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Climate Camp Mass Action Against Barclays - Friday 2:30pm

Disarm DSEi and friends | 28.08.2009 01:40 | Anti-militarism | Climate Chaos | Palestine

FROM CLIMATE CHANGE TO OPPRESSION – BARCLAYS FINANCES IT ALL

From militarism, to environmental degradation to gentrification and the oppression of migrants - the banks finance the corporations responsible.

Meet 2:30pm at main gate of Climate Camp - bring banners, music, and militancy

Barclays Bank finances the continued use of dirty technology, responsible for providing almost $6 billion in loans to coal related industries (including financing coal related projects for companies such as E-On and Alliant). Coal has been recognised as the dirtiest, least efficient fossil fuel, and stands to add considerably to greenhouse gas emissions.

Barclays invests in global oppression, and is the largest backer of the global arms trade with 7.3 billion in shares in companies such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Thales. It ranks among the top ten largest investors in US arms companies, and helped to finance investment company VSS in its purchase of Clarion, the organisers of the DSEi arms fair.

Barclays is the principle banker for three arms companies; VT Group, Cobham and Meggitt and is a major investor in, and NYSE market maker for, ITT, the parent company of EDO MBM - a company who have been subjected to a sustained direct action campaign in Brighton.

Barclays invests in companies who sell weapons to Israel, which killed 1400 people, including 400 children during January 2009. Barclays has also given loans to companies producing cluster munitions and depleted uranium.

The arms trade and the military-industrial complex it supports are climate criminals responsible for 25% of air pollution. Scientists for Global Responsibility said in 2006 that the UK armed forces were responsible for emitting 5m tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The investors in these industries must be held to account for their actions.

For further action join DISARM DSEi on 8th September, 12 noon, City of London.

For further information see:
www.dsei.org
www.smashedo.org.uk

Disarm DSEi and friends
- e-mail: disarm@dsei.org
- Homepage: http://www.dsei.org

Comments

Hide the following 30 comments

Meet at Canary Wharf at 3.00pm

28.08.2009 07:54

Were planning to get to the climate camp this afternoon but will now head towards the Canary Wharf to support this action. If anyone wants to join us we suggest you meet us at the DLR at 3pm. Should be fun.

Birmingham posse


Wrong protest?

28.08.2009 08:03

Am I missing something? Surely it’s a climate and not an anti-arms trade camp? It’s this stunt going to dilute the message somewhat?

Jon


This is not a diluted message, but a strong and necessary one

28.08.2009 08:33

The arms trade is linked to climate change, and it is important these connections are made, and completely necessary to make if we are to fight the climate criminals.

The military are responsible for 25% of air pollution. Scientists for Global Responsibility said in 2996 that the UK armed forces were responsible for emitting 5m tonnes of carbon dioxide. An 2002 report from the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution found that "the performance requirements of military aircraft suggest that compared to civil aircraft, they are likely to produce proportionately more emissions."

For further in-depth information about the impact of militarism on the environment see  http://pgs.ca/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/militarism_environment_web.pdf

Disarm DSEi
mail e-mail: disarm@dsei.org
- Homepage: http://www.dsei.org


what connects these

28.08.2009 10:52

is anti-capitalism...

an equitable solution to climate change mitigation wont be found without getting rid of capitalism. The same as the solution to capitalist war is moving away from capitalism. This message is diulted by single issue liberals worried about "diluting the message" by discussing anything that isnt a scientific argument about carbon emissions.

anti-capitalist


joining the dots

28.08.2009 11:33

Underpinnng everything is the global land grab. Hopefully I have attached for download a Militarism and The Environment PDF which covers some of the impact of war economics.

ps Right-wing greenie James Lovelock sees the UK ( centre of capitalism ) as a bolthole/ fortress for the global rich....
location location location = theft theft theft
Consider having a look at pfi , TNC.'s, and armies and how that relates to the nation state.
There are no borders to the global rich and their collaborators..
Its a global class war...


zacgoldsmitheatmypoo


Not the point

28.08.2009 11:35

Absolutely – but that’s not the point. This is Disarm DSEi and Smash EDO taking advantage of the Climate Camp to divert activists towards their own protests.

