Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Climate Camp - On the Ground: Suicide farmers found in Yorkshire

Oscar Beard | 31.08.2006 21:25 | Climate Camp 2006 | Climate Chaos | Ecology | Globalisation | Repression | World

One minute I am choking on fumes in smog and heat-ridden Central London, the next it's raining, it's cold, it's northern and I am only armed with a mountaineering helmet and a camera.

It was a rush job. Phone calls came in every damn minute. Climate Camp. Thousands expected. Thousands of Her Majesty's finest expected too. And from the worst of England's police forces too.

They were all there, even a 1am in the morning as we were stopped and searched and breathalised in a "routine stop". The Met, from Manchester too. Armed with batons and cameras, and an endless supply of stop and search forms.

We arrived around 1.30am, but only because of the police intervention while we were lost on our way to Climate Camp near Sefton. Okay, we had hit the pub enroute, but not in any mean or offensive manner. But it worked to our advantage when we, three hardcore hippies and one tired and half-drunk hack, were personally escorted by the police to the entrance of the camp, and a waiting greeting committee of men in yellow coats. And we were searched again. But it was all polite and friendly. until they found my mountaineering helmet. thewn it started to get serious. And my excuse of wanting a sturdier helmet to cycle round London in was not greeted well.

But we were in and bedded down for the night in preparation for the following day.

7am: the rain came down, the sky was grey. I suddenly remembered why I moved south. But that thought was soon quashed by feelings of de-ja-vu. Hang on. Big wet field, home of an activist camp, rain, damp, looming clouds, everything wet, surrounded by hundreds of police. It was like the good old days. Stirling and the great greedheads playing golf at Gleneagles and president of the world running over cops on his mountain bike.

The main actions marched round the camp for 15 minutes, stiring up the noise and activists. People were already locked on to a gate of the Drax power station and halfway up a lighting tower.

I followed the White Bloc out, with the Rythmns of Resistance samba band following close behind. Mud and rain. a bad mix. We were soaked up to the knee, clogged with mud, bogged down, but continued on. The police were slack at the start, concentrating on those who tried to leave the camp via the main road, only to be met with loud hailer calls from an undisclosed senior officer screaming something about immediate arrest.

We tramped our way through fields and mud, over fences, up hills and through forests until we bumped into a Met FIT team who are so close to me I'm planning to adopt several of them as pets.

We hit the road, blocked the traffic, then turned cross-country again because it looked like the road ahead was blocked with police vans. More fields. More police. Several FIT teams by then and an entourage of yellow coats.

This for most would be enough. But, no. We needed more. Something deranged and so drastic it could only be created by the sick and deranged mind of some rural gas chamber fascist. Suicide farmers.

Yes indeed. There he was. Yelling, "Get off my land" and tanking his red tractor at full speed into the march of protestors with no regard for life or law.

The police grabbed him,as activsts ran for cover in the next field.Unconfirmed reports later said he was arrested, only for his son to attack the Kids Bloc outside the main gate of Drax power station with the very same tractor and armed with a dog.

The protestors made it to the fence to be met with riot police and guard dogs. And it all kind of ended there. RoR hammered out serious noise. The police outnumbered the protestors two-to-one and milled around trying to find the organisers and leaders of an anarchist movement.

So, that was it. well, for me anyway. We found a shop, drank beer, chatted to the various members of the London FIT teams about building houses on flood planes.

Indeed. Up to 40 arrested. Blockades, lock-ons, kids being mowed down by loony farmers in tractors. It could only be considered a success.

But for now, the tension has eased, the party is brewing, and probably the police will raid us at 5am when we are all getting emotional from too much booze. Life goes on. and so does Drax. It started churning out twice as much CO2 clouds the moment the mainstream media left. The Indymedia tent is turning into a harsh mix of cider and technology. And it can only be for the better of mankind.

Oscar Beard
- e-mail: oscarbeard@yahoo.com.mx
- Homepage: http://www.reprogrammingthedesensitied.com

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

More CO2?

01.09.2006 10:54

I applaude your efforts and convictions and see you got good coverage which is a great achievement.
I don't however understand your comment about drax emiting twice as much CO2 when the media had gone away.
Surely CO2 is an invisible gas and all drax units ran all day.
If you mean it appeared more stuff came out of the colling towers, this is steam.
The steam is more visible when low pressure prevails, on a day with high atmospheric pressure it appears that the power station is bearly running.
But well done nethertheless.

More CO2?


we can tell the difference

04.09.2006 15:53

There was a massive difference between the amount of smoke coming from the chimney (not the cooling towers) on the day of action and the other days. I dont think this was completly a PR job though. A local power station worker informed a protestor while in the local chineese that both Drax and the other 2 power stations in the area were shut down for most of Thursday just in case.

s


Extra Gas?

04.09.2006 17:53

Forgive the cockup there, it was written at very high speed and aided by lack of sleep, exhaustion, woodland injuries and copious amounts of booze.

You're right, CO2 cannot be seen, but the huge clouds that emit from Drax's towers can. Some is steam, sure, but in that was also the CO2 and copious amounts of sulphur flowing out. More steam means more polution, and, in time, more kids and adults with breathing dificulties. I just spotted how the power plant went into overdrive once the mainstream media had left the area, considering coverage of the action over. When will they ever learn. You can't cover something like this in a suit with an enitre cameracrew and satelite TV broadcast van to take cover in when things get rough and leave after just four hours.

And don't expect to get a serious interview with ex-MPs when there are small contained groups of anarchists around. Lies will only be met with hilarity.

Oscar Beard
mail e-mail: oscarbeard@yahoo.com.mx
- Homepage: http://www.reprogrammingthedesensitised.com


Two separate tractor incidents!

05.09.2006 18:32

hi,
just wanted to add that the farmer/tractor who tried to mow us down in the field and the one who tried the same thing on the road, were probably not the same guy. i heard that the one who tried to drive through protesters on the road was actually arrested, as was his son who was driving a digger. much later that afternoon, i came back the same way through the same field and the first farmer came rushing out towards us again. this time he was quite OK and we explained that we didn't want to harm his land but just needed to get back to the main road, which he directed us too. i believe that enraged farmer number 2 was already in custody by then so it couldn't have been the same guy! weirdness!

Diana Trimble
mail e-mail: linguacrobat@yahoo.com
- Homepage: http://www.dianarama.com


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech