DIRECT ACTION the only way now ...too many words ..too many demos ..nothing happen ..so IS TIME FOR DIRECT ACTION ..............UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL stop the criminals organized and sabotage internacional anarchist solidarity @

I never thought I'd suggest people DIDN'T go to an action but...
Heathrow will still be there to flashmob in a few weeks whereas Gazans are dying right now and there are protests going on across the country tomorrow (Saturday). Unfortunately there seems to be a finite number of people who 'do' demos, actions etc and vital as Climate issues are, I hate the idea of numbers dropping away from the Gaza support at this moment. As it is, the mainstream media are allowing it to slip away from the headlines while Israel takes the opportunity to massacre as many young Palestinians as they can before running out of excuses for delaying a ceasefire.
Don't get me wrong - I know climate chaos is desperately important but please come and show support for Gazans tomorrow. The images of world protests that filter through to them give them hope and strength to bear it all.

It is possible to go to both the Flashmob at Heathrow and attend the STW Gaza march. However, at this stage of the game you might like to consider whether yet another march is useful and instead consider stepping things up and doing something else.

The Heathrow situation demands a well planned and sustained campaign of direct action. Better to put this in action before any thoughts as to a clash of which demo to attend.

Go for it with action that will work on a long term basis and stop the expansion of Heathrow.

If want to throw a spanner in the works or so to speak, get a job at Heathrow there's loads going at the moment! Sabotage it from the inside and out, leak information, and cause general havoc. All actions add up :)

To quote a friend, we need to understand the difference between direct action and spectacular lobbying.

Climate Camp 2007 was spectacular lobbying and nuisancing. So is everything done by Plane Stupid and lots of other good stuff. Direct action, on the other hand, is putting our bodies in the way to stop the bulldozers / bailiffs / whatever and using our brains to bugger them up.

There may be the need for direct action in this struggle eventually, but it's a hell of a long way away yet. What they call the "optimistic" estimate of when construction can start is 2018. There's a hell of a lot of hoops to go through before that stage is reached, and the chances now look better than ever that it never will be.

So, if all else fails, direct action might be the biz by 2015 / 2016 to resist preparatory work, eviction of local residents etc., BUT NOT YET. Meantime, we need to let then know we're up for it, will resist to the last if we have to, and it'll cost them a lot more money. One way to do that and declare our intentions is the sort of excellent stunt campaigning which has gone on up to now.

But that's not direct action and nothing is more disempowering and dissipating of energy and anger than premature direct action by people with a cultivated disconnection from the timescale. To those talking of stuff like setting up camps on the runway line now I ask;

Are you still going to be here when the bulldozers come in 9 years' time? Or 10? Or 11?

How do you plan to keep a camp organised, buzzing and together until then?

Having thrown away the surprise spanner-in-the-works card, don't you think even the doziest scumbag lawyers and cops might just manage to get you evicted by 2018?


I certainly don't want to discourage anyone from direct action. If you want to get stuck in on the front line now, think about getting your arse to Rossport rather than Heathrow. I understand things may be hotting up there in the spring.

And in London? Keep the imaginative, campaigning stunts rolling. Let's keep them crapping themselves at the thought of what else we might do.

"Camp for Climate Action, which in August 2007 occupied the site of the proposed third runway"
Nice to see it called by it's proper name (note the Action element), not what it was changed to by someone without consent (to Climate Camp 08). But we didn't occupy that site - there was meant to be a 'stand and mark it out' kinda thing, though that was forced through by a small group who didn't give a fuck for the consensus process, but not enough people went.

"At the 2007 camp, the 2000 people present decided not to shut the airport "
No, that was a precondition from the land group agreed by previous organising gatherings, that the runways would not be invaded during the camp.

"To quote a friend, we need to understand the difference between direct action and spectacular lobbying."
Indeed.
However, you can take direct action years before the 'last ditch' stage - it depends partly on intent: are you trying to mount a rolling blockade of Kingsnorth, for example, to stop it being built, or is it to try and put pressure on someone else to decide something? The first is direct action, the second lobbying. I'd agree that the mass actions at the Camps for Climate Action of the recent 2 years have been lobbying using direct action tactics, rather than actual direct action.