And as for arguing that climate change can only be addressed by getting rid of capitalism first that completely misses the point. Climate change is becoming such an important issue that it will make all of the others fade into insignificance unless it is dealt with. This is what some of the more mainstream organisations have belatedly realised. The RSPB, for instance, was opposed to windfarms on the basis that turbines kill birds; but given that many of reserves are going to disappear with only a modest increase in sea levels, it changed its stance.

Like the DSEi/EDO activists, the Climate Camp is seen as a fertile recruitment ground for every Dave Spart and it is the fault of the liberals that are running it that they are showing such a tolerant attitude towards every single-issue group under the sun.

I know that many Climate Camp participants resent the way in which this attempt is being made to encourage this largely pointless trip to Canary Wharf – especially when most Barclays employees will have disappeared for the Bank Holiday weekend anyway.

In dealing with climate change, one needs to look at some of the ideas articulated by the American Saul Alinsky. No-one can doubt his radicalism but instead of arguing for the immediate adoption of a more desirable society, he argued that it was necessary to start from people were rather than when you wanted them to be. Alinsky also coined the phrase ‘think locally, act globally’ which has far more relevance than mouthing off mindless anti-capitalist slogans.

Jon
- Homepage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky


Barclays afternoon off

28.08.2009 12:00

There’s a group of Barclays employees in Davys Wine Bar, in Canary Wharf, currently getting drunk and toasting the climate camp because they’ve been given the afternoon off because of the protest.

Anyone fancy ruining their afternoon?

Andy J


wrong place and the wrong time

28.08.2009 12:08

i’m at the climate camp, trying to read this on my blackberry and i agree with jon - a lot people i’ve spoken to support the dsei/edo protest but think that this is the wrong place and the wrong time.

tash


Cor blimey Jon

28.08.2009 12:22

single issue? Let me guess Jon you are a bourgois cock. Ownership of the people attending climate camp have you? Bit elitist aren't ? Green management role for you?

Change has to be for everyone - not just middle class greens which no doubt you are.

Or do you think market-based solutions will work tahnks to our trustworthy rich bankers, corporates,politicians, toffs, property and arms brokers running the show? That will put you right with Lovelock and his bunch of aristocrats who expect lots of people to die in a Malthussian / neo-social Darwinist green fascist outlook. Whioch you sound like...

troll?


Oh Troll!

28.08.2009 12:36

Class war is so eighties! Grow up. We're all in this together. We must ALL save the planet not just you class-warriors. I don't look down on , you don't you look down on me.

vicky


ooops..

28.08.2009 13:06

"mindless anti-capitalist slogans" eh Jon?
I think you may have given away more about yourself than you intended, there....

nobody


jon

28.08.2009 13:43

jon you wrote

"Like the DSEi/EDO activists, the Climate Camp is seen as a fertile recruitment ground for every Dave Spart and it is the fault of the liberals that are running it that they are showing such a tolerant attitude towards every single-issue group under the sun."

The above statement shows exactly whats wrong with alot of folks attending and wanking off at their presence within the climate camp. Middle class single issue white trash clueless morons. Your a tit jon and someone needs to have a word with you soon.....

Anti-capitalist


Only Greenpeace has it sussed

28.08.2009 15:03

So I’m white trash and middle class?

The only organisation that has really got it sussed is Greenpeace. There’s none of this absurd consensus decision making or allowing anyone to vote - as in the Great Climate Sweep - and in fact as many times as they wanted, to decide which power station would be the centrepiece of the Climate Camp action in October. The organisers have absolutely no idea who voted and for all they know most of the votes could have been local coppers thinking about the overtime.

The reason Greenpeace is so successful is that is understands the need to combine carefully applied direct action with solid scientific evidence and effective lobbying. Simply to say that, first, we need a revolution before we can address climate change is like deciding to do up your shoelace as an HGV heads in your direction.

This year’s Climate Camp poses such a threat that today’s Daily Mail felt obliged to publish a two-page article, not attacking it but saying how “frightfully civilised” it had become - as Ralph Fiennes’ cousin struggles to erect her tent and other girls sip Jacob’s Creek and enthuse about what a fun “festival” it is. I am not a fan of the Daily Mail but this time they have hit the nail firmly on the head.

