Climate Camp was held over last week on Blackheath Common at a site with a history of English protest, notably during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. This time there was a more middle-class revolt, although in aid of an equally good cause.
With the aim of raising awareness about the corporations and governments who are intent on destroying the world with irreversible climate change through their capitalist greed, the Camp was also to train and mobilise people for the climate swoop in October and the impending Copenhagen talks in December. The camp was a form of direct action in itself, where we aimed to live differently to the world of Canary Wharf and the city we could see in the distance. The camp was consensus- and volunteer-led, where everybody chipped in and could offer their opinions at the regular if not hourly meetings. Given the four hour meeting on the opening day it was a wonder to me we managed to achieve so much in the week.
The first morning began by anticipating the camp location, and, after the initial rush and stress of setting up, with the perimeter fences and tripods in place we were ready for the influx of the swoopers.
Putting up the first fences
Looming clouds welcomed the first stream of cyclists who were closely followed by different groups from various locations across London, specifically chosen to highlight ecological or social issues; from the oil corporations BP and Shell to the sites of the deaths of Jean Charles de Menezes and Ian Tomlinson.
On defense it soon became apparent that the police weren’t taking too much interest and so I was left to direct my attention towards setting up the neighborhoods; with a combination of efforts the marquees were soon up. After only a few hours the camp was taking shape with a few compost toilets in place and hay-bales in the hundreds.
Throughout the camp the police mainly kept their distance which meant that everybody was able to keep their focus away from the police and towards the issue at hand. This differed pleasantly from certain protests in the past taking place in Heathrow, Kingsnorth, and Drax, not to mention the recent G20.
Each day there were plenty of workshops to observe, be active in, or have a siesta to. The sheer amount of subjects and speakers was overwhelming, which made it difficult to stay in one place for too long without considering all the other things you were missing out on. Certainly a highlight was the the direct action training, which consisted of daily games in which people could get trained up in different tactics such as using lock-ons and tripods as well as advice on how to cope with stressful environments. Amongst the numerous talks by a range of inspiring speakers, Bicycology held workshops about pedal power and there was an opportunity to learn about wind turbines from the V3 collective.
By Sunday the camp was in full swing with up to five thousand people passing through the gates, but despite the obvious benefits it was somehow just a bit too nice. It was meant to be a camp wholly to promote climate action but many attendees appeared to see it largely as a means for personal enjoyment as opposed to wide and active social change. Don’t get me wrong, the community giving their support was totally a positive element, but to bring down the capitalist state something more was definitely needed.
Monday saw the first day of actions take place with a flash mob at the city airport. Again the police were on their best behaviour, which just felt a bit too calculating for my liking.
Flash mob at City Airport
On Tuesday a large proportion of the camp headed into the city, where with banners, flyers and animal masks we boarded the tube and headed to the bank of England.
Spiky fluff or fluffy spike, I’m not quite sure how to describe the day of action, the temporary shutting down of RBS and the naked invasion of the E-on PR offices but the day had some prominence and there was even some limited media coverage. I’m sure we managed to turn at least a few heads.
For a camp that was billed as not looking to provoke too many disagreements with the police it definitely kept to its word with only one arrest during the whole week. However, with climate catastrophe around the corner I feel it’s time to up the ante and I look forward to some more spiky stuff at the Climate Swoop in October.
For information about the Climate Swoop, keep checking the Amelia’s Magazine Earth section, we will be blogging about it soon!
Tags:
Blackheath, Climate Camp, climate change, direct action
