Climate Camp Has Arrived in London

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.