Jon


Vindication

28.08.2009 17:14

Tamsin et al's decision to go public and bring our campaign to a wider audience has borne fruit.

Amazing article in daily mail today

What do we want? A nice Cath Kidston tent: The remarkably middle-class Climate Camp
By JANE FRYER
Last updated at 3:54 PM on 28th August 2009

Comments (33)
Add to My Stories

Well, this is all very nice. The rain has stopped, the birds are singing and the air is filled with the smell of sauted tofu, the gentle strains of reggae music and the hammer of 20 shirtless men constructing a compost loo.

'Careful, Henry. Something's a bit wonky - it has to be straight, and solid. We don't want anyone falling in!'

Nearby, dozens of young people are lolling about in the sun, swapping A-level and degree results, smoking roll-up cigarettes, talking rather earnestly about climate change and greeting old friends.


Action stations: Jane queues for her rather pleasant meal at Climate Camp

'Oh my God, Helena! I didn't realise you were back from Spain - how cool you're here. It's going to be brilliant.'

'Nice tent. Is it Cath Kidston or Argos? That's not the one you had at Glasto.'

Meanwhile, new arrivals trickle through a gap in the steel fence, lugging jaunty tents, smelly sleeping bags and rucksacks full of Twiglets, Marks & Spencer sandwiches and trashy novels. Welcome to day two of Camp Climate 2009 on Blackheath, South-East London.

Billed as a training camp for activists, it was set up to teach the science of climate change and civil disobedience techniques.

It describes itself as 'a place for anyone who wants to take action on climate change; for anyone who's fed up with empty government rhetoric and corporate spin; for anyone who's worried that the small steps they're taking aren't enough to match the scale of the problem; and for anyone who's worried about our future and wants to do something about it'.

Which all sounds very worthy (if a bit alarming on the 'civil disobedience' front), but is actually rather surprising. Because from what I've seen so far, Camp Climate looks more like a very gentle, middle-class festival than a political training camp.

There are people strumming guitars in the sunshine, a foursome playing frisbee and groups of students chatting about their summer holidays ('Suffolk was dead') and painting colourful banners which say such things as 'Come on in!' and sport lots of pictures of big yellow suns and wilty-looking trees.

There's a 'well-being tent' offering cups of tea and 'emotional first aid' for anyone having a bit of a wobble.

'It's not counselling, but if that is what anyone needs, we'll try to put them in contact with people who can help them,' says the official handbook.

And if that's not enough to soothe frayed nerves, there's a tranquillity area, 'with a team available 24 hours a day to support the camp in challenging oppression, resolving conflict and keeping to collective decisions'.

Blimey. Where are all the battle-hardened anarchists with smelly dreadlocks, boasting tales of police brutality? Where are all the veterans - the old guard from Drax power station in West Yorkshire in 2006, Heathrow in 2007 and Kingsnorth power station, Kent, last year?


Good company: The remarkably middle-class crowd included cousin of Ralph Fiennes Natalie (front) and her friend Ottilie who struggled with their tent

By the look of it, they must all be off campaigning, banging on doors with leaflets or perhaps still asleep in their tents.

Because it all seems surprisingly nice, white and middle-class, awash with students who have made their way to Blackheath via a summer of Glastonbury, Inter-railing, camping in the South of France and surfing in Cornwall.

Craig Logan, 36, a care assistant from Bradford, is one of the old guard. 'Climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity and we have to act and ratchet up the pressure on the Government,' he says, elbow deep in washing-up water.

'Yes, there are lots more people this year and yes, they seem to be younger. The trouble is that when you've a mortgage to pay and children, you've got more to lose.'

To lose? 'A criminal record is a lot more frightening when you're a teacher or health professional than a student,' he explains. Gosh.

'But that's not an issue right now. This is all about reaching out to all sorts of people - the more the better, from whatever background - and drawing them in.' And, presumably, feeding them all. Not surprisingly,

Climate Change activists take their food pretty seriously.

According to Craig, most of the food - all strictly vegan - is ordered by a couple of people who have 'got the vision' - and presumably doesn't include the two ice-cream vans doing a roaring trade on the other side of the perimeter fence.

'Last night, we had curry and rice - vegan curry, obviously - and for breakfast I had muesli,' says Craig. 'I find porridge a bit stodgy. It's all organic and sustainable.'

