Early Thursday morning over 20 people were preemptively arrested in a mass operation, and equipment for the camp was seized. This was a clear attempt to scare us, to prevent peaceful protest.
We are currently working on alternative plans for the weekend and will update you further as soon as we can.
Due to essential items including tents, toilets and track for wheelchairs being seized the 6-day camp can no longer go ahead.
We are as frustrated and disappointed as you are, but our energy and rage will not be wasted.
We are working as hard as possible to find a way for us to gather over the weekend to take meaningful action together.
Unfortunately, we have not been able to identify a meaningful target for an action today. There are a number of our crew in York, but this is obviously very last minute and there is no crash space planned for a larger gathering.
What this means in terms of travel:
- If you are on your way: head to York and coordinate meeting up with people already there
- If you live near enough to York for a day trip: feel free to join people there to process everything and plan next steps
Statement from RTP
“Police actions this morning send the clear message that protecting the peace and quiet of Drax — who take £1.7 million a day in subsidies and hand it to shareholders as ‘profit’ — is more important than protecting the lives and livelihoods of people whose taxes pay those very subsidies.
“Racist violence is happening Nationwide. Black and Brown communities are under attack with fire and bricks and the police have made the unfathomable decision to divert resources away from those communities to arrest 22 people taking equipment to make a peaceful climate protest safe and accessible.
“The police claim they ‘not against protest but against crime’, but their actions show otherwise. In Yorkshire this morning, police prioritised locating and arresting people suspected of organising peaceful protest with tents, toilets and track for wheelchairs over locating and arresting people who are actually organising, far right riots with bricks, knives and other weapons.”