deposited in the vicinity. In most cases the culprits had altogether disappeared and no clue to their identity was left. Where a capture was effected, the punishment varied considerably: up to nine months for breaking windows or the glass covering pictures; eighteen months or two years for arson. Miriam Pratt, in an unsuccessful attempt to burn an empty house, dropped her watch. Her uncle, a police constable in whose house she lived, identified the watch and gave evidence against her. (pp. 433-435.)"

Sylvia Pankhurst


That video again

16.01.2009 15:48

Video in other formats (why use youtube?)

rewind


Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

thats more like the Suffragettes

16.01.2009 08:58

I take back what I said about the Climate Rush interpretation of the Suffragette movement - this is spot on.

Lets make 2009 the year the tied turned!

anarchist


Great stuff, we must make this big

16.01.2009 10:30

Great action. This appalling decision on Heathrow must be fought all the way, FROM NOW, as energetically as possible. As an ex-activist of the 90s road protests, I will be coming "out of retirement" to get stuck in on this one, let's make it the biggest since newbury. There is SO MUCH at stake with Heathrow, and we cannot afford to lose. Let's get on it!

Old Timer


Were they arrested and/or charged?

16.01.2009 11:29

Any news on if anyone was arrested and/or charged, or did they escape?

anon


typo

16.01.2009 11:47

Suffrajets ?

Pankhurst


not right

16.01.2009 12:58

> "We have less than ten years to turn climate change around"
Like many people - I don't agree with this opinion in the slightest. But you use it as your basis to cause criminal damage which I then have to contribute to pay for. My opinion is that "man-made" greenhouse gas global warming theory is completely over-inflated. So, following your lead, I persumably would be justified in vandalising a wind turbine as I see them as a needless waste of precious resources.

stub


re: stub

16.01.2009 13:56

well, your opinion against 2,000+ global climate scientists of the UN IPCC. At least you've a few oil-industry funded pundits to support you. And who knows whether climate chaos will stub you out before me, but think of the 150,000 each year already dying (WHO figures) because of our choices.

stup


window breaking

16.01.2009 14:05

Windows bounce, as you can see in the video, if you bash/chuck something at them, especially if in the middle. You need to either break the tension of the window first, whether with window hammer, ball-bearing in catapult or whatever (aim for corners), or just try at the corners or edges first.

stup


Anti Stub

17.01.2009 11:00

It appears that our good friend stub has no issues over paying tax money for the production/purchase of weapons used to murder people throughout every continent, and to endorse companies that continually pillage the wealth and the environment in the UK and especially abroad (coz that's where the bulk of your tax money goes) but does find issues with real 'criminals' who will occasionally symbolically attack the same institutions responsible for this death and destruction. Well done mate. You astound me with your insight into these horrific acts that take place. Please everyone join stub in proclaiming your desire for Britain to remain the realm of apathy.

Stubble


See where these guys are coming from, but...

17.01.2009 11:47

... the vast majority of people in that building don't work in aviation. People are working on schemes to promote cycling and walking and there's a massive number of people working to improve the train network we have and build new rail lines that will get people out of the air and on to trains.

I'm guessing most people reading indymedia will think DfT is simply the instigator of this problem. But it's kinda important to remember that aviation is only one thing it does - it does lots of important work that will help to reduce dependence on cars and planes in the future. It's not right to lump all of DfT in together.

voiceofreason


Impressed

17.01.2009 14:29

I'd also like to know if anyone was nicked for this.

To the critics who think the action was indiscriminate or irresponsible, I've got two points. Even if you get your opinions about climate change from the Daily Mail, the government doesn't and accepts the findings of the IPCC. Unfortunately, they make policy for subscribers to the reactionary view, capitalists and middle england, while dissembling and making excuses. Final proof there is no such thing as capitalist democracy.

Those in the DfT with a conscience will be heartened to see the public resorting to civil disobedience against the insane and evil policies of their bosses. The ones who don't have a conscience, well, fuck them. A few smashed windows is a drop in the ocean compared to the social cost of acqueiscence to their agenda.

anon


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