Other than the washing-up liquid? 'Er, yes, well we were in a bit of a hurry when we were setting up yesterday.'

Craig is being helped by a small team of very pretty washer-uppers - Eve, 19, a student at Leicester University; Hannah, 21, a waitress, and Joy, 25, who works in a vegan cafe that travels round festivals.

'I'm here to help out and learn things,' says Joy. 'I'm not quite vegan yet, but I really like soya milk.'

And what action does she hope to achieve? 'Um, er, erm... I guess, erm, sorry. I can't really think of anything off the top of my head.' Oh dear.


Old guard: There are staunch protesters at Blackheath but many preferred to enjoy the weather

'It's not just about saving trees,' says Hannah patiently. 'If we don't act soon, the human race will, well, you know, be like gone.'

Happily for Joy, the camp has a full programme of workshops where trainees can 'arm ourselves with the skills to take action'. So there are sessions on everything from 'Muslims in the climate movement' to ' breadmaking' and 'butterfly and beemaking with felt' for children.

Some students, such as Bernice and Una, both 20 and at Leeds University, take it very seriously indeed, and they've been so busy campaigning for the environment, climate change awareness and the Leeds University Feminist Society that they've not even had time for a holiday. 'This is our holiday! The main thing we want from it is to learn - to find out more.'

Not everyone is quite so zealous. As I make my way to the compost loos, I pass a couple of young blokes lolling in the sun. 'Are you going leafleting?' says one to the other.

'Nah - I just can't be arsed,' comes the reply. 'It's such a lovely day, let's chill and go tomorrow.'

I can sort of see their point. It's all so relaxing and friendly and toasty warm in the sun, I don't blame them if they don't fancy spending the afternoon banging on hundreds of doors brandishing leaflets.

The whole site - home to hundreds, if not quite thousands - is beautifully ordered and divided up into subcamps according to area.

So activists from London have their own area, as does Yorkshire, Wales and the South Coast.

It doesn't even smell, for goodness sake. It's also a remarkably well-mannered place - 'No, please, after you' is a common refrain of the lunchtime food queue.

Joy of joys, there is complimentary recycled toilet paper in the strictly controlled compost loos.

'Some are for peeing and some are for pooing,' explains my tour guide Peter McDonald, who's a climate policy researcher when he's not camping on Blackheath. 'It's much simpler to keep them separate.'

While the Blackheath camp might look a bit like a very mini Glastonbury from a distance, the music is all pedal-powered (all the electricity is produced by solar power or bicycle generators), while alcohol and drugs are discouraged.


The diverse crowd included campaigning families but was composed of students to a great extent

'This is not a festival,' insists the handbook. But try telling that to some of the older residents, who are a bit more hardcore and were breakfasting at 10am on cans of warm Stella.

Or Decca Warsame, a beautiful and well-refreshed girl from London, who's clutching a half-consumed bottle of Jacob's Creek white wine and loving every minute of Climate Camp.

'I just kind of stumbled across this festival and it's great. It's a great vibe, don't you think?'

She might change her mind when the camp officially opens and the meetings begin - it is run on a system inspired by the Zapatista revolutionary force in Mexico, and their principle that everyone in a village must agree on any decision.

Which, inevitably, means some pretty lengthy discussions and a bizarre form of voting that consists of raising your hands, palms forwards and waving them about at stomach height - which a bunch of people in one of the communal tents seem to be trying to perfect right now.

Maybe some of them could stop waving their hands about for a minute and go and help 18-year-old Natalie Fiennes, a cousin of actor Ralph, and her best friend Ottilie Wilford, also 18, who have just finished their A-levels at Westminster School in London and are struggling to put up their flowery Cath Kidston tent.

'It's a nightmare,' giggles Natalie. 'We camped at Glastonbury, which was brilliant, but we've never put up a tent before!

'We've had a really busy summer travelling around Europe. And now we're on our gap year, we're going to save up some money and go to India for a few months.'

So, er, why are they here? 'Um, well...' says Natalie, suddenly shy. 'We really want the Government to take Copenhagen (the climate change summit earlier this summer) seriously.

'No one at our school's really interested, so we thought we'd come along. But we've never put up a tent before, so we're struggling a bit.'

