Climate Camp Has Arrived in London
Harold Hamlet | 27.08.2009 09:00 | World
The Full Coverage in The Guardian
By Peter Walker, Paul Lewis and Hannah Kuchler The Guardian, Thursday 27 August 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/27/climate-camp-environment-activists-police
What follows is an edited version:
By Peter Walker, Paul Lewis and Hannah Kuchler The Guardian, Thursday 27 August 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/27/climate-camp-environment-activists-police What follows is an edited version:
Edited version of Guardian Coverage:
The scaffolding truck and a small group of rented vans pulled up quietly on the edge of Blackheath just before 1.40pm yesterday ... this was the decidedly low-key beginning to the country's biggest annual environmental protest ...
Following a morning of cat-and-mouse games with police – who, unlike at April's G20 protests, kept a low profile yesterday – approximately 1,000 activists soon arrived at the site from six locations around the capital, travelling by bike, train, bus and on foot, bringing tents, guitars and food.
...
This year's location remained a secret to all but a handful of organisers until more or less the moment the first trucks arrived. Within minutes, activists had erected manned scaffolding tripods designed to thwart police dispersal, and began sealing off the site with temporary metal fencing.
The Metropolitan police kept a remarkably low profile ...
Just before 7pm the Met's chief superintendent Julia Pendry, silver commander in charge of tactics for the operation, walked on to the site to talk to organisers, sparking a hostile response from a crowd of around a dozen anarchists. Apparently against the wishes of the rest of the camp, they shouted "scum", "kill the pigs" and "you murdered Ian Tomlinson" at Pendry as she left the site with a colleague.
....
This year's location was selected for several reasons. It has historic resonance as the place where Wat Tyler led the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. In addition, it is designated common land rather than parkland, making it harder to be evicted from. Lastly, the heath, fringed by large Victorian houses, has an open view to the skyscrapers and bank headquarters of Canary Wharf to the north.
Activists said they planned to use the camp as a base from which to launch direct action against perceived environmental offenders in the City.
In the meantime, volunteers spent much of yesterday afternoon getting the camp together, erecting marquees and compost toilets and building communal kitchens. As well as protests, the camp is intended to be a base for people to learn about environmental issues and how to demonstrate effectively, partly in planning for a mass action against the coal industry due in October.
.....
Protesters also plan to visit nearby residents, offering them tours of the camp to allay any concerns.
On the whole, the initial local reaction was cautiously positive.
Harold Hamlet
Comments
Hide the following 8 comments
More Swirl than Swoop
27.08.2009 09:29
I'd prepared food for the day and water, so I thought I might need a coffe or 2 and maybe a little surf in an internet cafe when I arrived.
Having made my way to kings Cross, I found an internett point, and spent 90p finding out meeting point locations for the swoop. I was running a little late so i decided to head for Russel Square, but arrived too late and moved onto to the BP building in St. James' Sq. Only one copper outside who directed me to trafalgar sq. (Coppers have their uses!).
At the Square I started chatting to one of the swoop gropu, Paddy, a student and member of a socialist group. He'd beeen active in the Vespers dispute ( link here ), and filled me in on the way the occupation of the wind turbine factory had been organised across old sectarian boundaries. We talked about varoius issues, from the world economy, to the price of cigarettes in Spain, a subject about which I have few peers - and generally learned a little from each other about the struggles to come.
A text came through and we headed off to Lewisham on the train, and after a short walk up the hill, we were greeted by at least a 1000 climate campers, setting up the fort.
I had to return to Coventry ......
HH
Swoop then what? I'm confused
27.08.2009 11:31
Can anyone tell me what CC is for? What is it trying to do and by this I mean both at the Camp and in terms of some long term strategy.
People there were talking about this as some kind of movement but it just seems like an activist-orientated hang-out without much clue about how to make any difference to things. That's not to be mean as no-one else seems to know either but it seems all a bit wooly to me, someone who is not a activist nor wants to be one.
Any clues would be helpful to this confused old working class socialist.
Delboy
why not the crystal palace?
27.08.2009 16:13
for serveral years now, the status of the area has been in doubt; talk of rebuilding the orginal structure (a bit "save the pound" for my taste) but it now sems clear that the whole place is going to be "developized" in the near future. ceratinly, nothing anyone in officialdom has said gives any hope that this fascinating relic of the near past will be allowed to remain in quiet faded glory, but wrecked by some corporate schemers.
fascinating is the word; even now, rooting among the shrubbery can yield small tokens of the heyday of the palace, which it customary to offer to the museum near the railway station. (indeed, the disused palace station has just been uncovered)
Alice Cristalph
give up activism
27.08.2009 16:43
true brummie worker
horizontal thinking
27.08.2009 18:25
Thats because its a horizontal organisation mate. No one is elected as a central decision maker so the event will just evolve and unfold in a fluid and organic way under its own accord. With everyone making decisions at an equal level, things will move much quicker and more directly compared to a capitalist hierarchical structure.
Max
nice
27.08.2009 18:29
As the area is free for everyone to go that is just plain confrontational, nice one, were they just after a fight to grab headlines.
This is meant to showcase environmental issues not be a oppotunity for a tiny minority to start trouble and invite bad media coverage, it's hard enough getting people to change thier behaviour and educate them without polerising views for the fun of it.
A good relationship with the cops means they have no justification to bring on the TSG, we win the moral high ground with the public, this shit is just ignorant and childish.
I will get blocked for it but these are my honest feelings.
Anon
Max, patronise me again (mate)
27.08.2009 23:14
> People there were talking about this as some kind of movement but it just seems like an activist-orientated hang-out without much clue about how to make any difference to things. That's not to be mean as no-one else seems to know either but it seems all a bit wooly to me, someone who is not a activist nor wants to be one <
You wrote:
'Thats because its a horizontal organisation mate. No one is elected as a central decision maker so the event will just evolve and unfold in a fluid and organic way under its own accord. With everyone making decisions at an equal level, things will move much quicker and more directly compared to a capitalist hierarchical structure.
Not sure why you thought I was a dimwit but I never suggested that CC was anything other than what you said it was - consensus-based, horizontal etc. What I was saying is that 2000 people in a field in Blackheath talking about climate change with the addition of a certain type of activist language and reference points and expectations doesn't make up much of a 'movement'. The fact that it happens every year and can put together an impressive infrastructure still doesn't make it a social movement. So my question was an honest one in that I am trying to understand what CC is for and where does it want to go, what does it want to do etc. That's not even being critical of CC, it's just trying to get my old head around it.
Anyone fancy answering my question?
Delboy
delboy
28.08.2009 21:09
I have some ideas to an answer, but all I would say for now is ENJOY YOURSELF, things may get more serious in the future, after an economic meltdown for example, or after a flood in London, or after more man-woman mad events, but this is the summer of love and enjoyment no!.
HH