Info for people in Birmingham

Keep up to date with all the action online:

https://reclaimthepower.org.uk – includes history/principles of Reclaim the Power (RtP)

https://www.facebook.com/ReclaimThePower/

https://twitter.com/reclaimthepower   – Twitter @reclaimthepower

Here’s some of the action coming up, click on the links for more details (if you’re not on Facebook extra web links underneath some entries). If you are on social media go ahead and click ‘Join’ on the closed groups for live updates from the front lines.

Now: The campaign to stop a new coal mine in Country Durham is live, check the Coal Action Network to find out the latest: on their website or Facebook page , or Pont Valley Protection Camp

16th March: Jig at the Rig mass dance-off blockade followed by 17th & 18th March: a national gathering to plan Summer action against the first UK fracking site –  Preston New Road (PNR) near Blackpool. Same event info here: https://reclaimthepower.org.uk/event/jig-at-the-rig/?instance_id=158
Free accommodation is available from Thursday night (15th) when people will be travelling up together, let me (Richard the piano tuner) know if you’re travelling up from Birmingham if you want to make contact with other people doing the same journey.

 

 
25th March: Solidarity Sunday – Join a bike ride or hop on a minibus for a tour of oil fracking sites in Surrey and Sussex just south of London. Learn more about the issue and get involved in action planning. Meet the Leith Hill Protectors in their stunning woodland camp – they may be providing crash space for the weekend. Meeting point details also here, where you can RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/solidarity-sunday-and-tour-of-weald-drill-sites-tickets-43131099279

 
3rd-6th April: Join the legendary anti-fracking Nanas of Nanashire for the 100Women mass action and thematic action week to kick off the United Resistance against fracking at PNR. Of course other genders are welcome too, lets all support the Nanas!
Every day Tue-Fri meet 8:30 am Maple Farm, Preston New Road, FY4 5RN
Twitter @UnitedResist – https://twitter.com/UnitedResist

April-June: This is the period we expect Cuadrilla to actually be fracking for gas at PNR – the first frack in the UK since they tried and failed closeby in 2011. Local people are calling a United Resistance against this and RtP have collectively volunteered to do a rolling blockade of fracking operations for the whole month of June. For updates and events click the above social media links and follow the pages and/or sign up to the RtP newsletter. Also Twitter @UnitedResist – https://twitter.com/UnitedResist

Action planning, social gathering, accommodation and food is likely to be centred around the makeshift hub at Maple Farm, Preston New Road, FY4 5RN – the fracking site is half a mile east along the main road.

Summer: around the parliamentary vote on Heathrow expansion there is likely to be an action or demo but it hasn’t been planned yet – too much going on against fracking at the moment. Fancy planning it yourself?

Short documentary covering the latest on aviation and climate: https://youtu.be/oEXe6qxL-Qo  there will be an international meeting of campaigners and activists on this issue on 28th and 29th April in London, details TBC.

15th-20th August: Save the date! Earth First! Summer gathering will probably be somewhere in Surrey or Sussex in solidarity with local people fighting against acid fracking for oil. It’s not normally an action camp – more of a peaceful place for action-related skill-sharing, debating environmental politics, networking and the odd party 😉

Action in Europe:

Netherlands: Newly-formed Code Rood successfully occupied the largest fossil fuel terminals in Europe last Summer and again last Friday, sign up to find out about their plans to take on massive gasfields next. Easily accessible from the UK, a few of our folk hop the channel to muck in.
https://www.facebook.com/coderood.org/
https://code-rood.org/index.php/en/success-code-rood/

Germany: Ende Gelände is an ongoing campaign to stop lignite coal mining and burning in Germany. Last year action centred on the Rhineland’s complex of coal mines and power stations – the biggest source of carbon emissions in Europe. The biggest acts of civil disobedience for climate justice and a great place to network with climate activists from all over Europe. A group of people normally travel over from the UK each year. More mass action this Summer, learn more and sign up here:
https://www.ende-gelaende.org/en/
https://www.facebook.com/BaggerStoppen/