'Oh, you know - more investment in renewable energy. Oh, and not building more coal stations.'


Civilised: With it's facilities and well-mannered attendees Climate Camp is an unexpectedly uplifting experience

Fair point. And with that I bid my farewells. Climate Camp 2009 was not at all as I had expected, but it has been a strangely uplifting experience.

So what if Natalie and Ottilie seem a bit incongruous with their cut-glass accents, immaculate make-up and designer tent? Who cares if poor Joy hasn't quite worked out her mission?

Does it really matter if they don't all have minuscule carbon footprints and keep popping out for ice-creams and - heaven forbid - bacon butties?

At least they're here, on Blackheath, looking for some answers about climate change. Before, that is, they jet off to India on h

anti-john


They are laughing at us

28.08.2009 17:42

It’s hardly borne fruit – they’re just laughing at us. Most people at the camp are not upper middle-class wine-swilling socialites. They’re committed working glass activists who want to do something about climate change and other related problems. If this article was Tamsin’s work – and so far her attempts to bring the Evening Standard on-side have been a disaster – then it was a serious mistake.

Remember it was the Evening Standard that ran a series of bogus expose articles about the climate camp and Plane Stupid; and remember it was the Mail on Sunday (Scottish edition) that did the outrageous expose of Dan Glass’s private life as a jet setting male escort.

Media coverage is important but we should have a simple two-strikes and they are out rule – the Guardian can be trusted for most of the time, the BBC for some of the time. But we should never ever trust the Mail again.

Fran


And?

28.08.2009 18:32

What happened at the Barclays protest?

Josh


Jon

29.08.2009 04:40

"The only organisation that has really got it sussed is Greenpeace."

Yeh, just like Oxfam have got poverty sussed!

Move on...

Bullshit Watch


re: Fran - what is the truth behind the Dan Glass story?

29.08.2009 11:02

I have never heard of Dan Glass or the jet setting male escort story - what is the truth behind the story? I always take anything from the Mail with a massive pinch of salt but in this instance what is the outrageous part?

First half of the article is here, the rest is pay-per-view:
 http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-10605917/Now-that-really-is-plane.html
Now that really is plane stupid; Secret life of airports protester happy to jet off on jaunts - for a fee.

anon


The facts

29.08.2009 11:26

I think that they discovered that he was working as a male escort which, in itself is not a problem The difficulty is that, during a recorded interview, he not only admitted his love of travelling but that he was prepared to ‘jet off’ on assignment. I know that Plane Stupid put a lot of effort stopping the story appear in the national press.

These allegations need to be answered. He can either sue (Dan’s dad is a corporate lawyer in the City of London) or at least he can go to the PCC. The Mail is apparently standing by its version and claims the conversation was recorded.

This is not the first time that prominent PS have been ‘exposed’ by the media. Kartrina Forrester was caught flying to New York – ostensibly to set up a PS group – and John Stewart flew to an aviation conference in Italy.



Fran


Fran

29.08.2009 12:42

Where did he say he would fly to - if indeed he did? I agree, what he does in his spare time is irrelevant.

camper


Cross Over actions

29.08.2009 13:07

Dan's pal Tilly Gifford flies off to India each year and took a bunch of art students to teach impoverished children the dangers of climate change through building pretty little mobiles. These Plane Stupid spokespersons are obvious hypocritical numptys but that shouldn't reflect badly on anyone else at Climate Camp.

What does reflect badly to me as an outsider is that the attempt by Smash EDO to work on a common cause with Climate Camp was ignored or rejected. The article states "The arms trade and the military-industrial complex it supports are climate criminals responsible for 25% of air pollution". If that is true, and I expect that it is, it dwarves air-travel or any other unneccessary and stupid cause of pollution. So why is that the one form of pollution that enironmentalists don't complain about? It's about being media-friendly and marketing the environmentalist 'brand' differently from the peace 'brand'.

I don't know him but I know from his posts that Tash is a good guy. When he gets back in front of a computer I'd like him to post an article here explaining why he thinks it was a good idea for Climate Camp to reject Smash EDOs attempt at a joint action. From the perspective of a peace activist it is tempting to view the whole climate campaign as a safe, establishment friendly way to sap support from more visceral protests.

