Manchester goes to Climate Camp

Article published: Sunday, August 23rd 2009

This week will see a number of Manchester residents head down to London for this year’s Climate Camp. They will converge, with thousands from around the country, at an undisclosed location somewhere inside the M25.

Those attending hope to put pressure on companies and the government to take urgent action on climate change, but also to discuss and learn about what can be done independently.

Toby B from Manchester said “Their main solution seems to be carbon trading, a complex market mechanism like sub-prime mortgages. Carbon trading has failed to stop carbon dioxide emissions from continuing to rise and we need big reductions rapidly.”

Now in its fourth year the camp aims to provide a space for workshops, discussion and action around climate change. Unlike previous years the immediate focus of the camp this time round is not a mass action. Instead a large direct action will take place in mid October. The target will be one of Britain’s most pollutiong power stations, either Drax or Ratcliffe-on-Soar. The camp recently started ‘Britain’s Got Direct Action’ – an online public vote to decide the target.

The last major action that Climate Camp activists undertook ended in violence, when police launched an unprovoked attack on the environmental campaigners during the G20 demonstrations.

Police have vowed to change their tactics after they were roundly criticised for the way they handled last year’s camp at Kingsnorth Power Station in Kent and the G20 protests, which ended in the death of newspaper salesman Ian Tomlinson. This incident is now under investigation from the Independent Police Complaints Commission after footage was found of the police assaulting Mr. Tomlinson.

However, Climate Camp organisers are sceptical of claims made by the police. Manchester activist John Archer told MULE he thought it was a cynical attempt by the police to redeem themselves after several disastrous operations. “In the past they got in touch with us yet they still did terrible things. In 2008 at Kingsnorth, despite earlier discussions, they battered their way onto the site, confiscated items such as re-chargable batteries, hospitalising people in the process. Ironically, they have always approached us over health and safety concerns but from past experience the only threat is from the police.”

The Climate Camp takes place between the 27 August and 9 September, venue to TBC!

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Comments

1. I’d urge everyone to go – you’ll learn a lot about climate and meet some interesting people! And I suspect the police will be going easier this time.

   I’m not really sure about this ‘Britain’s got direct action’ thing though – seems a little bit of a gimmick. 2 choices of very similar things = democracy, where have I heard that before?

   Also, the choice of targets seems only to be about their relative carbon emmissions – where’s the politics!?

   Comment by Sandy on August 24, 2009 at 12:31 pm

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