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It’s unlikely that you’ll get any hassle from the police from politely participating in the family-friendly demos or the party at the gates, but great legal advice is available from our amazing allies at Green and Black Cross. We can point you to an adviser on action days, but feel free to have a quick read of your basic rights at https://greenandblackcross.org/

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More about UK fracking and licenses nearer to Birmingham:


If you’re not familiar with the issue get the fracking basics from Friends of the Earth: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate-change/fracking-facts. It’s currently the biggest front line for climate justice in the UK – to give you some idea of the scale of the problem, if Heathrow Airport built a third runway that would emit 4 million tonnes of CO2 per year, if the coal mine near Newcastle goes ahead and they get all the coal out and burn it that would emit 2 million tonnes of CO2, but if fracking companies get all of the UK’s technically recoverable gas out and burn it that would emit 7,000 million tonnes of CO2!

Get a sense of the bigger picture with Frack Off’s excellent info map and find out where the issues are nearest to you. Don’t feel too daunted by it cos almost all of the sites are asleep – companies have acquired Petroleum Exploration and Development Licenses (PEDL) for those areas but haven’t built any infrastructure or even got planning permission yet. They have to go through many legal loopholes, challenges and stuff before they can actually start drilling.
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The nearest license areas to you are around Stoke on Trent and Nottingham but I’m not aware of any infrastructure or protest camps there yet. Sherwood Forest has been the site of some demos recently and if companies try to go ahead with fracking there, many Robin Hoods and Merry Men will be waiting in the trees 😉   it hasn’t gotten to the stage of direct action yet but Friends of the Earth are already mobilising local communities with a series of fun events: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate-change/save-sherwood-forest-fracking

PR Marriot drilling yard near Chesterfield is the closest live protest site to you where a permanent protection camp monitors and sometimes stops them from delivering drilling equipment to fracking sites like Cuadrilla’s.

Kirby Misperton was gonna be the first frack in the UK but brave protectors held them back and Third Energy have pissed off now. Cuadrilla’s site near Blackpool is next… that’s why we’re all over it because if they succeed and make a profit many more companies might follow with their sites. We’ve got the industry at a bottleneck and we want to show investors that this industry is not a good investment – we are the investment risk!  ;-D

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Links to some of the studies we mentioned at the event:

http://priceofoil.org/2016/09/22/the-skys-limit-report/

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/7/075004

https://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/worldshalegas/pdf/overview.pdf

Some of the action videos we shared:

South Wales April ’16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqCOMav0QXc
East Germany May ’16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa0dTUQL-Eo
Heathrow October ’16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIdlrnDGOc8
First day of rolling resistance against construction of PNR site July ’17: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TY2dLFnRRs 
Affinity group action PNR July ’17: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGaSYLosq5w
Truck surfing PNR July ’17: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X2rggL7n9Q and https://youtu.be/1JleS5v9k6I?t=193
Carnival at the gates PNR July ’17: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TKQPc-H044
Black Lives Matter shutdown City Airport September ’16 in protest against airport expansion plans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcXh0G9xavI&feature=youtu.be&t=13 – I forgot to mention they made a group decision to plead guilty to the charge of aggravated trespass and got away with a £100 fine and a conditional discharge (which means no further penalties so long as you’re not naughty again over the next year!)

Some more video:

The Plane Stupid activists who blocked Heathrow Airport’s north runway for six hours in 2015, in protest against major airport expansion plans: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2016/feb/25/heathrow-13-climate-change-protesters-well-be-back-video

More at http://www.planestupid.com

Code Rood mass trespass at Europe’s 2nd largest coal port in Amsterdam: https://youtu.be/pZU2vj-Pmdw

Back in 2012, Reclaim the Power’s first action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HovQqw9jEJY