Danny


The REAL facts

29.08.2009 13:35

The comments above about Dan Glass are all just petit bourgeois moralism and muck-raking, that belongs - and should stay in - the pages of the marginal and low circulation Mail, and not on the pages of Indymedia.

There are a range of people working in various guises of paid escorting. These range from ambulance drivers escorting people to hospital, police or a security geezer accompanying a VIP to a function, carers taking a disabled client out shopping or to a sports event, to people accompanying another, also in return for payment, to a concert or function in the professional escort industry.

Plus it’s worth remembering of course that people escort others (e.g. their friends and family, a boyfriend or girlfriend, wife or husband) out for free to events all the time to the theatre, dinner - a whole host of events.

It is dishonest, highly prurient and hypocritical to get into animal farm, 2 legs bad, 4 legs good territory of trying to create a pecking order that seeks to say, taking a friend out for dinner - fine; accompanying clients out to events as a carer - good; accompanying rich folk for money out to the theatre and other occasions - bad. Additionally, it is a capitalist mode of thinking that seeks to blame, disparage, scape-goat or brow beat the worker, and not the client or employer. There would be no demand for escort services if 1) there weren’t people willing to pay for it, and 2) people weren’t driven into working within it because of a dearth of employment within the rest of the economy.

Plus it should be clearly pointed out, lest people make salacious assumptions, that the escort service that the Mail alleged - in their fanciful, exaggerated and skewed story - that Dan worked for, have never actually been proved. They are simply claims. And even if they are true, the professional escort service mentioned (one often advertised in the tabloids like the Mail!) was offering entirely non-sexual escort services, which the vast majority do.

As for Plane Stupid, provided airports work to minimise local health and environmental impacts, and they behave in an ethical and socially responsible manner, and they don’t push, bribe, manipulate and lobby for the demolition of thousands of homes, villages and small businesses to aid unnecessary airport expansion, they are not and never have been opposed to long haul flights. Nor on travelling. Or on loving travelling as a previous post inferred was somehow a crime! They are opposed to and campaign primarily on short haul flights, which are the biggest contributor to and fastest growing area of CO2 emissions and climate chaos.

The Daily Mail, which once supported Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists, and whose owner Lord Rothermere closely aligned himself with Hitler - meeting him several times - is a rag with a long history of attacking campaigners and the working class. Their story on Jewish activist Dan was a seedy and below the belt attack against a fellow worker - a tireless and devoted radical activist, and a dedicated climate change campaigner.

When the Daily Mail secures getting the Tories into power next year. When they continue campaigning for attacks against the welfare state, the poor, the disabled, LGBT rights, gypsies, socialists, liberals and the working class. When an airport expansion threatens to come knocking down your home and the business you work for. Or blighting it with pollution, noise and a daily & nightly blitzkrieg of over-flying planes. When climate chaos increasingly ravages environmental support systems, such as food and water, both here and across the globe. You’ll know exactly which newspaper to target and demand be removed from the internet and newsagent stands countrywide.

We should all show our support and solidarity with Dan, and the countless other climate change campaigners, helping give a voice to the voiceless and working tirelessly to prevent climate chaos, both here and across the globe.

Kris


Hypocrisy

29.08.2009 14:39

So hold on, I’m getting a bit confused. It’s OK for PS activist Tamsin Omond to get paid by the Mail group (the Evening Standard) to write about the Climate Camp, but when it publishes an article about another PS activist offering to fly around the work as a male escort, we suddenly remember that almost 75 years ago the newspaper advocated appeasement. It is perhaps also worth recalling that the Mail altered it stance in 1939 – three years before the Communist Party of Great Britain which was busy supporting the Nazi-Soviet pact.

Andy


Nice repeat post Kris

29.08.2009 14:48

Repeating it makes it true, just like Goebbels said.

If Dan Glass sucked Tony Blairs cock for cash, it wouldn't interest anyone here. So ignore him and that smear. The fact that rich public school kids like him are willing to disrupt other peoples flights while still happily flying for personal profit is newsworthy, and the more you try to hide that the more newsworthy it becomes. The fact that upper class ba'-heids (ball-heads) like Joss Garman are reprinted here telling us it is his generation who is suffering most from the economic crisis is slightly distasteful to anyone who knows he is a pleasant but extraordinary dim millionaire who is best friends with a child abuser.

