Climate Camp: successful protests need nice loos
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Delving deep into the real issues, journo Helen Pidd was pleased to note that the toilets at Climate Camp were "far better than Glastonbury".
If Helen didn't make it to the investigative frontline this year, I hope someone'll let her know that the campers have maintained these high standards. Other readers might be interested to hear that the Climate Camp, opposing the construction of a new coal fired power station, was a resounding success in many other ways too.
As well as top-quality composting toilets, the site had a number of fully functioning kitchens serving great vegan food, a cinema, several marquees, a media tent, even a bakery. For those who could tear themselves away from luxuriating on the crapper, there was a week's worth of talks, workshops, and debates to attend. These were run by big names such as the social justice and enviro campaigner George Monbiot and Liberal Democratic MEP Chris Davies as well as others who, though perhaps lesser known, were extremely well informed.
The week culminated in a day of action on Saturday 9th August. By land and water, campaigners descended upon the site in Kingsnorth, Kent, Southeast England. A flotilla made its way up the Medway, while others tried to gain access to the site by climbing the fences. A further 1,500 people, including children, marched on the site carrying banners.
At times, though, the camp's carnival atmosphere was marred by the boys in blue, who's policing policy was – how can I put it – 'thorough'. A blanket Stop and Search policy was applied, and intimidation was the order of the day as riot police on the site's boundaries made their presence known from time to time. Helicopters soared overhead interrupting meetings and disturbing sleep. This was topped up by what to me can only be described as childish behaviour – such as confiscating a clown costume and some crayons, or refusing to allow food deliveries to be driven to the camp.
Though the camp may be over, this is just the start of the campaign. A decision will soon be made on the fate of the Kingsnorth site. If construction's approved, campaigners have vowed to prevent it with a rolling blockade. Volunteers will be needed so keep up-to-date with the Climate Camp website.
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Climate Camp: successful protests need nice loos (text) by Olly Zanetti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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