Last September, when the biannual DSEi arms fair came to East London, I took part in a blockade of the ExCeL centre the day before the exhibition opened, hoping to stop the unloading of weaponry for display and sale.
Along with others in the blockade, I was arrested, and charged with obstruction of the highway. When my case came to court, I had to decide whether to plead guilty or not.
It might seem obvious that I would plead guilty. After all, I was lying…
A friend of mine posted on Facebook the other day that she was feeling a bit low. I know that a friend of hers is seriously ill, and I thought it might be because of that. But when I rang her a couple of days later, she said she had been down in Gloucester looking out for badgers at night, and that she always feels a bit blue for a couple of days when she gets home from being out on anti-badger cull duty. ‘I think it’s because I’ve been out in the dark and the cold, squinting through a night…
I took part in an exercise recently. I was told to imagine that I had come from the future, in fact seven generations or 200 years into the future. All we knew about this future world is that the systems on Earth are life-sustaining enough to hold some amount of humanity.
I was to imagine that in the time I lived – the year 2213 – there was a lot of talk about what the world was like back in 2013. The future ones knew that there had been massive change on Earth at that time, and I…
No Dash for Gas spent months planning an action camp called ‘Reclaim the Power’ at the new West Burton gas power station near Nottingham, the power station we occupied for a week last autumn.
Then, just two weeks before the event, we made a momentous decision to change the venue and indeed the focus of our camp.
We realised that now is a crucial time for climate and fuel poverty campaigners to show solidarity with the people of Balcombe in West Sussex, and others around the…
While sitting on a train bound for Manchester, I read over an article I’d drafted for Radical Rumours, a housing and workers co-operative zine. The piece encouraged the Radical Routes network to break out of guilt-based activism which permeated our communities. As I read the piece I had a lightbulb moment: I’d written the article for myself.
A few months earlier, I had been involved in the No Dash for Gas occupation of West Burton gas-fired power station. It was a very successful…
I get a kick out of finding ways out of tricky situations, and usually small odds don’t discourage me. But there always comes a point where the odds are so tiny that it seems ridiculous to believe that a way out is possible.
As with climate change.
Except with climate change there aren’t any odds. I think it’s pretty damn certain that we are starting to experience what will become a massive amount of suffering and loss of life on this planet.
How do I feel…
The workshop focussed on naming and exploring many of the dynamics that so often go unspoken and unprocessed in groups.
I was part of the mainstream of the group – I come from a grassroots ‘activist’ culture, I’ve been to university, I’m from the UK, I’m white. Being part of the group’s mainstream meant I was one of the people who had the power to make the subtle decision of what behaviours and attitudes were acceptable in the space; essentially, I helped define…
It’s 2am on a starry October night. Crows are cawing overhead. I am face down in the mud while two security guards with a torch scan the footpath. They’ve just spotted a group of 21 people with large rucksacks and a quantity of rope that might raise suspicion considering we’re within walking distance of several power stations. Oh dear.
After a couple of seconds wondering where our own security measures have gone wrong, I turn my thoughts to escape and survival. We…