I seriously hope there is more to climate camp than these rich hypocrites, but there is nothing on this site to indicate that.

Danny


ES part of Mail Group>?

29.08.2009 14:51

The Evening Standard part of the Mail group? Wasn't the ES bought over by some ex KGB/Russian oligarch last year?

Peta


You’re right

29.08.2009 15:30

Yes – sorry you’re right – my mistake. Although I’m not sure that making money by writing for an oligarch-owned newspaper makes it that much better.

Danny is right – what right does Plane Stupid to have to tell people not to fly while its core activists are happy to jet around the world?




Andy


School

29.08.2009 15:39

Dan Glass is on record in previous interviews as saying he went to state schools and not any fee paying schools. Even if had been to any, trying to make that an issue is a complete non-issue. It's like the class equivalent of racism. Classism if you like. It's complete inverse snobbery. Would you suggest that because someone went to a state school or grew up in a deprived area, they weren't fit to apply for certain high paid jobs or be a spokesperson for certain movements, just because they weren't middle or upper class enough?

A lot of the talk on this and recent threads on Climate Camp, seem to be advocating some form of class apartheid, where those born with a silver spoon in their mouth (or simply suspected of it!) seem to be expected to stick to their own lot and those born without, their own.

Such promotion of division only benefits the ruling class, who would prefer we are divided as a movement rather than united.

It is a well-known saying, but worth reminding ourselves of "united we stand, divided we fall".

Despite thousands of years of evolution, educational and technological advancements, mankind remains a very tribalised and competitive species, with a propensity towards unconstructive 'them and us' dialectics.

It is only when we respect our differences, set aside them and recognise we all have a complementary range of strengths, that when pulled together as a team, can be used to create the vanguard for change that is so urgently necessary.

Global economic collapse, environmental destruction and climate chaos will affect rich and poor alike, people of all classes, ethnicities, nationalities. These are uncharted waters, but this IS a cross-class issue that transcends many boundaries. The level of middle class or working class kudos someone is seen to have amongst your peers or the climate change movement shouldn't come into it. It is an all-encompassing, mass movement issue. The only criteria for entry is that people on board recognise the seriousness of the issues and row the climate change ship in a constructive direction.

A boat rowed in different directions by an arguing crew will never get very far. Neither will a movement denavistrated in a putsch of one class, section or grouping after the other. A Mary Celeste style climate change movement, with nobody on board wont get very far either.



Kris


Denavistrated

29.08.2009 17:15

Is a bloody good word!

Homer


it seems to me...

29.08.2009 18:02

...as if some people are being a bit cliquey. Both Disarn DSEi and Smash EDO have workshops at climate camp and are obviously there to work with people. To suggest that they are hijacking anything is strange. Surely anyone at climate camp can initiate their own relevant actions? That is on top of the all the relevent links highlighted in the original post plus the fact that oil and resource wars are being fought on a daily basis. Why should those groups not work together? The call read more like and open invitation to anyone interested than a way to exploit the camp. Also, is anyone really that interested in Dan Glass' private life? Enough already.

confused


like an animal rights activist working in a butchers shop?

30.08.2009 18:49

I don't think anyone cares if someone is an escort or really what their class background is, but being in an anti-aviation group when you travel on planes yourself isn't the best of PR moves. Saying that what you do in your spare time doesn't matter is very disingenuous.

It would be like an animal rights activist working in a butchers shop! I know that no-one is perfect and we all make compromises, but it's not that hard to avoid flying. I've never been on a plane in my life and I'm in my 30s, and I'm not involved with Plane Stupid, although I do sympathise with their aims.

I didn't realise that Plane Stupid were OK with long haul flights. Surely if everyone in the world took just one long haul flight a year (not just the relatively wealthy in the West) then oil would run out very quickly. Not to mention the pollution.

I'm curious as to why Plane Stupid have taken off so massively. Do they have a lot of money behind them, or is there a cult of personality involved, an excellent PR team, or is it just one of those unexplainable things that captures the imagination of a lot of people?

Good luck to them anyway, they are bigger than the individuals within.

anon