Support the 15 defendants at Leeds Magistrates court on Monday 22 September and Monday 29 September
❤️Support the Drax 15 defendants
Support our rights to peaceful protest
Support front-line and affected communities in Gloster, Mississippi
The trial – quick recap
Last summer, as far right violence spread across the country, the police chose to spend millions preventing a peaceful climate camp focusing on Drax from going ahead. Of the 25 people who were pre-emptively arrested, 15 have been charged with ‘going equipped to lock on’ and will stand trial at Leeds Magistrates Court this autumn, starting on 22 September and expected to last until 2nd October.
The 15 protesters were arrested preemptively, whilst planning a peaceful protest camp against Drax, the UK’s single largest carbon emitter – now emitting more than the next four largest UK polluters combined and more than the six most carbon-intensive gas power plants put together.
This is part of an escalating pattern of state repression, silencing of peaceful protest and distracting attention from the real harms our government is complicit in.
Join us in Leeds to stand in solidarity with the Drax 15 and to show Drax we will continue to exercise our right to peaceful protest and speak out about their dirty tricks.
The Drax 15: in solidarity with affected communities resisting environmental and health injustices
Drax power station in North Yorkshire burns wood pellets shipped from Mississippi in the U.S. Trees are milled and processed at the Drax plant in Gloster, Mississippi, creating significant local air pollution, before being burnt in the UK.
Drax has multiple times been fined for air pollution violations: $2.5 million in 2020 —one of the largest air-pollution fines in state history —and again last year for emitting more than 50% of its permitted limit of toxic chemical pollutants.
The Drax 15 stand in solidarity with Greater Greener Gloster, a community response to local environmental and public health injustices related to the Drax Biomass facility in Gloster, Mississippi which opened there in 2016. A recent community action took the residents of Gloster to state capital Jackson, where they spoke against a Drax application to increase emissions limits. They won and Drax was denied any increases. Greater Greener Gloster seeks justice for the damages associated with the air pollution affecting the underserved community – watch their stories here.
Details and logistics
Chilled Sunday evening social in Leeds: Consider travelling to Leeds the Sunday before the trial starts (Sun 21st Sept) – we may be able to provide some limited crash space in Leeds but can’t confirm this yet.
Please join us outside the court for the first day of the trial on Monday 22 September from 09:00. We’ll be around all day and will have a collective moment at 12:00 noon if you can’t make it for first thing. We’ll be back at the same times on Monday 29 September.
We welcome anyone that is able to be present outside the court on any day of the trial in solidarity with the defendants, so please do join us to support across any of the trial days if you are local to Leeds or aren’t able to join on Monday 22nd or Monday 29th Sept.